CSV Import Data

By gversion - October 3, 2018

Hello,

I have noticed that the database table called, "_csv_import_data" has 36828 records. Can I safely empty this table via phpMyAdmin? It is taking up 1.6 MB of space. I notice I cannot remove the records via the cmsb admin area.

Thank you,

Greg

By daniel - October 5, 2018

Hi Greg,

Yes, this is a temporary data table used during the import process. It should be safe to manually empty it, so long as there are no ongoing import jobs.

However, the CSV Import plugin should be clearing this table out automatically through regular usage. To trigger the automatic cleanup process, simply visit the "Import CSV File" page. If this doesn't work, you can also check the "Import Jobs >>" page to see if there are any old/stuck jobs; these can be deleted, and the cleanup process triggered again.

Let me know if you have any further questions!

Thanks,

Daniel
Technical Lead
interactivetools.com

By gversion - October 8, 2018

Hi Daniel,

Thank you for your message.

I visited the Import CSV File page and this did indeed remove the records from the database table so I can now see _csv_import_data (0) in the list of Section Editors. However the table size is still being displayed as 1.6MB. Do you know why this might be if there are no records in the table?

Thank you for your assistance.

Regards,

Greg

By daniel - October 9, 2018

Hi Greg,

This is likely being caused by table "overhead" which will commonly happen when deleting records; the section editor reports the total space that the table is using on the disk, which may not be the same as the space taken up by data/records. You can confirm if this is the case in phpMyAdmin by checking under the "overhead" column when viewing the list of tables in a database. To get rid of overhead, simply check the box beside the table, and select "Optimize table" from the drop-down near the bottom of the page.

Overhead generally isn't of critical concern, unless it starts taking up a significant amount of disk space, or the table is performing poorly. However, there's no harm in periodically optimizing tables with overhead, and it may improve performance depending on table size/usage. Overhead won't contribute to the size of database backups.

Let me know if you have any further questions!

Thanks,

Daniel
Technical Lead
interactivetools.com