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CSV actions

Read CSV attachment

This action will read the CSV attachment of the incoming message or from the specified URL and output a JSON object.

An example of an object stored in a GitHub repository:

github repo object

Use the following fields to configure this action:

read csv attachment config

Here you can see an example of a sample:

sample example

Configuration

Emit behavior

A required drop-down. This selector configures the output behavior of the component.

Fetch all

The component emits an array of messages.

Emit individually

The component emits a message per row.

Emit batch

Component will produce a series of messages. Each message has an array. The maximum length of each array is equal to the Batch size.

Skip empty lines

An optional checkbox. By default, empty lines are parsed. If this checkbox is selected, empty lines will not be parsed. They will be skipped.

Comment char

An optional string. If specified, lines starting with this string will not be parsed. Instead, lines starting with this string will be skipped.

Input metadata

URL

We will fetch this URL and parse it as a CSV file.

Contains headers

If set to true, the first row of parsed data will be interpreted as field names. By default this is set to false.

Delimiter

The delimiting character. If left blank, the component will auto-detect the delimiting character from a list of the most common delimiters. If a character is added, the added character will be parsed as the delimiting character. Other characters will not. By default this is left blank.

Table 1. Example
Delimiter ($) JSON

a$b$c$d

 
{
"column0": "a",
"column1": "b",
"column2": "c",
"column3": "d"
}
Convert data types

Numeric and boolean data will be converted to their type instead of remaining strings. The default is false.

If Emit behavior is set to Emit batch, a new field appears; Batch size. This is the maximum length of the array for each message.

Output metadata

For Fetch page and Emit batch

An object with key result that has an array as its value.

For Emit individually

Each object fills the entire message.

Limitations

  • If you use Fetch all, the component must store the whole file and object in memory. This can cause high memory usage.

  • In Emit batch use Batch size with care. Larger batches consume more memory.

Create CSV from message stream

Here you can see a message stream example created using the Node.js component:

message stream example

This action combines multiple incoming events into a CSV file until there is a gap of more than 10 seconds between events. Afterward, the CSV file is closed and attached to the outgoing message.

Use the following fields to configure this action:

csv from stream config

Configuration

Upload CSV as file to attachments

An optional checkbox. If selected, store the generated CSV data as an attachment. If unselected, place the CSV as a string in the outbound message.

Separator

An optional string. A single character that is used to delimit the CSV file. By default this is set to a comma (,).

The most common delimiters are a comma (,), semicolon (;), tab (\t), pipe (|), or space.

Any character can be used as a delimiter, however, this can be counterproductive as CSV files are used to pass information between applications and unique delimiters can adversely affect interoperability.

Default (,) Custom (;) Custom ($) JSON

a,b,c,d

a;b;c;d

a$b$c$d

 
{
"column0": "a",
"column1": "b",
"column2": "c",
"column3": "d"
}
Column order

An optional string. A string, delimited by the separator, defining the columns and in what order they should appear in the resulting file.

If this is omitted, the column order in the resulting file will not be deterministic.

Column names will be trimmed: spaces will be removed from the beginning and end of column names.

Table 2. Example
Original Trimmed

'col 1,col 2 ,col 3, col 4'

['col 1', 'col 2', 'col 3', 'col 4']
New line delimiter

An optional string. Defaults to \r\n. The character used to determine newline sequence.

Other allowed values are set out below.

Table 3. Allowed New line delimiters
Value Encoded as New line delimiter default environment

CR+LF

\r\n

Windows.

LF

\n

macOS, Linux, BSD, and Unix.

CR

\r

Classic Mac OS and other legacy OSes.

CR+LF — the default new line delimiter string on Windows — is understood by and parsed as expected by applications that run on Unix and Unix-like operating systems.

By contrast, LF is not always parsed by Windows applications as expected.

CR+LF is, as a consequence, the sensible default.

Only set the new line delimiter to LF if a CSV file is only going to be parsed on Unix-like operating systems.
Escape formulae

An optional checkbox. If selected, field values that begin with =, +, -, @, \t, or \r, will be prepended with a ` to defend against injection attacks

Spreadsheet applications, such as Excel and LibreOffice will automatically parse such cells as formulae if this checkbox is left unchecked.

Input metadata

Include headers

Indicates if a header row should be included in the generated file. This must be a boolean.

Input object

Object to be written as a row in the CSV file. If the Column order is specified, then individual properties can be specified.

Output metadata

If Upload CSV as file to attachments is selected:
attachmentUrl

A URL to the CSV output.

Type

Always set to .csv.

Size

Size in bytes of the resulting CSV file.

attachmentCreationTime

When the attachment was generated.

attachmentExpiryTime

When the attachment is set to expire.

contentType

Always set to text/csv.

If Upload CSV as file to attachments is not selected:
csvString

The output CSV as a string inline in the body.

Create CSV from JSON array

This action converts an incoming array into a CSV file. Here you can see a JSON array example created using the Webhook component:

json array example

Use the following fields to configure this action:

json array config

Configuration

Upload CSV as file to attachments

An optional checkbox. If selected, store the generated CSV data as an attachment. If unselected, place the CSV as a string in the outbound message.

Separator

An optional string. A single character that is used to delimit the CSV file. By default this is set to a comma (,).

The most common delimiters are a comma (,), semicolon (;), tab (\t), pipe (|), or space.

Any character can be used as a delimiter, however, this can be counterproductive as CSV files are used to pass information between applications and unique delimiters can adversely affect interoperability.

Default (,) Custom (;) Custom ($) JSON

a,b,c,d

a;b;c;d

a$b$c$d

 
{
"column0": "a",
"column1": "b",
"column2": "c",
"column3": "d"
}
Column order

An optional string. A string, delimited by the separator, defining the columns and in what order they should appear in the resulting file.

If this is omitted, the column order in the resulting file will not be deterministic.

Column names will be trimmed: spaces will be removed from the beginning and end of column names.

Table 4. Example
Original Trimmed

'col 1,col 2 ,col 3, col 4'

['col 1', 'col 2', 'col 3', 'col 4']
New line delimiter

An optional string. Defaults to \r\n. The character used to determine newline sequence.

Other allowed values are set out below.

Table 5. Allowed New line delimiters
Value Encoded as New line delimiter default environment

CR+LF

\r\n

Windows.

LF

\n

macOS, Linux, BSD, and Unix.

CR

\r

Classic Mac OS and other legacy OSes.

CR+LF — the default new line delimiter string on Windows — is understood by and parsed as expected by applications that run on Unix and Unix-like operating systems.

By contrast, LF is not always parsed by Windows applications as expected.

CR+LF is, as a consequence, the sensible default.

Only set the new line delimiter to LF if a CSV file is only going to be parsed on Unix-like operating systems.
Escape formulae

An optional checkbox. If selected, field values that begin with =, +, -, @, \t, or \r, will be prepended with a ` to defend against injection attacks

Spreadsheet applications, such as Excel and LibreOffice will automatically parse such cells as formulae if this checkbox is left unchecked.

Input metadata

Include headers

Indicates if a header row should be included in the generated file. This must be a boolean.

Input array

Array of objects to be written as rows in the CSV file (one row per object and headers).

If the Column Order is specified, then individual properties can be specified.

The component will throw an error when the array is empty.

Output metadata

upload csv as file checked
Figure 1. If Upload CSV as file to attachments is selected:
attachmentUrl

A URL to the CSV output.

Type

Always set to .csv.

Size

Size in bytes of the resulting CSV file.

attachmentCreationTime

When the attachment was generated.

attachmentExpiryTime

When the attachment is set to expire.

contentType

Always set to text/csv.

upload csv as file unchecked
Figure 2. If Upload CSV as file to attachments is not selected:
csvString

The output CSV as a string inline in the body.

Limitations

  • You might get the following error during run-time:

    Component run out of memory and terminated.

    This means that the component needs more memory. Contact the support team for further assistance.

  • The Maximum possible size for an attachment is 10 MB.

  • Inbound message in Message Stream and each element of JSON Array should be a plain Object. If the value is not a primitive type, it will be set as [object Object].