Validating Data Files Before You Import Them

Many integrations start from a file drop. A CSV, JSON or XML file lands in a folder, an inbox or an endpoint, and something imports it. It is a simple pattern that works well until the day a single malformed file arrives and quietly breaks the whole flow.

Check the file at the door

The fix is to validate the file before you process it, not after a failed run. Checking structure at the door means a bad file is rejected up front with a clear reason, instead of being discovered halfway through an import when half your records are already written.

What to validate per format

• JSON must parse cleanly and have the shape you expect, with the fields and nesting your integration reads.
• XML must be well-formed, with every tag opened and closed and a single root element.
• CSV must have a consistent number of columns on every row and a real header row, not data in the first line.
• The character encoding should be UTF-8, so accented characters and symbols are not mangled downstream.
• The delimiter should be exactly what you expect, whether that is a comma, a semicolon or a tab.

Previewing the file first catches the usual culprits: a wrong delimiter, a missing header, an unexpected encoding, or extra and missing columns. Our free File Inspector previews and validates CSV, JSON and XML files entirely in your browser, so nothing is uploaded.