MooD 16.082 includes two new field modifiers and an enhancement to the existing Split String Modifier. Field modifiers can be used within all mapping screens, meaning that these modifiers can also be useful in database imports and other scenarios.
Split String Modifier
Data in Spreadsheets can be inconsistent between cells in the same column. Typically users who import data have to edit data before the Synchronization mechanism can interpret it properly.
The Split String Modifier is an existing field modifier which was designed to extract a list of items from a single cell, each item separated by a consistent character, also known as a separator.
For example:
But in the real world, data might be a combination of inconsistent separators if entered by different people.
The Split String Modifier can now support multiple separator characters, in the case above, we would add a comma, newline, the word 'or' and a semi-colon.
Note: <New Line> and <Tab> are simply tokens, and can be combined with other characters to create useful combinations, such as identifying an end of a sentence and removing the full-stop.
String Array Elements Modifier
A new field modifier has been added which also helps with transforming single-cell content into different data. MooD currently has the singular String Array Element modifier which extracts a single element from a list (i.e. from a Split String modifier, as above). Sometimes a cell contains data which ideally belongs in different columns, or is irrelevant, and MooD users typically have to cut and paste bad data before an import is successful.
In the example below we can see that users consistently listed the Process before the Parts.
For example:
We've introduced this new modifier to handle more complex scenarios, where there's a requirement to
- Extract list items from item X to item Y.
- Extract list items from item X to the final element of the list.
In our example above, to successfully grab all parts, to place into a relationship field, we would configure a String Array Elements Modifier as follows.
If we only wanted a maximum of three parts, we would configure it as follows:
The following mapping shows how we would extract the Process into a Process Name field, and all parts into the Parts Used relationship field using a combination of the existing field modifier and new field modifier.
Convert To Formatted Text Modifier
When integrating with 3rd party data sources, it's not uncommon for a field to already include HTML data. MooD now supports the import of HTML content directly into MooD Formatted text fields via a field modifier.
The example below shows that the modifier retains hyperlinks which have been encoded in the HTML, and the bold tags.
Source:
Result:
This modifier also supports detection and transformation of unencoded hyperlinks within the text. This can allow for a scenario where the source HTML contains a mixture of formally declared links and those typed in plain text.
Additionally - the source information does not have to be HTML for this modifier to work; plain text data can be converted to MooD Formatted Text fields and the result will include clickable hyperlinks where transformed.
Source:
Result:
There are a number of limitations with this mechanism:
- Image links are removed
- Content is sanitized, which removes invalid or dangerous HTML (i.e. JavaScript)
- The Convert Urls To Hyperlinks option only recognizes http, https, ftp, ftps, mailto: protocols.
- The list of supported hyperlinks for encoded HTML <a> tags is more extensive.
- Only basic styling is supported.
Features introduced in 16.082
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