Import engine allows administrators to collect data from various data sources, and then map this data into relevant tables.
The SimpleOne import engine supports:
- different data source types.
- different file formats (if you choose "File" as the data source).
You can choose the data source, place the data from it to the temporary table (also can be called "an import set"), and after that, with the transform maps and the field maps, you can map the data from the source to the target table.
Role required: admin.
You can find a graphical procedure view of the import process in the diagram below. A more detailed description is provided further in this article.
Key concepts
Concept | Description |
---|---|
Import source | A record that specifies what data an import set should import. |
Import set | A record that contains references to raw data uploaded to the staging location. The record also returns information about this import attempt state. |
Import set table | An automatically generated table that is used as temporary storage for imported records before transformation. The structure of the table is automatically generated depending on the imported data. |
Transform | The process of converting data according to the transform map and transform scripts that define the source table (the import set) and the target table. |
Transform Map | In this set of field maps, a record that specifies correlations between fields in an import set table and fields in a target table. |
Transform Script | A script that allows customizing import operations using native JavaScript extended with SimpleOne Server-Side API. |
Field Map | A record that specifies the relationship between a field in an import set table and a field in a target table. |
Coalesce | An option related to the transformation process. This option allows updating existing table records within the transformation process. For more information, navigate to the relevant article part: Coalesce. |
Import Sources
Creating an import source is necessary to load raw data into the system for further processing and transformation. You can set up an import source with different data source types and file formats.
- Navigate to Import → Import Sources.
- Click New and fill in the fields.
If the File type is chosen, click on the attachment icon and attach the file you need.
- Click Save or Save and Exit to apply changes.
Import Source form fields
Field | Mandatory | Description |
---|---|---|
Name | Y | Specify the import source name. |
Import Set Table Name | Y | Specify the import set table name. The maximum length of the table name is 63 symbols. |
Type | N | Choose the type of import source. Available choice options:
|
File Retrieval Method | N | Choose the method to add the file to the import source. Available choice options:
This field will appear if the File type is chosen. |
Format | Y | Select the file format and attach it to the form. Available file format options:
This field will appear if the File or Text type is chosen. |
Import Text | N | Specify the text you need to import. This field appears if the Text type is chosen.
Text format Expand source
[ { "property": "value" }, { "property": "value" } ] |
LDAP Definition | N | Click on the magnifier icon to choose the protocol you need. This field appears if the LDAP type is chosen. For more information about LDAP import source, refer to the Importing using LDAP article. |
After saving, the following UI actions appear on the import source form. They are responsible for further import processing.
UI Action | Description |
---|---|
Test load (20 records) | After clicking, a pilot import set is created with a 20-records capacity, intended for importing data structure analysis. Do not use the test set for further transformation. |
Load all records | This UI action creates a new import set record by loading full data from the import source there. This import set can be used for further transformation. |
After loading data into the import source, saving the record and calling one of the data loading actions, a new record appears in the Import Sets related list.
Using JSON format
You can use JSON files containing data formatted in JSON as an import source. In this case, make sure that the files follow the criteria below:
- JSON files should be valid. Use the RFC 8259 document as a guideline.
- Data types available to use in JSON structure are listed below. Dot-walking is not supported.
{ "top500": 1, "name": "More", "sector": "Oil and gas" }
Result: one element. The table has top500, name, sector fields and contains one record.
[ { "top500": 1, "name": "More", "sector": "Oil and gas" }, { "top500": 2, "name": "Nevermore", "sector": "Oil and gas" } ]
Result: an import set with the related table is created. The table has top500, name, sector fields and contains two records.
// Path for Each Row == exportField { "exportField":[ { "top500":1, "name":"More", "sector":"Oil and gas" }, { "top500":2, "name":"Nevermore", "sector":"Oil and gas" }, { "top500": 4, "name": "Givememore", "sector": "Oil and gas", "more_info": "https://instance.example.com/company/34" } ] }
Result: an import set with the related table is created. The table has top500, name, sector fields and contains three records.
Table and column name transformation
When converting data for import, some changes occur to the system names of columns and tables that appear in the Import Set Table Name field of the Import Sources (sys_import) table. Namely, the names are transliterated and converted according to the following rules:
- The system changes all Cyrillic letters to the Latin ones according to their ordinal number in the list of the Latin symbols. See below how the transliteration is done:
Cyrillic symbols [
'а', 'б', 'в', 'г', 'д', 'е', 'ё', 'ж', 'з', 'и', 'й', 'к', 'л', 'м', 'н', 'о', 'п',
'р', 'с', 'т', 'у', 'ф', 'х', 'ц', 'ч', 'ш', 'щ', 'ъ', 'ы', 'ь', 'э', 'ю', 'я',
'А', 'Б', 'В', 'Г', 'Д', 'Е', 'Ё', 'Ж', 'З', 'И', 'Й', 'К', 'Л', 'М', 'Н', 'О', 'П',
'Р', 'С', 'Т', 'У', 'Ф', 'Х', 'Ц', 'Ч', 'Ш', 'Щ', 'Ъ', 'Ы', 'Ь', 'Э', 'Ю', 'Я'
];
Latin symbols [
'a', 'b', 'v', 'g', 'd', 'e', 'io', 'zh', 'z', 'i', 'j', 'k', 'l', 'm', 'n', 'o', 'p',
'r', 's', 't', 'u', 'f', 'h', 'ts', 'ch', 'sh', 'shch', '\'', 'y', '\'', 'e', 'yu', 'ya',
'A', 'B', 'V', 'G', 'D', 'E', 'Io', 'Zh', 'Z', 'I', 'J', 'K', 'L', 'M', 'N', 'O', 'P',
'R', 'S', 'T', 'U', 'F', 'h', 'Ts', 'Ch', 'Sh', 'Shch', '\'', 'Y', '\'', 'e', 'Yu', 'Ya'
]; - All symbols that are relevant to the regular expression
/[^A-Za-z0-9_]+/u
are substituted with an underscore _ symbol. That is all symbols except capital and lowercase letters, digits, and the underscore are substituted with _ . - A system column name is split into parts by an underscore _. Then, the parts are connected with an underscore _ . For example, the name _DOC_____1 is transformed to doc_1 as a result .
The current system name of the column is transformed to lowercase.
If a column name is empty, then, when converting, the system sets the following name
imp_invalid_column + column number
. The column number is determined by its order in the table. The numbering starts from 0. For example,imp_invalid_column0
.- The imp prefix is added to the name, for example,
imp_client_list
.
Import Sets
Generally, an import set should be created automatically based on the raw data uploaded into the import source. Import sets are intended to be a staging area for records imported from the data sources.
Import Set form fields
Field | Mandatory | Description |
---|---|---|
Number | Y | Import set unique number. The field is populated automatically. |
Import Source | Y | The field contains related import source name. The field is populated automatically. |
Import Set Table | Y | The field contains the related import set table name. The field is populated automatically. System names of table fields begin with imp_ prefix. |
State | Y | Import set loading state. The field is populated automatically and is always read-only. Possible values are:
|
Short Description | N | The field describes the structure of the table created and is populated with the data automatically. Field value example: Table structure: (top500 | name | sector) |
Import Set records are in the parent-child relationship with the Import Set Rows table.
Transform Maps
Transform map is a set of field maps. In this set of field maps, correlations between fields of an import set table and fields of a target table are specified.
Each import operation requires at least one transform map which specifies the relationship between the import set table and the target table.
After creating the first import set, create a related transform map. To do this, complete the steps below:
- Click View Transform Map on the import source form you are configuring.
- In the appeared toast message, follow the link Create Transform Map.
- Fill in the fields in the appeared form.
- Click Save or Save and Exit to apply changes.
A transform map can also be created "from scratch". To do this, complete the steps below:
- Navigate to Import → Transform Maps to open the transform maps list.
- Click New and fill in the fields.
- Click Save or Save and Exit to apply changes.
Transform Map form fields
Field | Mandatory | Description |
---|---|---|
Name | Y | Displayed transform map name. |
Active | N | Select this checkbox to make the transform map available to use. |
Source Table | Y | Select the table containing the import set data. |
Target Table | Y | Select the table where you need to place imported data. |
Silent Load | N | Select the checkbox to ignore business rules, notification rules and other server-side engines which can be triggered by insert or update actions. In particular, workflows related to this record will not start, the field changes history will not be recorded and will not be displayed in the Activity Feed, respectively. When updating records automatically with scripts, you may also need to use the Silent Load feature. In this case, use the silentMode method. You can find engine and business rule execution orders in the Execution order article. |
Ignore Mandatory Fields | N | Select the checkbox to ignore mandatory fields in the target table. |
Use Script | N | Select the checkbox to display the Script field, where you can define the transform script. If you unselect the checkbox after inserting a script, the script will not be applied within the transformation. |
Script | N | Insert a transform map script you want to use to transform field values from the source table to the target table. Use the runTransformRow() function with the following parameters available:
This script can be used to define field relationships before transformation. You can also configure relationships by creating related records via the Field Map tab of the specified transform map. If you are configuring field mapping with the script, then it is recommended to create one more allocated field map record to define the Coalesce settings for this transformation session. |
Transform Scripts
Transform script allows you to customize import operations using JS-scripts with SimpleOne Server-Side API.
Transform Script form fields
Field | Mandatory | Description |
---|---|---|
Transform Map | Y | Specify a transform map to which this script is related. |
Active | N | Select the checkbox to make the script active or inactive. |
When | Y | Specify the script type to occur:
|
Order | N | The field specifies the order in which the transform script will be executed. Fill in this field with an integer number. The Order field is temporarily not working correctly – our team is working on its logic improvement to make it more efficient. We will inform you about the changes in one of our next releases. |
Script | N | Enter the script using SimpleOne Server-Side API. Use the runTransformScript() function with the following parameters available:
Filling fields in onBefore script Expand source
(function runTransformScript(source, map, log, target /*undefined onStart*/) { target.email = source.imp_mail; // string target.username = source.imp_samaccountname; // string const parsedPhoneDigits = source.imp_mobile.match(/\d/g); target.phone = parsedPhoneDigits ? parsedPhoneDigits.join('') : null; // phone const company = new SimpleRecord('org_company'); company.addQuery('name', 'like', source.imp_company); company.selectAttributes('sys_id'); company.setLimit(1); company.query(); target.company = company.next() ? company.sys_id : null; // reference })(source, map, log, target);
Import skip in onBefore script Expand source
(function runTransformScript(source, map, log, target /*undefined onStart*/) { const duplicate = new SimpleRecord('task'); duplicate.addEncodedQuery(`number=${source.imp_number}^sys_id!=${target.sys_id}`); duplicate.selectAttributes('sys_id'); duplicate.setLimit(1); duplicate.query(); if (duplicate.next()) { ignore = true; // skip Import Set Row status_message = 'The "Number" [number] field should be an unique.'; // write message to Import Set Row -> Description } })(source, map, log, target); |
Field Maps
Field maps are used to define the correlation between fields of the import set table and fields of the target table. For this, you need to determine the values from the source table that will be added to the target table.
During the import process, you may need to update the existing records in the target table. To set up the key relationships between the Source Table and the Target Table, create at least one field map record, with the enabled Coalesce attribute. This attribute should be enabled for a field map that contains relationships of columns with unique values. It can be an email for a user, or a serial number for a CI.
In order to achieve stricter mapping, you can enable the Coalesce option for more than one Field Map record.
To create a field map, complete the steps below:
- Navigate to Import → Transform Maps.
- Open the transform map you want to configure.
- Click Create field map.
- The Field Mapping widget appears. See the screenshot in the table below.
- Configure field mapping within the current transformation process.
- Click Set to save changes or Cancel to discard changes.
Here is another way to create field maps:
- Navigate to Import → Transform Maps.
- Open the transform map you want to configure.
- In the Field Maps related list, click New and fill in the fields.
- Click Save or Save and Exit to apply changes.
- Repeat the previous steps for each field map that needs to be set.
Field Map form fields
Field | Mandatory | Description |
---|---|---|
Transform Map | Y | Displays the transform map using this field map. The field is populated automatically. |
Source Field | Y | Select the field of the source table that should be transformed. |
Target Field | Y | Select the field of the target table that should store the values from the source table. |
Coalesce | N | If this option is active within the transformation process, the engine checks whether values in the Target Table are equal to values in the Import Set table. If values are equal, the record in the Target Table will be updated; otherwise, a new record will be created. This option can be set up within the widget. After clicking Create Field Maps on the transform map form, a widget containing either Add coalesce or Drop coalesce buttons appears. |
Use Script | N | Select the checkbox to define the transform script in the Script field. |
Script | Y | Insert a script to determine a function that takes the record object of the Import Set table as an argument and returns the value to put into the Target Field. Enter the script using SimpleOne Server-Side API. Use the transformEntry() function with the following parameters available:
The field appears when the Use Script checkbox is selected. Do not unselect the Use Script checkbox after inserting a script; otherwise, it will not be applied. |
Running a transform
- Navigate to Import → Import Sets.
- Open an import set you want to transform. Make sure that the state is Loaded.
- Click Transform.
As a result, the toast message Import is completed
appears. Imported data will be transferred into the target table.
Transform sequence
The scheme below shows the sequence of events triggered by the transformation:
- The sequence begins with the onStart transform script. It will be executed at the start of the transformation before any source row is read.
- The field map script takes the record object of the Import Set Row table as an argument and returns the value to put into the Target Field.
- The transform map script transforms field values from the source row to the target row.
- The onBefore transform script is executed before the source row is transformed into the target row.
- Between the execution of onBefore and onAfter scripts, the target record is inserted or updated.
- The onAfter transform script runs when the source row has been transformed into the target row.
- The onComplete transform script is executed when all source rows are transformed.
The onBefore and onAfter scripts are repeatable, they will run until each record is transformed.
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