File formatting configuration

Destination SDK supports a flexible set of features which you can configure according to your integration needs. Among these features is the support for CSV file formatting.

When you create file-based destinations through Destination SDK, you can define how the exported CSV files should be formatted. You can customize many formatting options, such as, but not limited to:

• Whether the CSV file should include a header;
• What character to use for quoting values;
• What empty values should look like.

Depending on your destination configuration, users will see certain options in the UI when connecting to a file-based destination. You can see what these options look like in the file formatting options for file-based destinations documentation.

File formatting settings are part of the destination server configuration for file-based destinations.

To understand where this component fits into an integration created with Destination SDK, see the diagram in the configuration options documentation or seethe guide on how to use Destination SDK to configure a file-based destination.

You can configure the file formatting options via the /authoring/destination-servers endpoint. See the following API reference pages for detailed API call examples where you can configure the components shown in this page.

• Create a destination server configuration
• Update a destination server configuration

This page describes all the supported file formatting settings for exported CSV files.

Supported integration types

Refer to the table below for details on which types of integrations support the functionality described on this page.

Supported parameters

You can modify several properties of the exported files to match the requirements of your destination’s file reception system, in order to optimally read and interpret the files received from Experience Platform.

CSV options where users cannot select configuration options

In the configuration example below, all the CSV options are predefined. The export settings defined in each of the csvOptions parameters are final and users cannot modify them.

"fileConfigurations": {
        "compression": {
            "templatingStrategy": "PEBBLE_V1",
            "value": "{{customerData.compression}}"
        },
        "fileType": {
            "templatingStrategy": "PEBBLE_V1",
            "value": "{{customerData.fileType}}"
        },
        "csvOptions": {
            "quote": {
                "templatingStrategy": "NONE",
                "value": "\""
            },
            "quoteAll": {
                "templatingStrategy": "NONE",
                "value": "false"
            },
            "escape": {
                "templatingStrategy": "NONE",
                "value": "\\"
            },
            "escapeQuotes": {
                "templatingStrategy": "NONE",
                "value": "true"
            },
            "header": {
                "templatingStrategy": "NONE",
                "value": "true"
            },
            "ignoreLeadingWhiteSpace": {
                "templatingStrategy": "NONE",
                "value": "true"
            },
            "ignoreTrailingWhiteSpace": {
                "templatingStrategy": "NONE",
                "value": "true"
            },
            "nullValue": {
                "templatingStrategy": "NONE",
                "value": ""
            },
            "dateFormat": {
                "templatingStrategy": "NONE",
                "value": "yyyy-MM-dd"
            },
            "timestampFormat": {
                "templatingStrategy": "NONE",
                "value": "yyyy-MM-dd'T':mm:ss[.SSS][XXX]"
            },
            "charToEscapeQuoteEscaping": {
                "templatingStrategy": "NONE",
                "value": "\\"
            },
            "emptyValue": {
                "templatingStrategy": "NONE",
                "value": ""
            }
        },
        "maxFileRowCount":5000000,
        "includeFileManifest": {
            "templatingStrategy":"PEBBLE_V1",
            "value":"{{ customerData.includeFileManifest }}"
      }
    }

CSV options where users can select configuration options

In the configuration example below, none of the CSV options are predefined. The value in each of the csvOptions parameters is configured in a corresponding customer data field through the /destinations endpoint (for example customerData.quote for the quote file formatting option) and users can use the Experience Platform UI to select between the various options you configure in the corresponding customer data field. You can see what these options look like in the file formatting options for file-based destinations documentation.

{
   "fileConfigurations":{
      "compression":{
         "templatingStrategy":"PEBBLE_V1",
         "value":"{% if customerData contains 'compression' and customerData.compression is not empty %}{{customerData.compression}}{% else %}NONE{% endif %}"
      },
      "fileType":{
         "templatingStrategy":"PEBBLE_V1",
         "value":"{{customerData.fileType}}"
      },
      "csvOptions":{
         "sep":{
            "templatingStrategy":"PEBBLE_V1",
            "value":"{% if customerData contains 'csvOptions' and customerData.csvOptions contains 'delimiter' %}{{customerData.csvOptions.delimiter}}{% else %},{% endif %}"
         },
         "quote":{
            "templatingStrategy":"PEBBLE_V1",
            "value":"{% if customerData contains 'csvOptions' and customerData.csvOptions contains 'quote' %}{{customerData.csvOptions.quote}}{% else %}\"{% endif %}"
         },
         "escape":{
            "templatingStrategy":"PEBBLE_V1",
            "value":"{% if customerData contains 'csvOptions' and customerData.csvOptions contains 'escape' %}{{customerData.csvOptions.escape}}{% else %}\\{% endif %}"
         },
         "nullValue":{
            "templatingStrategy":"PEBBLE_V1",
            "value":"{% if customerData contains 'csvOptions' and customerData.csvOptions contains 'nullValue' %}{{customerData.csvOptions.nullValue}}{% else %}null{% endif %}"
         },
         "emptyValue":{
            "templatingStrategy":"PEBBLE_V1",
            "value":"{% if customerData contains 'csvOptions' and customerData.csvOptions contains 'emptyValue' %}{{customerData.csvOptions.emptyValue}}{% else %}{% endif %}"
         }
      },
      "maxFileRowCount":5000000,
      "includeFileManifest": {
         "templatingStrategy":"PEBBLE_V1",
         "value":"{{ customerData.includeFileManifest }}"
      }
   }
}

Complete reference and examples for supported file formatting options

Below is a complete reference of all available file formatting options in Destination SDK, alongside output examples for each option.

Next steps

After reading this article, you should have a better understanding of how file formatting works in a destination server configuration, and how you can configure it.

To learn more about the other destination server components, see the following articles:

• Server specs for destinations created with Destination SDK
• Templating specs
• Message format