The following tasks are used when you set the import link properties.
Use this procedure to display the Link Properties dialog either from the Link Explorer or Import Link window.
Set Properties for Handling Mismatched Data
Use this procedure to determine how the software handles imported source rows with invalid empty foreign key columns that are defined as NOT NULL but contain no value.
Use this procedure to perform the following operations:
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Determine the way Smart Instrumentation treats identical source and target rows by setting the appropriate parameters in the Import mode tab.
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Determine how the Import Utility updates target rows during the import process.
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Select source and target keys for the Import Utility to use to refresh the target data during the import process. This option is available to you only if the source and target tables have been already used in a previous import session.
Use this procedure to define a filtering condition that will be used by Import to selectively import data from the source table. The filtering condition can contain any combination of the following:
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Source table columns
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Operators or functions
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Alphanumeric values
Enable Reference Tables for Import
Use this procedure to enable data insertion into the target reference tables during the import process whenever data exists in the source table but it is missing in the target table. As a rule of thumb, you must always import data into reference tables before importing data into the tables they refer to. You can also control which reference table columns are displayed in the Import Link window by selecting a browser view created in Smart Instrumentation. You can perform this procedure only when using the Single table import method.
Use this procedure to determine the way the Import Utility handles the naming conventions of the source data during the import process. This procedure is possible only if the target table or module you selected requires naming conventions, for example, COMPONENT table, LOOP table, Instrument Index module, and so forth.
Set Custom Parameters for the Module Import Method
Use this procedure to show in the Import Link window only those table columns that are used in a specific browser view style defined in the Browser module. This way, you can use these columns in creating the current import link. You can perform this procedure only if your import link is assigned to the Module (multiple tables) import method and you selected to import data into one of the following modules: Instrument Index, Process Data – Line, or Dimensional Data for Piping.
Set Column Display for the Module Import Method
When your link is assigned to the Module (multiple tables) import method, you can use this procedure to set the Import Utility to display all target module table columns in the Import Link window. By default, when opening an import link assigned to the Module (multiple tables) import method, the Import Utility only retrieves those columns that appear in a special hard-coded list and displays them in the Import Link window. The special list serves two purposes:
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To shorten the list of table columns displayed in the Import Link window.
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To display data field names instead of the table column names used in the database.
You cannot perform this procedure when importing data into the Specifications module.
Set Properties for an Excel Data Source
Use this procedure to if your data source is an Excel file and there are source fields containing more than 256 characters.
Refresh Previously Imported Data
Use this procedure to keep the tables that you have already used in a previous import session up to date by refreshing them. To refresh tables you previously imported, you need to select the same source and target data as you did in the previous import session. Then you select the appropriate source and target refreshing keys which are the source and target table columns according to which contents the target data will be refreshed during the import process.
If the Import Utility detects a change in the selected source refreshing key contents (in comparison to the selected target refreshing key contents), the target table column contents will be updated accordingly.