Campaign: FileImport activity fails to parse Date+Time
This article describes an issue where a FileImport activity recognizes input columns as Date+Time during preview-based setup, but does not fully initialize the underlying date and time separator settings. As a result, datetime values may not be parsed correctly during import and can be loaded as NULL.
Description description
When configuring a FileImport activity using a preview file, columns that are automatically detected as Date+Time may appear correctly configured in the UI, but the activity definition does not always populate the required separator attributes for date and time values.
In affected cases, the activity metadata includes values such as:
- dateFormat
- dateTimeFormat
- dateTimeSep
- timeFormat
but omits:
- dateSep
- timeSep
Because the separator values are missing, datetime strings such as 18/06/2025 14:30:00 may not be interpreted correctly during processing. This can lead to warnings in workflow logs indicating that date fields are malformed, and imported datetime fields may be stored as NULL.
A typical symptom is that the column is shown as Date+Time in the configuration interface, yet runtime parsing behaves as if the format definition is incomplete.
Resolution resolution
Workaround
Open the column configuration for the affected FileImport activity and force the datetime format to be reinitialized by doing one of the following:
- Re-select the column type as Date+Time, then save the activity.
- Use Auto Detect format again for the affected columns.
Either action can cause the activity definition to populate the missing separator attributes, including:
- dateSep=“/”
- timeSep=“:”
Once those values are present, the datetime fields are parsed correctly and the import should proceed without nullifying valid date values.
Permanent Fix
The underlying issue was identified as a defect in the dataSourceColumn initialization logic when columns are derived from a preview file. The fix is to ensure that dateSep and timeSep are set automatically whenever a column is recognized as a datetime type during preview-based initialization.
If the fix is not yet available in the target build, use the workaround above before running the workflow.