Data sets

• Last updated on February 29, 2024
• •
• 2 minutes to read

Data sets allow you to store and modify data and check it for compliance with a given schema. You can use data sets for prefilling designs in the Data-Driven Editor and for variable data printing through the Design Atoms API.

Creating data sets

If you didn't use the option to populate a data set when creating your data schema, you can do this at any time in the Data set section of your Customer's Canvas account.

In the first case, you can scroll down the New data schema page to the Data set panel and click New data set.

In the latter case, click the Data set section, select a folder, and then click New > Data set.

Both options open the DataSet Editor.

Importing data sets

When you already have a data set saved on your machine in the DST format, you can import that file to your Customer's Canvas account. To do so, navigate to the Data set section, select a folder, click New > Import, and select your .dst file.

DataSet Editor

To start working with the DataSet Editor, you first need to specify a set name and a schema. That schema will define the type of fields in the set and their format. To add new data, click Add row.

For images, a Select image placeholder appears. Double-click it to select an image from assets in your account. Then, you can click Clear to discard the selection or Save to apply the image and continue editing.

If a format was specified for numbers, then it will be applied to the input.

To select one of the predefined variants, double-click the field.

If for any reason you need to remove a record, click Delete row.

The check to ensure the data set complies with its schema is carried out during editing. If errors were made, a pop-up message appears.

If you save or import a set with unfixed errors, then a red exclamation mark will appear on this data set in the File Manager.

To find the problem, double-click the data set and read the message with details on the edit page.

Prefilling fields

The basic purpose of data sets is prefilling the design fields in the editor. To enable this feature, you must specify a data set attribute when defining a product specification based on the Data-driven Editor workflow.

As a result, the Prefill buttons will appear in the editor for inserting data into fields or clearing them.