Importing data (the Transfer In action) imports a comma-separated values (CSV) or an Excel (XLS) file from the client computer or from a server file. When importing data, you can select to generate logs (Comparison reports) of inserted and updated records. If there are any errors, error logs are always generated.
When transferring data in you would typically:
For certain tables, you can also track the files that are written using the Data Transfer Status field. See The Data Transfer Status Field.
Note: If you have exported your data to CSV format and then worked with the CSV file in Excel, you might encounter issues when importing the files back into ARCHIBUS. See Working with CSV Files in Excel.
When transferring data in, you can select a file on your client computer to upload (by selecting Local File), or you can upload the last file output for this table by this user on the server (by selecting Server File). Use local files when it is more convenient to work with files on your local machine without needing to move the file back to the server to import it. Use server files if you are transferring data and do not need to work with the data locally before importing it. For example, if you are transferring building, floor, and room data between two projects that are running on your server, you can log into one project, transfer out the data, sign into the second project, and transfer the data in without downloading the data to your local workstation.
You might use data transfer to transfer data from one project database to another. In these cases, you are importing the file that was exported from ARCHIBUS, so the file has the proper schema information, enumeration values, and date formats. In other cases, you are reading information from a spreadsheet file into ARCHIBUS. In these cases you will need to ensure that the spreadsheet file has the proper schema information and formatting, as described in this section.
Transfer files store data in a form designed to be reliably validated and reread by the program, regardless of the language and locale for the user who exported the data. For this reason, import files must:
For XLS files, the first row provides the table information. The second row contains the schema header information in table.field format, for example, rm.bl_id, rm.fl_id, rm. rm_id.
For CSV files, the first line of the file is a comment holding the schema header information. This is a list of import fields in table.field format, for example, rm.bl_id, rm.fl_id, rm. rm_id.
Alternately, you can use the Data action button to export an XLS or CSV file from ARCHIBUS that has the table and columns of data that you would like to import.See step 1 of How to Read Information from a Spreadsheet File.
The Data Transfer feature requires all date fields, in a file that will be transferred in, to be in the format of 'yyyy-mm-dd'. When you export date data to Excel using ARCHIBUS data transfer, the date is exported using the ISO date standard (yyyy-mm-dd). However, if you make changes to dates or enter new dates in the file using Excel, the dates are saved using your Windows Regional Date setting. If you want to change the dates and re-import them into ARCHIBUS, you can take one of two approaches:
To read information from another spreadsheet file:
The Transfer Progress tab shows the number of records that are processed and the percentage complete for the job. The progress bar indicates when the import has completed. If you have generated Comparison reports, the URL for the reports appear in the lower section of the screen. If there are any errors, an error log is generated.
You can import data by transferring in a file exported from another database or by transferring in a local file.
To import data:
The Transfer Progress tab appears. From this tab, you can view the progress of the job, and load the Comparison reports (insert and update logs) when the transfer completes if you selected to generate them. The lower section of the screen provides a link to these logs and to the error log if any errors occurred.
If there is a data transfer status field for the table holding the import, that field is updated for each record. See Data Transfer Status Field.
Note: The database does not have records that failed insertion, for instance because they had a validation error. These records are recorded only in the error log for your information.
When importing, the error log shows the following errors: