Quick Import

Use the quick import functionality if you need to perform quick data migration between instances without additional field mapping configuration.

The difference between the quick import and regular Data Import is that the quick method inserts records to the database directly, while with the standard method you can apply additional settings and scripts, for example, business rules.

You can only use the quick import functionality to import data into non-versioning tables (those that have the Is VCS enabled attribute disabled). If you try to perform a quick import of data into any versioning table, the records from the imported file will be skipped with the message in the Main Log (sys_log) table:
Is not possible to import to the {table_name} table.

You cannot perform quick import to the VCS Record (sys_vcs_record) table.

note

Role required: admin, import_admin.

The imported data should match the following format:

Import data format

{
    "article": [
        {
            "state": "1",
            "service": null,
            "number": "ART0000035",
            "sys_id": 159497384530294161,
            "metainfo": null,
            "object_category": null,
            "sys_updated_at": "2020-07-17 08:17:25",
            "body": null,
            "sys_db_table_id": 156846397908814773,
            "content_item_class": 157935401911817831,
            "sys_created_at": "2020-07-17 08:17:25",
            "sys_updated_by": 155931135900000001,
            "sys_created_by": 155931135900000001,
            "published_at": "2020-07-17 08:17:25"
        }
    ],
    "itsm_incident": [
        {
            "active": true,
            "sys_updated_at": "2020-06-18 23:24:13",
            "sys_created_at": "2020-06-18 23:24:13",
            "wf_executing_activity": null,
            "number": "INC0000351",
            "description": null,
            "urgency": "1",
            "impact": "1",
            "assignment_group": null,
            "sys_db_table_id": 156950677111866258,
            "display_name": "INC0000351 asd",
            "subject": "asd",
            "company": null,
            "service": 158825569619498427
        }
    ]
}

The main object keys are the system names of dictionaries. The value is an array of record objects. Every record object contains keys that correspond to the system names of the table columns and the database attribute values.

A file containing data to import can be obtained by exporting the dictionary records list.

To perform the quick import, complete the steps below:

1. Navigate to the list view of the target table.
2. Click the column title area and select Import from JSON in the context menu.
3. In the attachments window that opens, upload the JSON files to be imported.

note

Note that the target table should be mentioned within the file. New records will not be added in the list view where you perform the quick import.

Within the import process, the import engine verifies that the records sys_id attribute values match with the ones in the imported object.

If such a record exists in the target dictionary, the existing record is updated; otherwise, a new record is created. For example, when records with a new sys_id attribute value are imported or records do not have a sys_id: value pair.

After import processing, every file has a Main Log (sys_log) record with the Quick Import value in the Source column. The link to the Import log records appears in the toast message in the lower right corner.

These records contain information about import results. For example:

Message

Import result for knowledge_base_category.json
Total: 55
Inserted: 45
Updated: 10
Skipped: 0

note

The quick import process bypasses the server-side field validation. This means that you can import records with empty mandatory fields or with non-unique values in the fields that have the Unique attribute active. You will not be able to update records imported with these parameters until you normalize the data and re-import it.