Configure file formatting options for file-based destinations
Overview overview
Destination SDK allows you to extensively adjust the formatting and compression options of your exported files, to match any downstream requirements in your storage location.
This page describes how to use Destination SDK to configure file formatting options for file-based destinations.
Prerequisites prerequisites
Before advancing to the steps outlined below, please read the Destination SDK getting started page for information on obtaining the necessary Adobe I/O authentication credentials and other prerequisites to work with Destination SDK APIs.
Adobe also recommends that you read and familiarize yourself with the following documentation before proceeding:
- Every available file formatting option is documented at length in the file formatting configuration section.
- Complete steps to configure a file-based destination using Destination SDK.
Create a server and file configuration create-server-file-configuration
Start by using the /destination-server endpoint to determine which file formatting configuration options you want to set up for the exported files.
Below is an example of a destination server configuration for an Amazon S3 destination, with several file formatting options selected.
API format
POST platform.adobe.io/data/core/activation/authoring/destination-servers
Request
curl -X POST https://platform.adobe.io/data/core/activation/authoring/destination-server \
-H 'Authorization: Bearer {ACCESS_TOKEN}' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-H 'x-gw-ims-org-id: {ORG_ID}' \
-H 'x-api-key: {API_KEY}' \
-H 'x-sandbox-name: {SANDBOX_NAME}' \
-d '
{
{
"name": "Amazon S3 Server with several CSV Options",
"destinationServerType": "FILE_BASED_S3",
"fileBasedS3Destination": {
"bucket": {
"templatingStrategy": "PEBBLE_V1",
"value": "{{customerData.bucket}}"
},
"path": {
"templatingStrategy": "PEBBLE_V1",
"value": "{{customerData.path}}"
}
},
"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 %}"
}
}
}
}
}'
Add the file formatting options to the destination configuration create-destination-configuration
After adding the desired file formatting options to the destination server and file formatting configuration in the previous step, you can now use the /destinations API endpoint to add the desired fields as customer data fields to the destination configuration.
Within this step, you can group the displayed options in any order you desire, you can create custom groupings, dropdown fields, and conditional groupings based on the selected file types. All these settings are shown in the recording and in the sections further below.
Order the file formatting options ordering
The order in which you add the file formatting options as customer data fields in the destination configuration is reflected in the UI. For example, the configuration below is reflected accordingly in the UI, with the options showing up in the order Delimiter, Quote Character, Escape Character, Empty Value, Null Value.
{
"name": "csvOptions",
"title": "CSV Options",
"description": "Select your CSV options",
"type": "object",
"properties": [
{
"name": "delimiter",
"title": "Delimiter",
"description": "Select your Delimiter",
"type": "string",
"isRequired": false,
"default": ",",
"namedEnum": [
{
"name": "Comma (,)",
"value": ","
},
{
"name": "Tab (\\t)",
"value": "\t"
}
],
"readOnly": false,
"hidden": false
},
{
"name": "quote",
"title": "Quote Character",
"description": "Select your Quote character",
"type": "string",
"isRequired": false,
"default": "\u0000",
"namedEnum": [
{
"name": "Double Quotes (\")",
"value": "\""
},
{
"name":"Null Character (\u0000)",
"value": ""
}
],
"readOnly": false,
"hidden": false
},
{
"name": "escape",
"title": "Escape Character",
"description": "Select your Escape character",
"type": "string",
"isRequired": false,
"default": "\\",
"namedEnum": [
{
"name": "Back Slash (\\)",
"value": "\\"
},
{
"name": "Single Quote (')",
"value": "'"
}
],
"readOnly": false,
"hidden": false
},
{
"name": "emptyValue",
"title": "Empty Value",
"description": "Select the output value of blank fields",
"type": "string",
"isRequired": false,
"default": "",
"namedEnum": [
{
"name": "Empty String",
"value": ""
},
{
"name": "\"\"",
"value": "\"\""
},
{
"name": "null",
"value": "null"
}
],
"readOnly": false,
"hidden": false
},
{
"name": "nullValue",
"title": "Null Value",
"description": "Select the output value of 'null' fields",
"type": "string",
"isRequired": false,
"default": "null",
"namedEnum": [
{
"name": "Empty String",
"value": ""
},
{
"name": "\"\"",
"value": "\"\""
},
{
"name": "null",
"value": "null"
}
],
"readOnly": false,
"hidden": false
}
Group the file formatting options grouping
You can group several file formatting options within one section. When setting up the connection to the destination in the UI, the user can see and benefit from a visual grouping of similar fields.
To do this, use "type": "object" to create the group, and collect the desired file formatting options within a properties parameter, as shown in the example below, where the grouping CSV Options is highlighted.
"customerDataFields":[
[...]
{
"name":"csvOptions",
"title":"CSV Options",
"description":"Select your CSV options",
"type":"object",
"properties":[
{
"name":"delimiter",
"title":"Delimiter",
"description":"Select your Delimiter",
"type":"string",
"isRequired":false,
"default":",",
"namedEnum":[
{
"name":"Comma (,)",
"value":","
},
{
"name":"Tab (\\t)",
"value":"\t"
}
],
"readOnly":false,
"hidden":false
},
[...]
]
}
[...]
]
Create dropdown selectors for the file formatting options dropdown-selectors
For situations where you want to allow users to select between several options, for example which character should be used to delimit the fields in CSV files, you can add dropdown fields to the UI.
To do this, use the namedEnum object as shown below and configure a default value for the options that the user can select.
[...]
"customerDataFields":[
[...]
{
"name":"csvOptions",
"title":"CSV Options",
"description":"Select your CSV options",
"type":"object",
"properties":[
{
"name":"delimiter",
"title":"Delimiter",
"description":"Select your Delimiter",
"type":"string",
"isRequired":false,
"default":",",
"namedEnum":[
{
"name":"Comma (,)",
"value":","
},
{
"name":"Tab (\\t)",
"value":"\t"
}
],
"readOnly":false,
"hidden":false
},
[...]
]
}
[...]
]
Create conditional file formatting options conditional-options
You can create conditional file formatting options, which are displayed in the activation workflow only when the user selects a certain file type for export. For example, the configuration below creates a conditional grouping for CSV file options. The CSV file options are displayed only when the user selects CSV as the desired file type for export.
To set a field as conditional, use the conditional parameter as shown below:
"conditional": {
"field": "fileType",
"operator": "EQUALS",
"value": "CSV"
}
In a wider context, you can see the conditional field being used in the destination configuration below, alongside the fileType string and the csvOptions object in which it is defined.
{
"name": "fileType",
"title": "File Type",
"description": "Select your file type",
"type": "string",
"isRequired": true,
"enum": [
"PARQUET",
"CSV",
"JSON"
],
"readOnly": false,
"hidden": false
},
{
"name": "csvOptions",
"title": "CSV Options",
"description": "Select your CSV options",
"type": "object",
"conditional": {
"field": "fileType",
"operator": "EQUALS",
"value": "CSV"
},
"properties": [
{
"name": "delimiter",
"title": "Delimiter",
"description": "Select your Delimiter",
"type": "string",
"isRequired": false,
"default": ",",
"namedEnum": [
{
"name": "Comma (,)",
"value": ","
},
{
"name": "Tab (\\t)",
"value": "\t"
}
],
"readOnly": false,
"hidden": false
},
{
"name": "quote",
"title": "Quote Character",
"description": "Select your Quote character",
"type": "string",
"isRequired": false,
"default": "",
"namedEnum": [
{
"name": "Double Quotes (\")",
"value": "\""
},
{
"name":"Null Character (\u0000)",
"value": "\u0000"
}
],
"readOnly": false,
"hidden": false
},
{
"name": "escape",
"title": "Escape Character",
"description": "Select your Escape character",
"type": "string",
"isRequired": false,
"default": "\\",
"namedEnum": [
{
"name": "Back Slash (\\)",
"value": "\\"
},
{
"name": "Single Quote (')",
"value": "'"
}
],
"readOnly": false,
"hidden": false
},
{
"name": "emptyValue",
"title": "Empty Value",
"description": "Select the output value of blank fields",
"type": "string",
"isRequired": false,
"default": "",
"namedEnum": [
{
"name": "Empty String",
"value": ""
},
{
"name": "\"\"",
"value": "\"\""
},
{
"name": "null",
"value": "null"
}
],
"readOnly": false,
"hidden": false
},
{
"name": "nullValue",
"title": "Null Value",
"description": "Select the output value of 'null' fields",
"type": "string",
"isRequired": false,
"default": "null",
"namedEnum": [
{
"name": "Empty String",
"value": ""
},
{
"name": "\"\"",
"value": "\"\""
},
{
"name": "null",
"value": "null"
}
],
"readOnly": false,
"hidden": false
}
],
"isRequired": false,
"readOnly": false,
"hidden": false
}
Below, you can see the resulting UI screen, based on the configuration above. When the user selects the file type CSV, additional file formatting options referring to the CSV file type are displayed in the UI.
Complete API request which includes all options shown above
The API request below combines in one configuration all the options described in the sections above.
Request
curl -X POST https://platform.adobe.io/data/core/activation/authoring/destinations \
-H 'Authorization: Bearer {ACCESS_TOKEN}' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-H 'x-gw-ims-org-id: {ORG_ID}' \
-H 'x-api-key: {API_KEY}' \
-H 'x-sandbox-name: {SANDBOX_NAME}' \
-d '
{
"name": "My S3 Destination",
"description": "Test destination",
"status": "TEST",
"sources": [
"UNIFIED_PROFILE"
],
"customerAuthenticationConfigurations": [
{
"authType": "S3"
}
],
"customerDataFields": [
{
"name": "bucket",
"type": "string",
"title": "Bucket",
"description": "Enter your S3 Bucket",
"isRequired": true
},
{
"name": "path",
"type": "string",
"title": "Path",
"description": "Enter your S3 Path",
"isRequired": true
},
{
"name": "fileType",
"type": "string",
"enum": [
"CSV",
"JSON",
"PARQUET"
],
"title": "File Type",
"description": "Select your file type",
"isRequired": true
},
{
"name": "csvOptions",
"type": "object",
"title": "CSV Options",
"description": "Select your CSV options",
"conditional": {
"field": "fileType",
"operator": "EQUALS",
"value": "CSV"
},
"properties": [
{
"name": "delimiter",
"type": "string",
"title": "Delimiter",
"description": "Select your Delimiter",
"namedEnum": [
{
"name": "Comma (,)",
"value": ","
},
{
"name": "Tab (\\t)",
"value": "\t"
}
],
"default": ","
},
{
"name": "quote",
"type": "string",
"title": "Quote Character",
"description": "Select your Quote character",
"namedEnum": [
{
"name": "Double Quotes (\")",
"value": "\""
},
{
"name": "Null Character (\\u0000)",
"value": "\u0000"
}
],
"default": "\u0000"
},
{
"name": "escape",
"type": "string",
"title": "Escape Character",
"description": "Select your Escape character",
"namedEnum": [
{
"name": "Back Slash (\\)",
"value": "\\"
},
{
"name": "Single Quote (')",
"value": "'"
}
],
"default": "\\"
},
{
"name": "emptyValue",
"type": "string",
"title": "Empty Value",
"description": "Select the output value of blank fields",
"namedEnum": [
{
"name": "null",
"value": "null"
},
{
"name": "Empty String",
"value": ""
},
{
"name": "\"\"",
"value": "\"\""
}
],
"default": ""
},
{
"name": "nullValue",
"type": "string",
"title": "Null Value",
"description": "Select the output value of 'null' fields",
"namedEnum": [
{
"name": "null",
"value": "null"
},
{
"name": "Empty String",
"value": ""
},
{
"name": "\"\"",
"value": "\"\""
}
],
"default": "null"
}
]
}
],
"uiAttributes": {
"documentationLink": "https://www.adobe.com/go/aep",
"category": "cloudStorage",
"connectionType": "Server-to-server",
"frequency": "Batch",
"monitoringSupported": true,
"flowRunsSupported": true
},
"schemaConfig": {
"profileRequired": true,
"segmentRequired": true,
"identityRequired": true
},
"batchConfig": {
"allowMandatoryFieldSelection": true,
"allowDedupeKeyFieldSelection": true,
"defaultExportMode": "DAILY_FULL_EXPORT",
"allowedExportMode": [
"DAILY_FULL_EXPORT",
"FIRST_FULL_THEN_INCREMENTAL"
],
"allowedScheduleFrequency": [
"DAILY",
"EVERY_3_HOURS",
"EVERY_6_HOURS",
"EVERY_8_HOURS",
"EVERY_12_HOURS",
"ONCE"
],
"defaultFrequency": "DAILY",
"defaultStartTime": "00:00",
"filenameConfig": {
"allowedFilenameAppendOptions": [
"SEGMENT_NAME",
"DESTINATION_INSTANCE_ID",
"DESTINATION_INSTANCE_NAME",
"ORGANIZATION_NAME",
"SANDBOX_NAME",
"DATETIME",
"CUSTOM_TEXT"
],
"defaultFilenameAppendOptions": [
"DATETIME"
],
"defaultFilename": "%DESTINATION%_%SEGMENT_ID%"
}
},
"destinationDelivery": [
{
"deliveryMatchers": [
{
"type": "SOURCE",
"value": [
"batch"
]
}
],
"authenticationRule": "CUSTOMER_AUTHENTICATION",
"destinationServerId": "<server-id>"
}
]
}'
A successful response returns the destination configuration, including the unique identifier (instanceId) of the configuration.
Known limitations known-limitations
A certain combination of file formatting options can lead to undesired file export results.
Adobe recommends against selecting the following combination of CSV options:
nullValue -> ""
quote -> "
emptyValue -> ""
To exemplify the limitation, consider the export of a file with the values below:
This would result in an output as shown below. Notice how the null value from the table is incorrectly exported as an escaped quote.
Michael,Rose,USA,NY
James,Smith,"","\"\""
Next steps next-steps
By reading this article, you now know how to set up custom file formatting options for your exported files, by using Destination SDK. Next, your team can use the activation workflow for file-based destinations to export data to the destination.