---
title: "File Read Adaptor"
slug: "file-read-adaptor"
updated: 2024-09-03T13:30:58Z
published: 2024-09-03T13:30:58Z
canonical: "help.csgi.com/file-read-adaptor"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.csgi.com/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# File Read Adaptor

## Creating a File Read Adaptor

In order to use a **File Read Adaptor**, it is best practice to create a [file connection](/v1/docs/file-connection) first.

The File Read Adaptor reads the contents of an object-based file.

![](https://cdn.document360.io/c578bb14-e570-4b6e-93ed-f6c5b8a2d8a1/Images/Documentation/File%20read.png?sv=2026-02-06&spr=https&st=2026-10-26T14%3A18%3A52Z&se=2026-10-26T15%3A18%3A52Z&sr=c&sp=r&sig=AdoTHGQbtUvRfUOsSrST5lzftIdpLOcuLC4Kp9eERqk%3D)

- To create a new item via the Create menu item in the project editor, select the File Adaptor icon, and give the adaptor a name.
- Choose the connection from the drop down menu, and choose the file name and file contents destination.

**File Nam****e**: The File Name value can be provided by a literal, schema value, or public variables

- For S3, this name should include any path outside of the top-level bucket.

**File Contents Destination:** The location for the body of the read file, and can be a schema value (recommended) or a public variable.

If the file contains a single JSON object, this will be parsed and expanded at the location specified. If the file contains more than one JSON object or non-JSON data, then the complete contents of the file will be saved as a string field at the specified location. Be wary of loading large files in this method, as it is designed to load small objects and not large files.

![:closed_lock_with_key:](https://pf-emoji-service--cdn.us-east-1.prod.public.atl-paas.net/standard/caa27a19-fc09-4452-b2b4-a301552fd69c/32x32/1f510.png)

Currently, only **Amazon Web Services Simple Storage System** (AWS S3) is supported, but it is planned to expand to other types (for example, Azure blob storage).

- AWS S3 is an object-based storage scheme presenting a file-system view of the objects it stores; folders are termed **buckets,** and files are **objects**. For all intents and purposes, it appears like a web-hosted file system. The ability to read and write data from S3 buckets helps integrate with other systems that can only handle file-based integrations, such as DMPs.
- There is currently no way to list all of the files in a bucket - but this is something that we plan to add. A sample use case may be to have a stream of file names that require to be processed and the file reader processing those files.

---

## Validation Warnings

![](https://cdn.document360.io/c578bb14-e570-4b6e-93ed-f6c5b8a2d8a1/Images/Documentation/Inavalis(1).png?sv=2026-02-06&spr=https&st=2026-10-26T14%3A18%3A52Z&se=2026-10-26T15%3A18%3A52Z&sr=c&sp=r&sig=AdoTHGQbtUvRfUOsSrST5lzftIdpLOcuLC4Kp9eERqk%3D): All the invalid notifications will be displayed after expanding the **Invalid Drop-down**.

| Warning | Note |
| --- | --- |
| Adaptor(s) do not have connection set | Creating a connection and choosing it from the Adaptor Connection drop down is necessary. |
| Adaptor's configuration requires a data source to be set | No source for the file write (File Contents To Write) has been specified |
| File adaptors need a file name | No file name was provided for the file to write |

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### Related Pages:

- [File Write Adaptor](/v1/docs/file-write-adaptor)