Text File Dataset

Version

Application Scenarios

Most system-generated log files are text files, such as files showing website browsing traffic and time span of each page.

It is necessary to analyze text files in the FineBI system. You can import text files (as data source) through Server Dataset.

Functions

Text dataset is the dataset whose data source is a series of text files.

With these files as data sources, admins can use FineBI to present this data and perform data analysis.

A text file consists of texts and some delimiters.

Supported text encoding types include: GBK, BIG5, ISO-8859-1, UTF-8, UTF-16, EUC_JP, EUC_KR, and CP850. It is empty by default.

Supported text delimiters include: tab, space (default), comma, and other custom delimiters.

For example, the prepared text file (no encoding format and comma as delimiter) is as follows.

Name,Capital,Continent,Area,Population        Argentina,Buenos Aires,South America,2777815.00,32300003.00        Bolivia,La Paz,South America,1098575

Super admins can add server datasets in the decision-making platform. However, ordinary users need to be assigned permissions by super admins.

Log in to FineBI as the super admin, choose System Management > Permission Management > Global Setting, enable Hierarchical Authorization and Data Connection Control, and click Save.

Log in to FineBI as the super admin, choose System Management > Permission Management > Common Permission Configuration, select the specific permission carrier from Dept./Role/User List, select the System Management tab, and enable the Use permission of Data Connection.

The server dataset supports three methods for calling Text files. You can select as needed.

1. Server file: Text files are stored under the path %BI_HOME%\webroot\WEB-INF\reportlets of the FineBI project.

2. Local file: Text files are stored on your computer and automatically saved under the path %BI_HOME%\webroot\WEB-INF\reportlets\xml of the FineBI project after they are called.

3. Remote URL file: Text files are stored on a server. You can call the files by accessing their URLs.

Server File

Upload the prepared text file in section "Preparing a Text File" to the directory reportlets under the path %BI_HOME%\webroot\WEB-INF of the FineBI project.

Log in to FineBI as a user with permissions, choose System Management > Data Connection > Server Dataset, hover your cursor on Create Dataset, and click File Dataset.

1. Set the dataset name, which cannot be empty and cannot be the same as that of the existing dataset.

2. Select TXT as File Type.

3. Select Server File as File Source and choose the text file under the reportlets directory.

Local File

Before uploading the local file, you need to disable File Upload Verification under System Management > Security Management > Security, otherwise the Local File button is grayed out.

Log in to FineBI as a user with permissions, choose System Management > Data Connection > Server Dataset, hover your cursor on Create Dataset, and click File Dataset.

1. Set the dataset name, which cannot be empty and cannot be the same as that of the existing dataset.

2. Select TXT as File Type.

3. Select Local File as File Source and choose the prepared text file on your local computer. After successful upload, a prompt box pops up: Upload TXT successfully.

The uploaded file is automatically saved under the path %BI_HOME%\webapps\webroot\WEB-INF\reportlets\xml of the FineBI project.

Note:

If there is a file with the same name in the excel folder, the upload fails.

Remote URL File

Store the text file on a server to obtain the access URL of the file.

Note:

Ensure that the FineBI project can successfully access this file, otherwise the call fails.

Log in to FineBI as a user with permissions, choose System Management > Data Connection > Server Dataset, hover your cursor on Create Dataset, and click File Dataset.

1. Set the dataset name, which cannot be empty and cannot be the same as that of the existing dataset.

2. Select TXT as File Type.

3. Select URL as File Source, enter the URL address, and click Test Connection. After successful connection, a prompt box pops up: Connection succeeded.

Note:

If the URL address contains Chinese characters, it should be encoded first. Enter the encoded address in the platform to enable normal access.

1. You can customize the dataset function.

2. You can choose the encoding type of the text.

3. You can choose whether the first row of the text file contains column headings.

4. You can choose the delimiter of the text file.

5. If there are consecutive delimiters, you can treat them as a single entity.

Click Save to save the server dataset.

Local File Uploading Failure

Problem:

If the local file upload fails, a prompt pops up: Import_Users2.txt already exists. However, the file is not used under Server Dataset > File Dataset in the system.

Cause:

You have called the file with the same name by using the method of local file.

After the local file is called, it is automatically stored in the FineBI project. When the file dataset is deleted under System Management > Server Dataset, the file in the BI project is not deleted.

Therefore, re-uploading fails due to the existence of a file with the same name.

Solution:

Go to the path %BI_HOME%\webroot\WEB-INF\reportlets\txt of the FineBI project, find the original file with the same name, delete/rename the original file, and then re-upload the file.