How to import SuperOffice Documents

Owned by Carlo Pompen
Last updated: Feb 01, 2024 by Remco Visser

Overview

DataBridge already has great support for SuperOffice entities like ‘Company’ and ‘Appointment’, DataBridge imports the data 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.

Specific features, functionalities, and limitations are dependent on the type of subscription plan. For a comprehensive overview, please refer to the following subscription overview page.

Source

DataBridge supports the import of documents, including physical documents from:

  • FTP and SFTP

  • Microsoft OneDrive

  • Microsoft SharePoint 1)

  • 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 that we use in this article, an import file in Microsoft Excel format holds the details for 3 documents that will be imported. On the FTP location used in this example, you also see the 3 physical documents in PDF format on the same FTP location as the import file.

Document size

Note that each document can be a maximum of 10MB. Documents that exceed this amount are not processed. 1)

How to

Step 1 - Configure Profile

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 our example, FTP is used.

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.

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’.

The mapping for the physical document file is not done in this step; this is done in the next step of the wizard.

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.

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.
Or use the Merge Field transformation or Append Text Value transformation to create the full document name in an additional column.

What to do when no document is available on the storage location, is configured with the Document Unavailable Action, . 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.

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.

Scroll down a bit further and open the Advanced Settings section and further down to the section ‘Default Values’. Look for the Document Owner and set 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.

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.

The result

Once we run a job for this profile we just created, the result looks like the screen print below.