Macro - forcing Select tool to show the available fields

Question

I'm trying to build a macro that would join two sources on a column selected by the user. While the dropdown select works for changing the JoinInfo and hence what I join on, the action tool seems to refuse to read the available fields in the stream when connected either to Join or Select tool, it refuses to show the available fields that I could select/unselect - it only shows the "Unknown" field and none of the actual fields, including those that I am joining on...

BenMoss · Accepted Answer

You should note that when using the select tool (or select within join), the detail for the tool only contains values that have been changed. If you wish to change the name of a field for instance you should rename your placeholder fields, this will force them to become available within your action tool which you can then amend accordingly.

I believe this is to minimise the amount of information that is needed for the tool to process.

If nothing is changed in the select and you have '*unknown' checked, the XML will only indicate that you have unknown checked so it brings though any field.

However, if you have *unknown not checked, you will notice that your field names get written into the xml and again it is then possible to amend your field names within the action tool