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DataBridge already has great support for SuperOffice entities like ‘Company’ and ‘Appointment’, DataBridge imports the data for these entities straight into the SuperOffice database to make the data available to your SuperOffice users.
Importing documents into SuperOffice raises a bigger challenge as a physical document/file is required besides the document details that goes into the database. When we talk about a physical document, we mean the actual digital file like a Word or PDF document. A document entity represents document metadata, as shown in the SuperOffice document dialog. Both are required to represent a document inside SuperOffice.
Source
DataBridge supports the import of documents, including physical documents from:
FTP and SFTP
Microsoft OneDrive
Microsoft SharePoint
Email
Besides the physical document file(s), an import file is needed in which there is more information on the document, like the company to which the document will be linked. The source needs to provide both types of files.
In the example below, there is that we use in this article, an import file that in Microsoft Excel format holds the details for 3 documents that will be imported. On the FTP location that is used in this example, you also see the 3 physical documents in PDF format on the same FTP location as the import file.
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Document sizeNote that each document can be a maximum of 10MB. Documents that exceed this amount are not processed. |
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In the first step of the wizard, configure the access to the source. This is where you also configure what import file to use. How this is done, depends on the source platform. In the our example below, FTP is used.
If you have a profile that imports data from FTP to SuperOffice the required configuration options become visible in the DataBridge wizard.
In the ‘Configure fields’ wizard step, you can map document entity fields just like any other SuperOffice entity. Always consider mapping to a proper ‘Document template’ for proper ordering in SuperOffice.
Configure document import
When document fields are configured you will see a document import section on the ‘Destination settings’ page. Here you can configure which file should be copied from your storage location to SuperOffice in regards to the document entity being processed.
- Field, select the column from your import file that contains the file path or unique value that’s part of the file path. Currently, the file extension must be included with this field when you have mixed file types.
- File path format, leave this field empty if the selected field in the import file already contains the full file path. Or use the following format to create the proper file path: '/documents/[:value:].pdf', '[:value:]' is replaced by the value of the selected field. So when the current processing line has the value ‘20190001A’ in the selected field we try to load the file '/documents/20190001A.pdf' from your storage location.
The file path format is case sensitive! - Document unavailable action, what to do when no document is available on the storage location. The option 'Continue processing the line' allows you to update existing SuperOffice document entities without affecting the file. Marking as failed or skipped will not create or update any document entities in SuperOffice when no file was loaded.
Be careful when using the “Continue processing the line” option! Without a file, it’s impossible to create a new document in SuperOffice, so in that case, the document entity will fail with the message “A document file is required for this operation but not available”; however other entities on the same line will be processed as usual. So only use this option in case you explicitly want to update existing document entities.
Please consider: just like with the other entity types you can configure duplication handling and default list values, when dealing with documents it’s even more important to make sure these settings are correct.
Run and verify
All offered scheduling methods are compatible with document import, so configure the rest of the profile according your requirements and run it. The processing time required per document depends a lot on infrastructure and file size, so it can take longer than expected.
Afterward the job log will show which file was transferred for each line:
File '43.txt' retrieved from FTP, 23 bytes read.
Depending on the document unavailable action skipped or failed messages will be shown:
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Step 2 - Configure Source
The second step in the wizard makes sure the data from your source is loaded the way you would like to have it. In our example, a Microsoft Excel document is used.
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Step 3 - Transform
Use the transformation to your liking. In our example there is no transformation of data needed.
Step 4 - Configure Fields
This is where we link the details from the import file to the SuperOffice fields. In our example we have details for the company, a sale and the document in our import file. However, we will only link the document to the company to make it visible in the companies' activity list.
We have mapped the company number and company name. For the document import we have mapped the subject to hold the sale number from our source system and the date will be determined by the Order Date from the source. As the document type (or template) we have a list item available in SuperOffice with the name ‘Webshop order’.
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Step 5 - Destination Settings
In our example we need to spend some time in the Destination Settings step.
First we start with configuration of the location of the physical files. In our FTP example we enter the path and the variable [:value:] to let databridge replace that with the actual values from the import file. If the import file would already contain the full path and document name (or just the document name in case there is no path) then you may leave this field empty.
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Use [:value:] if the full document name, including extension is in the import file. Or use [:value:].pdf if the extension is missing from the import file and the files always have the same extension. |
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Scroll down to the SuperOffice CRM Online section to set the duplicate match to Number in the Company section. This to avoid that DataBridge creates a new company for each row in the import file.
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Scroll down a bit further to set the Document Owner to the right SuperOffice user so that the new documents in SuperOffice have a proper owner. The owner is a mandatory field when you import documents. In our example we do not have the owner available in the import file. This is why we tell DataBridge to always use the selected SuperOffice user as the owner.
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Step 6 - Profile Settings
Determine how you’d like the profile to be started and who needs to get notified after every (successful or failed) job.
Step 7 - Summary
Review the configuration and save the details. The profile is now ready to be used.