This guide will help you learn how to configure the TextFile connector to read from or write to a CSV or TXT file.

Creating a new CSV/TXT File

Please follow these steps:

1. Drag-and-drop the TextFile connector icon onto Apatar's main panel.
   
   
   
   
2. Double-click on the connector's node to configure it.
3. In the window that pops-up, check Create a new file.
4. Click Choose Folder to specify the path to the file to be created by browsing your hard drive, or, alternatively, input the path manually into the Folder Name field.
5. In the New File Name field, input the name of the file to be created.
6. The default extension for the file to be created is .txt. If you want Apatar to create a .csv file, click on the list to the right from the New File Name field and choose .csv.
   
   
   
   
7. Now, you have to add the fields for your text file. Input the field's name into New Fields in the Textfile and press Add field to create a field with the specified name.
   To delete a field, select it and press Delete Field.
   
   
   
   
8. The default separator between the fields is comma. If you have chosen to create a .txt file, you can also choose semicolon, bar (|), and tab (->) from the Choose Separator list. Please note that since CSV stands for Comma-Separated Values, comma is the typical field separator for this file extension.
9. Click Next.
10. From the list of the created fields, select the ones you want to operate in Apatar by holding the Control key and clicking on their names.
11. Click Finish. Now, you can start working with a new text file in Apatar.

Reading from a CSV/TXT file

Please follow these steps:

1. Drag-and-drop the TextFile connector icon onto Apatar's main panel.
   
   
   
   
2. Double-click on the connector's node to configure it.
3. Check Choose File Name in the window that appears.
4. Press Choose to browse your hard drive and locate the desired file.
   
   
   
   
5. Click Next.
6. Select the mode in which the transformation should run. (Click here to read about the difference between the modes.) If you select the Update mode, please also select the field(s) from the list that should be used as primary keys to define if a record already exists in the data target.
   
   
   
   

   Make sure you map the fields selected as primary keys to input fields in an operation connecting your data source and data target.

7. Click Finish.

Now the text file is configured and ready to be mapped to an operation node.