Creating a batch file that deletes image files

1. Create an archive transaction description as shown below.

   

   Use #Importfile instead of #Exportfile if you are importing image files to FORMS rather than exporting them.

2. Close the Transaction description dialog and specify a name for the transaction description when prompted.

3. In your Transfer job description, specify the archive transaction description and the transfer file (which you will use as a batch file). It is usually most convenient to place the batch file in the same directory as the image files.

   

4. Select Append to file in the Archive dialog. This allows you to send data from multiple Transfer sessions to the same batch file.

5. Deselect Terminate with CR & LF, because you already specified in the archive transaction description that each line is terminated in this way.

6. Close and save the Transfer job description.

7. After you run the Transfer job, execute the batch file that was created (Delete.bat in this example). All image files containing forms are deleted unless there is a corresponding file containing field images.

   It can be convenient to create an icon for the batch file and place it in the FORMS group folder. Other users can then simply double-click the icon to run the batch file after transfer.
    

In a batch file, DEL must be followed by a space. If extra characters follow DEL, the command does not work. Therefore, if the transaction field between Delete and Space (#Fieldfile in this example) actually writes something to the batch file, the DEL command becomes invalid.

If the transaction field does not write anything to the batch file, which is the case if there is no value associated with it, then the DEL command works correctly when you execute the batch file, and the file specified by #Exportfile is deleted.
 

The batch file resulting from the instructions below deletes the file containing an image of each form unless the form is also associated with field images. A file containing field images exists if field images were exported.

Forms with field images...	Data and files that exist before Transfer	What happens to data and files after transfer
... saved	Data from form	Deleted from FORMS after transfer to target system
	File containing image of form	Not affected
	File containing image(s) of field(s)	Not affected
... not saved	Data from form	Deleted from FORMS after transfer to target system
	File containing image of form	Deleted when you execute batch file

This particular solution is useful if the form definition contains a field that is saved as an image if it is filled in, such as one containing respondents comments. It assumes that you want to keep copies (image files) of forms on which respondents wrote comments but delete copies of forms containing no comments. The batch file deletes all irrelevant image files, making it easy to look through the remaining ones.

Note: The solution using #Fieldfile will not work if one or more copy fields are defined on the form definition, because in that case a file containing field images is always created, and the associated copies of forms would never be deleted.
 

You can, of course, modify the example to suit your purposes. For example:

• If you replace #Fieldfile with the name of a field definition, the result (when you run the batch file) is that copies are deleted when the specified field is empty.

• Replace DEL with another command, such as COPY or MOVE, if it suits your purposes better.

• A more complicated modification might include conditional transaction fields.