Edit csv file inline in Appian screen

Depends on the size. A larger volume of on screen controls makes the UI become sluggish. Do you mind providing a bit more background?

Hi Stefan,

Thanks for the reply. So the use case is the user can upload a csv file having around 1000 -2000 rows and we need to update any row over the appian screen . After update , we need to create a new version of the csv file and upload it back to appian folder. Here one of the main catch is that ,the header of the excel is dynamic not static.

Regards,

Ghanashyam

Should not be a problem with the headers. I am more concerned about the 1000 rows because we are talking about editing all of them in a single view using the editable grid. 

Can the edit happen anywhere in Excel? Like rows 1, 295, and 784?

This is a use case, Appian is not really made for. Try the following approach:

- Import the data into a database table

- Create the UI to browse the data and modify it. Use paging to limit the on-screen data volume

- Store the data back to the DB

- Export the data from the DB to the CSV.

Yeah the edit can happen in any of the row. My main concern here is to tackle the dynamic column headers ; because we need to have the CDT columns to be static or table columns to be defined before the excel to table smart service to work. As we don't have a static header, that is more challenging to handle for the time being.

Hi Stefan,

As the column headers are not static, I am not sure how to handle the first step which is 

Import the data into a database table.

Regards,

Ghanashyam

As you are talking about a CSV file, all fields are just text. So you can create a generic table with text fields only.

But again, trying to build an Excel in Appian is not a good idea.

Hi Stefan,

I created a table in Appian database with a generic column called rowData with nvarchar (5000). Now when I am using the import CSV to database smart service, it's getting error out. It is asking for excel column names and database column names when I am choosing the value false for "File has header " parameter in the smart service. As excel column name is not static, I don't know what to pass for it. If I use true for File has header parameter, it's giving illegal argument exception saying CSV header name and database field Names list are not of same length.

You just define the list of columns as defined in the database table.

You might want to try and reimagine this so as to add value to the users who are using it. As you describe it I cannot see any reason not to just use Excel natively. But if you can wrap process/data validation/approvals etc etc around the import/edit/export of the data then you'll be leveraging Appian to add value to your user community.