pfx-excel:marshal | Pricefx Knowledge Base

Transforms internal representation into the Excel format.

Input: List<Map<String, String>> — a list of rows, where each row is a map of column name to value.
Output: byte[] — the generated Excel file content. Returns null when using fileToAppend (output is written directly to file).

Properties

Option	Type	Default	Since	Description
`hasHeaderRecord`	Boolean	`true`	IM 1.1.18	Indicates whether the input contains a header record (must be on the first row).
`skipHeaderRecord`	Boolean	`false`	IM 1.1.18	Determines whether to skip the header record in the output.
`header`	String		IM 1.1.18	Comma-separated list of headers from the input which should be present in the output. When set, only the specified columns are included.
`format`	String	`xlsx`	IM 1.1.18	Sets the format of the output file. Options: `xlsx`, `xls`.
`sheetIndex`	Integer	`0`	IM 1.1.18	Index of the sheet to write data to.
`sheetName`	String		IM 1.1.18	Name of the sheet to write data to. If filled, takes precedence over `sheetIndex`.
`fileToAppend`	String		PFIMCORE-1876 (Feb 2024)	Full path to an existing Excel file to append data to. When set, data is appended to the target file instead of creating a new one. Uses `SXSSFWorkbook` for memory-efficient streaming writes. Supports split operations — state is preserved across split exchanges.
`dataConversionMode`	Enum	`AUTO`	IM 6.0.13 (PFIMCORE-2687, Oct 2025)	Controls automatic data type conversion for cell values. `AUTO` — attempts to parse values as integers and writes them as numeric cells (falls back to string on failure). `NONE` — writes all values as string cells without any conversion.

Data Type Handling

Mode	Behavior
`AUTO` (default)	Attempts to parse each value as an integer. If successful, writes a numeric cell; otherwise writes a string cell.
`NONE`	All values are written as string cells regardless of content. Useful when leading zeros or specific formatting must be preserved (e.g., SKU codes like `00010`).

Examples

Marshal data into Excel format (default)

XML

<route>
  <from uri="direct:start"/>
  <setBody>
    <groovy>[[sku: 'sku', name: 'name'], [sku: 10, name: 'BMW'], [sku: 20, name: 'AUDI']]</groovy>
  </setBody>
  <to uri="pfx-excel:marshal"/>
</route>

Marshal with dataConversionMode=NONE (preserve leading zeros)

XML

<route>
  <from uri="direct:start"/>
  <setBody>
    <groovy>[[sku: 00010, name: 'BMW'], [sku: 020, name: 'AUDI']]</groovy>
  </setBody>
  <to uri="pfx-excel:marshal?header=sku,name&amp;hasHeaderRecord=false&amp;dataConversionMode=NONE"/>
</route>

Append data to an existing Excel file

XML

<route>
  <from uri="direct:start"/>
  <split>
    <simple>${body}</simple>
    <to uri="pfx-excel:marshal?fileToAppend=/tmp/output/result.xlsx"/>
  </split>
</route>

Each split chunk is appended to the target file. The workbook state is preserved across splits and finalized when the last split is processed (Exchange.SPLIT_COMPLETE).

Common Pitfalls

Leading zeros lost — Default AUTO mode converts 00010 to numeric 10. Use dataConversionMode=NONE for SKU codes, EAN codes, or any field where leading zeros matter.
Large files with fileToAppend — When using fileToAppend inside a split, the output body is null (data is written directly to file). Do not chain further body-dependent steps after marshal.
XLS vs XLSX — Default output format is xlsx. If you need xls for legacy systems, set format=xls explicitly.