Extract from File

Extract structured data from binary files (CSV, spreadsheets, PDF, JSON, XML, text, ICS)

Overview

The Extract from File tool parses binary file data attached to workflow items and converts it into structured JSON output. For tabular formats (CSV, XLSX, XLS, ODS, HTML, RTF), it produces one output item per row — this is a 1:N expansion. For non-tabular formats (PDF, JSON, text, XML, ICS, base64) and for the markdown/OCR operations, it produces one output item per input item (1:1). No credentials required — all parsing is local, apart from the vision-assisted operations, which use an AI model.

Category: Core Nodes
Tool Name: extract_from_file
Version: 1

Appearance: Icon: lucide-FileOutput | Color: #2244FF

Node Type

Action (Binary) — handles file/binary data operations

Input / Output

Direction	Port(s)
Input	Input
Output	Output, Error

Credentials

This tool does not require any credentials.

Operations

Operation	Value	Description
Extract From CSV	csv	Transform a CSV file into output items
Extract From HTML	html	Transform a table in an HTML file into output items
Extract From ICS	fromIcs	Transform an ICS calendar file into output items
Extract From JSON	fromJson	Transform a JSON file into output items
Extract From ODS	ods	Transform an ODS file into output items
Extract From PDF	pdf	Extract content and metadata from a PDF file
Extract From RTF	rtf	Transform a table in an RTF file into output items
Extract From Text File	text	Extract the content of a text file
Extract From XML	xml	Extract the content of an XML file
Extract From XLS	xls	Transform an Excel XLS file into output items
Extract From XLSX	xlsx	Transform an Excel XLSX file into output items
Move File to Base64 String	binaryToProperty	Convert a file into a base64-encoded string
PDF to Markdown (Advanced)	pdfToMarkdown	Extract PDF to structured markdown with Vision OCR fallback for scanned documents
Document to Markdown	documentToMarkdown	Convert DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, HTML, EPUB and other documents to markdown
Image OCR + Description	imageOCR	Extract text via OCR and generate a visual description of the image

Parameters

Operations that share a parameter set are documented together.

Extract From CSV / HTML / RTF / ODS / XLS / XLSX (csv, html, rtf, ods, xls, xlsx)

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Options	collection	No	{}	Parsing options for the tabular file.
— Delimiter	string	No	,	Set the field delimiter for CSV parsing. (shown when Operation is csv)
— Encoding	options	No	utf-8	The character encoding of the CSV file. (shown when Operation is csv)
				Options: ascii, latin1, ucs-2, ucs2, utf-8, utf16le, utf8
— Exclude Byte Order Mark (BOM)	boolean	No	false	Whether to detect and exclude the byte-order-mark from the CSV input if present. (shown when Operation is csv)
— Preserve Quotes	boolean	No	false	Whether to handle unclosed quotes in CSV fields as part of the field content instead of throwing a parsing error. (shown when Operation is csv)
— Header Row	boolean	No	true	Whether the first row of the file contains the header names. (shown when Operation is csv, html, ods, xls, xlsx)
— Include Empty Cells	boolean	No	false	Whether to include empty cells. They will be filled with an empty string. (shown when Operation is csv, html, ods, xls, xlsx)
— Max Number of Rows to Load	number	No	-1	Stop handling records after the requested number of rows are read. Use -1 to load all rows. (shown when Operation is csv)
— Range	string	No	—	The range to read from the table. If set to a number it will be the starting row. If set to a string it will be used as A1-style notation range. (shown when Operation is ods, xls, xlsx)
— RAW Data	boolean	No	false	Whether to return RAW data instead of parsing it. (shown when Operation is ods, xls, xlsx, html, rtf)
— Read As String	boolean	No	false	In some cases and file formats, it is necessary to read as string to ensure special characters are interpreted correctly. (shown when Operation is ods, xls, xlsx, html, rtf)
— Sheet Name	string	No	—	Name of the sheet to read from in the spreadsheet. If not set, the first sheet will be used. (shown when Operation is ods, xls, xlsx)
— Starting Line	number	No	0	Start handling records from the requested line number. Starts at 0. (shown when Operation is csv)
— Skip Records With Errors	fixedCollection	No	{ value: { enabled: false, maxSkippedRecords: -1 } }	How to handle rows that fail to parse. (shown when Operation is csv)
— — Enabled	boolean	No	false	Whether to skip records with errors when reading from file.
— — Max Skipped Records	number	No	-1	The maximum number of records that can be skipped. Set to -1 to remove limit.

Extract From JSON / Text File / XML / ICS and Move File to Base64 String (fromJson, text, xml, fromIcs, binaryToProperty)

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Destination Output Field	string	Yes	data	The name of the output JSON field to place the extracted data in. Supports dot notation for nested paths.
Options	collection	No	{}	Decoding options and what to keep from the input item.
— File Encoding	options	No	utf8	Specify the encoding of the file, defaults to UTF-8. (shown when Operation is fromJson, text, fromIcs, xml)
				Options: armscii8, ascii, base64, big5hkscs, binary, cesu8, cp1046, cp1124, cp1125, cp1129, cp1133, cp1161, cp1162, cp1163, cp437, cp720, cp737, cp775, cp808, cp850, latin1, ucs2, utf16le, utf8
— Strip BOM	boolean	No	true	Whether to strip the BOM (Byte Order Mark) from the file. (shown when Operation is fromJson, text, fromIcs, xml)
— Keep Source	options	No	json	What data from the input item to keep on the output.
				Options: json (include JSON data of the input item), binary (include binary data of the input item), both

Extract From PDF (pdf)

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Options	collection	No	{}	Page handling, password and source-retention settings.
— Join Pages	boolean	No	true	Whether to join the text from all pages into a single string or return an array of text from each page.
— Keep Source	options	No	json	What data from the input item to keep on the output.
				Options: json (include JSON data of the input item), binary (include binary data of the input item), both
— Max Pages	number	No	0	Maximum number of pages to include. Set to 0 for all pages.
— Password	string	No	—	Password for encrypted PDF files.

PDF to Markdown / Document to Markdown / Image OCR (pdfToMarkdown, documentToMarkdown, imageOCR)

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Destination Output Field	string	Yes	data	The name of the output JSON field to place the extracted data in. Supports dot notation for nested paths.
Options	collection	No	{}	OCR and source-retention settings.
— Enable Vision OCR Fallback	boolean	No	true	For scanned PDFs: if text extraction returns less than 50 characters, render pages as images and read them with a vision model. (shown when Operation is pdfToMarkdown)
— Max Pages (OCR)	number	No	20	Maximum number of pages to render for Vision OCR (scanned PDFs only). Higher values increase cost and processing time. (shown when Operation is pdfToMarkdown)
— Keep Source	options	No	json	What data from the input item to keep on the output.
				Options: json (include JSON data of the input item), binary (include binary data of the input item), both

All Operations

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
Input Binary Field	string	Yes	data	The name of the input binary field containing the file data to be processed. Names are case-sensitive — see the upstream node’s Binary Data panel for the exact names to use.
Max Concurrency	number	No	10	Maximum number of items to process concurrently.

Output Data

How many items come out, and what is on them, depends on the family the operation belongs to.

Tabular operations (csv, html, rtf, ods, xls, xlsx)

One output item per row — a 1000-row spreadsheet becomes 1000 items. The row replaces the item JSON entirely; the input item’s own fields are not merged in. The input binary is forwarded onto every row item, so a downstream node still sees the source file.

With Header Row on (the default), each item is an object keyed by the header names:

{
  "name": "Ada Lovelace",
  "email": "ada@example.com",
  "signups": 12
}

With Header Row off, the values arrive positionally under a single row array:

{
  "row": ["Ada Lovelace", "ada@example.com", 12]
}

A file that parses to zero rows produces no output items at all for that input item.

PDF (pdf)

One output item carrying the document’s text and metadata:

{
  "numpages": 12,
  "numrender": 12,
  "info": { "Title": "Annual Report", "Author": "Finance" },
  "metadata": {},
  "text": "Page one text…\n\nPage two text…",
  "version": "4.0.379"
}

• text is a single joined string when Join Pages is on, and an array with one entry per page when it is off.
• numpages is the document’s real page count even when Max Pages limited how much text was read.
• info is the PDF’s own document-info dictionary, or null when the file carries none.

Single-value operations (fromJson, text, xml, fromIcs, binaryToProperty) and the markdown/OCR operations

One output item, with the extracted value written at Destination Output Field. A dotted name such as document.content creates the nesting it needs.

Operation	Value written to the field
fromJson	The parsed JSON — an object or array, not a string. An empty file yields {}, and a file that is not valid JSON fails the item.
text	The decoded file contents as a string.
xml	The decoded file contents as a string, left as XML for a downstream parser.
fromIcs	The parsed calendar as an object.
binaryToProperty	The file as a base64-encoded string.
pdfToMarkdown, documentToMarkdown, imageOCR	The extracted text as a markdown string.

Keep Source

Keep Source controls what survives from the input item, for every operation that offers it:

Value	Output JSON	Output binary
json	Input fields kept, result added	The source binary property is removed; other binary properties are kept
binary	Input fields dropped, result only	All input binary kept, including the source
both	Input fields kept, result added	All input binary kept, including the source

Dropping the source file with json is the default because a parsed file is usually no longer needed and carrying it forward costs storage on every downstream item.

Usage Examples

• Parse a CSV file into individual row items
• Extract all rows from an Excel XLSX spreadsheet
• Extract text and metadata from a PDF document
• Parse a JSON file from binary data
• Extract XML content from a binary file
• Parse an ICS calendar file into structured events
• Convert a binary file to a base64 string
• Read an ODS spreadsheet with a specific sheet name
• Parse CSV with custom delimiter and encoding

Example Configuration

Parse a CSV with headers:

{
  "type": "extract_from_file",
  "parameters": {
    "operation": "csv",
    "binaryPropertyName": "data",
    "maxConcurrency": 10,
    "options": {
      "delimiter": ",",
      "encoding": "utf-8",
      "headerRow": true,
      "includeEmptyCells": false
    }
  }
}

Read a named sheet and a cell range from an Excel workbook:

{
  "type": "extract_from_file",
  "parameters": {
    "operation": "xlsx",
    "binaryPropertyName": "excelFile",
    "maxConcurrency": 5,
    "options": {
      "sheetName": "DataSheet",
      "range": "A1:Z100",
      "headerRow": true,
      "maxRowCount": 50
    }
  }
}

Extract text from a password-protected PDF, capped at ten pages:

{
  "type": "extract_from_file",
  "parameters": {
    "operation": "pdf",
    "binaryPropertyName": "pdfData",
    "maxConcurrency": 3,
    "options": {
      "joinPages": true,
      "maxPages": 10,
      "password": "secret123",
      "keepSource": "json"
    }
  }
}

Parse a JSON file into a nested output field:

{
  "type": "extract_from_file",
  "parameters": {
    "operation": "fromJson",
    "binaryPropertyName": "jsonFile",
    "destinationKey": "parsedData.content",
    "maxConcurrency": 10,
    "options": {
      "encoding": "utf8",
      "stripBOM": true,
      "keepSource": "json"
    }
  }
}

Convert a file to base64 for an API that expects it inline:

{
  "type": "extract_from_file",
  "parameters": {
    "operation": "binaryToProperty",
    "binaryPropertyName": "imageFile",
    "destinationKey": "base64Image",
    "maxConcurrency": 10,
    "options": {
      "keepSource": "json"
    }
  }
}

Pull the rows out of an HTML table:

{
  "type": "extract_from_file",
  "parameters": {
    "operation": "html",
    "binaryPropertyName": "htmlContent",
    "maxConcurrency": 10,
    "options": {
      "encoding": "utf-8",
      "headerRow": true,
      "includeEmptyCells": false
    }
  }
}

Read an XML file into a field for a downstream parser:

{
  "type": "extract_from_file",
  "parameters": {
    "operation": "xml",
    "binaryPropertyName": "xmlData",
    "destinationKey": "xmlContent",
    "maxConcurrency": 10,
    "options": {
      "encoding": "utf8",
      "stripBOM": true
    }
  }
}

Process a spreadsheet, tolerating up to ten bad rows:

{
  "type": "extract_from_file",
  "parameters": {
    "operation": "xlsx",
    "binaryPropertyName": "spreadsheetData",
    "maxConcurrency": 5,
    "options": {
      "headerRow": true,
      "includeEmptyCells": false,
      "maxRowCount": 1000,
      "readAsString": false,
      "skipRecordsWithErrors": {
        "value": {
          "enabled": true,
          "maxSkippedRecords": 10
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Turn a scanned PDF into markdown, letting OCR handle image-only pages:

{
  "type": "extract_from_file",
  "parameters": {
    "operation": "pdfToMarkdown",
    "binaryPropertyName": "data",
    "destinationKey": "document.markdown",
    "options": {
      "enableOCR": true,
      "maxPages": 20,
      "keepSource": "json"
    }
  }
}

Parse an ICS calendar file into structured events:

{
  "type": "extract_from_file",
  "parameters": {
    "operation": "fromIcs",
    "binaryPropertyName": "calendarFile",
    "destinationKey": "events",
    "maxConcurrency": 10,
    "options": {
      "encoding": "utf8",
      "keepSource": "json"
    }
  }
}

Error Handling

Mode	Behavior
stop	Halts workflow on first error
continue	Skips failed items, passes successful ones through
errorPort	Routes failed items to Error output port

Tips

Parse binary files (CSV, XLSX, PDF, JSON, XML, text, ICS) into structured JSON data — tabular formats produce one output item per row.

Common Patterns

• Spreadsheet data processing — use xlsx or ods with Header Row on, cap the run with Max Number of Rows to Load while testing, and enable Skip Records With Errors for messy exports.
• Document content extraction — use text with a dotted Destination Output Field so the content lands in a tidy nested structure.
• Calendar data processing — use fromIcs and read the events out of the destination field downstream.

Choosing a PDF operation

• pdf is local, fast and free. Use it for PDFs with a real text layer.
• pdfToMarkdown preserves structure — headings, lists, tables — and falls back to vision OCR for scanned pages, which costs model tokens. Use it when layout matters or the PDF is a scan.

Notes

• The operation, not the file name, decides how the bytes are parsed. Pointing csv at a spreadsheet fails the item.
• Tabular extraction multiplies your item count. Add a Limit or Filter node downstream before writing rows to an external system.
• documentToMarkdown reads the file name from the binary property to pick a converter, so upstream nodes should keep a correct extension on the file.