Working With Attributes

Each FlowFile is created with several Attributes, and these Attributes will change over the life of the FlowFile. The concept of a FlowFile is extremely powerful and provides three primary benefits. First, it allows the user to make routing decisions in the flow so that FlowFiles that meet some criteria can be handled differently than other FlowFiles. This is done using the RouteOnAttribute and similar Processors.

Secondly, Attributes are used in order to configure Processors in such a way that the configuration of the Processor is dependent on the data itself. For instance, the PutFile Processor is able to use the Attributes in order to know where to store each FlowFile, while the directory and filename Attributes may be different for each FlowFile.

Finally, the Attributes provide extremely valuable context about the data. This is useful when reviewing the Provenance data for a FlowFile. This allows the user to search for Provenance data that match specific criteria, and it also allows the user to view this context when inspecting the details of a Provenance Event. By doing this, the user is then able to gain valuable insight as to why the data was processed one way or another, simply by glancing at this context that is carried along with the content.