Exporting and Importing Assignment-Related Data

The Siebel Business Applications user interface provides the ability for a qualified user to export assignment-related data into a spreadsheet file. After modifying the spreadsheet file, this user can then import the data from the file back into the same environment in order to modify the assignment data in the database.

Before exporting, the user can query for the specific data of interest to be exported. You can export and import:

• Positions and associated skills and skill items. (Data can be exported from two different views.)

• An assignment rule and associated criteria and criteria items.

• An assignment rule and associated position candidates.

Data you export is saved in a comma-separated values file (CSV file), which you can access from the Administration - Assignment screen, Transaction Logs view. You can open, modify, and save the file in a spreadsheet program such as Microsoft Excel. Later, you can import a modified copy of the file in order to update existing assignment-related data or add new data. (Data changes are subject to limitations described in this "Limitations for Importing Assignment-Related Data").

Tip: It is recommended to experiment with exporting and importing small amounts of test data before attempting to use this functionality as part of your actual business activities.

The information that is associated with the export and import operations described here can be reviewed in the Administration - Assignment screen, Transaction Logs view. The file that you exported or imported is available here as an attachment to the log record corresponding to the operation that you performed. For more information, see "Transaction Log Data for Export and Import Operations".

This topic contains the following information:

• "Exporting Assignment-Related Data"

• "Preparing Assignment-Related Data for Import"

• "Importing Assignment-Related Data"

• "Limitations for Importing Assignment-Related Data"

• "Transaction Log Data for Export and Import Operations"

Exporting Assignment-Related Data

This topic is part of "Exporting and Importing Assignment-Related Data".

Use the following procedure to export assignment-related data.

Note: High-level assignment-related data cannot be exported if there are no associated child records. When you are exporting data for positions, make sure there are associated skills and skill items. When you are exporting data for an assignment rule, make sure there are associated criteria and criteria items or associated position candidates. See also "Limitations for Importing Assignment-Related Data".

To export assignment-related data to a spreadsheet file

1. Navigate to one of the views that supports exporting assignment-related data:

   • To export data for positions and associated skills and skill items, navigate to the Administration - Group screen, Positions view. Drill down on a position record to go to the list view and display associated skill and skill item data. Note the button in the upper applet labeled Export Skill Data.

   • Alternatively, to export data for skills and associated positions and skill items, navigate to the Administration - Group screen, Skills view, which displays associated position and skill item data. Note the button in both applets labeled Export Skill Data. (This view does not support importing data; use the Positions view for that task instead.)

   • To export data for a single assignment rule and associated criteria and criteria items, navigate to the Administration - Assignment screen, Assignment Rules List view. Drill down on an assignment rule record to go to the form view, then click the Criteria tab to display the associated criteria. Note the button in the upper applet labeled Export Assignment Data.

   • To export data for a single assignment rule and associated position candidates, navigate to the Administration - Assignment screen, Assignment Rules List view. Drill down on an assignment rule record to go to the form view, then click the Position Candidates tab to display the associated position candidates. Note the button in the upper applet labeled Export Assignment Data.

2. Perform queries, as necessary, to display a subset of the available data.

   For example, when exporting data associated with an assignment rule, you might use a query to locate the specific assignment rule of interest. Or, when exporting data associated with positions, you might use a query to display the particular subset of positions of interest to you.

3. Click the appropriate export button (noted in Step 1) to begin the process of exporting data.

4. In the dialog box that appears, enter a name for the spreadsheet file that you are exporting, excluding the file extension.

   The file will be saved as a comma-separated values file (CSV file), which can be opened in a spreadsheet program. The .csv file extension is added when the export file is created.

5. (Optional) Enter some descriptive text for the Export Process Description field. This value is helpful if you have to review log data from the export operation.

   
   

   Note: In the Transaction Logs view, in the record associated with the export operation, the Description field contains a string that is derived from the string value you provided in the Export Process Description field. For more information, see "Transaction Log Data for Export and Import Operations".

   
   

6. Click OK to begin exporting. Or click Cancel to cancel the export operation.

7. Navigate to the Administration - Assignment screen, Transaction Logs view.

   The CSV file that you exported is available as an attachment to the transaction log record for the export operation.

8. Click to save the exported file or open it in a spreadsheet program like Microsoft Excel.

9. Save a copy of the spreadsheet file, or copy the file, into a directory that you can access from your current computer or from the computer where further changes can be made.

   
   

   Note: For reference, keep a copy of the original CSV file with the original name. Make another copy of the file that you will modify, naming it as appropriate for your business needs.

   
   

10. Modify the data in the spreadsheet file, as appropriate, and prepare the file for import. For more information, see "Preparing Assignment-Related Data for Import".

Preparing Assignment-Related Data for Import

This topic is part of "Exporting and Importing Assignment-Related Data".

Validate that the assignment-related data was successfully exported into the spreadsheet file. Make sure that any changes that you make support your business needs and take into account all documented limitations. Later, you can import a modified file in order to update existing assignment-related data or add new data.

For example, through editing the spreadsheet file, you can do the following (subject to limitations):

• Add, update, or delete skills or skill items that are associated with existing positions.

• Add, update, or delete criteria, criteria items, or position candidates that are associated with an existing assignment rule.

Before you import data from the spreadsheet file, review the information about limitations for importing assignment-related data and the relevant user keys for importing assignment-related data, in "Limitations for Importing Assignment-Related Data".

Note: You cannot add, update, or delete positions or assignment rules through importing the spreadsheet file.

For instructions for importing data from a spreadsheet file that you exported and modified, see "Importing Assignment-Related Data".

Importing Assignment-Related Data

This topic is part of "Exporting and Importing Assignment-Related Data".

Use the following procedure to import assignment-related data from a spreadsheet file that you previously exported and modified.

To import assignment-related data from a spreadsheet file

1. Review "Preparing Assignment-Related Data for Import" and related topics.

2. Navigate to one of the views that supports importing assignment-related data.

   • To import data for positions and associated skills and skill items, navigate to the Administration - Group screen, Positions view. Drill down on a position record to go to the list view and display the associated skill and skill item data. Note the button in the upper applet labeled Import Skill Data.

   • To import data for a single assignment rule and associated criteria and criteria items, navigate to the Administration - Assignment screen, Assignment Rules List view. Drill down on an assignment rule record to go to the form view, then click the Criteria tab to display the associated criteria. Note the button in the upper applet labeled Import Assignment Data.

   • To import data for a single assignment rule and associated position candidates, navigate to the Administration - Assignment screen, Assignment Rules List view. Drill down on an assignment rule record to go to the form view, then click the Position Candidates tab to display the associated position candidates. Note the button in the upper applet labeled Import Assignment Data.

3. Click the appropriate import button (noted in Step 2) to begin the process of importing data.

4. In the dialog box that appears, click Browse to specify the location of the spreadsheet file that you are importing and to select the file.

5. (Optional) Enter some descriptive text for the Import Process Description field. This value is helpful if you have to review log data from the import operation.

   
   

   Note: In the Transaction Logs view, in the record associated with the import operation, the Description field contains a string that is derived from the string value that you provided in the Import Process Description field. For more information, see "Transaction Log Data for Export and Import Operations".

   
   

6. (Optional) Specify the number of records to be skipped.

   Use this option when the import file contains records at the beginning of the file that you must skip when importing the file data. For example, if you do not want to import the first four records, then specify 4.

7. (Optional) Specify the number of records to be processed.

   Use this option (optionally along with the option for the number of records to be skipped) when the import file contains records at the end of the file that you must skip when importing the file data. For example:

   • If the import file contains 10 records and you want to import the first four records only, then specify 4.

   • Or, if the file contains 14 records, you are skipping the first four records, and you want to import records 5 though 10 only, then specify 6.

8. Click OK to begin importing. Or click Cancel to cancel the import operation.

9. Validate that the data from the spreadsheet file was successfully imported into the application.

   Also review the transaction log to verify that the operation was performed as expected. To do this, navigate to the Administration - Assignment screen, Transaction Logs view. The transaction log contains data about failed records, skipped records, processed records, and so on. For more information about the data displayed in this view, see "Transaction Log Data for Export and Import Operations".

Limitations for Importing Assignment-Related Data

This topic is part of "Exporting and Importing Assignment-Related Data".

The following limitations apply when you import assignment-related data:

• General limitations. No insert, update, or delete operations can be performed on records for high-level object types: assignment rules or positions.

• Update limitations. The following limitations apply to updates that are performed as part of import operations:

  • User key values cannot be updated as part of an update. For the applicable user keys, see Table 5-13.

  • As noted in Table 5-13, skill items and criteria items have no static user key fields. You can update such records in an import operation if you use logically unique fields as user keys. For example:

    • If a skill is Competency, then Competency is a key field in associated skill items, and two other fields (Skill Level High and Skill Level Low) can be updated.

    • If a skill is Language, then Language Code is a key field in associated skill items, and only one field (Expertise) can be updated.

    • If a criterion is Account Bill To City State Country, then Bill to City, Bill to State, and Bill to Country are key fields in associated skill items, and one field (Score) can be updated.

  
  

  Note: If you are not sure which fields make up the logical user key for particular skill items or criteria items, then you can specify that the import operation perform a delete followed by an insert with updated values.

  
  

• Delete limitations. The following limitations apply to deletes that are performed as part of import operations:

  • As noted in Table 5-13, skill items and criteria items have no static user key fields. You can delete such records in an import operation if you use logically unique fields as user keys. If multiple records match a specified logical user key, then only the first matching record is deleted.

  • Records for mid-level object types can be deleted only where all fields of the child object type are empty in the import file. Specifically, this means that criteria records can be deleted only if they have no associated criteria items in the import file, and skill records can be deleted only if they have no associated skill items in the import file.

User Key Fields Relevant to Importing Assignment-Related Data

Table 5-13 identifies the user key fields that control what happens when you import assignment-related data from a spreadsheet file.

Table 5-13 User Key Fields Relevant to Importing Assignment-Related Data

Object Types Represented in Import File	User Keys
Positions and associated skills	Position.Position Position.Division Position Skill.Item
Assignment rules and associated criteria	Assignment Group.Name Assignment Group.Rule Group Assignment Rule.Rule Criterion Assignment Rule.Comparison Method Assignment Rule.Inclusion
Assignment rules and associated position candidates	Assignment Group.Name Assignment Group.Rule Group Assignment Group Position.Position Assignment Group Position.Division
Skill items Criteria items	No static user keys. Specify logically unique fields: skill item or criteria item fields appropriate to the specific skill or criterion. Some examples precede this table.

Transaction Log Data for Export and Import Operations

This topic is part of "Exporting and Importing Assignment-Related Data".

Table 5-14 describes the fields for the data that you can review in the Administration - Assignment screen, Transaction Logs view. Each record is an activity record that corresponds to an export or import operation that was initiated, whether the operation succeeded or failed.

The records displayed in the upper applet in this view can be filtered by selecting My Transaction Logs (the default), My Team's Transaction Logs, or All Transaction Logs.

The lower applet in this view contains attachments for the spreadsheet file that you exported or imported. For an import operation, this applet also includes a log file. For export, a message is displayed to the user that contains some relevant data about the operation.

Table 5-14 Transaction Log Data for Export and Import Operations

Field	Description
Transaction #	The row ID for the transaction log record.
Description	A string that is derived from the string value that you provided in the Export Process Description or Import Process Description field (string). The format used in the Description field is like string_username_date_time, where date is in the format YYYYMMDD and time is in the format hhmmss. For export, if no string value was provided in Export Process Description, then substitute ExportProcess for string in the example. For import, if no string value was provided in Import Process Description, then substitute ImportProcess for string in the example.
Type	Export or Import, depending on the operation performed.
Status	Success or Failed.
Date	Datetime stamp recording when the export or import operation was completed and the log file was written.
Owner	The Siebel user name of the user who performed the export or import operation.
Display In	Value represents the view from which you exported data, or into which you imported data. The value can be one of the following: Position and Activities. The operation was performed in the Administration - Group screen, in either the Positions view or Skills view. Activities Only. The applet has no user property set. This value is always used for import operations. Assignment and Activities. The operation was performed in the Administration - Assignment screen, in the Assignment Rules List view (form applet).
Comments	Comment text that you can enter after performing the export or import operation.