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# Introduction to FlowFiles and Documents

The basic unit of data in Apache NiFi is the FlowFile. When you look at your data flow in the NiFi web interface, you can see FlowFiles being queued and counted by your processors. So that they integrate with the Apache NiFi framework, IDOL NiFi Ingest components also handle FlowFiles. For example, a connector creates FlowFiles which are then processed by a KeyView processor or Media Analysis processor.

A FlowFile that represents an IDOL document has the following attributes.

Attribute | Description
--- | ---
`idol.type` | The type of content contained in the body of the FlowFile. The FlowFiles created by IDOL NiFi Ingest connectors have a type of `document`. This is a binary format that can include multiple parts, for example one part containing XML metadata and another containing binary content from a file. For more information about this format, see application/x.idol.doc. IDOL NiFi Ingest processors also accept FlowFiles where this attribute has the following values, so that they can process FlowFiles created by other NiFi processors: `contentfile` - The FlowFile body contains the binary body of a file. `contentfilename` - A full, local, file path in plain text. `content` - Text content to use as the `DRECONTENT` of an IDOL document. `xmlmetadata` - XML metadata.
`idol.reference` | Equivalent to the `DREREFERENCE` for the document.
`idol.reference.action` | This attribute is usually assigned by a connector and indicates the indexing operation to perform, for example `Add`, `Update`, or `Remove`.
`idol.src.connector.name` | This attribute is present if the FlowFile was created by an IDOL NiFi Ingest Connector. It specifies the display name for the type of connector that created the FlowFile, for example "File System Connector".
`idol.src.processor.identifier` | This attribute is present if the FlowFile was created by an IDOL NiFi Ingest Connector. It specifies the ID of the NiFi processor that created the FlowFile.
`idol.src.processor.name` | This attribute is present if the FlowFile was created by an IDOL NiFi Ingest Connector. It specifies the display name of the NiFi processor, for example "My GetFileSystem Processor".
`mime.type` | The MIME type for the body of the FlowFile: `application/x.idol.doc` when the `idol.type` is `document`. `application/octet-stream` when the `idol.type` is `contentfile`. `text/plain` when the `idol.type` is `contentfilename` or `content`. `text/xml` when the `idol.type` is `xmlmetadata`.

## application/x.idol.doc

The `application/x.idol.doc` format is a binary format that can include multiple parts. A single document can contain multiple `contentfilename`, `contentfile`, or `content` parts but no more than one `xmlmetadata` part.

Part type | Description
--- | ---
`contentfilename` | A document part that contains a file path. When a document has a `contentfilename` part, the FlowFile can have an attribute named `idol.doc.part.part_id.file.own` which contains a Boolean value to indicate whether NiFi Ingest owns the file and can delete it when processing is complete. To ensure that temporary files owned by NiFi Ingest are deleted, you can use a `RemoveDocumentPart` processor (as described in Remove Temporary Files).
`contentfile` | A document part that contains the binary content of a file. When a document has a `contentfile` part, the FlowFile can have an attribute named `idol.doc.part.part_id.file.name` which contains a display name for the file.
`content` | A document part that contains one or more pages of text content.
`xmlmetadata` | A document part that contains XML metadata.

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