Discover Fields for a Load File

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Requires Project -Export Fields - View, Add/Edit Permissions

The Discover Fields page lets you discover the fields present in a Load File, which is a necessary step in creating a Load File template containing mappings between these fields and Digital Reef metadata fields. You can then select the template when using the Imports > New Data Set from Load File option to import other Load Files of the same type (DAT, CSV, or EDRM XML). To discover the fields in a load file, do the following:

  1. Select a Connector from the Connectors table.

  2. In the Folder panel, select a Connector folder and subfolders as needed until one or more Load Files are listed in the File Name panel.

  3. Select a Load File. The full path is shown in the Path box.

  4. With the Load File selected, the Settings panel displays, specifying the encoding of the load file and delimiters used in it (see below). The Preview panel displays the fields discovered in the Load File using the current settings. Under Columns, the fields are listed in the order in which they appear in the Load File; Value shows the first row value (if any) for each field. At any time, you can change the encoding and/or delimiters in the Settings panel and click Update Preview to update the Preview display.

  5. Click OK to return to the Load File Import page, with the discovered fields loaded into the Load File Fields panel, or Cancel to cancel the operation.

Settings

The settings panel lets for specify the encoding type of and delimiters in the selected load file.

Encoding Type

Select the appropriate encoding type based on the encoding used to produce the Load File:

  • ISO8859 — Use for a file that has been encoded with only ISO8859-1 values.
  • UTF8 (the default) — Use for a file that has been encoded with only UTF-8 encoded values (pure UTF-8). UTF-8 and ASCII are identical for ASCII values only; for any non-ASCII value (for example, in file names, metadata values, or content), multiple bytes encoded according to the UTF-8 encoding rules will be used to represent the character. In this case, the DAT file would contain multibyte characters.
  • UTF16LE — Use for a file that has been encoded with only UTF-16 LE encoded values (pure UTF-16LE).
  • UTF16BE — Use for a file that has been encoded with only UTF-16 BE encoded values (pure UTF-16BE).
  • MIXED MODE — Use for a file that has delimiters encoded as ASCII characters but the content is UTF-8 encoded. This would apply to DAT files generated from Digital Reef exports using the ASCII/UTF-8 option.

Delimiters

You can choose DAT Defaults or CSV Defaults or select the appropriate ASCII character (based on ASCII value or represented character) from each drop-down, based on the contents of your Load File.

  • Column — Specifies the character used as a field separator to separate the columns in the load file. If you do not supply the appropriate field delimiter for the Load File, an import of the Load File will fail because the delimiter information is required to parse data from the Load File. DAT default: ASCII-020, an nonprintable character. CSV default: , (comma).
  • Quote — Specifies the appropriate quote character used to mark the beginning and end of each field in the load file. DAT default: þ, which is ASCII-254. CSV default: " (quote).
  • Multi Value — Specifies a character used to separate multiple values within a field (for example, multiple email addresses in a to or from field). DAT default: ; (semicolon), which is ASCII-059. CSV default: ; (semicolon).
  • Nested Value — Specifies a character used to handle nested values (such as tagging levels). Not all sources have a default for this separator. DAT default: \ (backslash), which is ASCII-092. CSV default: \ (backslash).
  • New line — Specifies the new line character to be used to mark the end of a line within a field. This helps to format long text in a field. DAT default: ®, which is ASCII-174. CSV default: ®

Note: If the encoding and delimiter selections used to discover fields for a template do not match the selected Load File when using the template, import of the Load File fails.