Naming conventions
Structure and Map naming rules
Structures and Maps are stored as XML files on the file system. Thus, these follow the underlying file system naming conventions.
However in practice, the Structure and Map naming conventions depend on the following context:
- Creating Structure or Map: When a new Structure or Map is created, its name follows
the standard file naming convention.For example, on Windows, the name can contain empty spaces or special characters such as French characters. However, there are some specific rules to follow:
- These special characters are forbidden: slash (/), ampersand (&), and comma (,).
- Do not name your file starting with a period (.). If you do so, the file will be hidden and will not be visible in the Talend Studio repository view.
Follow these important rules when creating Structures or Maps:- Avoid using blank spaces or special characters.
- Avoid starting your file name with a number.
- Replace empty spaces with underscores.
- Renaming Structures or Maps: As soon as a Structure or Map is created, the renaming rules change and follow the Talend Studio conventions. The naming conventions of Talend Studio are more restrictive. Names can only contain alphanumeric characters and the underscore (_) character.
Naming elements
Elements of a structure or a map follow these XML naming conventions:
- Element names are case-sensitive.
- Element names must start with a letter or an underscore.
- Element names can contain letters, digits, hyphens, underscores, and periods.
- Element names cannot contain spaces.
However, the XML naming rule that forbids you to start a name with the phrase, xml, XML, Xml, or the like, is not implemented. So, an element in Talend Data Mapper can be named, xml, for example.
Namespace Containers
Namespace containers follow the same naming rules as Structures and Maps.
Sample Data
Sample data are files that must follow the file naming rules of the underlying platform.