def METHOD_NAME(self, action_filename):
    """Parses the file and populates the data."""
    self.actions = list()
    self.hiid_to_action_index = dict()
    f = codecs.open(action_filename, 'r', encoding='latin-1')
    first_line = True
    for line in f:
        line = line.rstrip()
        if first_line:
            # Ignore the first line
            first_line = False
        else:
            self.actions.append(GenewaysAction(line))
            latestInd = len(self.actions)-1
            hiid = self.actions[latestInd].hiid
            if hiid in self.hiid_to_action_index:
                raise Exception('action hiid not unique: %d' % hiid)
            self.hiid_to_action_index[hiid] = latestInd