Clear an entire module

AlineKoch

Scenario: If I am importing data into a module and a line item no longer exists in the source file, the Clear Before Import will not clear that line item as it will only clear line items that are coming in from the file. This can lead to numbers being off.

 

Current workaround: Create a duplicate module that is filled with 0's then do a module-to-module import before doing the import. This seems like a waste of space and unnecessary processing.

 

Idea: Have an option in the Import Action to clear the entire module for an import. In the module, also have an option to clear that module

Miran

Status changed to: New

KBeltz_*10697

Aline's idea would be helpful!  Our team has numerous actions that to clear cells.  To do this, one needs a module with the exact dimensionality of the target line item, so lots of wasted space and actions!  Currently, we are using roughly 20 million cells and five actions to do this in one of our models.

 

I have tried a few experiments with importing a spreadsheet into the Blueprint view of the target module in hopes to set the formula to "0", "BLANK", or "FALSE" (whatever the line item's format is to clear) without much success.  The next action would then remove the formula.  Has anyone imported into a Blueprint view with any success?

Bashobi

After trying out the suggestion of :- 1. Create a replica module by copying without data, 2. Remove formulas 3. Import replica module. it still was not 100% successful to truncate the whole module, leaving some stragglers still. 

Also the replica module simply is a waste of resources/cells. 

 

I created a replica module manually from the original module , without the 'Copy' option. Laborious to ensure all the line items were there in the same order as original module, without any formulas. This results in a replica module with empty cells.  Upon importing this replica module, the original module got truly truncated.  

MattEllis

Is there any update on this, in a role with a new company I am coming across this a lot, that the import clearing target, won't clear a list item that's not in the import, very frustrating.

AstridLLL

@Bashobi

I used a similar method, the only difference is that I set the format of the line items to "No Data".
The module size will be reduced to zero.

amiller

There is a setting on the second tab of the import settings that clears out all information for target items.

MattEllis

@amiller The problem is you also want to clear the untargeted items as well.

amiller

@MattEllis I'm not sure I understand. If you are saying that you want to clear line items that aren't mapped, you can select All Items on that tab as well and it should clear them out.