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 record to be imported and inserted as new, it must exist on the appropriate add layout or one of its embedded layouts for the business area and project. For a record to be imported and update an existing record, it must exist on the appropriate edit 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:
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.
When you use the File Import Utility, you create a template that may be reused as many times as needed. This aids the sometimes repetitive process of validating and correcting your data. You can set up the field and value mappings once, and upload your import file as often as is required, validating the data as you progress. This also aids the routine uploading and importing of data from other sources, as the same mappings can be used each time, without the need to set these up.
There are three import modes from which to select, when you create the import template: