Exporting and importing externally edited iBase Data

You can export data from iBase for editing in a different application, and then re-import it. This allows you to manipulate the data in a set of records without accessing each record independently.

About this task

There are two ways of doing this. You can:
  • Export the records in the usual way and then, when importing, carefully match the records so that the edited data updates the correct records.
  • Export the data along with their record IDs in order to avoid the need for record matching during the import.

This topic describes how to export and import data with visible record IDs. For details of how to perform a standard export and import, see the iBase help:

Procedure

  1. Before you can export data that has a visible record ID, you must ensure that you have the Record ID field type associated with each of your entity and link types.
  2. Export the records that you want to edit in the usual way. You should export the data to a text file.
    Tip: You may prefer to make editing easier by including the field names in the first row.
  3. Edit the data.
    When editing the data:

    • Do not change the values in the record ID field.

    • Do not add new records - only existing records will be updated using this method.

    • Take care not to edit or delete characters such as text qualifiers and field delimiters.

  4. Reimport the edited data:
    1. In Step 1 of the Import Wizard, in the Source area, turn on The import source contains 'Record ID's that originated from this database.
      This option is unavailable if the entity type does not have visible record IDs. In this case, you will need to match the records carefully when you import them.
    2. Click Next to display the Step 2 page.
    3. Enter the file name. You do not need to set any of other options on this page. Click Next.
    4. Click Auto Assign, to automatically assign fields in the source data to the iBase fields.
    5. Check that the fields are assigned correctly. You must map the iBase Record ID type field to the import source field that contains the record ID. Click Next.
    6. You do not need to decide whether to check for matching records because iBase will automatically check against the record ID and only update existing records. Any new record IDs will not be accepted; new records will not be created. Click OK to continue.
    7. Complete the import in the usual way.