# Adding external files in Talend Studio

Available in...

* Cloud API Services Platform
* Cloud Big Data
* Cloud Big Data Platform
* Cloud Data Fabric
* Cloud Data Integration
* Cloud Data Management Platform
* Data Fabric
* Qlik Talend Cloud Enterprise Edition
* Qlik Talend Cloud Premium Edition

You can use a context parameter in artifacts to allow web users to use external files during the task (artifact) execution.

## Before you begin

* The artifact is open in Talend Studio and the Context view below the design workspace is selected.

  If this tab does not show in Talend Studio, click Window > Show view > Talend , and select Context.

## About this task

For example, create a artifact that imports customer records from an xlsx file.

## Procedure

1. Click the [+] button in the Context view to add a line in the table.
2. In the Name field, define the context parameter following the pattern resource\_file\_<parameter\_name>, all in lower case.

   Use resource\_file\_customers in this example as you want to get data from the customers file.
3. Set the type of the parameter to String.
4. In the Value field, set the path to the file which is stored locally on your system.
5. Double-click the tFileInputExcel component to open its basic settings, define the schema, and define the file name as a context parameter, context.resource\_file\_customers.
   ### Example

   ![Basic settings view.](https://help.qlik.com/talend/en-US/studio-user-guide/Resources/images/use_case-add_external_file2.png)
6. Run the artifact in Talend Studio to test it.

   Set the path to the customers file when prompted.

   ![Execution results.](https://help.qlik.com/talend/en-US/studio-user-guide/Resources/images/use_case-add_external_file3.png)

   The customer records are imported from the xlsx file.
7. Right-click the artifact in the Repository tree view and select Publish to Cloud.