Export data from censhare to standard file formats like Microsoft Excel. The export requires the configuration of an export pipeline and export schema in the censhare Admin Client and the configuration of the server action for censhare Web.

Legal note

Pentaho PDI (Community Edition) is a service tool provided by Hitachi Vantara that needs to be installed by the Customer itself as required for data exchange with the censhare software. Any installation and configuration of this tool are therefore at the Customer’s own risk and subject to separate license terms. The use of the tool may result in additional costs. censhare does not have any influence on incurring costs or then-applicable license terms and shall therefore not be held responsible.

Target groups

  • Solution developers

Purpose

Export data from censhare to Microsoft Excel. The export requires the configuration of an export pipeline and export schema in the censhare Admin Client, and the configuration of the server action in censhare Web.

Context

The configuration is done in the censhare Admin Client and in censhare Web.

Prerequisites

The Pentaho server must be set up and the interface configured before you do this configuration.

Introduction

The data export from censhare to Excel uses Pentaho PDI, an ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) tool. For example, users can export product data from a PIM system. The Pentaho export action is available in the Page actions menu for single assets and Asset actions menu for multiple assets in censhare Web, and in the Server actions menu in censhare Client.

First, you have to configure the export in the censhare Admin Client. With this configuration completed, the server action is available in the censhare Client. The censhare Web server action builds on top of the configuration for the censhare Client. For this, you add the command name from the censhare Admin Client in the respective Server action asset. With this configuration completed, the export is also available in censhare Web. For more information about how to execute an export, read the user documentation Export product data from censhare Web with Pentaho and Export product data from censhare Client with Pentaho.

Key steps

  1. Configure the schema-based export in the censhare Admin Client.

  2. Configure the Server action asset for the export in censhare Web.

Configure the server action module for the product data export

  1. In the censhare Admin Client, open Configuration/Modules/Data integration/ and double click the entry Schema-based export.

  2. In the General setup section, activate the Enabled field.

  3. In the Title field, enter the action name that is shown in the Server actions menu of the censhare Client. For example, Pentaho product data export. Optionally, enter a description in the respective field.

  4. To restrict access and execution of the action, add the desired roles and permission keys in the respective sections. In the section Permissions only for defined client types, add censhare Client. The options censhare Admin Client and censhare Web Client cannot be used for this action.

  5. In the Special setup section, define the settings for the Pentaho export schema and pipeline:

  6. In the Asset type field, select Product. Leave the subtype field empty.

  7. In the Schema field, select Product Schema. This is the default schema delivered with the censhare standard configuration. If you have a custom schema configured, select this. Custom schemas have to be defined in censhare Web with the respective usage key. For more information, see Create data export/import schemas for the Pentaho connector.

  8. In the Processor pipeline fields, the following sequence must be selected (For more information about the data processing and pipelines see Pentaho connector - key concept).

    • Collect records

    • JSON to XML

    • XSLT

  9. In the Transformation field, select Pentaho export to file. This is the default transformation delivered with the censhare standard configuration and exports data into Microsoft Excel. You can use custom transformations for other file formats. For more information see Create custom schemas and transformations for the Pentaho connector.

  10. Before you save the configuration, scroll up to the Description section of the dialog and copy the Command name to the clipboard. You need this later to configure the server action in censhare Web.

  11. To save your custom configuration, click OK.

  12. Update your server configuration and synchronize the remote servers if necessary.

The Pentaho product data export action is now ready to use in the censhare Client. To configure the action in censhare Web read the following section.

Configure the server action in censhare Web

The censhare Web configuration of the Pentaho export is done in the "Export with Pentaho" Server action asset. The asset itself is included in the standard configuration of censhare Web but has to be enabled and configured. To execute the action, censhare Web accesses the action created for the censhare Java Client as described in the previous section. Proceed as follows:

  1. Log in to censhare Web and search and open the Pentaho export server action asset. The resource key of this asset is "censhare:action.server.export-products-with-pentaho".

  2. In the Overview tab, click  to edit the Properties widget.

  3. The default action name is Pentaho export. Edit the name and add localized names, if you wish.

  4. Select the Enabled field.

  5. Do not select the Global field.

  6. Select the Multiselection field.

  7. Do not select the Development mode field.

  8. Optionally, add an integer value in the Priority field. This determines the position of the menu item in the Page actions menu relative to the priority values of the other menu items.

  9. In the Command name field, paste the command copied from the censhare Admin Client configuration above.

    Leave the field in the Bulk operation section empty. These fields are not functional in censhare 2018.3.

  10. To close the dialog, click OK.

  11. To save the changes, click SAVE.

  12. Log out from censhare Web and log in again to force censhare to load the new configuration.

Result

The server action Export with Pentaho is configured and available in the censhare Client and censhare Web. Users can execute the actions to export product data with the available schemas.