Congrats! If you made it past the title, you just earned a virtual badge because you are likely wondering how you can save some time by telep … importing something into VUEWorks.

So, how is all of that clicking going for you? We get it. As designers of the VUEWorks application, we realize that building something out, designing a large template, or creating bulk assets can also require bulk clicking at times. That’s precisely why we have created a variety of channels throughout the application to import templates and data into VUEWorks. Aside from making life a little easier, importing into VUEWorks can save time too!

There are several locations within the application that allow something to be imported. Let’s take a quick look at how imports can be used.

• Set up Users
• Facility Templates
• Facilities, Containers, and Assets
• Work Orders
• Resources – Labor, Equipment, Inventory

Most of the time, importing anything into VUEWorks requires a data source to be set up on the server. This enables the application to connect to the data that needs to be imported. Data source formats will typically be Excel files but can also be set up as Access, SQL, Oracle, or ODBC connections. Excel files used as data sources should use the .xls file format. Excel files used for imports should have no spaces in the filename, tabs, and field/column headers. Facility templates are unique, however.

Importing a Facility Template

Importing Facility templates can be really handy. The ability to import Facility templates gives users the option to build out a template in the Sandbox environment, plan it out, test it, and update it, all before importing it into the Production environment (users with only a Production environment can simply make a copy).

The process is fairly straightforward and there is an import wizard that walks you through the process. Exporting/Importing Facility templates can be done via the Administer Facilities interface and – quick reminder – the user needs administrative access to Facilities to perform template exports/imports. Exported Facility templates are saved as .zip files and these should not be extracted/unpacked. The import process uses the .zip file.

Importing from a Data Source

Everything else needs a data source! VUEWorks is hungry, so feed it some food. Once you have the data formatted and ready to import, it just needs to be set up as a Data Source. This can be done by going to Manage Data Links within Administration. Click the Manage Data Sources button, then just click the plus button to add a new data source to your list. The interface will walk you through connecting to your file on the server.

Run Import, Run!

There are a variety of reasons to set up a data import. Perhaps you have a long list of new VUEWorks users that need to be entered into the system. Another reason could be that you want to create a large batch of Work Orders with some of the information pre-populated on the forms. All of these channels of importing data are for the sake of saving time. After the Data Source is established, fields just need to be mapped within the module so the information to be imported gets a new home.

After mapping the appropriate locations, the import can be run. Here are a few places to find import capabilities.

• Within Setup Users, you can use the Import Manager to bring in a batch of users.
• Facilities, along with their Containers and Assets, can be imported using the Import Manager in Administer Facilities.
• Expand Work Orders and explore the Import Manager.
• Resources – Labor, Equipment, Inventory – can be accessed by expanding Resource Manager and then selecting Import/Export.

Quick Tips

• Not seeing the import options or buttons? These need module codes that VUEWorks Support can assist with.
• Keep things simple. When setting up the import template, fields should match or be very similar to the item that they would be mapped to in the application. This just makes field mapping easier.
• Excel files used for imports should have no spaces in the filename, tabs, and field/column headers.

Need More Info?
Contacting your assigned Project Manager or VUEWorks Support will always get you the most immediate assistance: Please email support@vueworks.com.