Export data store entity to CSV, quotation marks (") automatically added in the generated csv file

Certified Lead Developer

Hi ,

We have a requirement with the third party(old system) to have csv with comma delimiter delivered with data enclosed in double quotes.

Below is sample data:

Data in Database table:

column1 column2 column3
testdata11 testdata12 testdata13
testdata21 testdata22 testdata23

Expected export of csv by third-party should look like below

"column1","column2","column3"

"testdata11" ,"testdata12" ,"testdata13"

"testdata21" ,"testdata22" ,"testdata23"

This was not possible 2 years back with smart service "Export Data Store Entity to csv" so we ended up

1. creating an expression rule that queries data from database and concatenates data of each column and each row with double quotes.

2. generate a text string

3. pass the text string to "Text doc from Template" smart service that creates a csv as expected by third party

But the problem is as the data keeps growing , there is an overkill on the performance to generate csv having the the expression rule that loops through data and does the transformation of data to have double quotes instead of using the smart service that does export of data efficiently and quickly.

So we tried below approach to use the smart service by transforming data in view itself rather than transforming data in Appian but of no luck.

Below is sample data: Data in Database view with transformation of data to have double quotes:

"column1" "column2" "column3"
"testdata11" "testdata12" "testdata13"
"testdata21" "testdata22" "testdata23"

Now export of csv looks like below which doesn't serve our requirement.

"""column1""","""column2""","""column3"""

"""testdata11""" ,"""testdata12""" ,"""testdata13"""

"""testdata21""" ,"""testdata22""" ,"""testdata23"""

Now the Appian "Export data store entity to csv" smart service adds extra double quotes if it finds any double quotes or single quotes in data.

is this expected behaviour in latest version of Appian as well for export smart services to manipulate data with extra quotes rather than just exporting data with specified delimiters?

Would like to know inputs from you if you had the similar situation in your projects.

Many Thanks,

Sandhya

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