README

API-Builder File Flow-Node

This node can be used to read and write files in your API-Builder flow.

The following file types are supported/planned:

File Type	Description	Status
CSV	You can read/write from and to CSV-Files, filter records and columns and directly convert it into a JavaScript object	Support for Read
JSON	You can read/write from and to JSON-Files and directly convert it into a JavaScript object	Planned
XML	You can read/write from and to XML-Files and directly convert it into a JavaScript object	Planned
Plain-Text	Just read and write plain text	Planned

CSV Files

With this flow-node you can read CSV-File and make the content available to your flow. With that, you can for instance enrich data taken from the CSV-File and merge it with data you got before.

Read

To Read a CSV-File, you have to make it available to the API-Builder project. For instance putting it directly into your API-Builder app and reference it then with a relative path.

Input parameters

The CSV Read-Operation supports a number of input parameters:

Param	Type	Required	Description
filename	string	y	The name of the CSV file you would like to read. This file is given either absolute or relative to the API-Builder project. For instance, when putting a file into `conf/my-file.csv` you just configured `conf/my-file.csv`
delimiter	string	n	The delimeter of your CSV-File. Defaults to , Configure any other character, when your CSV-File is splitting records differently.
filterColumn	string	n	The CSV column name used to filter using the filterValues. This parameter is ignored, if filterValues is not set.
filterValues	string\|array	n	This value is used to filter entries in the configured filterColumn. It can be either a simple string or an array of string. The parameter is case-sensitve. This parameter is ignored, if filterColumn is not set.
uniqueResult	boolean	n	Turn this on if you require a unique result (exactly 1). If not unique or nothing is found the flow node fails.
resultColumns	array	n	An array of CSV column names you want in the result. The column names are expected in the first line or using the parameter: `columns`you can override the column names. Example: ["columnA", "columnF", "columnT"]
quote	string	n	Optional character surrounding a field. This is required, when the delimiter is used as part of a field; one character only. The default is double quote.
comment	string	n	Treat all the characters after this one as a comment. Used this, when your CSV-File contains lines with comments. E.g. using a #
columns	array	n	Provide an array of column headers if your CSV has NO headers or you would like to have different field names.
relax_column_count	boolean	n	Discard inconsistent columns count. If a column is missing for a record a reduced dataset is returned.

Output

The content from the CSV-File is converted into a Java-Script object, so that you can easily use it in your flow.

For instance the following input:

ReturnCode, ResponseMessage, LastUpdate, Author
401, You have no permission, 16.01.2020, Chris
500, Internal server error, 17.01.2020, Charles

is made available to the flow as the following object:

{
  ReturnCode: '401',
  ResponseMessage: 'You have no permission',
  LastUpdate: '16.01.2020',
  Author: 'Chris'
},
{
  ReturnCode: '500',
  ResponseMessage: 'Internal server error',
  LastUpdate: '17.01.2020',
  Author: 'Charles'
}

When using the default output attribute: $.content you can access the data inside your flow like so: $.content.1.ReturnCode to get the second return-code.

Using the parameters: filterColumn, filterValues and uniqueResult you can limit the data to one record. In that case, the data is always stored in the first object: $.content.0.ReturnCode