Overview - Fields for Import Tasks

Overview of form fields for import tasks.

Source File Definition

The form section Import settings defines the general properties of the source.

Format

  • The format of the source: CSV, XML, or DB (a connection to an external database). The format determines which of the fields below are shown.

Source Folder

  • Location of the source file on the server. Not shown for the DB format.

Encoding

  • Encoding format of the source file. UTF-8 encoding is commonly used, but some older systems still require ISO_8859_1 encoding. Only for CSV and XML files.

Exclude header

  • Only for CSV files: Defines whether the header of the source file should be ignored.

Trim data

  • Only for CSV files: Defines whether leading and trailing whitespace is removed from each value before it is imported.

Filters

  • Filter for source files that enables to define individual import tasks for different files within the same location.
  • Filter type * indicates that all files in the location are imported.
  • If only a specific file or a set of files with the same prefix must be imported, enter the prefix followed by an asterisk. Example: interpack*.
  • Not shown for the DB format.

Separator

  • Only for CSV files: Separator used within the CSV file. Example: ;.

Root element path

  • Only for XML files: The XPath expression that identifies the repeating element representing one record in the source file.

Database connection

  • Only for the DB format: The database type, host, port, database name, username, and password used to connect to the external database, and either a table to read from or a free-text SQL query.

On Error Rules

  • Defines how to handle errors during import. Example: Unclear mapping of CSV entry due to wrong separator.
  • Option Ignore and Continue defines that the line with the error is ignored and the import continues.
  • Option Stop and Rollback defines that the import job stops. manage.ID returns an error message and the data imported during this import job is removed. The data sets that were updated are rolled back to their version before the execution of the task.

Statuses

Only shown if the Statuses feature is enabled. The form section Statuses defines which status new or updated records receive.

New record status

  • The status assigned to a record that is newly created by this import task.

Updated record status

  • The status assigned to a record that already existed and is updated by this import task.

Keep record status

  • If enabled, an updated record keeps its previous status instead of being set to Updated record status.

File Handling After Import

The form section After importing defines how to handle files after a successful or unsuccessful import job.

Delete old data after (days)

  • Retention period for data that no longer exists in the new version of the imported file. The old data is kept in the database for the set amount of days and afterwards deleted.

Move to

  • Source file is moved to a separate location.

Change file extension

  • Source file is marked by a new file extension.

Delete

  • Source file is directly deleted.

Add timestamp

  • A timestamp is added to the source file.

Document and Resource Import Fields

Document and Resource imports aren’t master data, but they use the same import task type. They use a simpler set of fields instead of the field mapping above, since these import types match files by name rather than by column:

Tags

  • The tag assigned to the imported layout or resource files. The tag also determines which printers the files are synchronized to.

Delete not used files

  • Only for Resource imports: If enabled, previously imported resource files with the current tag that are no longer present in the source folder are deleted. There is no equivalent option for Document imports.

Schedule

The form section Schedule defines the repetitions of an import task. manage.ID supports import tasks with regular intervals and import tasks that run on manually defined dates and times.