Importing Data

Data can be imported either from flat files (eg CSV spreadsheets), or from other systems.

CSV Import

CSV import can be found under Tools->Import from CSV.

GDS expects a CSV-formatted file, which can be output from most spreadsheets. The CSV file can be used to fill a number of different data types, including clients, contacts, locations and zones.

The first line of the CSV file should be a header line, with each column heading containing a name or description of the data in that column.

To import a file, click Browse to find the file, select the import type on the right, then click the Refresh button above. This will cause GDS to load the file and analyse the column headers.

GDS will fill the list on the left with the column headers found, and a guess of what each column represents. You can change the guess by clicking the dropdown on each line, or if you want the column to be ignored you can press backspace in the dropdown to make it blank. If GDS's guesses aren't helpful and you want to start from scratch, click the Clear Matches button at the bottom.

Once you've set up your columns, click the Preview button. GDS will read the file data, but not actually perform the import at this stage. Instead it will show a list detailing any data problems it found. Each data problem will have a line number identifying it, which you can look up in the original spreadsheet, correct, and try again.

Once you're satisfied with the data you can import it for real by clicking the Process button. GDS will process the data and show the error list as before.

Database Import

GDS can import directly from another database. While you can import directly from a live running source system, be wary as this can potentially cause problems. While GDS will never write to the other database, the act of reading large blocks of data can occasionally cause locks to be upgraded (SQL Server is notorious for this). This might cause the other system, if running, to run slowly or pause if GDS is performing a large import.

A better option, where possible, is to read the data from a backup server or a backup copy of the source database. This way we can be sure we won't interfere with the running of the source system.

GDS supports several source system types, but the most common ones used are Patriot Standard and CAMS9.

To set up the import, you'll need to create an ODBC data source to the source database. For an example of this, check the Patriot ODBC section.

Once you have your data source, you can set up an import profile to read from it. A default profile is built-in, but you should create your own by typing a new name in the 'Import profile' field. You can recall previously used profiles by clicking the dropdown, and you can copy and delete them as needed by clicking the buttons to the right.

Select the import type, and fill in the ODBC source name in the Database 1 field. Some systems have two databases, in which case fill in the second data source in the Database 2 field. If a username and password are required for the ODBC source fill these in.

Some systems (eg CAMS 9) also have external config or INI files that data can be extracted from. Put the path to these in the Import config path field.

For the next step, test the import by using the other tabs to pull through elements of data one at a time. Consider importing to a backup copy of GDS, so that you can go back if you accidentally import too much.

Import one client, one customer, one client's contact and so on, and ensure that they come through as expected. For client-based data (clients/contacts), you can limit the data imported by specifying the external codes to import (more efficient, but requires that it be in source system format), or by specifying a client code filter (less efficient, but is in GDS format). The other tabs all have similar fields allowing you to restrict what is imported.

Note that where possible, GDS will retain the links between contacts and clients, and where possible if one contact is linked to several clients this relationship will remain. But if there is doubt about whether two contacts are really the same person it will create multiple copies of the contact just in case - better to have two copies of the same person rather than contacts being merged and a person getting unwarranted access to a client they have no relationship with. If this copying happens you can use the Merge contacts tool in Contact Maintenance to merge the contacts back together in a controlled manner.

Once you're happy with the import, you can perform a full import by clearing the restriction fields and either clicking the import button on each page, or you can tick the import specifiers on the front page and click 'Start' to import everything at once.

Once you've got the import configured correctly, you can re-run the import as often as needed to refresh the data in GDS with updated data from the source system.

Import profiles defined here can also be used in the External System Link, to tell GDS how to handle the data that it imports as new jobs arrive.

Patriot Import

By default, GDS will import clients in the form of: PPSSSS-AA, where PP is the port number, SSSS is the subscriber number, and AA is the area number. If the subscriber is longer than 4 digits, GDS will import the additional digits. If the area number is 1 (the default) then it will be omitted, so 991234-1 would come through as 991234.

This can be remapped or modified using the client code match and apply pattern on the Clients tab. For example, to change it so that the codes to have a prefix and a dash after the port number, you could have match (??)(*) and apply P(1)-(2). This would cause 991234-1 to come out as P99-1234-1.

When selecting the external client codes to import, specify these in Patriot format (SSSSAAAAPP). The client code filter should be specified in GDS format, as it is checked after the translation has completed.

The Dispatch Alias filter maps to the Dispatch Alias field in Patriot. It is recommended that you put the GDS dispatch code in there where possible, in which case it will be used to align the two systems.

Imported contacts will be brought across with an external ID of 'P12345', the numeric part being replaced by the Patriot User number for each contact. Note that importing the contacts will bring the contacts into GDS, but it won't link them to the clients they're related to. Perform the Import Client Links step to make this happen. This allows us to retain Patriot's links of single contacts to large numbers of clients, just as GDS does.