Configuring a Processor

Now that we have added the GetFile Processor, we can configure it by right-clicking on the Processor and choosing the Configure menu item. The provided dialog allows us to configure many different options that can be read about in the How To documentation, but for the sake of this guide, we will focus on the Properties tab. Once the Properties tab has been selected, we are given a list of several different properties that we can configure for the Processor. The properties that are available depend on the type of Processor and are generally different for each type. Properties that are in bold are required properties. The Processor cannot be started until all required properties have been configured. The most important property to configure for GetFile is the directory from which to pick up files. If we set the directory name to ./data-in, this will cause the Processor to start picking up any data in the data-in subdirectory of the NiFi Home directory. We can choose to configure several different Properties for this Processor. If unsure what a particular Property does, we can hover over the Help icon ( ) next to the Property Name with the mouse in order to read a description of the property. Additionally, the tooltip that is displayed when hovering over the Help icon will provide the default value for that property, if one exists, information about whether or not the property supports the Expression Language (see the Expression Language Reference section below), and previously configured values for that property.

In order for this property to be valid, create a directory named data-in in the NiFi home directory and then click the Ok button to close the dialog.