In some cases, you may need to transfer a batch of data to your SpreadsheetWeb Hub applications at once and do not want to waste time by creating individual records. SpreadsheetWeb Hub has a new feature that will meet this need: Data Import.
The Data Import feature allows you to import a batch of records into a SpreadsheetWeb Hub application’s database. This data can be imported from an external data file (CSV, XLSX or XLSM) into the database of an existing data collection application.
Import files can be a comma-separated text file (CSV) or a regular Excel 2007+ file (XLSX or XLSM). If your application has secondary data tables, prefer Excel file to populate multiple tables at once. You can update primary table only with a CSV file.
PS: Import files should include proper data in a tabular form. The first row should have the titles of the fields to be able to bind fields between file and database.
To start the importing process go to your Data page and select an application from the dropdown menu. Then, click on the Import button.
After Uploading the file you will be proceeded into Data Import Preview Page.
The Data Import Preview Page
The Data Import Preview page is where you can manage the importing process. This page consists of 3 sections;
- Import Options
This sections allows you to determine if the importing will create a completely new data set, add the imported data into an existing data or update an existing data.
If you leave either checkbox empty. Existing records on the database will be updated by corresponding values in the imported data. The matching between new and existing data is made by comparing identifier fields Id, EditId and SequenceId (only for secondary tables).
If you check Remove all data before the import option, existing records will be deleted and what you have in the file will be imported to the application's database. When this option is selected the identifier columns (Id, Edit and SequenceId) will be ignored during importing. The values for these fields will be generated automatically.
Tip: The Id is generated by the order of the records in the import file. If the order matters, arrange the records in the file before importing.
If you check Append all data as new records, the records in the file will be appended as new records while keeping existing records.
When this option is selected the identifier columns (Id, Edit and SequenceId) will be ignored during importing. The values for these fields will be generated automatically.
- Input data preview
From this section, you can also check detected fields in your file on the Input data preview table.
- Database Column Binding
SpreadsheetWeb Hub matches fields by matching names automatically. And this section displays them to you. You can change them manually by selecting a suitable field name on the Bind Input Column section.
If your application has a multi-table database, make sure that the Input data preview and Database Column Binding tables are pointing to corresponding tables.
Tip: If the field you are looking is not among the dropdown options, confirm that the type of the field in the file is suitable with the database counterpart. For example, you can't assign a field with decimal values into a database field accepting integers.
The matching between new and existing data is made by comparing identifier fields Id, EditId and SequenceId (only for secondary tables). Make sure that these columns are bound correctly. If columns are not bound correctly or the imported file has different identifiers, you will see warnings and will not be able to finish the importing process.
The import button becomes visible when all conflicts are resolved. Click to complete the importing process.
When you are done all there is left to do is to click on import button.
You will see the following message upon successful importing.
Clicking the OK button will load the Data Page of the application and the imported data will be listed.
With SpreadsheetWeb Hub’s new Data Import feature, users will be able to import data into their existing SpreadsheetWeb Hub applications database with an external data file (CSV, XLSX or XLSM) instead of spending time creating records one by one when need to transfer data to their SpreadsheetWeb Hub application’s database with few steps.
