Using the Extract from File App in OttoKit

Need to pull structured data out of files in your workflows? Whether it’s HTML tables, CSV rows, Excel spreadsheets, PDFs, or calendar events, the Extract from File App makes it easy to parse and access the data you need without external tools or custom scripts.

You can extract from file URLs or raw data strings, choose how you want the data parsed, and map the output directly into your workflow steps. Clean, structured data ready to use wherever you need it.

Note: This integration extracts and parses file content. It doesn’t modify, execute, or generate files.

Actions in the Extract from File App

1) Extract From HTML

Pull structured data from HTML files or markup, perfect for scraping tables, forms, or other content.

To extract from HTML:

1. Add a new action to your workflow.
2. Search for Extract from File and select it.
3. Choose Extract From HTML.
4. Click Continue to open the Configure tab.
5. Fill in the fields:
   • Data (required) – Specify or map the HTML file or data.
6. Click Show Optional Fields for additional configuration:
   • Header Rows – Parse table headers separately from data (True or False).
   • Include Empty Cells – Include empty table cells in output (True or False).
   • Raw Data – Return a raw HTML string instead of parsed content (True or False).
   • Read As String – Use string encoding vs iconv decoding (True or False).

7. Click Continue to open the Test Step tab.
8. Click Test to extract your HTML data.

9. If everything appears to be in order, click Save.

2) Extract From CSV

Parse CSV data into clean, structured rows you can map and use throughout your workflow.

To extract from CSV:

1. Add a new action.
2. Search for Extract from File.
3. Select Extract From CSV.
4. Click Continue.
5. Fill in the fields:
   • Data (required) – Specify or map the CSV file or data.
6. Click Show Optional Fields for additional configuration:
   • Delimiter – Specify the field separator, e.g., , or ;.
   • Encoding – Select encoding format (UTF-8 or ASCII).
   • Exclude BOM – Exclude BOM if present (True or False).
   • Header Rows – Treat first row as column headers (True or False).
   • Preserve Quotes – Handle unclosed quotes gracefully (True or False).
   • Include Empty Cells – Include empty cells as empty strings (True or False).
   • Max Number of Rows – Specify the max number of rows to load.
   • Raw Data – Return raw CSV text instead of parsed data (True or False).
   • Read As String – Use string encoding vs iconv (True or False).

7. Click Continue to open the Test Step tab.
8. Click Test, then Save.

3) Extract From XLSX

Extract data from Excel spreadsheets with support for specific sheets, ranges, and header parsing.

To extract from XLSX:

1. Add a new action.
2. Search for Extract from File and choose Extract From XLSX.
3. Click Continue.
4. Fill in the fields:
   • Data (required) – Specify or map the XLSX file or data.
5. Click Show Optional Fields:
   • Sheet Name – Specify the specific sheet name to extract.
   • Header Rows – First row contains column headers (True or False).
   • Include Empty Cells – Include empty cells as empty strings (True or False).
   • Range – Specify the cell range (A1 notation like “A1:D10” or starting row number).
   • Raw Data – Return raw data without JSON conversion (True or False).
   • Read As String – Read string for special characters (True or False).

6. Click Continue to open the Test Step tab.
7. Click Test and Save.

4) Extract From ODS

Pull data from OpenDocument Spreadsheets with the same flexibility as Excel files.

To extract from ODS:

1. Add a new action and select Extract From ODS.
2. Configure the fields:
   • Data (required) – Specify or map the ODS file or data.
3. Click Show Optional Fields:
   • Sheet Name – Specify the specific sheet name to extract.
   • Header Rows – First row contains column headers (True or False).
   • Include Empty Cells – Include empty cells as empty strings (True or False).
   • Range – Specify the cell range to extract.
   • Raw Data – Return raw data without parsing (True or False).
   • Read As String – Read string (True or False).

4. Click Continue to open the Test Step tab.
5. Click Test and Save.

5) Extract From XML

Parse XML files and access structured data with encoding options.

To extract from XML:

1. Add the action and select Extract From XML.
2. Configure:
   • Data (required) – Specify or map the XML file or data.
   • Encoding – UTF-8 or ASCII.
   • Strip BOM – Remove Byte Order Mark if present (True or False).

3. Click Continue to open the Test Step tab.
4. Click Test and Save.

6) Extract From TXT

Extract plain text data with options for line splitting and encoding.

To extract from TXT:

1. Add the action and choose Extract From TXT.
2. Configure:
   • Data (required) – Specify or map the TXT file or data.
3. Click Show Optional Fields:
   • Encoding – Select the file encoding type (UTF-8 or ASCII).
   • Split Lines – Return an array of lines instead of a single text (True or False).
   • Remove Empty Lines – Remove empty lines when splitting (True or False).

4. Click Continue to open the Test Step tab.
5. Click Test and Save.

7) Extract From RTF

Pull text content from Rich Text Format files.

To extract from RTF:

1. Add the action and select Extract From RTF.
2. Configure:
   • Data (required) – Specify or map the RTF file or data.
   • Raw Data – Return raw RTF content instead of parsed text (True or False).
   • Read As String – Use string encoding for special characters (True or False).

3. Click Continue to open the Test Step tab.
4. Click Test and Save.

8) Extract From Base64

Decode Base64-encoded data into usable content.

To extract from Base64:

1. Add the action and choose Extract From Base64.
2. Configure:
   • Data (required) – Specify or map the Base64 file or data.
   • Encoding – Select the file encoding type (UTF-8 or ASCII).

3. Click Continue to open the Test Step tab.
4. Click Test and Save.

9) Extract From JSON

Parse JSON data and access nested values in your workflows.

To extract from JSON:

1. Add the action and select Extract From JSON.
2. Configure:
   • Data (required) – Specify or map the JSON file or data.
   • Encoding – Select the file encoding type (UTF-8 or ASCII).
   • Strip BOM – Remove Byte Order Mark if present (True or False).

3. Click Continue to open the Test Step tab.
4. Click Test and Save.

10) Extract From PDF

Pull text content from PDF documents with options for page handling and password protection.

To extract from PDF:

1. Add the action and choose Extract From PDF.
2. Configure:
   • Data (required) – Specify or map the PDF file or data.
3. Click Show Optional Fields:
   • Join Pages – Combine all pages into a single text (true) or return an array of pages (false).
   • Max Pages – Specify the maximum number of pages to process (-1 for all).
   • Password – Specify the password for encrypted PDF files.

4. Click Continue to open the Test Step tab.
5. Click Test and Save.

11) Extract From ICS

Parse calendar event data from ICS files.

To extract from ICS:

1. Add the action and select Extract From ICS.
2. Configure:
   • Data (required) – Specify or map the ICS file or data.
   • Encoding – Select the file encoding type (UTF-8 or ASCII).
   • Strip BOM – Remove Byte Order Mark if present (True or False).

3. Click Continue to open the Test Step tab.
4. Click Test and Save.

12) Extract From XLS

Pull data from legacy Excel files with full control over sheets, ranges, and headers.

To extract from XLS:

1. Add a new action and select Extract From XLS.
2. Configure:
   • Data (required) – Specify or map the XLS file or data.
3. Click Show Optional Fields:
   • Sheet Name – Specify the specific sheet name to extract.
   • Header Rows – First row contains column headers (True or False).
   • Include Empty Cells – Include empty cells as empty strings (True or False).
   • Range – Specify the cell range (A1 notation like “A1:D10” or starting row number).
   • Raw Data – Return raw data without JSON conversion (True or False).
   • Read As String – Read string for special characters (True or False).
4. Click Continue to open the Test Step tab.
5. Click Test and Save.

With the Extract from File App in OttoKit, you can pull clean, structured data from virtually any file format—HTML, CSV, Excel, PDFs, XML, JSON, calendars, and more. No manual parsing, no external converters, and no headaches.

Whether you’re automating reports, processing uploaded files, syncing data between systems, or building workflows that need to read and interpret file content, OttoKit makes extraction fast, flexible, and dead simple.

Start using the Extract from File App today and turn any file into usable workflow data in seconds.