Enterprise Service Bus Data Source - File Attachment Field Import

The File Attachment Field Import Enterprise Service Bus allows the Software Developer to import values that are stored in a delimiter separated file format such as CSV.

This feature will be available in Platform Version 14.05.941.

There are many possible uses for importing data from a file. The three most common scenarios are: update existing records, create new records, or update and create records.

To update existing records the software developer could use a Do records exist? action type to determine if a record could be found using data from the row as part of the filters. If one or more records exists then a For Each action could be used to loop over all the records. The loop is not strictly needed but if the import is updating more than one field it will make the context easier to work with for the subsequent actions. Inside the loop the software developer can then use Set Field Value actions to read the data from the row and store it on the record(s).

To create new records for each row the software developer can simply use a Create Record action and inside that action use Set Field Value actions to read the data from the row and store it on the record.

To do both create and update records in the same import the software developer should implement an action tree similar to just updating existing records but in the else portion of the Do records exist? action add the actions to create new records.

There are five configuration option in this data source.

• File - This is a query that should point at a file attachment field that contains the structured text file to be imported
• File Structure - This selection determines the delimiter, wrapper, and escape character used to separate the columns of data in the file. The delimiter is used to separate the columns of data, most commonly a comma or a tab. The wrapper is used encapsulate data that either contains the delimiter or a new line character. The escape character allows data to contain the wrapper character.
• Column Setup - This selection determines the way the columns are represented. The two options are to have the first row contain headers for each column the second option is to provide a simple count of columns.
• Column Names - If the first row contains headers then this is where those headers are defined. The Software Developer defines the name of the header and can designate if a column is required. If a column is required then when the import is executed the first row of that column will be checked for a value, and if it does not contain one the import will be aborted. The required setting also affects the column mapping options on a File Attachment Field setup to facilitate importing. The order of the columns does not matter as long as the the column headers match exactly to what is defined here.
• Column Count - If the first row will not contain headers then a count of the number of columns is required. When using this option the order of the columns becomes important.

There is currently only one data handler available for this data source.

• WorkXpress Actions: Import - This data handler allows the software developer to generate actions to create new records or find existing records and save the values on them. The full power of the actions system is available.