Understanding Batch Processing

Using batch processing, you can perform geospatial processing on a group of records. For example, you might want to gather the latest tax jurisdiction information when a group of customer accounts comes up for billing. Instead of doing this interactively, one address at a time, you can use batch processing to do this more efficiently. Site-US Tax Batch lets you setup, save, and run batch processes.

Site-US Tax Batch uses up to seven files to specify, and monitor, each batch process. At its simplest, a Job File determines how your Input File records get transformed into the desired Output File. Additionally, you can monitor problem records in an Errors File, and reject specified records into an optional Exceptions File. Finally, you can study a Data Dictionary file to understand how the Output File is structured, and view summary information about the entire batch job in a Report File.

You use the Batch Process Homepage to manage the Input File, Job File, and the overall batch process.To learn more, watch the movie about the files or watch the entire batch processing movie. Use the online movie controls to forward, rewind, or pause.

Figure: Batch Processing Files and Workflow

Overview of the Batch Processing Files

Here is an overview of the files and what they do:

• Input File. Contains the records, such as customer addresses, for processing.
• Job File. Defines the operations, such as the geocoding and tax lookup options, to be performed. The file is reusable. So instead of having to tediously respecify numerous settings each time, you simply specify which Job File to use. All the settings saved in that file are automatically applied.
• Output File. Contains all the accepted records, processed and formatted according to the instructions in the Job File.
• Errors File. Contains all records that resulted in errors, such as errors due to improperly-formatted records. To help you troubleshoot bad records, the file also lists each bad record's line number (from Input File) and error code.
• Exceptions File. Contains all records that do not meet your specified Accept/Deny business rules. This optional file is only generated when using business rules.
• Data Dictionary. Describes the structure of the Output File, so you understand where the new geospatial processing fields are appended. For fixed-length files, you can view the fields' start positions, field lengths, and data descriptions. For delimited files, you can view the field numbering and data descriptions.
• Report File. Provides a statistical summary of the completed batch, such as the number of records processed.

The Data Dictionary file is a CSV (Comma Separated Values) file with a .csv extension. The other files are text (.txt) files, using either fixed-length or character-delimited data formats. The Output File, Errors File, optional Exceptions File, Data Dictionary, and Report File are automatically generated by Site-US Tax Batch. These files are included in the downloadable results fileset that Site-US Tax Batch provides for you within a Zip (.zip) archive. See example files.

Note: If an error is encountered during batch processing, the record stops being processed and gets sent to the Errors File. Once an error is encountered in a record, no other operations are performed on that record. Processing continues with the next record.