Creating an import data source file

The success or failure of a bulk import performed by the Document Import Tool is very often determined by the quality of the data source file. Creating an accurate and powerful data source file doesn’t require a computer science degree. You can create one in an application you probably already know, just by being prepared, being organized, and paying close attention to details. After you’ve created a working data source file, you can reuse the basic structure of the file over and over again for future imports just by changing the data.

Following are guidelines and suggestions for creating a data source file for the Document Import Tool:

• Choose the file format you know best. Practically any ODBC data file will work equally well with the Document Import Tool; there are few advantages of any one over another. The important thing is to be able to easily create the necessary data structure of the file and type document metadata.
  
  If you regularly import documents from other departments, divisions, or external business partners, you might be able to get them to create the data file for you if you give them these guidelines, especially if they have the document data readily available and you do not. Alternatively, you might have to accept their document data in whatever format you can get from them and then convert or clean up the data yourself into a format usable by the Document Import Tool.
  
  Popular data file formats include Excel, Access, comma-separated value (CSV), and plain text.
• You will need the following document metadata at a minimum, in order to successfully import documents into a vault:
• Path: To the source file to be imported. This path should be relative to the computer that will be running the Document Import Tool. Use URLs to specify paths on other computers rather than mapped drive letters that may not exist or match. Any files not found in this location will not be imported, so this field is the most important of all. Confirm that every file exists before you start an import.
• File name: In addition to the full path to the file above. This value will be used to assign the document’s name in the vault. If you can, use a query inside your application to create this data for you if you don’t have it in a separate field already.
• Revision number: This is another critical piece of metadata. Without it, Meridian will assign the first revision number from the revision scheme of the destination document type to your imported documents. This number may be lower than the actual revision number of the document. Without accurate revision numbers, you can never fully trust the documents to be accurate.
• Document type: This data is less critical than the others listed here because the document type of a document can be changed later, although you don’t want to have to change the type of many documents. Without this data, Meridian will assign the vault’s default document type to imported documents. If this is the type you want them to be, that’s good. If not, that’s not so good. Better yet, specify the document type in your data file and be sure. This is necessary data if you want to import a mix of document types in the same batch.
• If you have additional metadata, or you can make it from other fields or sources, you will be glad if you import it so that it is available for reference and searching and you cannot import it to existing documents later. Optional, but important, metadata fields include:
• Status: The workflow state of the documents being imported (Under Change, Released, Retired, In Review, and so on).
• Created by/Modified by: These fields can either be operating system file data or data maintained in another data file. Either way, knowing who created and/or modified the document last will be valuable.
• If you have any other legacy metadata about the documents being imported, take time to carefully consider every piece. Any data that will help identify documents should be a candidate for import. Numbers, names, codes, document titles, departments, comments, sizes, and so on can all be valuable when it comes time to search for and revise the imported documents with confidence.

Tip    Consult a database expert within your organization to help you create the best possible data file. They may be able to save you a lot of time and effort and help produce a better result. When the documents are in the vault, the metadata will be more difficult to change.