Import without errors and warnings (extra columns in headers and times)
Hi community!
I want to bring up the next topic. Best practices and guides suggest that all imports should go with a green check mark, without warning. If there is a warning or an error, then something went wrong and the administrator must intervene.
But I found a case where I don't know how to achieve this without terrible workarounds.
The fact is that I have a template that users unload from the system, fill in and load back. The template has approximately the following columns:
Dimension 1 (code) - used for mapping in action
Dimension 1 (name) - not used in the download, reference information for the user (not everyone knows the codes, it is inconvenient to work with them)
Dimension property 1 (unloaded through labels, used for the convenience of the user when filling out. This can be a mapping to an old dimension or some kind of auxiliary information, such as a store opening date or PL line type)
And several columns in the month-year format (our anaplan time).
An example of such a template is in the attachment.
The problem is that when setting up the loading mapping, I indicate that the time is in the headers and also explicitly indicate the mapping for column 1 (reference code). At the same time, I need to ignore the additional information, but I cannot configure this, because time measurement has its own special mapping. And I cannot set certain columns to ignore in it.
As a result, extra columns lead to the warning "this element does not correspond to the time dimension". What are some tips to get rid of this warning? At the same time, there is no need to force users to delete unnecessary columns before loading or somehow break the template.
Answers
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Instead of downloading the template and then uploading it back, have you tried excel add in?. It allows you to write back into the module just by creating a connection in Excel.
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This is a good option and I used it on another project. But there are many users with Mac OS and the use of the add-on is questionable.1
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Last time I heard it was on Roadmap (that was 4-5 months ago)- not sure when are they going to get released? @MagaliP Any idea of Add ins for Mac?
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I confirm it's on the roadmap, you can track the ideas on the roadmap in the monthly bulletin.
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Thank you!
I was thinking about this option with changing the template. However, it is assumed that the template is filled in by the user and it will be inconvenient for them to do it in a single large column. It's so difficult to compare data over time.0 -
Your users can retain the preferred pivot view as you will create this new import template as a separate saved view and link your import to this new view.
Best practice is to always use saved views for actions.
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@ChrisAHeathcote - interesting about the repivoting up the import saved view. will give this a go for some of our more complicated exports/imports.
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I know its not a great solution, train the users to delete the property column, or any column that is not date before upload.
Thanks
Arun
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Thank you, @ChrisAHeathcote ! Yes, I am using the saved view for export. It specifically contains strings that help users fill out the template (but are not needed in the download). I would like the structure of the template to be uploaded and the file to be loaded into the system to match.
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Thank you all for your participation!
I was hoping that there is some not obvious way to ignore some of the elements in the time mapping. Unfortunately, there is no such way 🙂I will systematize all the solutions that have been proposed at the moment:
1. Delete unnecessary columns before loading the template.
2. Use an add-on.
3. Make a template pivot to place the time in rows (instead of columns).I wrote an idea in the community about changing the import settings.
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Google Sheets add-in? I'm a plagued Mac OS user myself, but the release of this one has relived the pain a bit. 😅
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