datatools-dev/docs/USER-GUIDE.md

🌐 Language: English · Español

User Guide

Version: 1.6 · Updated: 2026-05-01

0. First launch — activation

DataTools must be activated before any tools unlock. On first launch you'll see the Activate screen.

You have…	Do this
A paid license blob (from your purchase email)	Enter your full name + email, paste the entire blob (starts with DTLIC1:), click Activate.
Nothing yet, want to evaluate	Enter your name + email, click Start 1-year trial. The app self-issues a 1-year trial license — no payment required.

Renewal works the same way: paste the renewal blob, click Apply renewal. The expiry resets to one year from the renewal date.

The license file lives at ~/.datatools/license.json (Windows: C:\Users\<you>\.datatools\license.json). The sidebar shows your tier and days remaining at all times. A renewal warning appears 30 days before expiry.

If you ever want to use the same license on a different machine, deactivate this one (Activate page → Deactivate this device) and re-paste your blob on the new machine.

1. Install

You don't need Python — the bundle is self-contained.

OS	File	How
Windows	BundleName-Setup-1.0.exe	Double-click installer → desktop shortcut.
macOS	BundleName-1.0.dmg	Mount, drag to Applications. Signed + notarized.
Linux	BundleName-1.0.AppImage	chmod +x, double-click. (.tar.gz fallback available.)

Launching opens your default browser to a local page (http://localhost:8501).

How the GUI works

• Runs locally on your machine. No internet, no upload.
• Browser is just the display surface. Closing it stops the underlying program.
• Prefer the terminal? Every tool ships with a CLI too (Section 3).

System requirements

• Windows 10/11 (64-bit), macOS 11+, modern Linux (2020+).
• Modern browser (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari, last 3 years).
• ~400-500 MB free disk space.

Full numbered support matrix: REQUIREMENTS.md.

2. What's included

#	Tool	Purpose	Status
01	Deduplicator	Exact + fuzzy match, 5 normalizers, audit	Ready
02	Text Cleaner	Whitespace, smart chars, BOM, line endings, case ops	Ready
03	Format Standardizer	Dates / phones / emails / addresses / names / currencies / booleans	Ready
04	Missing Value Handler	Disguised nulls, imputation, drop-by-threshold	Coming Soon
05	Column Mapper	Rename + enforce schema	Coming Soon
06	Outlier Detector	z-score, IQR, multivariate	Coming Soon
07	Multi-File Merger	Combine multiple files	Coming Soon
08	Validator & Reporter	Rules + PDF/Excel report	Coming Soon
09	Pipeline Runner	One-click multi-tool launcher	Coming Soon

Sample data (samples/): messy_sales.csv, bank_export.xlsx.

3. Usage

3.1 GUI (recommended)

1. Launch the bundle.
2. Pick a tool from the sidebar.
3. Drop your file (or select a sample).
4. Defaults are pre-filled — click Run to preview.
5. Click Save Output to write the cleaned file.

Advanced options are tucked in expander panes. The original file is never modified.

3.2 CLI

deduplicator       customers.csv [--apply]
text-cleaner       messy.csv     [--apply]
format-standardize feed.csv      [--apply]

Get help: deduplicator --help. Full reference: CLI-REFERENCE.md.

3.3 Run order (when running tools manually)

If you skip the Pipeline Runner, follow this order:

1. 02 Text Cleaner first — normalizes whitespace + special chars.
2. 03 Format Standardizer — dates, phones, etc. need cleaned text.
3. 04 Missing Value Handler — sentinel codes hide as numbers.
4. 05 Column Mapper — schema before outlier stats.
5. 06 Outlier Detector — needs clean numerics. Stats on data with NaN or -999 are mathematically poisoned.
6. 07 Multi-File Merger, 08 Validator as needed.
7. 01 Deduplicator is order-flexible (normalizes internally for matching).

The Pipeline Runner enforces this automatically.

3.4 Language

The sidebar has a Language / Idioma picker. Two packs ship today:

• English (default)
• Español

Pick a language once — the choice persists for the session and the picker is visible from every page. Switch any time; the page re-renders in place with no data loss.

Coverage (v1.6): home page, tool cards, the upload + analysis panel, the findings list, the Review & Normalize gate prompt, the sidebar picker, and the shutdown screen. Per-tool page bodies (advanced-option labels, column-mapper prompts, dedup review labels) are tracked for future packs — they currently render in English in both modes. If a string you'd expect to switch doesn't, that's a missing pack key, not a bug in the picker; email support with a screenshot.

4. Review & Normalize gate

Every uploaded file is scanned before any tool sees it.

Confidence tiers:

• High — round-trip safe. One-click "Auto-fix high-confidence" applies them all.
• Medium — usually right, occasional false positives. Preview first.
• Low — heuristic. Off by default; opt in per finding.
• Error — blocks the gate (empty file, U+FFFD, unrepairable rows).

Encoding override: when the picker reports encoding_uncertain or you spot mojibake (é) or <EFBFBD> chars, choose the right codepage at the top of the page (cp1252 for Western Excel, KOI8-R for older Russian, Big5 for traditional Chinese, …) → Re-analyze.

Advanced output: an ⚙️ expander on the download lets you tune encoding, delimiter, and line terminator. The download filename auto-adjusts (.tsv for tab, .csv otherwise).

5. Output

Every run writes:

• Cleaned file next to the input (or wherever you specify).
• Audit file (per-cell changes for text/format tools, match groups for dedup).
• Timestamped log in logs/.

Original input is never modified.

6. Troubleshooting

• GUI won't launch / browser doesn't open — wait 10-15 s; manually visit http://localhost:8501. Port-in-use error → close other instances.
• Why does my browser open? — local web app pattern (same as Jupyter, RStudio). Nothing leaves your machine.
• Windows SmartScreen — click "More info" → "Run anyway". Standard for non-EV-signed software.
• macOS "App is damaged" — re-download (file likely corrupted in transit).
• Linux AppImage won't run — chmod +x file.AppImage. Missing FUSE → sudo apt install libfuse2 or use .tar.gz.
• Slow on large file — over ~100k rows takes longer; progress bar shows. Multi-million rows → use the CLI directly.
• Need help — email the address on your purchase receipt.

7. License

Single-user. See LICENSE.txt.