File Import - Issue Data

The file import utility allows the administrator to upload a tab-delimited or comma-delimited file from their client computer, for the fields and values within this file to be mapped to ExtraView values, to validate the data and to finally import the data. Data can be uploaded as new issues, or can be used to update existing issues. Access to this feature is via the security permission key named CF_FILE_IMPORT. The import works as a separate process for each business area and project, therefore your import files will only target a single business area and project. For a field to be imported, it must exist on the appropriate add layout or one of its embedded layouts for the business area and project.

Typically, the files to be imported will contain data from other systems that is to be inserted into ExtraView. Microsoft Excel is a good tool that can be used to prepare data in the appropriate format for the import. The process followed is:

  • Create a template for the import and upload the file
  • ExtraView automatically provides mappings for fields that are both in the uploaded file and within the ExtraView database
  • ExtraView automatically provides mappings for field values that are both in the uploaded file and within the ExtraView database
  • You can see the results of the mapping and alter the mapping of any field or field value
  • You may then validate the uploaded data, ensuring the file is error free before performing the upload
  • If there are errors, you can fix these and upload the file again, into the same template
  • Finally, you can perform the import and insert the records.

Note: ExtraView will ignore whether fields are or are not mandatory when importing data. It will also ignore whether fields have correct allowed value relationships when importing data. It will not ignore read-only fields and later in this section, you will find how to import fields that are read-only on your edit screen layout. However, when you edit any of these records in the web-interface or via the CLI, and attempt to update, the appropriate validations will be performed and you must correct any errors of these types at this time. Fields with default values defined in the data dictionary will have the default value created, unless there is a value provided in the import file.