Enterprise Administration > Windchill Data Loading > Using the CSV2XML Utility and Validating the XML Format > Converting CSV Files to XML Format Files
  
Converting CSV Files to XML Format Files
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Before converting the CSV files, you may need to update the CSV file to match the definitions in the csvmapfile.txt file. The files must contain all of the data required (for example, containers) before they are converted with the CSV2XML utility.
Your installed Windchill environment consists of a set of containers that hold all of the administrative areas (known as domains), rules, and data that make up the context from which Windchill users work. Throughout the user interface, Context is used to identify where specific rules, domains, and data reside in the framework. However, to create this environment, you load containers. Because container is the label you see in the code, this topic collection uses the term container (rather than context).
PTC recommends that you create your test data using the CSV file format and then use the conversion utility to convert it to XML as it is easier to create the data and less error-prone in the CSV format.
The syntax for the CSV2XML utility is as follows:
windchill wt.load.util.CSV2XML -input<input file or directory>
-output<output directory> -root<specifies the root directory>
-help -encoding<encoding of the source CSV file> -mapfile <absolute
path of the csvmapfile.txt>
-delimiter <user specified delimiter>
-preservespace [specifies if spaces should be preserved]
For more information, see CSV2XML Arguments.
The data load utilities expect to find the data files in the <Windchill>/src/loadFiles directory. If you use all the defaults, then the command is:
windchill wt.load.util.CSV2XML
Converting a CSV File to an XML File
To convert a CSV file to an XML file:
1. Verify that the CSV file matches the file description defined in the <Windchill>/loadFiles/csvmapfile.txt file. Make changes accordingly.
2. Run the CSV2XML utility to generate object XML files.
3. Validate the XML files against <Windchill>/loadXMLFiles\standardX20.dtd.
This step is recommended to identify invalid file formats to avoid causing the file load process to fail.
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The Life Cycle Administration requires that all Life Cycle objects be stored in the System cabinets. Do not change the System cabinet designation in the Life Cycle XML load files. You should also be aware that the data content in the XML files is case-sensitive.