Quick and easy guide to importing data into Asset Tracker for RT

[Sfu Mbb]

Hi,

Here is my guide for those who don't want to go into the details of XML or hunt down IMPORT FAILED errors in their imported data. Once you get familiar with the ins-and-outs of import/export, you can try more complicated things

1) Manually create and enter some dummy data  into your database with the fields/formats that you want to use

2) Do a search for to list the data of the format/fields you want to import, eg Type is Desktop, Creator is user JBlow

3) In the "Display Columns" box of "Search", choose to display all fields, including any custom fields you want to import (for example I added the custom field "Custom Field{Assigned To}")

4) On the results page (upper right), go to Feeds->Importable Spreadsheets and save the data as an xls (Excel) file

5) Open the xls and edit/add and import/copy/paste your data in the xls spreadsheet  (put in the word 'new' for each new import in the ID column - the system will assign it a new unique ID also, "Name" is a primary key and no 2 assets can have the same name)

6) Save the xls spreadsheet as an .xml spreadsheet (I did xml spreadsheet  2003 because thats the version of Excel I use – needs to be tested on other versions)

7) Import the xml file you saved  using the menu item Tools->Asset Import

8) Check that the xml file was imported correctly by clicking on “Assets” and checking the rows and columns. If you have problems with data mismatches, see below

 

I suggest you consider the following:

A, Limit imported data to alphanumeric characters, ".", ":" and "-"  striping out everything else before importing the data (just to eliminate the possibility of invalid/accidental/escape characters).

B. If possible create  all custom fields as free-form (no restrictions or formats) until you have a better idea of how to deal with format problems. This is because, unfortunately, blank/null data can cause column/table alignment problems with importing.  I replace all blank/missing values with the string "unknown". (Basically this means all fields are mandatory, but we don't make this a burden on the data entry side, and we insert a place-holding alphabetic string where no data was entered).

Have fun and enjoy the great power of Asset Tracker!

Duncan.