Import data from a CSV file

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The Import Data Wizard lets you quickly populate your Sohodox DB by importing data and documents from a CSV file. Most database and spreadsheet programs can export their data as CSV files. You can therefore use the Import Data Wizard to move data from any database program or spreadsheet into a Sohodox DB. This is the fastest way to add a large data to a Sohodox DB.

You can import your data from a file by clicking the Import button of the Tools tab.
 

To Import Data from a CSV file:

1.In Sohodox, open the DB to which you want to import the data from the CSV file.
2.Select the Tools tab and click the Import button . The Data Import window will now be launched.
3.Click the Browse... button besides the Specify the file to import the data from box, to select the CSV file you want to import.
 
Note: If you want to import documents along with the indexing data then add a extra column to the CSV file from which you are importing the data. In this column, enter the name of the file that you want to import along with the indexing data. If more than one file is to be imported then enter the names of all the files separated by a pipe ( | ).
4.Click the Next button to go to the next page.
5.Specify the content (data) of the import file in the Import File contains columns with the following information section.
a)Select the Documents and Document Type Info option if the CSV file contains indexing information along with the type of document.
 
If you select the Documents and Document Type Info option then the Choose existing document type drop-down option will be available. Select an existing document type from this drop-down to import the documents and document types information to it.
b)Select the Documents and Document Type Name option if the CSV file contains the names of documents and document types.
c)Select the Documents option if the CSV file contains  information of only documents.
6.Click the Next button to go to the next page. View the contents of the selected text file displayed in the Data Preview and enter the information required on this page
7.Choose the delimiter that separates the fields(columns) in the data. You can choose more than one delimiter.
a)Check the Tab option if the fields (columns) in the data are separated by a Tab character.
b)Check the Semicolon option if the fields (columns) in the data are separated by a semicolon.
c)Check the Comma option If the fields (columns) in the data are separated by a comma.
d)Check the Space option if the fields (columns) in the data are separated by a single space.
e)If the fields (columns) in the data are separated by a character other than tab, semicolon, comma or space then check the Other option and enter that character in the box. You can only enter a single character in this box.
8.Check the Treat consecutive delimiters as one option if you want consecutive delimiters to be treated as a single delimiter. This causes all the consecutive delimiters after the first one to be ignored during the import. If this option is unchecked consecutive delimiters will be treated as empty values during the import.
9.Check the First row contains field names option if the first row of the text file contains the names of the fields (column headings).
10.Select the character that is used as the text qualifier in the data. Text values which contain spaces (or any other character specified as a delimiter) must be delimited by a text qualifier. The double-quote or the single-quote character can be selected as a text qualifier.
11.Enter the number of the row from which you want the import to start. Use the Start import at row no. option if you want to skip the first few lines of the text file during the import. This option does not affect the behaviour of the First row contains field names option which always uses the actual first row of the file and not the start row.
12.Click the Next button to go to the next page. Use this page to map fields (columns) of the CSV file to the source fields (columns) of the document type that you have selected to import the data. The data from CSV fields (columns) will be imported to the source fields (columns) of the document type.
13.The Choose columns pane displays the columns (data fields) that are in the selected CSV file and the Selected column contains pane displays the columns (data field) of the document type that you have selected to import the data.
14.Select a column in the Choose columns pane and map it by selecting a data field in the Selected column contains pane. By mapping a column to a data field, you are telling the system to import the data from the selected column to the selected data field.
 
If a column in the Choose columns pane contains the name and location of documents then map that column with the Document List option of the Selected column contains pane. The Document List option is only available if you have specified on the first page that the CSV file contains documents.
 
If a column in the Choose columns pane contains tags of the documents then map that column with the Tags option of the Selected column contains pane. The Tags option is only available if you have specified on the first page that the CSV file contains documents.
 
If you do not wish to import a column from the Choose columns pane then map that column with the Do not import option of the Selected column contains pane.
15.Depending on the data type of the selected data field their respective options will be displayed in the Options pane.
The following options will be displayed for certain data type

Integer Data Type

Thousands Separator: If the numeric data contains thousands separators select or enter the character which is used as the thousands separator in the data.

Decimal Separator: If the numeric data contains decimal separators select or enter the character which is used as the decimal separator in the data.
 
Date Data Type

Any two digit year should be interpreted as a year between: Control how Sohodox interprets date values which contain two digit years (for e.g. 03 instead of 2003). The default time span used by Sohodox is 1930 to 2029. Therefore by default Sohodox will consider...
Two digit years between (and including) 30 and 99 as preceded with 19,  and
Two digit years between (and including) 00 and 29 as preceded with 20.
For example...
By default Sohodox will treat a two digit year such as 30 as 1930 and a two digit year such  29 as 2029.
You can change the default time span, type in a new ending year.

Date Separator: Select or enter the character which separates the day, month and year parts in the date value.

Format: Select the sequence in which day, month and year appear in the date value i.e. the format of the date.
 
Time Data Type

Time Separator: Select or enter the character which separates the hours, minutes and seconds parts of the time value.

24 Hour Format: Select this option if you want the time to be shown in 24 hour format

12 hour Format: Select this option if you want the time to be shown in 12 hour format

AM Symbol: Select or enter the text which indicates the hours before noon when the time value is in a 12-hour format.

PM Symbol: Select or enter the text which indicates the hours after noon when the time value is in a 12-hour format.
 
Yes/No Data Type

Text to import as 'Yes': While importing data, any value which matches the value selected or entered here will be considered by Sohodox as a Yes value. You can also specify a comma separated list of values and any values matching a value in this list will be treated a Yes value. If the special value {Any Other Value} is selected then any value except the values specified for Text to import as 'No' will be treated as a Yes value.

Text to import as 'No': While importing data, any value which matches the value selected or entered here will be considered by Sohodox as a No value.  You can also specify a comma separated list of values and any values matching a value in this list will be treated as a No value. If the special value {Any Other Value} is selected then any value except the values specified for Text to import as 'No' will be treated as a No value.
 
Document List

Location: Specify the folder path where the documents to be imported are located. By default Sohodox selects the folder path containing the text file from which you are importing the data.
Click the Browse button to change this folder path.

File names are separated by: Select the separator which is used to separate the names of the documents in Document List field. The default separator selected is pipe ( | ).
16.Click the Next button to go to the next page. Use this page to specify actions Sohodox should take if it encounters invalid or empty values for any field. You can specify different actions for each field. By default Sohodox will import empty or invalid values as empty values wherever possible (if the Sohodox DB field cannot accept empty values then by default Sohodox will not import the row containing that value.
17.Select the action Sohodox should take if it encounters a row in which the value for the selected field is empty or invalid. You can select different action for each field.

Import as empty value
If this option is selected the value will be imported as an empty value. This option is not available if the Sohodox DB field does not support storing of empty values.
 
Use default value
If this option is selected the specified default value will be used instead of the empty value while importing. Enter a default value in the Enter Default Value box. This value will be used for the import if an empty value is encountered for the selected field. If a default value is available for Sohodox DB field in the Sohodox DB then that value will be displayed in this box.
 
Do not import
If this option is selected then the row containing an empty value for this field will not be imported i.e. it will be skipped.

18.Click the Next button to go to the next page. Use this page to start and view the progress of the data import process.
19.You can save the import setting that was used to import the file for later re-use by clicking this Save button besides the Save import Profile box.
20.Click the Start Import button to begin exporting the data. The Status bar will show the status of the import process
21.Click the Show skipped records button to view any rows that were skipped during the import process. Once the data is imported click the Close button to close the wizard.

 

•Go to the previous page click the Previous button located on the top left corner of the wizard.
 

Related Topics
Export data to a CSV file

Export data to a HTML file

Export data to a Excel file

Export data to a XML file

 

 

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