This type of DataReader protocol imports data from text files of type fixed width fields or CSV (character separated value) of ANSI or Unicode type.
To create a text file DataReader protocol, go to the ASCII tab of Data Reader window, click the action icon and select New Protocol.
The following protocol configuration window opens
Type the protocol name in the Title field.
In the Path field, type the name of the directory where the text file is located. Note that the text files are accesses by the BoardServer, which reads data and feeds it into the Board database. The source files must be located in a directory accessed by computer where the Board Server is running. For example c:\Board\Dataset refers to the Board\Dataset directory located on the C drive of the computer where Board Server is running.
If the HTML checkbox is on,it’s possible to directly read a file hosted on (e.g.) a web site.
Type the file name in the Pattern field; note that you can use wildcards. For example type p*.txt to view all files starting with p which have TXT as extension
Press the Refresh file List button to view the files from the source directory. Click the desired file name in the files list box.
Select the entities and InfoCubes to feed: the list window located on the right displays all entities and InfoCubes of the current Board database. Note that entities have two fields, the code part and the description part. When you select an InfoCube, make sure to also select all its dimensions. For example, if you select the InfoCube Sales Amount, dimensioned by Customer-Product-Month, you must also include the following fields: Month, Product code and Customer code.
For each selected field, type the starting position and width of the corresponding field from the text file. The right-most column shows data from the first record of the text file. It is also possible to set the starting position and width size using the drag&drop from the file preview window. Click on starting position in the file preview window (see illustration hereunder) which displays the text file record, then highlight the entire field (keep the left mouse button pressed) and then drag and drop the mouse over to corresponding entity or InfoCube to feed as illustrated in the following picture.
You may scroll the previewed record by clicking the previous/next icons
For each field (except standard time entities), set the Append/Replace option as desired. Click on the yellow cell to change setting. Refer to the paragraph Append and Replace options for details.
The Divide by field is optional and only applies to numeric InfoCubes: it divides incoming data by the specified value. For example, type 1000 to divide values in the source file by 1000.
Press OK to save the protocol.
Note:
The Data Reader cannot read text files exceeding 2GB in size. This limit only applies to text files not tables from a database.
With Board version 7.3, it is possible to read files of type comma-separated values.
To use this option, tick the CSV File check box located in the ASCII Data Reader protocol window as shown
When the CSV File option is enabled, the protocol configuration window slightly changes. A Drop down window allows to select the delimiter character of the source file. The default character is the semi-colon.
If the source file contains column headers in the first row, tick the option "First row contains headers".
To map the fields of the source file to the entities and InfoCubes, select the desired field from the drop-down list located in the "Position" column.
The following picture shows the configuration window for a CSV Data Reader.