Data from an external source can be imported into a new dataset or an existing dataset. To open the data Import dataset wizard, click the Import button (a).

Select a data source

First, select a data source. The supported data sources are Excel files, CSV/Text files, or SQL Server queries. Then Click Next

Text/CSV file

  1. Browse for or provide a path to the CSV/text file.
  2. Type the delimiter character that will separate the columns. For instance, if the text file is a .csv, then the ',' should be the delimiter.
  3. Check the First line has column headings if the first row contains column headings. 
  4. Click Next to continue.

Special Characters

  • Special characters can be included in the dataset CSV/text file using URL encoding. To insert a character with hexadecimal code XX, add the %XX sequence to the file. In rare cases, when %XX should be interpreted as a 3-character string, URL-encode the percent character, so the string will look like %25XX
  • The comma character is used as a field separator in the text file. To use a coma within values, surround it with quotes (ex. ",")

Excel

  1. Browse for or provide a path to the Excel file.
  2. Click the Refresh button to refresh the worksheets in the Excel workbook.
  3. Check the First line has column headings if the first row contains column headings.
  4. Click Next to continue.

If you have an x64 version of Microsoft Excel on your machine and getting the following error: 'Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0' provider is not registered on the local machine; then you may need to install Microsoft Access Database Engine 2010 Redistributable from here.

If you have a 64-bit version of Windows and a 32-bit version of Microsoft Excel, importing from Excel will not work. As a workaround, you can save the Excel file as .csv and import it as CSV/text file as described below.

SQL Server

Connection properties

  1. Fill out the SQL Server form. Provide the Server Name, Database Name, Credentials, and a Select Query.
  2. Click Next to continue.

Connection string

  1. Click the Enter connection string link to bring up the connection string textbox.

    Back to properties

    The link text will change to Enter database properties. Click the link again to go back to database properties.

  2. Enter the SQL Server connection string.
  3. Click Next to continue.

ODBC

  1. Enter the ODBC connection string.
  2. Click Next to continue. 

Preview the data

The next step displays a preview of the data that will be imported. If the data looks accurate click Next to continue.

Select a destination dataset

Select the "Create a new dataset" option to import the data into a new dataset. Or, select the "Update an existing dataset" option to import the data into an existing dataset.

Create a new dataset

  1. Give the new dataset a unique name,
  2. Select the default Default databinding option.
  3. Select the option to trip cell spaces.
  4. Select the columns to import.
  5. Click the Finish button to complete the import.

Import into an existing dataset

  1. Select the existing dataset to import the data into.
  2. Map each column in the destination dataset, to a column in the data source.
  3. Click the Finish button to complete the import.

Synchronizing with the data source

When importing a dataset, the data is loaded only at the time of import. By default, a dataset is not synchronized with the source before running a test. The Auto-sync Dataset property controls the dataset synchronization behavior:

  • Never: Don't synchronize the dataset with the data source
  • Try: Attempt to synchronize the dataset with the data source.
  • Always: Attempt to synchronize the dataset with the data source. If failed, then don't start the test.


Manual Synchronization

To manually synchronize the dataset, click the Update button on the toolbar.

Command line support

Starting from v5.7, the Text File Path property supports relative paths (relative to the main configuration file)

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