Importing data with an existing specification

How records are imported is defined in an import specification. Your system administrator might set up the import specifications for you, or you might need to create your own.

About this task

The import specification defines the following details of the import:
  • Which entity type or link type is being imported.
  • For links, which entity types are imported as the link ends.
  • The path or file that contains the data to import.
  • How values in the data correspond to fields in the database.
  • If you want to check for potential duplicates, which fields are used to check whether the data matches any existing records, and what happens when a match is found.
  • Whether a set is created to contain the imported data, and its name.
The import specification can be defined to prompt for confirmation before records are updated or created. If this prompt is enabled, you need to confirm whether:
  • An existing record is updated with data from matching information in the import file.
  • When there is no matching record, whether a new record is created.
Note: You cannot run import specifications that import entities or links for which you do not have write permission to all the fields, or if you do not have permission to create sets.

Procedure

To use an existing import specification:
  1. Right-click on Import Specifications and from the menu, select List.
  2. Double-click an existing import specification to load it.
  3. Click Next to review the details of the import specification.
  4. Optional: Click Session Defaults to define default values for the standard fields that are common to all entity and link types in the database and link strength. They are not saved as part of the import specification.
  5. On the last page, click Run to start the import. You might be prompted to confirm the import of particular records.
    Tip: Click Verify to see any errors without importing the data.
    Attention: If the import takes too long to complete, you can stop it by clicking Stop. Stopping an import does not cancel the records that are already imported but no set is created.
  6. When the import completes, you are shown a summary of the import.
  7. The final stage of any import is to check to see that the records are imported as you expect. For example, examine the records in an import set or run a query.