Creating Local Providers: File as Source

Select File

1. Select a file to upload to the workspace. The system can process text-based files containing comma-separated values (CSV files) and Microsoft Excel files.

   Note

   The system installs a local Active-X Control (Active Component Framework) for the uploading process.

   Note

   Your administrator may have set restrictions on uploading Excel files in Workspace Designer. In this case, you need to convert your Excel file into a CSV file before you upload it.

2. You can specify the header that contains the field names.

3. Enter the first data row if it deviates from the default setting (in the default setting, the first data row is in row two).

4. For CSV files: Make settings for how separators, decimals, date and field separators are displayed. The field separator sign can be used to set special characters in the date field. If the field separator is contained in the date itself, it has to be set twice in the date field.

   Note

   If you CSV file is very large, and no field separator signs are required, you should remove the ' ' in order to improve load performance.

   For the date, the format that the dates in the file are in has to be taken. During uploading, the date for storage in the analytic index is converted to the external format.

   Note

   With Excel files, the formatting generally taken from the file. Therefore, it is recommended that you format the columns appropriately in Excel files.

5. By choosing Display Data , you can see where the first data row begins, and how many headers there are.

6. Enter a name and a description for the provider you want to create. The file name must begin with the workspace prefix (if one has been set by the administrator).

7. Choose Continue .

Change Columns

1. The system has analyzed the data.

   For Excel files, the system has analyzed the formatting of the first data row and determined the data types from this. If a key figure has been formatted without decimal places in the Excel file, the system proposes INTEGER as the data type.

   For CSV files, see: Data Analysis for CSV Files

   Deselect the fields that will not be needed later on. If you have specified a header, the field names are taken from this row.

2. If you have not specified a header, the field names are generated by the system. You can overwrite these field names.

3. The system has generated proposals for the field types of the individual columns. It proposes type Characteristic with the following data types: Character string, date or time.

   You have to flag key figures yourself. The system then identifies the data types Integer, Decimal or Floating Point Number. The data type 'decimal' always has three decimal places. The data type 'floating point number' is suggested for local data with several decimal places. You can either accept this suggestion or switch to 'decimal' (note that selecting 'decimal' means that values are truncated after the third decimal place).

   You can also select Character String with Leading Zeros or InfoObject as the type. If you assign an InfoObject, the internal format of the key figure is used.