Load file

Last update: September 13, 2021

CREATED FOR:

  • Intermediate
  • Developer

Description

CAUTION
Please keep in mind the SFTP storage, DB Storage and active profile limits as per your Adobe Campaign contract while using this functionality.

The Load file activity allows you to import data in one structured form to use this data in Adobe Campaign. The data is temporarily imported and another activity is necessary to definitively integrate it in the Adobe Campaign database.

Context of use

The way in which the data will be extracted is defined when the activity is configured. The file to load may be a list of contacts, for example.

You can:

  • Use the file structure to apply it to another file’s data (recovered using the Transfer file activity) or,
  • Use the structure and data from the file to import it into Adobe Campaign.
IMPORTANT
Only “flat” structure files are taken into account, such as .txt, .csv, etc., files for example.

Related topics:

Configuration

The activity configuration involves two steps. First, you need to define the expected file structure by uploading a sample file. Once this is done, you can specify the origin of the file whose data will be imported.

NOTE
The data of the sample file is used for configuring the activity but is not imported. We recommend using a sample file containing little data.

  1. Drag and drop a Load file activity into your workflow.

  2. Select the activity, then open it using the button from the quick actions that appear.

  3. Upload the sample file that will let you define the expected structure when importing the final file.

    Once the data file is uploaded, two new tabs appear in the activity: File structure and Column definition.

  4. Go to the File structure tab to view the structure that is automatically detected from the sample file.

    If the file structure was incorrectly detected, you have several options to correct any possible errors:

    • You can choose to use the structure of another file by selecting the Detect structure from a new file option.

    • You can modify the default detection parameters to adapt them to your file. The File type field lets you specify if the file you want to import is made up of columns with fixed length. In that case, you must also specify the maximum number of characters for each column in the Column definition tab.

      All of the detection options necessary to correctly recover the data from the file are regrouped in File format. You can modify them then re-detect the structure of the last file loaded in the activity by taking into account these new settings. To do this, use the Apply configuration button. For example, you can specify a different column separator.

      NOTE
      This operation takes into account the last file that was loaded in the activity. If the file detected is large, the data preview will only show the first 30 lines.

      In the File format section, the Check columns from file against column definitions option lets you verify that the columns of the file you are uploading correspond to the column definition.

      If the number and/or name of columns don’t match the column definition, an error message will display when executing the workflow. If the option is not activated, warnings will display in the log file.

  5. Go to the Column definition tab to check the data format for each column and adjust the parameters if necessary.

    The Column definition tab allows you to precisely specify the data structure of each column in order to import data that does not contain any errors (for example, using null management) and make it match the types that are already present in the Adobe Campaign database for future operations.

    For example, you can change the label of a column, select its type (string, integer, date, etc.) or even specify error processing.

    For more information, refer to the Column format section.

  6. In the Execution tab, specify whether the file is to be processed for loading data:

    • Comes from an inbound transition in the workflow.

    • Is the one that you uploaded during the previous step.

    • Is a new file to upload from the local machine. The Upload a new file from local machine option appears if uploading a first file was already defined in the workflow. This allows you to upload another file to be processed if the current file does not suit your needs.

  7. If the file that you want to load the data from is compressed into a GZIP file (.gz), select the Decompression option in the Add a pre-processing stage field. This allows you to unzip the file before loading the data. This option is only available if the file comes from the activity’s inbound transition.

    The Add a pre-processing stage field also allows you to decrypt a file before importing it into the database. For more on how to work with encrypted files, refer to this section

  8. The Keep the rejects in a file option enables you to download a file containing errors that occurred during the import, and to apply to it a post-processing stage. When the option is activated, the outbound transition is renamed as “Rejects”.

    NOTE
    The Add date and time to the file name option lets you add a timestamp the name of the file containing the rejects.

  9. Confirm the configuration of your activity and save your workflow.

If any error occurs with the activity after executing the workflow, refer to the logs to get more details on the values that are incorrect in the file. For more on workflows logs, refer to this section.