How to get a range of columns as collection? - collections

EDIT: For context, I am trying to import a certain range of columns in an Excel sheet into a Blue Prism object as a collection.
So I've got a worksheet with columns from A to AM. When I get sheet as collection, blank columns named "Column1" to "Column10" (the first time) and "Column1" to "Column19" (the second time, note its 19 cols this time) mysteriously appear in the collection. No data is in these columns - no whitespace, nothing.
In order to prevent anything of the sort from messing up the collection cols, I'm looking for a way to get a range of columns as a collection, e.g. A - AM. The number of rows is undetermined, so the get range as collection action is not suitable. Thanks in advance!

I never really liked the default object to get range as collection because of that. You can create a new action in the Excel VBO object (do make sure to be careful with that since re-importing the default object will basically erase the action. I usually rename it as 'MS Excel VBO Customized' or something along those lines).
The way I would do it is as follows:
Open the 'MS Excel VBO' object and duplicate the page 'Get Worksheet Rage as Collection' and name it 'Get Worksheet Range as Collection New' (or anything you deem suitable):
Edit the code stage: give it a new name (because code stages cannot have the same name in the same object) and change the inputs and code stages to match the following (I'm calling the new range as 'Address' here, but feel free to name it something else as long as you are consistent throughout):
Edit the start stage. You can delete the previous data items for Start Cell and End Cell and create one for Address:
Publish and save the object. You can then use it from the object or process you are working on and use a range such as A:AM.

Related

How write collection columns values to columns in table in word document in blueprism

I am working in blueprism and I have to loop through a collection to write back certain columns in the collection to a word file (using Business Object: MS Word VBO, and Action: Type Text). The current setup writes the collection columns values at the beginning of the word file. I would like to have those collection columns to be written in a specific table that already exists in my word template file. How can I achieve that?
Current process:
enter image description here
The current way the collection column values are written in word file:
enter image description here
I tried Set Table Cell Value and it solved my problem.

Tableau data source column name changed when using a duplicated view from database (Teradata)

I was using a view (VW_NEW_CUSTOMERS) in Teradata and all the column names had an underscore in it. The column names in tableau did not contain underscores.
For example:
Customer_Number (From Table View)
Customer Number (From Tableau Column Name)
Now I created a duplicate of the view (VW_NEW_CUSTOMERS_2), all the columns have the underscore in Tableau. So when I use replace data sources, the column name mapping is completely different from the above because of the underscores.
New Tableau fields from duplicated View:
Customer_Number (From Table View)
Customer_Number (From Tableau Column Name)
I would like to know why the underscores did not appear 1st time and it is now appearing when I duplicated the view. How can I rename the fields so that it comes like the 1st time? Should I do them manually now?
Note: Database columns were using aliases
Check this thread, this isn't new, Tableau decided to start renaming fields some time ago. Not sure why it would have done on one of your data sources, but not the other.
Anyway, the exec summary, you may need to reset the field names of the version without the underscore, which should bring the underscore back into your data, making both data sources the same. To do this, copied from the thread:
"Version 9.3 and 10.1, you can select all the measures (and dimensions) in a worksheet, right click and "reset names" in two operations"
I think there's also a way to hack the xml to add the spaces to your copy, should that be preferrable. The thread covers hacking the xml to remove spaces, therefore I assume to add spaces do the same but in reverse.

Blueprism - Extract data from a web page into a collection

I am new to blue prism. I have a scenario where I am giving input (passengers details for traveling) to a travel portal and based on the input its generating a booking reference number, total cost etc. Now I want to read all the outputs into a collection but the problem is data is not tabular (cant use Get Table in read component). Its just the details of travel which are populating into textboxes. Please find attached the screen shot to have more clarity on this.
How to achieve this? Any leads will be appreciated.
Based on the screenshot you've provided, this is part of the Blue Prism Advanced Consolidation Exercise ("BPTravel").
"Get Table" won't work on this data because it is not a table. As you've mentioned, the data is presented in a series of textboxes.
The way to tabularize this data would be to create a Collection in your Process and manually define each of the Field Names in the collection, then read each text field in individually to the correct column in the collection.
Read each text box data into data item. Create a named collection (i.e Collection with pre-defined column name). Loop through the collection.column_name(You will be getting column name as collection by using Utility - Collection Manipulation action and get the column names) and first add a row to collection and assign values to collection fields

"Calculated columns cannot contain volatile functions like Today and Me" error message on Sharepoint

I try to add a new calculated column to sharepoint list that will show elapsed day. I enter name and write a formula like;
=ABS(ROUND(Today-Created;0))
The data type returned from this formula is: Single line of text
When I want to save I get an error like
Calculated columns cannot contain volatile functions like Today and
Me.
Calculated Column Values Only Recalculate As Needed
The values in SharePoint columns--even in calculated columns--are stored in SharePoint's underlying SQL Server database.
The calculations in calculated columns are not performed upon page load; rather, they are recalculated only whenever an item is changed (in which case the formula is recalculated just for that specific item), or whenever the column formula is changed (in which case the formula is recalculated for all items).
(As a side note, this is the reason why in SharePoint 2010 you cannot create or change a calculated column on a list that has more than the list view threshold of 5000 items; it would require a mass update of values in all those items, which could impact database performance.)
Thus, in order for calculated columns to accurately store "volatile" values like "Me" and "Today", SharePoint would need to somehow constantly recalculate those column values and continuously update the column values in the database. This simply isn't possible.
Alternatives to Calculated Columns
I suggest taking a different approach entirely instead of using a calculated column for this purpose.
Conditional Formatting: You can apply conditional formatting to highlight records that meet certain criteria. This can be done using SharePoint Designer or HTML/JavaScript.
Filtered List views: Since views of lists are queried and generated in real time, you can use volatile values in list view filters. You can set up a list view web part that only shows items where Created is equal to [Today]. Since you can place multiple list view web parts on one page, you could have one section for today's items, and another web part for all the other items, giving you a visual separation.
A workflow, timer job, or scheduled task: You can use a repeating process to set the value of a normal (non-calculated) column on a daily basis. You need to be careful with this approach to ensure good performance; you wouldn't want it to query for and update every item in the list if the list has surpassed the list view threshold, for example.
I found some conversations about this issue. Many people suggest to creating a new Date Time column, visible is false, default value is Today's Date and it will be named as Today. Then we can use this column in our formulas.
I tried this suggestion and yes error is gone and formula is accepted but calculated columns' values are wrong. I setted column Today is visible and checked, it was empty. Default value Today's Date was not working. When I looking for a solution for this issue I deleted column Today carelessly. Then I realized calculated columns' values are right.
Finally; I don't know what is trick but before using Today keyword in your formulas if you create a column named as Today and after your formula saving if you delete Today column, it is working.
UPDATE
After #Thriggle's answer I realized this approach doesn't work like a charm. Yes, formula doesn't cause an error when calculated column saving but it works correctly only first time, in the next day the calculated column shows old values, because its values are static as Thriggle explained.

Using 'Filter by Column Value' and multi column filtering using a java vector - xPages

I have an xPage which I have built with 3 combo boxes and 1 view control. I would like to use the 'Filter by column value' option within the view control to provide the options to filter the values, allowing the user to display any combination of the combo boxes. e.g. Only comboBox1, or comboBox1 and comboBox2, or comboBox3 only, or comboBox1 and comboBox2 and comboBox3.
I used the example in the 'xPages Demonstration Application' (http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/ddwiki.nsf/dx/xpagesdemoapp.htm or http://xpagesblog.com/XPagesHome.nsf/Entry.xsp?documentId=AAC8E26599256FDC852578CB0066CC13) to do the multi-column filtering using a vector of non-categorized columns.
So, I have come across what appears to be a fairly major issue whereby the data needs to be sorted by date. Date is not one of the filters, but it needs to be the first column in order for the data to be sorted correctly. So my first column is a string, YYYYMMDD, to ensure the data is sorted correctly. I tried to use the sort option within the view control and that does not appear to work with the column filtering implemented in this manner.
So, as Date one of the criteria I am filtering by, I have passed that as an empty string - using the thought process that an empty string will select all (as in the url examples above).
The code I have used to do the filtering is:
var vtr:java.util.Vector = new java.util.Vector();
var t1 = sessionScope.Email;
var t2 = sessionScope.Own;
var t3 = sessionScope.Module;
vtr.addElement("");
#If(sessionScope.Own=="My calls",vtr.addElement(t1),vtr.addElement(""));
#If(sessionScope.Own=="My calls",vtr.addElement(""),vtr.addElement(t2));
#If(sessionScope.Status=="Open",vtr.addElement("Open"),vtr.addElement(""));
#If(sessionScope.Module=="All",vtr.addElement(""),vtr.addElement(t3));
return vtr;
What I have found is that not all data is being returned. I thought this might be due to the date field. So I removed it (changing the view and removing the first add element), and yet I still find that not all data is being returned. I suspect that this might be due to the empty strings being passed, or, that this does not actually work the way I had hoped.
Does anyone know if I can get this working the way I want it to, and if not, do you have any suggestion on how I can go about this?
Date is not needed as the first sortable column in the view. The first column does need to be sorted for the lookup to work just like the Notes view needs to be sorted for #DbColumn and #DbLookup to work. XPages uses the same underlining architecture. This example - http://dev.openntf.org/demos/demoapp.nsf/viewFilteringVector.xsp - works without the data being sorted by Date.
My guess as to why your example isn't working is down to how your Notes view sorted. Try creating a new view with column 1 (email) ascending sort, column 2 (own) ascending sort, and column 3 (module) again ascending sort. You should be able to get vector filtering working in this situation.
If all that doesn't work for you, you might consider multi-layer category filtering (new to 853). This filtering type in XPages is related to how categoryFilter works but allow you to filter a view by the sub-category (or sub-categories) too. This technique might suit your scenario better. Hope this helps.

Resources