Hi and welcome to the forum!
Just a small clarification first: in most cases you don't really import an Excel file into webMethods. What you actually import is a CSV exported from Excel (please correct me if I misunderstood).
WebMethods Integration Server does not natively parse .xlsx files out‑of‑the‑box, so working with CSV is typically the simplest approach.
That said, here are the main options:
1. Native webMethods approach (Out‑of‑the‑box)
Integration Server provides built‑in support for Flat File parsing.
This means you need to:
- Define a Flat File Schema manually
- Create a Flat File Dictionary
- Process incoming CSV files using the flat file services
It requires some upfront work, but once your schema is defined, IS can process any file that adheres to that structure.
2. Professional Services accelerator
Historically, Professional Services delivered a custom package that simplified spreadsheet/CSV ingestion.
You may want to check internally whether this accelerator is still offered, as it used to automate part of the flat‑file configuration process.
3. Custom packages for Excel parsing
In the past I personally created a custom package to parse Excel files directly from .xls/.xlsx, using Apache POI libraries under the hood.
This package could:
- Read simple Excel sheets
- Convert them into document structures
- Expose the parsed content directly on the pipeline
This approach works if you really need to ingest native Excel files and want to avoid the CSV export step, but it requires custom development.
Summary
So yes - compared to tools like Talend, ADF or SSIS, webMethods is less "connector‑driven" for Excel ingestion.
But you can still achieve the same result through:
- CSV + Flat File parsing (standard)
- Optional Professional Services accelerators
- Custom Java/POI‑based parsing packages
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FRANCESCO CIARBELLI
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Original Message:
Sent: Wed March 10, 2021 05:53 AM
From: webMethods Community Member
Subject: Correct approach to importing Excel spreadsheets
Hi folks
New to the forum and new to AG webMethods. I've worked extensively with Glue, SSIS, ADF, Talend and a bunch of other ETL systems.
Please could someone point me to and/or explain the basics of importing a spreadsheet into a database? TBH other ETL tools make it so easy, I was looking for simple connectors etc in webMethods and not found anything.
Most of the threads are really old and I assume things have moved on? There is one thread in 2017 but even that is nearly four years ago and I assume that even it is outdated (Best Approach for Reading data from excel into wM)
#excel
#webMethods