Clarity GEL Process with native Excel file hangs

Products

• Clarity PPM SaaS
• Clarity PPM On Premise

Issue/Introduction

GEL process runs and manipulates a native Excel file with Apache POI class. When the Excel file is above 22MB, the process hangs.

Environment

Any Supported Clarity Releases

Resolution

• Apache POI has multiple limitations with native Excel.
• Apache POI’s XSSF which handles the XLSX implementation will load most of the workbook into JVM memory by default.
• Very large .xlsx files can exhaust memory or cause the process to hang unless you change approach or increase heap size.
• This would explain why file size above 22M is not going through and hanging.
• Our recommendation would be to always remove any extra tabs / sheets and to keep the Excel file as small as possible
• As long term solution and best practice, Broadcom Support recommends going with flat file or CSV