Forum Discussion

Rachel53461's avatar
Rachel53461
New Contributor
3 days ago
Solved

How can I read CSV files without Microsoft Access Runtime installed?

Microsoft Access Runtime 2016 recently went EoVS and our company has uninstalled it everywhere. What alternative can we use to read our TestComplete CSV files?

data-driven testing
  • Hassan_Ballan's avatar
    Hassan_Ballan
    2 days ago

    You’ve run into a known limitation, at the moment there isn’t a true drop-in replacement provided. It would also be worth raising this as an enhancement request. Given that Access Runtime is now EoVS, having a native CSV driver without external dependencies would help a lot of teams in similar situations.

    If you want to avoid a large refactor, a practical workaround is to create a small wrapper that mimics the DDT.CSVDriver interface. That way, your existing looping logic can remain mostly unchanged and you only replace the driver initialization.

    This won’t be a perfect replacement, but it’s usually enough to keep existing tests running with minimal changes. Just be aware that a simple implementation may not handle more complex CSV cases (quoted values, embedded commas, etc.), so you may need to extend it depending on your data.

    // In your script replace 
// var DataSS = DDT.CSVDriver(file);
// with
var DataSS = CustomCSVDriver(file);
    function CustomCSVDriver(file) {
  var f = aqFile.OpenTextFile(file, aqFile.faRead, aqFile.ctANSI);
  var lines = [];

  while (!f.IsEndOfFile()) {
    lines.push(f.ReadLine());
  }
  f.Close();

  var headers = lines[0].split(",");
  var index = 1;

  return {
    ColumnCount: headers.length,
    currentRow: [],

    ColumnName: function(i) {
      return headers[i];
    },

    Value: function(i) {
      return this.currentRow[i];
    },

    Next: function() {
      this.currentRow = lines[index].split(",");
      index++;
    },

    EOF: function() {
      return index >= lines.length;
    },

    Name: "CustomCSVDriver"
  };
}

    If this resolves your scenario, marking it as the solution helps future readers find it quickly.

9 Replies

  • Hassan_Ballan's avatar
    Hassan_Ballan
    Icon for Champion Level 3 rankChampion Level 3
    2 days ago

    You’ve run into a known limitation, at the moment there isn’t a true drop-in replacement provided. It would also be worth raising this as an enhancement request. Given that Access Runtime is now EoVS, having a native CSV driver without external dependencies would help a lot of teams in similar situations.

    If you want to avoid a large refactor, a practical workaround is to create a small wrapper that mimics the DDT.CSVDriver interface. That way, your existing looping logic can remain mostly unchanged and you only replace the driver initialization.

    This won’t be a perfect replacement, but it’s usually enough to keep existing tests running with minimal changes. Just be aware that a simple implementation may not handle more complex CSV cases (quoted values, embedded commas, etc.), so you may need to extend it depending on your data.

    // In your script replace 
// var DataSS = DDT.CSVDriver(file);
// with
var DataSS = CustomCSVDriver(file);
    function CustomCSVDriver(file) {
  var f = aqFile.OpenTextFile(file, aqFile.faRead, aqFile.ctANSI);
  var lines = [];

  while (!f.IsEndOfFile()) {
    lines.push(f.ReadLine());
  }
  f.Close();

  var headers = lines[0].split(",");
  var index = 1;

  return {
    ColumnCount: headers.length,
    currentRow: [],

    ColumnName: function(i) {
      return headers[i];
    },

    Value: function(i) {
      return this.currentRow[i];
    },

    Next: function() {
      this.currentRow = lines[index].split(",");
      index++;
    },

    EOF: function() {
      return index >= lines.length;
    },

    Name: "CustomCSVDriver"
  };
}

    If this resolves your scenario, marking it as the solution helps future readers find it quickly.

    • Rachel53461's avatar
      Rachel53461
      New Contributor
      1 day ago

      Thank you! We are able to get this idea working

  • Rachel53461's avatar
    Rachel53461
    New Contributor
    2 days ago

    The environment is Windows Server 64bit, and we're running the latest version of TestComplete x64 on it. Company policy prohibits installation of products that are EoVS, so we are not able to re-install Microsoft Access Database Engine 2016 now that it's gone EoVS. We also do not have Microsoft Office installed, nor does Access 365 Runtime appear to work.

    This is the script that was reading from a CSV file. It crashes with an exception on line 13 where it tries to use DDT.CSVDriver since the Microsoft Data Access components are not installed. 

    /**@@Function
 * getCSVTable: Reads a CSV file and returns a 0 based 1 dimensional array
 * Param {String} file: 
 * @returns a 0 based 1 dimensional array
 */
function getCSVTable(file)
{
  var table = new Array();
  var dataSource ="cloudapp" ;
	try
  {
	 	var DataSS =DDT.CSVDriver(file);
    for (colIndex = 0;colIndex <DataSS.ColumnCount;colIndex++)
    {
      colName[colIndex] = DataSS.ColumnName(colIndex);
    }
    //DataSS.Next();
    var rowCount=0;

    //Define Header into multidimensional array
    while(!DataSS.EOF())
    {
      table[rowCount] = new Object();
      for (colCount=0;colCount<DataSS.ColumnCount;colCount++)
      {
        var tempStr = "table[" + rowCount + "]." + colName[colCount] + "=" + "'" + DataSS.Value(colCount) + "'";
        if (eval(tempStr)=="$ID")
        {
        EntityID = Project.Variables.EntityID;
        tempStr = aqString.Replace(tempStr,"$ID",EntityID,true);
        }
        else
         if (eval(tempStr).indexOf(".sql")!=-1)
         {
         tempStr = getSqlResult(eval(tempStr),dataSource);
         
         }
        table[colCount] =eval(tempStr);        
      } 
      DataSS.Next();
      rowCount++
    }
    DDT.CloseDriver(DataSS.Name);    
	}
	catch (exception)
  {
	 	Log.Error("getCSVData: " + exception.description);
	}
	return table;	
}

     

    • rraghvani's avatar
      rraghvani
      Icon for Champion Level 3 rankChampion Level 3
      2 days ago

      If you don’t have the necessary components for DDT.CSVDriver(), it will fail - this is expected.

      You just need to replace DDT.CSVDriver() with your own CSV reading method that returns data in the same format, so the rest of your code continues to work as usual.

  • scot1967's avatar
    scot1967
    Icon for Champion Level 3 rankChampion Level 3
    2 days ago

    ... Also, what is preventing you from installing the 64 bit version to keep your same code in place?

  • scot1967's avatar
    scot1967
    Icon for Champion Level 3 rankChampion Level 3
    2 days ago

    👍🏼  I see....  That complicates things....

    DDT.CSVDriver throws an exception when Microsoft Access Database Engine data access components are not installed. It's also listed as a pre-requisite for DDT on your (outdated) site here: 

    https://support.smartbear.com/testcomplete/docs/testing-with/data-driven/csv-storages.html

    So, they are not going to move to the 64 bit supported version.  That stinks.  So yeah, creating a function / method to read it and call it from a script or a KWT would be the best way.   

    >>  aqFile, aqTextFile, aqString <<   

    https://support.smartbear.com/testcomplete/docs/reference/program-objects/aqfile/methods.html

    https://support.smartbear.com/testcomplete/docs/reference/program-objects/aqtextfile/methods.html

    https://support.smartbear.com/testcomplete/docs/reference/program-objects/aqstring/methods.html

    Once built a single function or method could read and parse the data for your existing looping structures.  It could be called through out your projects.  It would require a lot of re-factoring which stinks.

    What is your environment now?  Are your project(s) are script built or KWTs?  It mostly matters for how comfortable you are with scripting.   

     

  • rraghvani's avatar
    rraghvani
    Icon for Champion Level 3 rankChampion Level 3
    2 days ago

    You can implement your own method to read and parse the CSV file. There's plenty of examples in various languages on the Internet. Also, generative AI chatbot can produce examples for you too.

  • scot1967's avatar
    scot1967
    Icon for Champion Level 3 rankChampion Level 3
    2 days ago

    Hi Rachel53461,

    A CSV file is just a text file as you likely know.  It can be read straight in as text and added to an object.  aqFile, aqTextFile, aqString  

    You don't need the MS Access runtime.

    Another option is the DDT.CSVDriver...

    https://support.smartbear.com/testcomplete/docs/reference/program-objects/ddt/csvdriver.html

    Maybe I am not fully understanding your situation. If not hit me up with more information.

    Always happy to help!

    ... If you find my posts helpful drop me a Like👍 Be sure to mark the post as the Solution✅ when you get one to help others out and to credit the one who helped you. 😎

    • Rachel53461's avatar
      Rachel53461
      New Contributor
      2 days ago

      DDT.CSVDriver throws an exception when Microsoft Access Database Engine data access components are not installed. It's also listed as a pre-requisite for DDT on your (outdated) site here: 

      https://support.smartbear.com/testcomplete/docs/testing-with/data-driven/csv-storages.html

      I'm hoping there's an easy way to switch from DDT.CSVDriver to another method without having to rewrite all our test cases.