Next Message Block

The nextmessageblock section in a grammar is mostly used for csv-files consisting of one record-type.
Think of excel, where every row has the same layout.
Via nextmessageblock all subsequent records with eg the same ordernumber are passed as one message to the mapping script.
This is best understood by an example, consider the below CSV file:

ordernumber1,buyer1,20120524,1,article1,24
ordernumber1,buyer1,20120524,2,article2,288
ordernumber1,buyer1,20120524,3.article3,6
ordernumber2,buyer2,20120524,1,article5,124
ordernumber3,buyer1,20120524,1,article1,24
ordernumber3,buyer1,20120524,2,article4,48

which will have the grammer:

from bots.botsconfig import *

syntax = {
    'field_sep' : ',',               #specify field separator
    'noBOTSID'   : True,             #does not have record-ID's
    }

nextmessageblock = ({'BOTSID':'HEADER','order number':None})   #feed mapping script with separate orders (where ordernumber is different)

structure = [
{ID:'HEADER',MIN:1,MAX:9999}         #only 1 record-type
]

recorddefs = {
'HEADER':[
    ['BOTSID','M',6,'A'],            #Note: BOTSID is ALWAYS needed
    ['order number', 'M', 17, 'AN'],
    ['buyer ID', 'M', 13, 'AN'],
    ['delivery date', 'C', 8, 'AN'],
    ['line number', 'C', 6, 'N'],
    ['article number', 'M', 13, 'AN'],
    ['quantity', 'M', 20, 'R'],
    ],
}

The mapping script in the translation receives 3 separate orders (so mapping script will run 3 times):

order with number 1:
ordernumber1,buyer1,20120524,1,article1,24
ordernumber1,buyer1,20120524,2,article2,288
ordernumber1,buyer1,20120524,3.article3,6

order with number 2:
ordernumber2,buyer2,20120524,1,article5,124

order with number 3:
ordernumber3,buyer1,20120524,1,article1,24
ordernumber3,buyer1,20120524,2,article4,48

Note

Use multiple fields for splitting up (bots > 3.1); Example: nextmessageblock = ([{'BOTSID':'HEADER','order number':None},{'BOTSID':'HEADER','buyer ID':None}])

Note

nextmessageblock works for fixed files with one type of records (bots > 3.1)