Update of work items during import results in duplicate work items being created.
We currently are on RTC 6.0.3. We are using Eclipse to do the import/export and we are importing/exporting to a CVS file.
According to the documentation, I should be able to update work items, but I have had no luck in doing this, so I not sure what I am doing wrong.
Whenever I do the import from the source, I end up getting new work items that results in duplicates, rather than updated work items from the import.
Here is the help text that seems to imply I can update exiting work items during an import, rather than duplicating them:
Procedure
- Click File > Import. In the Import window, click Team > Work Items from CSV. Click Next.
- Click Browse and select the CSV file to import. Select to separate the values in the CSV file by tabs, commas, or something else. If you use a separator other than tabs or commas, click Other and enter the separator in the adjacent field.
- Select the project area in which to create or update the work items based on the contents of the CSV file.
- Select to create or update work items.
- To create work items, select Create a new Work Item.
- To update existing work items, select Update matched Work Item. To be able to update existing work items, the CSV file must contain a column for the work item ID (usually Id). The Import Work Items wizard uses the IDs to find matching work items.
To create work items for records that do not have matching existing work items, select Create a new work item for unmatched entry.
https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSJJ9R_6.0.3/com.ibm.team.workitem.doc/topics/t_importing_work_items_csv_file.html
Here is the help text for the export:
Important
If you intend to use the Import wizard to update existing work items, be sure to include the ID attribute in the exported CVS file and set its Show column setting to use the internal representation (Internal Value). The Import wizard uses the IDs to find the work items to update.
- In the Show column setting, specify whether to use the internal (Internal Value) or external (Label) representation of each attribute value. Change the Show column value by clicking the value and selecting the option from the menu that opens. The external representation is how the value is displayed in the work item editor. The internal representation is a value that can be processed by the spreadsheet. This value might be less readable for users. For example, the external value of the Estimate attribute is in hours or days. The internal representation is in milliseconds
https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSJJ9R_6.0.3/com.ibm.team.workitem.doc/topics/t_exporting_work_items.html
So the first question is what am I doing wrong, and the second question is whether RTC can in fact just update existing work items rather than creating new ones.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
Al
2 answers
Question 1: Since you don't provide anything that would allow to, there is no way to tell you what you are doing wrong.
Thanks for the reply.
I was not sure what you are looking for in Question 1 since it looks like some of the text is missing, but I will hazard a guess that you are suggesting I put in some examples of what I am trying to do?
Here is a fragment of the cvs file that I exported using the Eclipse Export Wizard that was used to import into the target RTC. I have only included the first few fields, but it includes the ID column, which sounds from your response is the key one needed for the updates to occur.
|
Type |
Id |
Status |
|
com.ibm.team.workitem.workItemType.feature |
11222 |
com.ibm.team.workitem.feature.state.draft |
|
com.ibm.team.workitem.workItemType.feature |
11216 |
com.ibm.team.workitem.feature.state.draft |
|
com.ibm.team.workitem.workItemType.feature |
11223 |
com.ibm.team.workitem.feature.state.draft |
Here is an image of showing the update parameters set in the Eclipse export wizard:
Here is a image of the export window that was used to decide on which fields to export:
I chose to export the Id of the work item and to use the Internal Value instead of the labels since the RTC Help files stated that this was the better approach when wanting to update work items at a target. The import did create a ID column and populated it with Id numbers.
I am not really clear on your suggestion about renaming the ID of the Id attribute to "id", all small letters. Are you suggesting I change the column name in the excel spreadsheet manually? I did try that, but got an import error so I may have guessed incorrectly.
I did try using the default mapping file, but it still created duplicates and not an update. My understanding of the mapping file was to use it when you had fields that may mismatch between the source and target. In our case, the work items are identical.
Should I be using the import/export wizard in Eclipse, is there an alternative to doing this importing and updating work items in the target RTC.
Al
Comments
My apologies, the images I inserted did not come across.
Al
Your reputation is not high enough for images. Try "id" and not Id as the column header or provide a mapping file.
A default mapping file does not make sense. The generated one is only an example. you have to edit it to make the mapping work.
The mapping file is a general mechanism to map from the input attributes and values to the output attributes and values. It makes sure that the input attribute ID and the output attribute ID are mapped. In any case in your case I suspect that the import does not recognize the ID attribute column of the import file and thus can not localize the existing work item.