How to populate large collections?

[BenWatanabe]

So relatively new to Blue Prism but one thing I've noticed so far is that it's seemingly hard to populate collections with fields. I can create an undefined collection, but then the dynamically added fields aren't readily available for use downstream. Adding the fields manually is fine if there is one or two fields but adding a whole bunch can be tedious, esp when ensuring that you match the case of the incoming data's field names. Is there any easier way to bulk add fields or convert a "filled" undefined collection into a defined collection? I looked through the import table but there weren't that many actions in there and some things like the Uility File Management object weren't even present even though a lot of actions under that object return collection. What am i missing?

[John__Carter · Accepted solution]

Hi Ben - you're not missing anything, the auto-define thing you mentioned would be a nice feature but for now it's either dynamic or predefined. Both have pros and cons, as you've seen. The nearest thing to what you're asking for is to fiddle with the collection XML. If you create a collection and define 2 fields in it, then cut and paste it into Notepad, you'll see how it works. Add a 3rd field line into the XML and paste everything back into the diagram - that should get you thinking. Not the most straight forward solution I grant you, but if you want to make up a 50 field collection, it can save a lot of time, especially if you use both Notepad and Excel formulas to make up the XML dynamically.

[BenWatanabe]

That works! I didn't realize I could copy the entire object off of the canvas. I was trying to copy the individual tables. This actually works really well, thank you!