Columns configuration

Sets a fixed value, independent of the data being imported. For example, this might be used to set a flag for all imported records. Or you might want to use different types for different import sources.

This can be used for both array-type and XML-type data.

Name or index of the field (or node, in the case of XML data) that contains the data in the external source.

For array-type data, this information is mandatory. For XML-type data, it can be left out. In such a case, the value of the current node itself will be used, or an attribute of said node, if the attribute property is also defined.

Replaces the field property for pointing to a field in a "deeper" position inside a multidimensional array. The value is a string comprised of the keys for pointing into the array, separated by some character.

For more details on usage and available options, see the dedicated page.

Works only for array-type data.

If both "field" and "arrayPath" are defined, the latter takes precedence.

When the special * segment is used in an arrayPath, the resulting structure is always an array. If the arrayPath target is actually a single value, this may not be desirable. When arrayPathFlatten is set to true, the result is preserved as a simple type.

If the data is of type XML, use this property to retrieve the value from an attribute of the node rather than the value of the node itself.

This applies to the node selected with the field property or to the current node if field is not defined.

This property can be used to execute a XPath query relative to the node selected with the field property or (since version 2.3.0) directly on the current node if field is not defined.

The value will be taken from the first node returned by the query. If the attribute property is also defined, it will be applied to the node returned by the XPath query.

Please see the namespaces property for declaring namespaces to use in a XPath query.

Namespace for the given field. Use the full URI for the namespace, not a prefix.

Example

Given the following data to import:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Invoice xmlns:cbc="urn:oasis:names:specification:ubl:schema:xsd:CommonBasicComponents-2" xmlns:cac="urn:oasis:names:specification:ubl:schema:xsd:CommonAggregateComponents-2">
    <InvoiceLine>
        <cbc:ID>A1</cbc:ID>
        <cbc:LineExtensionAmount currencyID="USD">100.00</cbc:LineExtensionAmount>
        <cac:OrderReference>
            <cbc:ID>000001</cbc:ID>
        </cac:OrderReference>
    </InvoiceLine>
    ...
</Invoice>

getting the value in the <cbc:LineExtensionAmount> tag would require the following configuration:

'external' => [
    0 => [
        'fieldNS' => 'urn:oasis:names:specification:ubl:schema:xsd:CommonBasicComponents-2',
        'field' => 'LineExtensionAmount'
    ]
]

Makes it possible to read several values that are located inside nested data structures. Consider the following data source:

[
  {
    "order": "000001",
    "date": "2014-08-07",
    "customer": "Conan the Barbarian",
    "products": [
      {
        "product": "000001",
        "qty": 3
      },
      {
        "product": "000005",
        "qty": 1
      },
      {
        "product": "000101",
        "qty": 10
      },
      {
        "product": "000102",
        "qty": 2
      }
    ]
  },
  {
    "order": "000002",
    "date": "2014-08-08",
    "customer": "Sonja the Red",
    "products": [
      {
        "product": "000001",
        "qty": 1
      },
      {
        "product": "000005",
        "qty": 2
      },
      {
        "product": "000202",
        "qty": 1
      }
    ]
  }
]

The "products" field is actually a nested structure, from which we want to fetch the values from both product and qty. This can be achieved with the following configuration:

'products' => [
 'exclude' => 0,
 'label' => 'Products',
 'config' => [
    ...
 ],
 'external' => [
    0 => [
       'field' => 'products',
       'substructureFields' => [
          'products' => [
             'field' => 'product'
          ],
          'quantity' => [
             'field' => 'qty'
          ]
       ],
       ...
    ]
 ]
]

The keys to the configuration array correspond to the names of the columns where the values will be stored. The configuration for each element can use all the existing properties for retrieving data:

• field
• fieldNS
• arrayPath
• arrayPathSeparator
• attribute
• attributeNS
• xpath
• xmlValue

The substructure fields are searched for inside the structure selected with the "main" data pointer. In the example above, the whole "products" structure is first fetched, then the product and qty are searched for inside that structure.

The above example will read the values in the product nested field and put it into "products" column. Same for qty and "quantity". The fact that there are several entries will multiply imported records, actually denormalising the data on the fly. The result would be something like:

Obviously if you have a single element in the nested structure, no denormalisation happens. Due to this denormalisation you probably want to use this property in conjunction with the multipleRows or children properties.

Set to true if you have denormalized data. This will tell the import process that there may be more than one row per record to import and that all values for the given column must be gathered and collapsed into a comma-separated list of values. See the Mapping data chapter for explanations about the impact of this flag.

If these values need to be sorted, use the multipleSorting property.

If the multipleRows need to be sorted, use this property to name the field which should be used for sorting. This can be any of the mapped fields, additional fields or substructure fields.

Array of transformation properties. The transformations will be executed as ordered by their array keys.

Example:

$GLOBALS['TCA']['fe_users']['columns']['starttime']['external'] = [
 0 => [
    'field' => 'start_date',
    'transformations' => [
       20 => [
          'trim' => true
       ],
       10 => [
          'userFunction' => [
             'class' => \Cobweb\ExternalImport\Transformation\DateTimeTransformation::class,
             'method' => 'parseDate'
          ]
       ]
    ]
 ]
];

The "userFunction" will be executed first (10) and the "trim" next (20).

Comma-separated list of database operations from which the column should be excluded. Possible values are "insert" and "update".

See also the general property disabledOperations.