Importing and Exporting Document Fields (Data Transfer)

Overview

Data Transfer of documents can only be performed through the Database Update Wizard -- the System / Add-In Manager / Run Database Update Wizard task. From here, view you can choose “Transfer Out”, “Transfer In” or “Run Script” with an ${import.file} command.

The csv file does not need to contain all the records or fields from a table on import, but all records and fields are included on export.

Documents will be automatically transferred when selecting a table with a document field, and on import if they are present and properly named.

When transferring documents, you do not need to transfer afm_docs and afm_docvers, but these tables may contain additional document metadata, such as descriptions, version descriptions, dates of change, and authors. These will not be implicitly transferred.

Document Naming

A folder containing a csv file with data records that can be transferred into the Archibus database can have a sub-folder with the name of the table the records are transferred into that contains document files. Document file names to be imported must follow this convention. (Note that it is redundant.)

Field Name
“^”
Primary key values
- In order of afm_flds.primary_key
- Spaces will be removed
“^”
Document Version
“^”
Table Name
“^”
Primary key values
“-“
Field Name
“.”
File Extension
- e.g. “pdf” or “csv”

The following rules also apply:

No uppercase letters (where applicable)
No whitespace
Most special characters are removed. Exceptions include:
- Period “.”
- Parentheses “()” - not braces or brackets
- Hyphens
- Underscores
- Percent “%”
Any ^ in the name will be replaced by ^^.

For example, a file in bill_archives, in the doc field, with a vn_id of “WHOLE WATER” and a bill_id of “4100” would have the file name doc^4100^wholewater^1^bill_archive^4100^wholewater-doc.pdf.

Note that a vendor of “whole water” is indistinguishable from “wholewater”.

Except when imported through the Database Update Wizard’s “Run Script” using an ${import.file} command, csv files are transferred from and to: projects\users\public\dt\database-update\personalized-database.