Exports and Imports - Importing Drawings and Documents in Bulk

How to import multiple drawings or documents at a time using a zip file.

Quickstart

Summary

1. Create a folder in which to put the drawing and/or document files you want to upload. Supported file types are currently pdf, kml, and kmz.
2. Copy the files into the folder.
3. Optionally create a manifest.csv file, and copy this into the folder with the drawing/document files. 
4. Compress the folder.
5. On the Damstra Forms website, go to Drawing and Docs, and select Import from .zip from the green Upload menu.
6. On the Import page, select the zip file you have just created. If you are not using a manifest file, then un-tick Require manifest.csv.
7. Click Import. This will take you to a report page that will tell you whether the import has succeeded. If not, you can fix the errors that it reports and then try again.
8. If the import succeeds, you can then go to the Drawings and Docs page to see the imported files. If you haven’t specified a manifest.csv file, then you will need to edit each of them to add the desired metadata.

Step-by-step

Here is an example of the steps using File Explorer on the Windows 8.1 Desktop:

Create a folder for the files to be uploaded (e.g. Upload).

Copy the drawing/document files into that folder.

Optionally create a manifest.csv file and copy it into the Upload folder with the drawing/document files to be uploaded.

Right-click on the Upload folder, choose to Send to and then choose Compressed (zipped) folder. This will create Upload.zip.

Once you have your zip file, then on the Damstra Forms website, select your Project, go to Drawing and Docs, and select Bulk Upload from the green Upload menu.

On the Import page, select the zip file you have just created. If you are not using a manifest file, then uncheck Require manifest.csv. Click on Import to import the files.

This will take you to a report page that will tell you whether the import has succeeded. If not, you can fix the errors that it reports and then try again.

You can then go to the Drawings and Docs register to see the imported files. If you haven’t specified a manifest.csv file, then you will need to edit each of them to add the desired metadata

Using a manifest file

Benefits

Using a manifest file has the following advantages:

• You can specify the metadata for each imported file. The manifest file content can be input using a spreadsheet, which may be more convenient than editing the files one at a time using the website.
• You can choose to exclude files from the import, by simply not including them in the manifest.
• The system will do additional checking to ensure that the imported information is valid.

Creating the manifest file

The manifest file is a CSV file. It must be called manifest.csv and can be edited in a text editor or as a spreadsheet. Here is an example of a manifest file for the Quickstart example:

File Name, Number, Name, Current, Revision, Status, WBS Item Number, Type, Discipline, Auto Push
Demo Drawing 1 - REV 2.pdf, 1 , Demo Drawing 1, Yes, 2, For Construction, 1.1, Drawing, Civil, No
Demo Drawing 2 - REV 1.PDF, 2,Demo Drawing 2, Yes, 1 , For Approval, 2, Drawing, Architectural, No

And here is what it looks like if you open it in Excel:

The File Name column corresponds to the file name in the zip file. All the other columns correspond to the drawing metadata fields in Damstra Forms. Here is the information for each column.

Column Name    Type  Required   Comments
File Name            Text      Yes             Name of the file within the zip file excluding the                                                                  top level folder if one was used. For example, in                                                                  the quickstart we put everything in an Upload                                                                    folder. This wouldn’t be included in the file name. Number               Text      No             Drawing number. Defaults to blank.
Name                   Text      No             Drawing name. Defaults to File Name.
Current                Yes/No  No           “Drawing is current” flag. Defaults to No.
Revision               Text      No             Drawing revision. Defaults to blank.
Status                   Text      No            Drawing status. Defaults to blank. If not blank, it                                                                   must exist in the Drawings & Docs Statuses                                                                         Organisation List.
WBS Item Number Text   No             Drawing WBS Item number. Defaults to blank. If                                                                   not blank, it must exist in the project work                                                                           breakdown structure.
Type                     Text      No             Drawing document type. Defaults to blank. If not                                                                 blank, it must exist in the Drawings & Docs Types                                                               Organisation List.
Discipline             Text       No            Drawing Discipline. Defaults to blank. If not blank,                                                               it must exist in the Drawings & Docs Disciplines                                                                   Organisation List.
Auto Push            Yes/No   No          “Automatically push to project members” flag. If this is set to Yes, then the drawing will be automatically downloaded to the devices of project members without the user having to go into the Drawing register, and select the drawing then press the Download button. That is especially useful if users might be working offline and it is important that they can access some documents.

Omitting columns

The only required column is the File Name column. The others are optional and may be omitted if desired. In most cases, you would usually want to have at least the File Name, Name, and Current columns included.

Omitting values within a row

If you want to omit values in a row, then just leave them empty but keep the commas. For example, in the following, we omit the Status from the first row and the Type and Discipline from the second.

File Name, Number, Name, Current, Revision, Status, WBS Item Number, Type, Discipline, Auto PushDemo Drawing 1 - REV 2.pdf, 1, Demo Drawing 1, Yes, 2, 1.1, Drawing, Civil, NoDemo Drawing 2 - REV 1.PDF, 2, Demo Drawing 2, Yes, 1 , For Approval, 2, , , No

Including the manifest in the zip file

The manifest file should be included with the other files in the zip file. For example, if we included a manifest in the quick start example, the folder would look like this:

Advanced Topics

Using a top-level folder or not

In the examples, we put everything in a folder called Upload and then compressed that folder. This was purely for convenience as this is the simplest way to create a zip archive in many environments. You can also just zip up the files directly without putting them in a folder if you prefer.

Sub-folders

You can have sub-folders in your zip file. If so, the key things to note are:

• The manifest.csv file needs to be at the top level.
• You need to specify the subfolder in the File Name in the manifest.csv file (e.g. “MySubfolder/Demo Drawing 1 – Rev 2.pdf”)