Import CSV file from another Nextcloud Tables instance not working

[Spheerys]

Steps to reproduce

1. On server 1 with Nextcloud+Tables, we go to the Data of one table, and select Export to CSV file
2. On server 2 with same version of Nextcloud+Tables, create a new Table, Import a table from file, and inject the CSV file get from Server 1
3. The process start with the mention "This could take a long time", but after a while, no data are imported

Expected behavior

The data should be imported

Actual behavior

The data are not imported

Tables app version

0.8.2

Browser

Brave Version 1.73.104 Chromium: 131.0.6778.204 (Build officiel) (64 bits)

Client operating system

Linux

Operating system

debian

Web server

Apache

PHP engine version

PHP 8.2

Database

MySQL

Additional info

See the CSV file as attachment
contacts.csv

[blizzz]

Hi @Spheerys, thanks for your report.

I can reproduce it, already the preview fails when the string 'Je souhaite participer au projet' is passed as parameter to DateTimeImmutable. This is the stack trace.

{
  "reqId": "oG2OFVrZUIe7WqB8inPk",
  "level": 3,
  "time": "2025-01-06T16:19:30+00:00",
  "remoteAddr": "127.0.0.1",
  "user": "user1",
  "app": "tables",
  "method": "POST",
  "url": "/master/index.php/apps/tables/importupload-preview/table/885",
  "message": "An internal error or exception occurred: Failed to parse time string (Je souhaite participer au projet) at position 0 (J): The timezone could not be found in the database",
  "userAgent": "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:133.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/133.0",
  "version": "31.0.0.6",
  "exception": {
    "Exception": "DateMalformedStringException",
    "Message": "Failed to parse time string (Je souhaite participer au projet) at position 0 (J): The timezone could not be found in the database",
    "Code": 0,
    "Trace": [
      {
        "file": "/path/to/nextcloud/apps-repos/tables/lib/Service/ImportService.php",
        "line": 175,
        "function": "__construct",
        "class": "DateTimeImmutable",
        "type": "->",
        "args": [
          "Je souhaite participer au projet"
        ]
      },
      {
        "file": "/path/to/nextcloud/apps-repos/tables/lib/Service/ImportService.php",
        "line": 97,
        "function": "getPreviewData",
        "class": "OCA\\Tables\\Service\\ImportService",
        "type": "->",
        "args": [
          {
            "__class__": "PhpOffice\\PhpSpreadsheet\\Worksheet\\Worksheet"
          }
        ]
      },
      {
        "file": "/path/to/nextcloud/apps-repos/tables/lib/Controller/ImportController.php",
        "line": 98,
        "function": "previewImport",
        "class": "OCA\\Tables\\Service\\ImportService",
        "type": "->",
        "args": [
          885,
          null,
          "/tmp/phpgsDTsY"
        ]
      },
      {
        "file": "/path/to/nextcloud/apps-repos/tables/lib/Controller/Errors.php",
        "line": 22,
        "function": "OCA\\Tables\\Controller\\{closure}",
        "class": "OCA\\Tables\\Controller\\ImportController",
        "type": "->",
        "args": [
          "*** sensitive parameters replaced ***"
        ]
      },
      {
        "file": "/path/to/nextcloud/apps-repos/tables/lib/Controller/ImportController.php",
        "line": 97,
        "function": "handleError",
        "class": "OCA\\Tables\\Controller\\ImportController",
        "type": "->",
        "args": [
          {
            "__class__": "Closure"
          }
        ]
      },
      {
        "file": "/path/to/nextcloud/lib/private/AppFramework/Http/Dispatcher.php",
        "line": 200,
        "function": "previewUploadImportTable",
        "class": "OCA\\Tables\\Controller\\ImportController",
        "type": "->",
        "args": [
          885
        ]
      },
      {
        "file": "/path/to/nextcloud/lib/private/AppFramework/Http/Dispatcher.php",
        "line": 114,
        "function": "executeController",
        "class": "OC\\AppFramework\\Http\\Dispatcher",
        "type": "->",
        "args": [
          {
            "__class__": "OCA\\Tables\\Controller\\ImportController"
          },
          "previewUploadImportTable"
        ]
      },
      {
        "file": "/path/to/nextcloud/lib/private/AppFramework/App.php",
        "line": 161,
        "function": "dispatch",
        "class": "OC\\AppFramework\\Http\\Dispatcher",
        "type": "->",
        "args": [
          {
            "__class__": "OCA\\Tables\\Controller\\ImportController"
          },
          "previewUploadImportTable"
        ]
      },
      {
        "file": "/path/to/nextcloud/lib/private/Route/Router.php",
        "line": 306,
        "function": "main",
        "class": "OC\\AppFramework\\App",
        "type": "::",
        "args": [
          "OCA\\Tables\\Controller\\ImportController",
          "previewUploadImportTable",
          {
            "__class__": "OC\\AppFramework\\DependencyInjection\\DIContainer"
          },
          {
            "tableId": "885",
            "_route": "tables.import.previewuploadimporttable"
          }
        ]
      },
      {
        "file": "/path/to/nextcloud/lib/base.php",
        "line": 1019,
        "function": "match",
        "class": "OC\\Route\\Router",
        "type": "->",
        "args": [
          "/apps/tables/importupload-preview/table/885"
        ]
      },
      {
        "file": "/path/to/nextcloud/index.php",
        "line": 24,
        "function": "handleRequest",
        "class": "OC",
        "type": "::",
        "args": []
      }
    ],
    "File": "/path/to/nextcloud/apps-repos/tables/lib/Service/ImportService.php",
    "Line": 175,
    "message": "An internal error or exception occurred: Failed to parse time string (Je souhaite participer au projet) at position 0 (J): The timezone could not be found in the database",
    "exception": {},
    "CustomMessage": "An internal error or exception occurred: Failed to parse time string (Je souhaite participer au projet) at position 0 (J): The timezone could not be found in the database"
  }
}

[ManfredWisniewski]

Something you might want to check is special characters in the file name. I have noticed this issue with german special characters like äöü etc. If the file name has special characters the import fails, if I remove the special characters it works.

There are a lot of issues with importing, also I can only import from files already uploaded.

[Spheerys]

You can test with my joined file on my first post : contact.csv
There is no special char in the filename, and this is an export of Table itself.
For now, I never see a working import by myself...

[blizzz]

Proposed fix is in #1545

[ManfredWisniewski]

@Spheerys Thank you and sorry - I overlooked the test file.

Practical solution for the problem:
Problem: Import has a problem with empty fields.
Fix: replace ;; with ;-; or similar. (Use mass search-replace.)

Solution for Nextcloud Tables: Allow for empty entries when importing.

Here is a fixed version of the contacts.csv that works:
contacts-fixed.csv

[ManfredWisniewski]

PS @blizzz

is passed as parameter to DateTimeImmutable

Yes, this probably has something to do with it. When I import a table with empty entries in the first row, the column is recognized as the type "date" (even though it is an empty entry).
Sorry that I am not familiar with the code (yet) but perhaps the last option when selecting the type is DateTime and since it cant match an empty entry it matches it to DateTime? Just a guess... a solution could be to match empty entries with String/Text.

I don't have a dev environment for nextcloud so I can't test it right now but here is an assumption:

I think function parseColumnDataType(Cell $cell) selects emtpy entries as DateTime and then tries to parse them. A check for empty (null) entries should be added and then return the Data Type as Text for empty entries.