Pulsar Consumer

Supported pipeline types: Data Collector

The Pulsar Consumer origin reads messages from one or more topics in an Apache Pulsar cluster.

The Pulsar Consumer origin subscribes to Pulsar topics, processes incoming messages, and then sends acknowledgements back to Pulsar as the messages are read.

When you configure a Pulsar Consumer origin, you define the URL to connect to Pulsar. You also define the subscription name and consumer name to use for the origin and the topics to subscribe to. When the pipeline starts, Pulsar creates a consumer with the specified consumer name. If the subscription and topics do not exist, Pulsar also creates the subscription and topics.

You can configure the origin to use Pulsar security features. You can also configure advanced properties as needed, such as the type of subscription to create or the initial offset to begin reading from.

The Pulsar Consumer origin can include record header attributes that enable you to use information about the record in pipeline processing.

For more information about Pulsar topics, subscriptions, and consumers, see the Apache Pulsar documentation.

Topics Selector

The Pulsar Consumer origin can subscribe to a single topic or to multiple topics. In either case, the origin uses one thread for the read.

Note: To perform parallel reads of the same topic, see Parallel Reads of a Topic.

To define the topics that the origin subscribes to, configure the Topics Selector property on the Pulsar tab.

The origin provides the following methods of subscribing to topics:

Single Topic

Subscribes to a single topic. Use the following format to specify the topic name:

{persistent|non-persistent}://<tenant>/<namespace>/<topic name>

For example, to subscribe to a persistent topic named my-sdc-topic in the my-namespace namespace within the my-tenant tenant, enter the following as the topic name:

persistent://my-tenant/my-namespace/my-sdc-topic

If you enter a topic name only, then Pulsar uses the default persistent://public/default/ location. For example, to subscribe to a persistent topic belonging to the public tenant in the default namespace, simply enter the topic name as follows:

my-sdc-topic

If the specified topic does not exist, Pulsar creates the topic when the pipeline starts.

You can use expressions to define the topic name. For example, to subscribe to a topic named with the Data Collector host name, enter the following as the topic name:

persistent://my-tenant/my-namespace/${sdc:hostname()}

Topics List

Subscribes to multiple topics defined in a list of topic names. Use the Add icon to add additional topic names. Define each topic name using the same format required for a single topic.

Topics Pattern

Subscribes to multiple topics defined by a naming pattern. Use the following format to specify the pattern:

{persistent|non-persistent}://<tenant>/<namespace>/<regular expression>

For example to subscribe to all persistent topics whose names start with sdc-, enter the following as the topic name:

persistent://my-tenant/my-namespace/sdc-.*

This pattern subscribes the origin to all topics within the specified tenant and namespace with names such as sdc-topic or sdc-data.

Important: When subscribing to multiple topics by a pattern, all topics must be in the same namespace.

For more information about defining topic names and about subscribing to multiple topics, see the Apache Pulsar documentation.

Parallel Reads of a Topic

The Pulsar Consumer origin can subscribe to a single topic or to multiple topics. In either case, the origin uses one thread to read from the topic or topics. To perform parallel reads from the same topic, you can configure multiple pipelines with a Pulsar Consumer origin that subscribe to the same topic.

To configure multiple origins to subscribe to the same topic, you'll need to determine whether the origins use a single shared subscription, multiple exclusive subscriptions, or multiple failover subscriptions. A shared subscription allows multiple consumers to attach to the same subscription. An exclusive subscription allows only a single consumer to attach to the subscription. A failover subscription allows multiple consumers to attach to the same subscription, but only one consumer receives messages at a time. If the initial master consumer disconnects, messages are delivered to the next consumer.

For more information about the Pulsar subscription modes, see Subscription Modes in the Pulsar documentation.

You can configure multiple Pulsar Consumer origins to subscribe to the same Pulsar topic in the following ways:

Single shared subscription

To configure multiple Pulsar Consumer origins to subscribe to the same topic using the same shared subscription, configure the following origin properties:

Subscription Name - On the Pulsar tab, configure each origin to use the same subscription name.
Topic - On the Pulsar tab, configure each origin to use the same topic name.
Subscription Type - On the Advanced tab, configure each origin to use the shared subscription type.

Multiple exclusive subscriptions

To configure multiple Pulsar Consumer origins to subscribe to the same topic using multiple exclusive subscriptions, configure the following origin properties:

Subscription Name - On the Pulsar tab, configure each origin to use a unique subscription name.
Topic - On the Pulsar tab, configure each origin to use the same topic name.
Subscription Type - On the Advanced tab, configure each origin to use the exclusive subscription type.

Multiple failover subscriptions

To configure multiple Pulsar Consumer origins to subscribe to the same topic using multiple failover subscriptions, configure the following origin properties:

Subscription Name - On the Pulsar tab, configure each pair of origins to use a unique subscription name.
For example, configure the origins in pipelineA and pipelineB to use subscription1. The origin in pipelineA serves as the master consumer, and the origin in pipelineB is the next in line to receive messages if the pipelineA origin disconnects. Then, configure the origins in pipelineC and pipelineD to use subscription2.
Topic - On the Pulsar tab, configure each origin to use the same topic name.
Subscription Type - On the Advanced tab, configure each origin to use the failover subscription type.

Enabling Security

If the Pulsar cluster uses security features, you must configure the Pulsar Consumer origin to use the same security features to connect to Pulsar.

A Pulsar cluster can use the following security features:

TLS transport encryption: When configured for TLS transport encryption, the Pulsar cluster uses TLS to encrypt all traffic between the Pulsar server and clients. The Pulsar server uses a key and certificate which clients use to verify the server's identity.
Mutual TLS authentication: When configured for TLS transport encryption, the Pulsar cluster can additionally be configured to use mutual TLS authentication. With mutual authentication, clients also use keys and certificates which the server uses to verify the client's identity.

On the Pulsar tab of the stage, set the Pulsar URL property to the secure URL for the broker service.
Use the following format for the URL:
```
pulsar+ssl://<host name>:<broker service TLS port>/
```
For example:
```
pulsar+ssl://pulsar.us-west.example.com:6651/
```
On the Security tab of the stage, select Enable TLS.
Store the PEM file that contains the certificate authority (CA) that signed the Pulsar cluster certificate in the Data Collector resources directory, $SDC_RESOURCES.
For information about creating certificates for the Pulsar cluster, see the Pulsar documentation.
On the Security tab of the stage, enter the name of the CA certificate PEM file in the CA Certificate PEM property.
If the Pulsar cluster is also configured for mutual TLS authentication, select Enable Mutual Authentication on the Security tab of the stage.
Create the client certificate and client private key PEM files for the stage to use.
For information about creating client certificates for Pulsar, see the Pulsar documentation.
Store the client certificate and client private key PEM files created for the stage in the Data Collector resources directory, $SDC_RESOURCES.
On the Security tab of the stage, enter the name of the client files in the Client Certificate PEM and Client Key PEM properties.

Offset Management

The first time that a Pulsar Consumer origin receives messages from a topic, an offset entry is created for that subscription and topic. The offset entry is created and maintained by Pulsar.

The Pulsar Consumer origin begins receiving messages in the topic based on whether or not a stored offset entry exists:

No stored offset

When the subscription and topic combination does not have a previously stored offset, the Pulsar Consumer origin begins receiving messages based on the value of the initial offset defined on the Advanced tab of the origin.

You use the following values for the initial offset:

Latest - Start reading the latest available message written to the topic after the pipeline starts, ignoring any existing messages in the topic. This is the default initial offset.
Earliest - Start reading the earliest available message in the topic that has not been acknowledged.

Previously stored offset: When the subscription and topic combination has a previously stored offset, the Pulsar Consumer origin receives messages starting with the next unprocessed message after the stored offset. For example, when you stop and restart the pipeline, processing resumes from the last committed offset.

Record Header Attributes

The Pulsar Consumer origin includes any information in the properties field of the message - outside of the payload field - in records as record header attributes.

You can use the record:attribute or record:attributeOrDefault functions to access the information in the attributes. For more information about working with record header attributes, see Working with Header Attributes.

Data Formats

The Pulsar Consumer origin processes data differently based on the data format. Pulsar Consumer can process the following types of data:

Binary

Generates a record with a single byte array field at the root of the record.

When the data exceeds the user-defined maximum data size, the origin cannot process the data. Because the record is not created, the origin cannot pass the record to the pipeline to be written as an error record. Instead, the origin generates a stage error.

Datagram

Generates a record for every message. The origin can process collectd messages, NetFlow 5 and NetFlow 9 messages, and the following types of syslog messages:

RFC 5424
RFC 3164
Non-standard common messages, such as RFC 3339 dates with no version digit

When processing NetFlow messages, the stage generates different records based on the NetFlow version. When processing NetFlow 9, the records are generated based on the NetFlow 9 configuration properties. For more information, see NetFlow Data Processing.

Delimited

Generates a record for each delimited line. You can use the following delimited format types:

Default CSV - File that includes comma-separated values. Ignores empty lines in the file.
RFC4180 CSV - Comma-separated file that strictly follows RFC4180 guidelines.
MS Excel CSV - Microsoft Excel comma-separated file.
MySQL CSV - MySQL comma-separated file.
Tab-Separated Values - File that includes tab-separated values.
PostgreSQL CSV - PostgreSQL comma-separated file.
PostgreSQL Text - PostgreSQL text file.
Custom - File that uses user-defined delimiter, escape, and quote characters.
Multi Character Delimited - File that uses multiple user-defined characters to delimit fields and lines, and single user-defined escape and quote characters.

You can use a list or list-map root field type for delimited data, and optionally include field names from a header line, when available. For more information about the root field types, see Delimited Data Root Field Type.

When using a header line, you can enable handling records with additional columns. The additional columns are named using a custom prefix and integers in sequential increasing order, such as _extra_1, _extra_2. When you disallow additional columns, records that include additional columns are sent to error.

You can also replace a string constant with null values.

When a record exceeds the maximum record length defined for the stage, the stage processes the object based on the error handling configured for the stage.

JSON

Generates a record for each JSON object. You can process JSON files that include multiple JSON objects or a single JSON array.

When an object exceeds the maximum object length defined for the origin, the origin processes the object based on the error handling configured for the stage.

Log

Generates a record for every log line.

When a line exceeds the user-defined maximum line length, the origin truncates longer lines.

You can include the processed log line as a field in the record. If the log line is truncated, and you request the log line in the record, the origin includes the truncated line.

You can define the log format or type to be read.

Protobuf

Generates a record for every protobuf message. By default, the origin assumes messages contain multiple protobuf messages.

Protobuf messages must match the specified message type and be described in the descriptor file.

When the data for a record exceeds 1 MB, the origin cannot continue processing data in the message. The origin handles the message based on the stage error handling property and continues reading the next message.

For information about generating the descriptor file, see Protobuf Data Format Prerequisites.

SDC Record

Generates a record for every record. Use to process records generated by a Data Collector pipeline using the SDC Record data format.

For error records, the origin provides the original record as read from the origin in the original pipeline, as well as error information that you can use to correct the record.

When processing error records, the origin expects the error file names and contents as generated by the original pipeline.

Text

Generates a record for each line of text or for each section of text based on a custom delimiter.

When a line or section exceeds the maximum line length defined for the origin, the origin truncates it. The origin adds a boolean field named Truncated to indicate if the line was truncated.

For more information about processing text with a custom delimiter, see Text Data Format with Custom Delimiters.

XML

Generates records based on a user-defined delimiter element. Use an XML element directly under the root element or define a simplified XPath expression. If you do not define a delimiter element, the origin treats the XML file as a single record.

Generated records include XML attributes and namespace declarations as fields in the record by default. You can configure the stage to include them in the record as field attributes.

You can include XPath information for each parsed XML element and XML attribute in field attributes. This also places each namespace in an xmlns record header attribute.

Note: Field attributes and record header attributes are written to destination systems automatically only when you use the SDC RPC data format in destinations. For more information about working with field attributes and record header attributes, and how to include them in records, see Field Attributes and Record Header Attributes.

When a record exceeds the user-defined maximum record length, the origin skips the record and continues processing with the next record. It sends the skipped record to the pipeline for error handling.

Use the XML data format to process valid XML documents. For more information about XML processing, see Reading and Processing XML Data.

Tip: If you want to process invalid XML documents, you can try using the text data format with custom delimiters. For more information, see Processing XML Data with Custom Delimiters.

Configuring a Pulsar Consumer Origin

Configure a Pulsar Consumer origin to read messages from Apache Pulsar.

In the Properties panel, on the General tab, configure the following properties:

General Property	Description
Name	Stage name.
Description	Optional description.
On Record Error	Error record handling for the stage: Discard - Discards the record. Send to Error - Sends the record to the pipeline for error handling. Stop Pipeline - Stops the pipeline.

On the Pulsar tab, configure the following properties:

Pulsar Property	Description
Pulsar URL	URL to the Pulsar web service or broker service. If the Pulsar cluster is not enabled for TLS, enter either the web service or broker service URL in the following format: Web service URL - `http://<host name>:<web service port>`. For example: `http://pulsar.us-west.example.com:8080`. Broker service URL - `pulsar://<host name>:<broker service port>`. For example: `pulsar://pulsar.us-west.example.com:6650` If the Pulsar cluster is enabled for TLS, enter the secure broker service URL in the following format: `pulsar+ssl://<host name>:<broker service TLS port>` For example: `pulsar+ssl://pulsar.us-west.example.com:6651`
Subscription Name	Name of the subscription to create for the origin. Default is sdc-subscription.
Keep Alive Interval (ms)	Number of milliseconds to allow the connection to Pulsar to remain idle. After the origin receives no messages for this amount of time, the connection is closed. The origin must reconnect to Pulsar. Default is 30,000 milliseconds.
Operation Timeout (ms)	Number of milliseconds to allow the Pulsar Consumer-create, Consumer-subscribe, and Consumer-unsubscribe operations to complete before marking the operations as failed. Default is 30,000 milliseconds.
Consumer Name	Name of the consumer to create for the origin. Enter the consumer name or define an expression that evaluates to the consumer name.
Topics Selector	Method that topics are subscribed to: Single Topic - Subscribe to a single topic by name. Topics List - Subscribe to multiple topics defined in a list of topic names. Topics Pattern - Subscribe to multiple topics defined by a naming pattern.
Topic	Name of the single topic to subscribe to. Enter the topic name in the following format: `{persistent\|non-persistent}://<tenant>/<namespace>/<topic name>`
Topics List	List of topic names to subscribe to. Enter each topic name in the following format: `{persistent\|non-persistent}://<tenant>/<namespace>/<topic name>` Use the Add icon to add additional topic names. You can use simple or bulk edit mode to add additional topics.
Topics Pattern	Pattern of topic names to subscribe to. Enter the pattern in the following format: `{persistent\|non-persistent}://<tenant>/<namespace>/<regular expression>`
Max Batch Size (records)	Maximum number of records processed at one time. Honors values up to the Data Collector maximum batch size. Default is 1000. The Data Collector default is 1000.
Batch Wait Time (ms)	Number of milliseconds to wait before sending a partial or empty batch.
Produce Single Record	Generates a single record for records that include multiple objects. When not selected, the origin generates multiple records when a record includes multiple objects.

To enable security, click the Security tab and configure the following properties:

Security Property	Description
Enable TLS	Enables the stage to connect securely to Pulsar through TLS encryption.
Enable Mutual Authentication	Enables the stage to use mutual TLS authentication to connect securely to Pulsar.
CA Certificate PEM	Path to the PEM file containing the certificate authority (CA) that signed the Pulsar cluster certificate. Enter an absolute path to the file or a path relative to the Data Collector resources directory: $SDC_RESOURCES.
Client Certificate PEM	If mutual authentication is enabled, path to the PEM file containing the client certificate created for Data Collector. Enter an absolute path to the file or a path relative to the Data Collector resources directory: $SDC_RESOURCES.
Client Key PEM	If mutual authentication is enabled, path to the PEM file containing the client private key created for Data Collector. Enter an absolute path to the file or a path relative to the Data Collector resources directory: $SDC_RESOURCES.

On the Advanced tab, optionally configure advanced properties.

The defaults for these properties should work in most cases:

Advanced Property	Description
Subscription Type	Type of subscription to create for the Pulsar Consumer: Exclusive Failover Shared Default is Exclusive. For information about each subscription type, see the Pulsar documentation.
Consumer Queue Size	Number of messages that Pulsar can add to the consumer queue. Default is 1,000 messages.
Initial Offset	Offset value to use when the pipeline starts for the first time: Earliest Latest Default is Latest.
Pattern Auto Discovery Period (minutes)	When subscribing to topics defined by a naming pattern, the number of minutes to allow the origin to locate all matching topics. Default is one minute.
Consumer Priority Level	Priority level assigned to the Pulsar Consumer origin. Consumers with a higher priority receive more messages. Default is 0.
Read Compacted	Read messages from compacted persistent topics instead of reading from the full message backlog of the topics. When enabled, the origin reads only the latest value for each key in the topic. For persistent topics only.
Pulsar Configuration Properties	Additional Pulsar configuration properties to use. Using simple or bulk edit mode, click the Add icon to add properties. Define the Pulsar property name and value. Use the property names and values as expected by Pulsar.

On the Data Format tab, configure the following property:

Data Format Property	Description
Data Format	Type of data to be read. Use one of the following options: Binary Datagram Delimited JSON Log Protobuf SDC Record Text XML

For binary data, on the Data Format tab and configure the following property:

Binary Property	Description
Max Data Size (bytes)	Maximum number of bytes in the message. Larger messages cannot be processed or written to error.

For datagram data, on the Data Format tab, configure the following properties:

Datagram Properties	Description
Datagram Packet Format	Packet format of the data: collectd NetFlow syslog Raw/separated data
TypesDB File Path	Path to a user-provided types.db file. Overrides the default types.db file. For collectd data only.
Convert Hi-Res Time & Interval	Converts the collectd high resolution time format interval and timestamp to UNIX time, in milliseconds. For collectd data only.
Exclude Interval	Excludes the interval field from output record. For collectd data only.
Auth File	Path to an optional authentication file. Use an authentication file to accept signed and encrypted data. For collectd data only.
Record Generation Mode	Determines the type of values to include in the record. Select one of the following options: Raw Only Interpreted Only Both Raw and Interpreted For NetFlow 9 data only.
Max Templates in Cache	The maximum number of templates to store in the template cache. For more information about templates, see Caching NetFlow 9 Templates. Default is -1 for an unlimited cache size. For NetFlow 9 data only.
Template Cache Timeout (ms)	The maximum number of milliseconds to cache an idle template. Templates unused for more than the specified time are evicted from the cache. For more information about templates, see Caching NetFlow 9 Templates. Default is -1 for caching templates indefinitely. For NetFlow 9 data only.
Charset	Character encoding of the messages to be processed.
Ignore Control Characters	Removes all ASCII control characters except for the tab, line feed, and carriage return characters.

For delimited data, on the Data Format tab, configure the following properties:

Delimited Property	Description
Delimiter Format Type	Delimiter format type. Use one of the following options: Default CSV - File that includes comma-separated values. Ignores empty lines in the file. RFC4180 CSV - Comma-separated file that strictly follows RFC4180 guidelines. MS Excel CSV - Microsoft Excel comma-separated file. MySQL CSV - MySQL comma-separated file. Tab-Separated Values - File that includes tab-separated values. PostgreSQL CSV - PostgreSQL comma-separated file. PostgreSQL Text - PostgreSQL text file. Custom - File that uses user-defined delimiter, escape, and quote characters. Multi Character Delimited - File that uses multiple user-defined characters to delimit fields and lines, and single user-defined escape and quote characters.
Header Line	Indicates whether a file contains a header line, and whether to use the header line.
Allow Extra Columns	When processing data with a header line, allows processing records with more columns than exist in the header line.
Extra Column Prefix	Prefix to use for any additional columns. Extra columns are named using the prefix and sequential increasing integers as follows: `<prefix><integer>`. For example, `_extra_1`. Default is `_extra_`.
Max Record Length (chars)	Maximum length of a record in characters. Longer records are not read. This property can be limited by the Data Collector parser buffer size. For more information, see Maximum Record Size.
Delimiter Character	Delimiter character for a custom delimiter format. Select one of the available options or use Other to enter a custom character. You can enter a Unicode control character using the format `\uNNNN`, where N is a hexadecimal digit from the numbers 0-9 or the letters A-F. For example, enter `\u0000` to use the null character as the delimiter or `\u2028` to use a line separator as the delimiter. Default is the pipe character ( \| ).
Multi Character Field Delimiter	Characters that delimit fields for multi-character delimiter format. Default is two pipe characters (\|\|).
Multi Character Line Delimiter	Characters that delimit lines or records for multi-character delimiter format. Default is the newline character (\n).
Escape Character	Escape character for a custom or multi-character delimiter format.
Quote Character	Quote character for a custom or multi-character delimiter format.
Enable Comments	Allows commented data to be ignored for custom delimiter format.
Comment Marker	Character that marks a comment when comments are enabled for custom delimiter format.
Ignore Empty Lines	Allows empty lines to be ignored for custom delimiter format.
Root Field Type	Root field type to use: List-Map - Generates an indexed list of data. Enables you to use standard functions to process data. Use for new pipelines. List - Generates a record with an indexed list with a map for header and value. Requires the use of delimited data functions to process data. Use only to maintain pipelines created before 1.1.0.
Lines to Skip	Number of lines to skip before reading data.
Parse NULLs	Replaces the specified string constant with null values.
NULL Constant	String constant to replace with null values.
Charset	Character encoding of the files to be processed.
Ignore Control Characters	Removes all ASCII control characters except for the tab, line feed, and carriage return characters.

For JSON data, on the Data Format tab, configure the following properties:

JSON Property	Description
JSON Content	Type of JSON content. Use one of the following options: Array of Objects Multiple Objects
Maximum Object Length (chars)	Maximum number of characters in a JSON object. Longer objects are diverted to the pipeline for error handling. This property can be limited by the Data Collector parser buffer size. For more information, see Maximum Record Size.
Charset	Character encoding of the files to be processed.
Ignore Control Characters	Removes all ASCII control characters except for the tab, line feed, and carriage return characters.

For log data, on the Data Format tab, configure the following properties:

Log Property	Description
Log Format	Format of the log files. Use one of the following options: Common Log Format Combined Log Format Apache Error Log Format Apache Access Log Custom Format Regular Expression Grok Pattern Log4j Common Event Format (CEF) Log Event Extended Format (LEEF)
Max Line Length	Maximum length of a log line. The origin truncates longer lines. This property can be limited by the Data Collector parser buffer size. For more information, see Maximum Record Size.
Retain Original Line	Determines how to treat the original log line. Select to include the original log line as a field in the resulting record. By default, the original line is discarded.
Charset	Character encoding of the files to be processed.
Ignore Control Characters	Removes all ASCII control characters except for the tab, line feed, and carriage return characters.

When you select Apache Access Log Custom Format, use Apache log format strings to define the Custom Log Format.
When you select Regular Expression, enter the regular expression that describes the log format, and then map the fields that you want to include to each regular expression group.
When you select Grok Pattern, you can use the Grok Pattern Definition field to define custom grok patterns. You can define a pattern on each line.
In the Grok Pattern field, enter the pattern to use to parse the log. You can use a predefined grok patterns or create a custom grok pattern using patterns defined in Grok Pattern Definition.

For more information about defining grok patterns and supported grok patterns, see Defining Grok Patterns.

When you select Log4j, define the following properties:

Log4j Property	Description
On Parse Error	Determines how to handle information that cannot be parsed: Skip and Log Error - Skips reading the line and logs a stage error. Skip, No Error - Skips reading the line and does not log an error. Include as Stack Trace - Includes information that cannot be parsed as a stack trace to the previously-read log line. The information is added to the message field for the last valid log line.
Use Custom Log Format	Allows you to define a custom log format.
Custom Format	Use log4j variables to define a custom log format.

For protobuf data, on the Data Format tab, configure the following properties:

Protobuf Property	Description
Protobuf Descriptor File	Descriptor file (.desc) to use. The descriptor file must be in the Data Collector resources directory, `$SDC_RESOURCES`. For information about generating the descriptor file, see Protobuf Data Format Prerequisites. For more information about environment variables, see Data Collector Environment Configuration.
Message Type	The fully-qualified name for the message type to use when reading data. Use the following format: `<package name>.<message type>`. Use a message type defined in the descriptor file.
Delimited Messages	Indicates if a message might include more than one protobuf message.

For text data, on the Data Format tab, configure the following properties:

Text Property	Description
Max Line Length	Maximum number of characters allowed for a line. Longer lines are truncated. Adds a boolean field to the record to indicate if it was truncated. The field name is Truncated. This property can be limited by the Data Collector parser buffer size. For more information, see Maximum Record Size.
Use Custom Delimiter	Uses custom delimiters to define records instead of line breaks.
Custom Delimiter	One or more characters to use to define records.
Include Custom Delimiter	Includes delimiter characters in the record.
Charset	Character encoding of the files to be processed.
Ignore Control Characters	Removes all ASCII control characters except for the tab, line feed, and carriage return characters.

For XML data, on the Data Format tab, configure the following properties:

XML Property	Description
Delimiter Element	Delimiter to use to generate records. Omit a delimiter to treat the entire XML document as one record. Use one of the following: An XML element directly under the root element. Use the XML element name without surrounding angle brackets ( < > ) . For example, msg instead of <msg>. A simplified XPath expression that specifies the data to use. Use a simplified XPath expression to access data deeper in the XML document or data that requires a more complex access method. For more information about valid syntax, see Simplified XPath Syntax.
Include Field XPaths	Includes the XPath to each parsed XML element and XML attribute in field attributes. Also includes each namespace in an xmlns record header attribute. When not selected, this information is not included in the record. By default, the property is not selected. Note: Field attributes and record header attributes are written to destination systems automatically only when you use the SDC RPC data format in destinations. For more information about working with field attributes and record header attributes, and how to include them in records, see Field Attributes and Record Header Attributes.
Namespaces	Namespace prefix and URI to use when parsing the XML document. Define namespaces when the XML element being used includes a namespace prefix or when the XPath expression includes namespaces. For information about using namespaces with an XML element, see Using XML Elements with Namespaces. For information about using namespaces with XPath expressions, see Using XPath Expressions with Namespaces. Using simple or bulk edit mode, click the Add icon to add additional namespaces.
Output Field Attributes	Includes XML attributes and namespace declarations in the record as field attributes. When not selected, XML attributes and namespace declarations are included in the record as fields. Note: Field attributes are automatically included in records written to destination systems only when you use the SDC RPC data format in the destination. For more information about working with field attributes, see Field Attributes. By default, the property is not selected.
Max Record Length (chars)	The maximum number of characters in a record. Longer records are diverted to the pipeline for error handling. This property can be limited by the Data Collector parser buffer size. For more information, see Maximum Record Size.
Charset	Character encoding of the files to be processed.
Ignore Control Characters	Removes all ASCII control characters except for the tab, line feed, and carriage return characters.