Mass data imports in Elements

How to easily import large volumes of data into Elements; Mass documentation imports;

Ksawery Lisinski avatar
Written by Ksawery Lisinski
Updated over a week ago

We're constantly adding new ways for you to import large datasets into Elements to help you document your orgs and processes with ease.

Article outline:

  • Prerequisites

  • What can I import?

  • How to import using templates

  • Manual imports

  • Failed imports

  • Something missing?

Prerequisites

What can I import?

Across various areas of our platform there are lots of ways to import different kinds of data. Here's what you can current import using a CSV file into Elements:

  • Changes: You can import requirements and user stories, as well as all associated standard and custom fields.

  • Org models: You can import the following to your Org model:

    • Documentation, including tags and URLs

    • Metadata stakeholders, roles, and comments

    • Optimization assessments, assignees and comments

  • Reference models: You can import new ref model structures, as well as update existing models.

  • URLs: You can import a library of URLs you want to use as documentation stored in Elements.

How to import using templates

To help you get the right format for your CSV file we can generate a template for you. This is done by selecting the import button in the top right of your screen, selecting "Import data from CSV" and navigating to the "Generate CSV template for import" tab.

You can select which metadata you want to add to or update, and we do all the hard work of generating a CSV file for you.

Once generated you will be able to download the file to your local machine from the notifications icon in the top right toolbar.

You can then edit this CSV with the system of your choice (Excel, Sheets, Numbers, etc.) with the data you want to upload. Once you're ready, all you need to do is go back to the import button and select your file for upload. Press "upload" and voila!

Articles on how to import specific data types can be found here:

Manual imports

You do not necessarily need to generate a template, and you can use your own CSV file to import data. However we strongly recommend using our template generator in order to get the correct format for your Org!

Failed imports

If we find something wrong with your file, or something doesn't quite look right with the format, we'll let you know. You can download a report after the import has finished from the notification tab. If you open this and navigate to the last column in the file you'll see we've added a comment explaining why we failed to import that row of data.

Usually this happens because we couldn't accept the format of the data you provided, for example there was a special character we don't support, the number of characters exceeded our limit, or the email address you provided didn't match an existing user. Email addresses in particular are also case sensitive, so bear this in mind when you're filling out the CSV.

Note: For importing documentation you can currently only import new data as we don't yet support mass-update by CSV.

If you're still having problems then let us know, either by talking to us in this blue window in the bottom right corner;

or by emailing us at success@elements.cloud. Please provide as much information as possible on the failed import so we can help you quickly.

Something missing?

Is there something else you'd love to be able to import quickly and easily at scale that we don't support yet? We'd love to hear from you - contact us at success@elements.cloud and let's talk!

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