Error using Drupal Feeds to upload a comment in a text field

Question

I am loading data from a CSV file into a content type and everything is working fine except when I try to import a long text field / comment field. The data in the comment field should be treated as straight text.

Here is my data I am trying to upload via feeds:

LP 8/28/13 strategy: extend to 2020. LP 4/8 LL First Allied rejected concept. LP 4/17 meeting: 5 yrs. LP 9/24/14 strategy: 10 yrs.3/2-Spoke w/Jordan Raines-First Allied last week. Submitted LOI on 3/2.

When I try to upload this, I receive the error message:

SQLSTATE[22007]: Invalid datetime format: 1366 Incorrect string value: '\xFFexten...' for column 'field_store_comments_value' at row 1

SQLSTATE[22007]: Invalid datetime format: 1366 Incorrect string value: '\xFFexten...' for column 'message' at row 1

So my question is, how do I get Feeds import of a text string into a long text field to ignore the date strings in the comment? I do not want the dates treated as dates. I want the dates to be treated as a string of characters.

Or what am I doing wrong?

The CSV file has a comment in it. I know the Feeds map is correct because I put the test "This is a test comment" in the csv and it loaded fine. But when I put the full comment in, it does not work.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Dennis

Answer 1

I was running into this same issue myself where half of my records were getting cut off when I uploaded them via the Feeds Importer. I found an answer that was posted on a Drupal forum that indicates that the problem is not with Feeds, but with the file itself.

It appears that by default Excel exports your CSV file into ANSI format, which creates issues when there are dates embedded within one of your fields. By using Notepad++ and converting the file into UTF-8 it works. Here is the link which gives more details.

https://www.drupal.org/node/2502761

NOTE: It also appears that if the file is encoded in UTF-8 BOM, then the CSV file can still be read by Drupal and Excel. Otherwise Excel treats it as a fixed length record.