The following error was raised by the Export SQL to Excel function: Name is insufficiently unique

Question

Hi Appian folks, 
 I am getting this error on Export SQL to Excel smart service - "The following error was raised by the Export SQL to Excel function: Name is insufficiently unique". 
 I have configured "Document_name_to_create" on this node by appending now() after the document name i.e. "Document Name " & now(). 
 I understand that this error comes up when document name is not unique, although I have appended now() in the end, the error doesn't seem to resolve. How do I fix this issue?

ashwini.nemade · Accepted Answer

Found the root cause here. The document name in a constant that was fetched by Copy Document Service node and the one fetched in Edit Document Properties node in case the document already exists - the document name is the same in both cases. That is why this error comes up on Export SQL to Excel node. 
 So this was the data issue.

Mike Schmitt · Answer

Unknown said: Name is insufficiently unique 
 I've only ever seen this complaint when deploying from one environment to another. Can you clarify where and how exactly you're seeing this? Could you include a screenshot? 
 Document name uniqueness (even in the same folder) is not required in Appian, and even though Export SQL to Excel is a plug-in, I wouldn't have expected it to (artifically) care about document name uniqueness either.

Mike Schmitt · Answer

fyi, "now()" when cast to text, returns some characters that are not valid in file names (including at least 2 forward-slashes and a colon). 
 You should instead generate a filename-safe string and append that. I'm not sure this is the root of your current issue, but I'd try it first anyway since you'll ultimately need to fix it anyway. 
 text(now(), "yyyy-mm-dd HH.mm.ss")

Mike Schmitt · Answer

Honstely by now I think we've ruled out the filename itself being the cause of this error. 
 Any chance you could try out the equivalent smart service either from the main Excel Tools plug-in, or from the newer stand-alone " SQL to Excel " plug-in (assuming this isn't the one you're already using), and see if the same issue happens?

Shubham Aware · Answer

"Document Name " & now() & "_" & milli() 
 Try using this.

The following error was raised by the Export SQL to Excel function: Name is insufficiently unique

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