[Bug]: Text file input: fields pass through dependent of Accept filenames

[andreasc-kuehn]

Apache Hop version?

2.12.0

Java version?

openjdk version "21.0.6"

Operating system

Linux

What happened?

Text File Input has «Accept filenames from previous transforms» section that contains an option «Pass through fields from previous transform» which seems to be logically unrelated to «Accept filenames», but is tightly linked in UI to this option.

Explanation: When using Text File Input in a mapping and including this mapping in a parent pipeline, all fields that existed before in the parent mapping are swallowed.

In the UI it is not possible to set only «Pass through fields from previous transform». It is necessary to also check «Accept filenames from previous transforms».

But when set in the XML file, like this:
<accept_filenames>N</accept_filenames> <passing_through_fields>Y</passing_through_fields>

then this is possible and it works without errors. I.e. the fields are not swallowed and file names are still taken from «Selected files» table.

Therefore it seems to me, as if the UI dependency between «Accept Filenames» and «Pass through fields from previous transform» is a mistake. Instead the option «Pass through fields from previous transform» should be outside the «Accept Filenames» section and not dependent on that one.

I would like to suggest to make the option «Pass through fields from previous transform» independent from other fields, allowing to go on using fields existing before this action.

Issue Priority

Priority: 3

Issue Component

Component: Actions

[hansva]

The original reasoning was that inputs do not pass data.
This could be confusing because your input data will get multiplied by the data from the input transform, and usually, the input data is only to populate the input transform and has no actual data value.

So this is not really a bug, it's more of a feature request, I am wondering what your usage is. You are not using pipeline values to load a textile. Isn't it better then to us a join (cartesian product)?