Connectors → Local Files

About the Local Files connector

The Local Files connector allows you to connect to directory that is available to the host of the Analytics Service. The directory is typically a shared mount, but can also be the same path to the data folder for a given tenant in Shared Storage. The Local Files connector supports ingesting one or more files of the following types:

Text (.csv, .tsv, .tab, .txt)
Excel (.xlsx)
Parquet (.parquet)
Optimized Row Columnar (.orc)

The Local Files connector also supports the use of Remote tables. Remote tables enable you to access large CSV, Parquet, and ORC files without loading them into memory. Duplicating these large files wastes disk space and uses too much memory when only a small portion of this data might be needed.

Important

It is not possible to utilize the Local Files connector as a Remote table for Microsoft Excel files.

The Local File connector supports the following configurations as a data source for a physical schema table:

Feature	Supported
Chunking	✔
Data Agent	✔
Encryption at Ingest
Incremental Load	✔
Multi-Source	✔
OAuth
Performance Optimized	✔
Remote	✔
Single-Source	✔
Spark Extraction
Webhook Callbacks	✔

Important

An Linux Administrator or Systems Administrator for the host with directory access must provide the necessary access to the directory for the incorta Linux user or other Linux user that is running the Analytics Service, Loader Service, or Data Agent process.

Steps to use the Local Files connector

Here are the high level steps to use the Local Files connector:

Create an external data source
Create a physical schema with the Schema Wizard
or, Create a physical schema table with the Schema Designer
Load the physical schema
Explore the physical schema

Create an external data source

Here are the steps to create a external data source with the Local Files connector:

Sign in to the Incorta Direct Data Platform.
In the Navigation bar, select Data.
In the Action bar, select + New → Add Data Source.
In the Choose a Data Source dialog, in Data lake, select Data Lake - Local Files.
In the New Data Source dialog, specify the applicable connector properties.
To test, select Test Connection.
Select Ok to save your changes.

Local Files connector properties

Here are the properties for the Local Files connector:

Property	Control	Description
Data Source Name	text box	Enter the name of the data source
Directory	text box	Enter the parent directory path.
Use Data Agent	toggle	Enable to support the use of a data agent
Data Agent	dropdown list	Select a data agent that has access to the directory path.

Create a physical schema with the Schema Wizard

Here are the steps to create a Local Files physical schema with the Schema Wizard:

Sign in to the Incorta Direct Data Platform.
In the Navigation bar, select Schema.
In the Action bar, select + New → Schema Wizard
In (1) Choose a Source, specify the following:
- For Enter a name, enter the physical schema name.
- For Select a Datasource, select the Local Files external data source.
- Optionally create a description.
In the Schema Wizard footer, select Next.
In (2) Manage Tables, in the Data Panel, navigate the directory tree as necessary to select the Local Files files. You can either check the Select All checkbox or select individual sheets.
In the Schema Wizard footer, select Next.
In (3) Finalize, in the Schema Wizard footer, select Create Schema.

Create a physical schema with the Schema Designer

Here are the steps to create a Local Files physical schema using the Schema Designer:

Sign in to the Incorta Direct Data Platform.
In the Navigation bar, select Schema.
In the Action bar, select + New → Create Schema.
In Name, specify the physical schema name, and select Save.
In Start adding tables to your schema, select Data Lake.
In the Data Source dialog, specify the Local Files table data source properties.
Select Add.
In the Table Editor, in the Table Summary section, enter the table name.
To save your changes, select Done in the Action bar.

Local Files table data source properties

For a physical schema table in Incorta, you can define the Local Files specific data source properties as follows:

Property	Control	Description
Type	drop down list	Default is Data Lake
Data Source	drop down list	Select the Local Files external data source
Remote	toggle	Enable this option to remotely access file data, which means no data is loaded to Incorta. See the Summary of Data Access Methods table for details on how setting this and the Performance Optimized property affects data accessibility.
File Type	drop down list	Select a file type option: ● Text (csv, tsv, tab, txt) ● Excel (xlsx) - not an option with Remote enabled ● Parquet ● ORC
Incremental	toggle	Enables incremental loading for the physical schema table
Has Header?	toggle	This property appears when Remote is disabled and the File Type is Text. Enable this property to indicate the data source has a header row.
Rows to Skip	text box	This property appears when Remote is disabled and the File Type is Text. Enter the number of rows to skip from the top of the file.
Wildcard Union	toggle	Enable this property to get incremental data file updates from an existing directory
File Path	text box	This property appears when Wildcard Union is disabled. Enter the path to the data file, relative to the root directory configured in the data source.
Worksheet	text box	This property appears when Wildcard Union is disabled and the File Type is Excel. Select the data file worksheet of interest.
Update File	text box	This property appears when Incremental is enabled and Wildcard Union is disabled. Enter the path to the update file, relative to the root directory configured in the data source.
Update Worksheet	text box	This property appears when the File Type is Excel, Incremental is enabled, and Wildcard Union is disabled. Select the update file worksheet of interest.
Incremental Extract Using	drop down list	This property appears when Incremental and Wildcard Union are enabled. Select an incremental load method.
Timestamp format in file name	drop down list	This property appears when the Timestamp in File Name option is selected for the Incremental Extract Using property. Select the timestamp format that appears in the file name.
Directory Path	text box	This property appears when Wildcard Union is enabled. Enter the path to the directory, relative to the root directory configured in the data source. To use the root directory, enter `./` or `.`
Apply Include Pattern on	drop down list	This property appears when Wildcard Union is enabled. Select either: ● File Name - apply pattern on all file names in the selected directory path ● File Relative Path - apply pattern on relative path in the selected directory path
Include	text box	This property appears when Wildcard Union is enabled. So that only those files matching the prefix are loaded, enter a prefix to compare against: ● The names of the files in a directory if Apply Include Pattern on has a value of File Name. For example, entering `sales* .parquet` will load only those files that start with the word `sales` and end with `.parquet`. ● The relative path in a directory if Apply Include Pattern has a value of File Relative Path. For example, entering `sales` will load those files in the `sales` directory.
Include Sub-Directories	toggle	This property appears when Wildcard Union is enabled. Enable this property to load files within all subdirectories of the directory path hierarchy. If an Include prefix is specified, only files or relative paths in the subdirectories matching the prefix will be loaded.
Include Filename as a Column	toggle	This property appears when Wildcard Union is enabled. Enable this property to add the file name as the first column in the physical schema table.
Date Format	drop down list	This property appears when the File Type is Text. Select the text file date format.
Timestamp Format	drop down list	This property appears when the File Type is Text. Select the text file timestamp format.
Character Set	drop down list	This property appears when the File Type is Text. Select the text file character set.
Separator	drop down list	This property appears when the File Type is Text. Select the text file separator.
Enable Chunking	toggle	This property appears when the File Type is Text. Turn this property on to process the text file in chunks.
Callback	toggle	Enable this property on to expose the Callback URL field
Callback URL	text box	This property appears when the Callback toggle is enabled. Specify the URL.

Summary of Data Access Methods Based on Remote and Performance Optimized Settings

Table Properties	Data Source Properties	Parquet	DDM	Memory	SQLi	Materialized View	Analytics
Performance Optimized = Off	Remote = On	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Performance Optimized = Off	Remote = Off	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No, unless created by a materialized view or Notebook
Performance Optimized = On	Remote = Off	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Incremental Extract Methods

There are two extract methods, Last Successful Extract Time and Timestamp in File Name.

Last Successful Extract Time

The Last Successful Extract Time option instructs the Loader Service to extract data from the table source using the time of the previous successful extraction as the starting time for next extraction. Here is an example use case for the Last Successful Extract Time option:

/path/to/sales is a directory that contains the following files:
- /path/to/sales/sales_california.parquet
- /path/to/sales/sales_newyork.parquet
- /path/to/sales/sales_illinois.parquet

When you perform an initial full load, the Loader Service extracts all the files from the directory. After the successful load, a new file is added to the directory: sales_ohio.parquet. As the new file has a last modified timestamp that is more recent than the timestamp of the previous successful extraction, the next incremental load will only extract the sales_ohio.parquet file.

Timestamp in File Name

The Timestamp in File Name option instructs the Loader Service to extract data using the file name. The file name must contain a specific timestamp format. Here is an example use case for the Timestamp in File Name option:

/path/to/sales is a directory that contains the following files:
- /path/to/sales/sales_2021-04-01.parquet
- /path/to/sales/sales_2021-04-02.parquet
- /path/to/sales/sales_2021-04-03.parquet

When you perform an initial full load, the Loader Service extracts all the files from the directory. After the successful load, a new file is added to the directory: sales_2021-04-04.parquet. As the new file has a timestamp name value that is greater than the already extracted timestamp name values, the next incremental load will only extract the sales_2021-04-04.parquet file.

Timestamp Formats in File Name

yyyy-MM-dd
dd.MM.yyyy
dd-MMM-yy
dd-MMM-yyyy
yyyy-MM-dd HH.mm.ss
Unix Epoch (seconds)
Unix Epoch (milliseconds)

Text File Date Format

yyyy-MM-dd
dd/MM/yyyy
dd.MM.yyyy
dd/MMM/yyyy
dd-MMM-yy
dd-MMM-yyyy
MM/dd/yyyy
yyyy/MM/dd
Unix Epoch (seconds
Unix Epoch (milliseconds)
Other

Text File Timestamp Format

yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss
yyyy-MM-dd HH.mm.ss
yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss.SSS
dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm:ss
dd/MM/yyyy HH.mm.ss
dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm:ss.SSS
Unix Epoch (seconds
Unix Epoch (milliseconds)
Other

Text File Character Set

US-ASCII
ISO-8859-1
UTF-8
UTF-16BE
UTF-16LE
UTF-16

Text File Separator

Comma
Tab
Other

View the physical schema diagram with the Schema Diagram Viewer

Here are the steps to view the schema diagram using the Schema Diagram Viewer:

Sign in to the Incorta Direct Data Platform.
In the Navigation bar, select Schema.
In the list of physical schemas, select the Local Files physical schema.
In the Schema Designer, in the Action bar, select Diagram.

Load the physical schema

Here are the steps to perform a Full Load of the Local Files physical schema using the Schema Designer:

Sign in to the Incorta Direct Data Platform.
In the Navigation bar, select Schema.
In the list of physical schemas, select the Local Files physical schema.
In the Schema Designer, in the Action bar, select Load → Load Now → Full.
To review the load status, in Last Load Status, select the date.

Explore the physical schema

With the full load of the Local Files physical schema completed, you can use the Analyzer to explore the physical schema, create your first insight, and save the insight to a new dashboard.

To open the Analyzer from the physical schema, follow these steps:

In the Navigation bar, select Schema.
In the Schema Manager, in the List view, select the Local Files physical schema.
In the Schema Designer, in the Action bar, select Explore Data.