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Overview

 

Load CSV

Before importing a CSV file you will need to ensure the functionality is enabled and your CSV file is ready.

See CSV Data Imports for more information.

Create

To import a CSV file through the View Builder you will first need to open the builder:

1. Navigate to Administration > Admin Console, expand the Views section and click on the view you wish to import the CSV in.
Note: the selected view must be based on a writable data source.

2. Edit the view and access the first step of the View Builder.

3. Click on the Add CSV Table button at the bottom of the Database Tables list on the left.

Load

From here you will be taken to the CSV File step where you will need to locate and load the CSV file.

1. Either click on the Browse Files link, or the CSV image to locate your file, or drag your file from the file system onto the grey area.

2. Once selected, Yellowfin will confirm that the file has been uploaded.

3. From here, if you have Advanced CSV Settings permissions, you can click on the Advanced Settings link, otherwise progress to step 4.
Advanced Settings include:

  • Field Separator - this allows you to specify which character is used in the CSV to separate values in the case that it's not a comma. If Other is selected, you can type your own character.
  • Precision - this allows you to define how many rows of the CSV Yellowfin will examine in order to define the field types and size.
    • Low Precision is fast, and only examines the first 1000 rows of the file.
    • High Precision is slower, depending on the size of the file, as it examines all rows.

4. Once complete, click the Next button to progress to the preview step.

 

Configure Data

Once you've selected your file, and defined any settings required, you will be taken to the CSV Data step of the process. This is where you will be able to define several things, including Column Titles, CSV Table Settings, and Converted Fields.

Data Step Options

These options are available outside of the Data Step menus.

Column Titles

By default, Yellowfin assumes that the first row of your CSV contains the text to be used as column titles, rather than data itself.
To change this option you can uncheck the First row contains unique titles option at the bottom-left of the page.
This will take the first row of the CSV and treat it as data, allowing you to provide your own labels.

If you wish to change some or all of the column titles displayed, you can click on the title, which will select it and allow you to enter new text

Rows

This allows you to change the number of rows previewed.

Refresh

This allows you to refresh the data displayed in the preview.

Field Drop Down Menu

This menu is accessed by clicking on the blue arrow on a Column Title.

Convert to Text Field

This allows the contents of the field to be treated as text, changing the functionality that's available to it from numeric or date to text. This option is only displayed on fields not recognised as text natively.

Field Type

This tells you if Yellowfin recognises the field as a Metric or Dimension. This can be changed through formatting the field in the View Fields step of the builder.

Index

This allows you to add an index to the field in order to increase read performance. Generally, indexes should be added to fields that will be used in joins or filters.

Settings

This menu allows to define meta data and other options relating to the View that Yellowfin will create from the CSV file at the end of the import process.

Name

This will be the name of the CSV Table that Yellowfin will create at the end of the import process. This is how view creators will identify it in the list of database tables in the first step of the view builder.

Description

This will be the description of the CSV Table that Yellowfin will create at the end of the import process. This should contain information about what's contained in the CSV.

Add Fields

This menu allows you to choose from one of the available options in order to create a new field, based on existing fields from the CSV. These functions will not change the existing fields, only create new ones to store the result of a conversion.

Date Conversion

This allows you to convert a non-standard format date field (one Yellowfin doesn't recognise as a date by default) to a recognised date/time field, by specifying its format.
See Date Conversion for more information.

Timestamp Conversion

This allows you to convert values stored in Java time format (milliseconds since midnight January 1, 1970, GMT) to timestamps.

Numeric Conversion

This allows you to convert fields recognised as text by Yellowfin, that contain numeric values, to numeric fields.

Finish or Cancel

Once the formatting and configuration of the CSV data is complete, you will need to do one of the following:

Finish

Clicking on the Finish link will complete the CSV import process, creating the CSV Table in the background, and will return you to the Drag & Drop step of the View Builder. From here you can drag your CSV table into the Entity Relationship Diagram, like any other table.

Cancel

Clicking on the X button in the top-right corner of the screen will cancel the import process. The CSV Table based on the file will be deleted. Select this option if you don't wish to go ahead with the import.