Tables: CSV Import

Step by Step Tutorial

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This guide is for you if ...

• ... you saw the import feature on the interactive tables, but don't know what CSV is.
• ... you have a CSV table but it fails to import.

This is a step-by-step guide. Follow it carefully. If you get stuck on any step please come to the Discord Server for help!

Creating a table with CSV Import is a bit technical, but it allows you to import any kind of table data that you have in your excel or google sheets document! So you don't have to enter all that data by hand. Or if you want a table in more than one world as you can't copy the tables to other worlds.

Step 1: Create A Table

The import only adds the data inside of the table. It does not affect the metadata like the title, description and options. So before you get started you should set that up.

Step 1.1: Setup Columns

Before importing you need to add all the columns of the table. Make sure that you use the right column type as this can fail the import!
But don't worry if you make a mistake or change your mind. You can always fix it and try again! You won't lose any data since you are importing it.

Step 2: Create the Content

Now to creating the content. You can either use Google Sheets or Excel. This guide uses Google Sheets which is recommended as Excel may generate the wrong output that has to be edited. See note in the next section.

Open up a new table and start entering your data. Each row in the table will add a row after the import. A few things to consider:

• Do NOT add a header row. Or if you do, do not copy it into the input textarea.
• Do NOT add any COMMAS anywhere in the cells. These will break your import.
• Always use the | (pipe character) to separate options in the specialized columns.
• Be careful to not have any typos in the options. They will be ignored otherwise.

Column Type Formats

Text & Long Text

In these columns you can enter any text. Be careful with special characters as these can break it.

Number

Accepts any positive or negative number. Ignores decimal points.

Roll

The roll columns accepts a simple range like 1-10. Do not try to enter any other data.

Dice Button

The dice button accepts any roll notation accepted by the BBcode: Dice Roller.

Checkbox

Write true if you want the checkbox to be checked or false otherwise. Each option can be omitted to negate them or write something else.

Image

The image column has a value and two options.

• Required is the relative URL to an image uploaded on WorldAnvil.
• Option 1: Display Name
• Option 2: Open image when rolled?

To get the upload link follow these steps:

1. Click on the image in the Images & Files Manager.
2. Click on Advanced Edit.
3. Click on View Image.
4. Click on Full View.
5. Copy the URL from the browser link input field, without the domain (e.g. worldanvil.com).

/uploads/images/cef374a2316d74fbdaf658d7f9a5783a.png|Ancient Guild Member Badge|navigate

Link / URL

The Link column has a value and three options. Each option can be omitted to negate them or write something else.

• Required is a full url.
• Option 1: Display Name
• Option 2: Open image in a new tab?
• Option 3: Open image when rolled?

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/|Google Sheets|tab|navigate

Article

The article column has a value and two options.

• Required is the relative URL to one of your articles.
• Option 1: Display Name
• Option 2: Open article when rolled?

/uploads/images/cef374a2316d74fbdaf658d7f9a5783a.png|Ancient Guild Member Badge|navigate

Tables

The table column has a value and one option.

NOTE: The navigate option currently breaks the import. So simply leave it away! If you want to auto-navigate the tables you will currently have to do this manually.

You can find the identifier of a table if you open the tables editor. The identifier can be copied from the browser url.

b86018bd-695c-4ddc-9941-453b4796557d|navigate

Step 3: Export Data into CSV

Google Sheets

Got to this website and create a new sheet. Enter or copy paste your data into the sheet. Once you have setup all your rows you need to export the table.

HINT: Before entering all your data I suggest that you enter just one row and try the rest of the steps with that one row. To make sure that your input actually works.

Download

Once you entered all the data you can download the file. Got to File > Download > Comma-separated values (.csv, current sheet). Save it somewhere on your computer where you can find it again!

Step 4: Import Data into Table

1. Navigate to the file in your systems file explorer.
2. Once you have the file make a right click on it and select the option to open with a different program (might be called differently).
3. You should open up the file with a text editor. The default text editor on Windows is simply called Editor.
4. Select all the text in the newly opened window (either with the mouse or press CTRL-A).
5. Copy the text to the clipboard (either with CTRL-C or via context menu).
6. Open up the table and press the CSV Import button under advanced options. It is the RED button seen in the image on the right.
7. Paste the copied text into the modal and press import.

The import should be fairly fast but will of course take longer the bigger the table is. If the import is successful the table data will be overwritten, stored and then the page should reload.
If it is not successful there is a red flash message on the screen which might tell you what went wrong (which currently doesn't actually happen as it is bugged).

Excel

NOTE: When exporting as CSV from Excel it creates a file with the semicolon character as the delimiter. If that is the case then these semicolons need to be replaced with a comma in the text editor.

Known Issues & Limitations

• Checkboxes can't be imported checked.
• The navigate option breakes the table import.
• The image column ignores the navigate option flag.
• Adding " (double quotes) to the text field prevents it from being displayed.
• Long Text can't contain line breaks. Since quotes don't work and
  is not interpreted.
• The import is supposed to tell you if it fails, but currently the error message display has a bug which prevents it from doing so. Open up the console with F12 to see what is going on.
• The csv export does not consider quotes as delimiter for cells. Which means that none of the cells may contain any commas.

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