Processing and creating CSV Files

Iterating entity data from a CSV file

You can iterate entity data from a CSV file by assigning the file with the extension '.ent.csv' and specifying the file name as 'source' in an <iterate> statement, e.g. for printing the data to the console:

<iterate type="user" source="user.ent.csv" consumer="ConsoleExporter"/>

This way, you need to have a CSV file which uses column headers and the default column separator (which is comma by default and can be set globally in the root element's defaultSeparator attribute, e.g. to a semicolon: <setup defaultSeparator=";">)

If the CSV file does not have headers or uses another separator or file encoding that deviates from the default, you need to configure the CSV import component (CSVEntitySource) explicitly with a <bean> statement and refer it later:

<bean id="in" class="CSVEntitySource"> <property name="uri" value="headless-in.csv" /> <property name="separator" value=";" /> <property name="encoding" value="UTF-8" /> <property name="columns" value="name,age" />
</bean>

<iterate type="user" source="in" consumer="ConsoleExporter"/>

For CSV files without header, you need to specify a comma-separated list of column names in the 'columns' property.

Creating CSV files

For creating a CSV file you must always take the same approach as above: Defining a bean with its properties and refering it as consumer:

<bean id="out" class="CSVEntityExporter"> <property name="uri" value="target/headless-out.csv" /> <property name="columns" value="name, age, check" />
</bean>

<generate type="product" count="200" consumer="out"> …</generate>

See the component documentation of

CSVEntityExporter

for more details.