Working with CSV Data

If you are working with BI Automation Framework which is delivered as part of BI 4.2 SP05, you will notice that many standard task templates support input parameter values in CSV format. This blog post highlights the points how to work with CSV data in Automation framework

You should always provide header followed by values in comma separated format. For example, Document Refresh Task Template accepts ID/CUIDs in CSV format for the  input field “Document”.

Here you can

– Type in CSV values in the UI and press enter. Example  id,name;5067,Sales;5012,Marketing;

–  Read a CSV file(from CMS repository) through Read Worklist Task Template and use it in Document Refresh task

Note :If the task input field accepts “id” and you input a CSV data that contains data columns other than “id”, then the input field consumes only the “id” values from the CSV data. For example, refer to the  below figure:

Fig 1:

In this example, the “Document” input field consumes “id” column values 6029 and 6031 and ignores the other values.

Column and Row Delimiter

The supported column delimiter is “,” and the row delimiter is “;”. A column and a row delimiter in an input field separates the data in column and row format. For example,you can refer to the CSV data in the Fig 1. Here, the comma signifies that name, cuid, status, and id are columns and semi-colon signifies the end of the row.

Note :  If you provide CSV file as an input for Read Worklist task template, then the column delimiter is “,” and the row delimiter is “;” or a new line like in fig 2.

Fig 2:

Caution :  A value in the CSV data should not contain a comma or a semi-colon.