Create text file

Sometimes a Switch flow needs to have a new text file created. There are many examples where this text file would be too difficult to create using a standard tool (so you would need to resort to a custom script solution), but in many other Switch flows, it’s absolutely possible to create the content of the text file using standard boilerplate text complimented with variables or using a Switch script expression.

This Four Pees app gives you the means to create exactly such a text file using a standard app. The rest of this document describes how to use the app and explains the different properties.

Example use cases

These are some of the use cases we've used this app for:

• Having a trigger file that is sent out to a flow at a regular interval, with information in the file about when it was created.
• Creating a simple JSON file using Switch variables.
• Outputting a "debug" log file for a job that contains crucial job metadata.
• Writing out a CSV file to be imported into an MIS system.

"Text" file

This app is called "Create text file" because it writes a file in text mode, rather than in binary mode. This means it can not only be used for .txt files, but you can write any file that uses text encoding. Examples are XML, JSON, Markdown, RTF, CSV... The app does not provide any specific help for any of these formats though so it is in those cases up to you to make sure you format the file content correctly.