Wizard Tutorial Step 2

Step 2 - Import of descriptors

Choose Data → Import -> Import wizard -> Import descriptors … from the menu. A window as shown below will open to create a new import session. Select project “MycoPhylogenyNet” and enter a session description.

After clicking [OK] the following window opens that will lead you through the import of the descriptor data. The window is separated in three areas. On the left side, you see a list of possible data related import steps according to the type of data you choosed for the import. On the right side you see the list of currently selected import steps. In the center part the details of the selected import step are shown.

Choosing the File

As a first step, choose the File from where the data should be imported. Open file “Survey_Questions.txt”. The preselected encoding ANSI should be sufficient for our test file. The file column “QuestionText” contains the descriptor names that shall be imported. In file column “QuestionNumber” there is a unique number assigned to each descriptor that will be used by other data tables to reference a certain descriptor. “Type” might give a hint for the descriptor type (categorical, quantitative or text) and “DisplayOrder” may be used to determine the sequence number of the descriptor.

Selecting the data ranges

In the selection list on the left side of the window all possible import steps for the data are listed according to the type of data you want to import.

The step Descriptor is already selected and cannot be de-selected, additionally we select Descriptor node, because we want to assign each imported descriptor to a descriptor tree (see above). In the step table at the right side you find the import step Descriptor and below the most important data groups of the import step. Click on Descriptor ID and in the center window the assignemt data for the descriptor id (“id”) are displayed. Click on to make this the decisive column, further click on From file to select the column “QuestionNumber” as data source. After that the column should look as shown below.  

Remark: The Descriptor ID is a number that is generated automatically from the database when a new descriptor is created. Anyway in the data file there is a field “QuestionNumber” that is linked to a certein descriptor and used in other tables to reference a certain descriptor. The mapping from the “QuestionNumber” values to the internally generated Descriptor ID values will be stored in a separate import mapping table for the actual import session. In the later import steps this mapping table will allow to find the correct descriptor assigned to a certain “QuestionNumber”.

Now the descriptor name must be selected, therefore click on Descriptor name. The center window shows three data columns: “label”, “abbreviation” and “detail”. Click on From file in the “label” line to select file column “QuestionText” (see below).

Next click on Sequence number. In the center window select the data column “display_order”, click on From file and select file column “QuestionNumber”. (see below).

As already mentioned before the file column “Type” contains information that can be used to determine the descriptor type. Therefore click on Subclass, select the “subclass” line, click on From file and select the file column “Type”. Now click on button to open the transformation window. As only transformation step select to insert a translation table and to list the values contained in the file column. “Bool” shall be converted to “Categorical descriptor”, “Integer” and “Real” will become “Quantitative descriptor” and the rest “Text descriptor” (see below).

The file rows that contain entries in column “Values” seem to specify categorical descriptors but are simply inserted as text characters. We will correct those values when we import the categorical states in a later step. The “subclass” data column now looks as shown below.

The descriptor step at the right displays the most important data columns grouped in separate steps. Anyway, there are several additional data columns available that can be accessed by clicking on the Descriptor step itself. Here we select data column “measurement_unit”, choose file column “Unit” (see below).

To do the assignment of the imported descriptors to the descriptor tree that was created in the preparation step, select Descriptor node ID from step Descriptor node and supply it exactly the samy way as the Descriptor ID. (Don’t forget to click on to make it the decision column.) Furthermore supply the Sequence number in the same way as described above.

Finally select import step Descriptor tree, select data column “descriptortree_id”, choose For all:  and select entry “Main tree for Agricultural survey” from the drop down (see below). With this adjustment every imported descriptor will automatically be assigned to that descriptor tree.

Remark: Although descriptortree_id is a numeric value in the database, the externally visible descriptor tree name is expected here. Since this name is unambigious, the corresponding id will be determined during import.

Testing

To test if all requirements for the import are met use the Testing step. You can use a certain line in the file for your test and than click on the Test data in line: button. If there are still unmet requirements, these will be listed in a window. In our example no error occured and the test for the first data line is shown below.

You can see that in table “Descriptor” for data column “id” a new value 325050 is generated - remember that from file column “ParamID” the value 1 was selected. The mapping of the external value (1) to the internal value (325050) in table “Descriptor” will be stored in the “ImportMapping” table of the actual import session. I.e. if in a subsequent import step for the same session a “Descriptor.id=1” is specified in the import schema, it will automatically be translated to the internal “Descriptor.id=325050”. Anyway, usually you do not have to take care about this automatic translation. This example shall only demonstrate the meaning of the import sessions.

Remark: Since testing works with transaction rollback, the “id” values shown in the test window are different from the values resulting from a real import.

As a second example data line 4 with “DataType=Integer” was selected to demonstrate that the descriptor subtype is correctly set to “quantitative” (see below).    

Import

With the last step you can start to import the data into the database. If you want to repeat the import with the same settings and data of the same structure, you can save a schema of the current settings (see below).

Tables

Descriptor (Descriptor)
Merge handling: Insert

DescriptorTreeNode (DescriptorTreeNode)
Parent: Descriptor
Merge handling: Insert

Lines that could not be imported will be marked with a red background while imported lines are marked green.

If you want to save lines that produce errors during the import in a separate file, use the “Save failed lines” option. The protocol of the import will contain all settings acording to the used schema and an overview containing the number of inserted, updated, unchanged and failed lines (see below).

Next: Step 3 - Insert recommended values of descriptors