Hi,

That is fine, we like to think YF is easy enough for the end-user to create reports without IT knowledge, or SQL.
As long as you can use a browser, and can read, it should be good enough ;)

I think the biggest thing to understand with CSV imports, is that the CSV needs to be stored in a database once imported. To do this, you need to ensure you have a database connection that Yellowfin knows about.

It may also help us to know what you have under your data source & views ?
Are you able to attach a screenshot? This will help us figure out if you actually have a writeable database.
One Other thing, do you know where you got the download from? Just trying to figure out if you're using a development or eval version. If you're not sure, just check the email you got from us, and see where the link takes you.

Hopefully this additional info also helps clear things up.
There are 2 types of CSV imports, Report Import and View Imports
With the Report Import option, Yellowfin automatically creates the view for you.
Well, we just report directly off the CSV.

Below are the steps you can follow to import your CSV file
Report Import
1.Enabling CSV Report Imports
2.Creating a CSV Report
3.Creating a Report

View Import
1.Enabling CSV View Imports
2.Creating a View CSV Table
3.Creating a View
4.Creating a Report

Please let us know if you have any issues with any of the steps, and send through the requested information we can help you further.

Regards,
David

Thanks for the response, unfortunately I'm about as lost as where I started even after a lot of email support.

I feel like this is one of those situations where an hour with an actual person (even via a desktop share) could solve everything. But it sounds like for an individual like me who is only trialing, this isn't possible? Or is it? I genuinely like all I see in the video demos, but if I can't even get a basic start, the possibility is DOA.

Hi,

as much as we would like to, we simply don't have the resources or time to be able to spend an hour with people who are trying out the software.

I don't know at which step of importing a CSV file you are running into problems, so I guess I can start at the beginning and check what data sources you have - could you please have a look at the Source Systems and Views screen (in Administration) and see if you have a data source called Yellowfin Configuration Database (there is an option to create this when you first installed Yellowfin) such as in the below screenshot:





And if you have it then could you please open it and make sure the option called Writable is set to Yes and then save the data source:





This writable data source will now be available when you try to create a report based on a CSV file:





If you don't have the Yellowfin Configuration Database then the easiest thing for you to do would be to delete your current installation (simply delete the Yellowfin folder - that is all you have to do to uninstall Yellowfin) and re-install it making sure this time to select the Usage Reports option during the installation process (N.B. this isn't the only way to get the Yellowfin Configuration Database, you can create it post-installation, but given the difficulties you are having I thought it would be easier to delete and re-install):





I hope that gets you going, please let us know how you go with these steps.

Regards,
Dave

Hi Dave, thank you so much for that. It did turn out that the installation did not have usage reports. Uninstalling and putting that in fixed it and I was able to upload my CSV. Thank you so much!

Perhaps some follow up questions if you don't mind. I uploaded a CSV with about 3000 lines of data with no problem. When I tried to upload a much bigger one with several millions lines though, it choked and gave me an error message. Is there something in the trial that limits the amount of data? Are CSVs inherently limited in how much data can feed into Yellowfin and I need something more robust like SQL or even just Access to feed more in? Or some other explanation?

Thanks again for all the help!