Difficulty: starter
Import sheets
LINKS to how to instructions per import sheet.
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livesearchIn Workplace Management there are a lot of default import templates available to import the masterdata for all relevant processes. The import template provides a easy description about which data is expected in each of the columns. The import templates are multilingual and currently in the Dutch and English language.
Instructions
The first tab (blue) of the import template is the instructions page. This page provides general information about the import template itself and how to fill in the data.
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Via a drop-down, the desired language can be selected. All the text used in the import file will be shown in the selected language. More languages can be added in the future.
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Colors are used to distinguish the different tabs that are used in the import and also on how to fill in the import sheets. Can i enter free text or is a data entry mandatory, can all be derived from the color of the cell and/or color of the description.
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When importing data is it important that every data entry is imported as a unique object in the system. A unique reference number is used to achieve this. The unique external reference is automatcially generated in the import template for each data entry.
For example, when importing organizations, the automatically generated external reference is ORGANIZATION-1, ORGANIZATION-2, ORGANIZATION-3, etc.
On the instructions page, it is possible to specify the startnumber for the automatically generated external reference. By default this is 1, but if the client is planning to import more than once, the startnumber must be changed to prevent already imported data to be overwritten. If my next import also starts with ORGANIZATION-1, then the ORGANIZATION-1 already imported the first time, will be overwritten.
So if the first import was for the external references ORGANIZATION-1 until ORGANIZATION-800, the number can be changed to, for example 900 for the next import. The automatically generated external reference will now start with ORGANIZATION-900, ORGANIZATION-901, ORGANIZATION-902, etc. and there will be no data overwritten.
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If applicable there is also a screenshot of the object to be imported added on the instructions page.
Enter the data to be imported
On the next (red) sheet(s) of the import template the actual data to be imported needs to be added. The description in each column desribes what data is expected in each column, if is is mandatory data, if it is free text or a drop-down with options, etc.
Every import sheet also contains some example data.
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Some columns in the import sheets are hidden. For example, in the above screenshot column D and column E are hidden. These columns are for example used for generating the unique external reference. For the customer filling in this import template, these columns are not relevant. For actual importing the data, the columns are very important.
Hidden columns are used so that the customer is not bothered by columns they do not need to fill in and can only cause confusion.
Import the data
Once the customer has completely filled in the import template, the data can be imported via the corresponding import. The consultant importing the data needs to save the sheet to be imported as a .csv file.