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jlong1231
New Participant
June 23, 2020
Answered

Error - "Incoming Variable Library Is Invalid" while uploading a CSV data source file in Illustrator

  • June 23, 2020
  • 13 replies
  • 67218 views

Hey all!

I'm trying to make a bunch of business cards using a template en masse with a Excel document.

This contains Inuktitut characters that I would like to remain in the finished product. I've tried it with and without the Inuktitut, all the cells are filled and I've done a search for all empty cells to be sure. Each time, the result is the same: invalid library. What could be going wrong?

 

Here is what happened when I tried to investigate possible problems listed here: https://helpx.adobe.com/in/illustrator/using/data-driven-graphics-templates-variables.html#FacingissueswhileimportingyourCSVfile

 

Your CSV file is not blank.
I've checked.

The spreadsheets that you've created using the latest version of Microsoft Excel are saved as CSV (Comma delimited) (*.csv) or CSV (MS-DOS) (*.csv) and those created using Apple Numbers are saved as CSV format with Unicode (UTF-8) encoding. Data source files saved in any other file format such as Macintosh Comma Separated (*.csv) are not supported for data merge.
Done. Both with comma delimited and MS-DOS.

All columns have a data field name. For example, Illustrator displays the error message when a column in your data source file contains data but doesn't have a data field name.
Done. All columns have a data field name.

The data source file doesn't have a blank column in between any filled columns. For example, Illustrator displays the error message when column B and D in your data source file contain data but column C is empty.
There are no blank columns. I've used find and replace to verify.

A. Data field name is missing for a column B. There's a blank column between filled columns
There are no blank field names.

The data field names in your spreadsheet don't contain any blank spaces.
There are no blank spaces.

The paths referring to image and graph files in your source file don't contain any blank spaces.
There are no blank spaces, image files or graphs.

The graph files linked from your data source file are saved as comma-delimited (.csv) files.
There is no graph.

 

 

{Renamed by MOD}

    Correct answer Kasandra

    You need to use a spreadsheet program like excel or google sheets to update the headers. The headers can't have spaces in them. So in the screenshot above the changed the header from "Variable 1" to "Variable1"

    13 replies

    Show previous replies
    S
    Shorouq Abbadi
    New Participant
    May 11, 2021

    I know this is a super late reply, but did you try removing special characters? The / and ?

    J
    jlong1231Author
    New Participant
    June 25, 2020

    Does anyone else have any theories?

      J
      jlong1231Author
      New Participant
      June 26, 2020

      Bump!

        Monika Gause
        Monika Gause
        Community Expert
        June 26, 2020

        If it doesn't work, can you try the VariableImporter script?

        Illustrator is just very prissy about CSV ...

         

        https://github.com/Silly-V/Adobe-Illustrator/blob/master/Variable%20Importer/VariableImporter.jsx

          Srishti Bali
          Community Manager
          Srishti BaliCommunity Manager
          Community Manager
          June 23, 2020

          Hi there,

           

          Sorry to hear about your difficulties. If I get it correctly, you are getting this error The incoming variable library is invalid while uploading a CSV data source file. There could be multiple reasons behind why this would have happened. Few of them are listed in this help article (https://helpx.adobe.com/in/illustrator/using/data-driven-graphics-templates-variables.html#FacingissueswhileimportingyourCSVfile). 

           

          Let us know if this helps or if you have any further questions.

           

          Regards,

          Srishti

            J
            jlong1231Author
            New Participant
            June 24, 2020

            Thank you kindly for your advice. Here are the results of me having followed that link. Where do we go from here? Incidentally, using CSV with UTF-8 encoding did not preserve the special characters that are required for Inuktitut syllabics. 

             

            Your CSV file is not blank.
            I've checked.

            The spreadsheets that you've created using the latest version of Microsoft Excel are saved as CSV (Comma delimited) (*.csv) or CSV (MS-DOS) (*.csv) and those created using Apple Numbers are saved as CSV format with Unicode (UTF-8) encoding. Data source files saved in any other file format such as Macintosh Comma Separated (*.csv) are not supported for data merge.
            Done. Both with comma delimited and MS-DOS.

            All columns have a data field name. For example, Illustrator displays the error message when a column in your data source file contains data but doesn't have a data field name.
            Done. All columns have a data field name.

            The data source file doesn't have a blank column in between any filled columns. For example, Illustrator displays the error message when column B and D in your data source file contain data but column C is empty.
            There are no blank columns. I've used find and replace to verify.

            A. Data field name is missing for a column B. There's a blank column between filled columns
            There are no blank field names.

            The data field names in your spreadsheet don't contain any blank spaces.
            There are no blank spaces.

            The paths referring to image and graph files in your source file don't contain any blank spaces.
            There are no blank spaces, image files or graphs.

            The graph files linked from your data source file are saved as comma-delimited (.csv) files.
            There is no graph.

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