Data Uploader Add Rows

Chris Mondeau

Hi All, I'm trying to figure out why I keep getting skips on my import.

Here's my import data:

And existing data in Smartsheet:

I'm expecting datauploader to append my excel fil to create something like this, where blue is the newly uploaded rows from excel

Here's my uploader config (thinking I can just use add new rows to always append, even if values already exist):

And the mapping (I'm using the ID column [auto-number from smartsheet system column] as my unique field, and not mapping it since my import data doesn't have any values):

I'm getting successful runs, but it always says that the rows are being skipped. Am I missing something or just being daft 🙃? Any feedback is appreciated, thanks all!

Genevieve P.

Hi @Chris Mondeau

There currently isn't a configuration within Data Uploader to continually add in rows, even if there are duplicates. However I may have an idea of how to always add data:

You could set up an interim sheet to use Data Uploader to continually add/replace all rows with the content from your source document. This will delete out your current rows in the initial Smartsheet sheet and add in entirely new rows each time (eliminating the need for a Unique Value to ID each row). Then set up a Copy Row workflow triggered whenever a new row is added to this sheet via Data Uploader to copy it to your destination sheet, which will house every row.

Would this work for your process?

Cheers!

Genevieve

Genevieve P.

Hi @Chris Mondeau

I believe the workflow is skipping all of your rows because the Unique ID isn't mapped to anything across the sheets. This means that it's unable to find a match, or know what rows it needs to pull in through the Merge.

You would need to set up a Mapping in Data Uploader between the ID column and the source sheet, however since your ID Column is a system column that can't be written to, you'll receive an error. Instead, you can have the unique ID column be in the source (the excel) and then have a blank column to write to in Smartsheet.

Keep in mind that the Merge option will only add new rows as well, so if "Animal" was your unique column, "Cat" would only appear once and then would be skipped during the next run. Does this make sense?

I hope this helps!

Genevieve

Chris Mondeau

@Genevieve P thanks for the fast response! My import data doesn't have any unique ID to map against the existing sheet data; I was hoping to build it to always add data regardless if it was duplicate values or not. Is there a better way to configure this?

There was a post a few years back asking for an "add only" feature, not sure if it's relevant to this or not https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/36381/anyone-out-there-using-data-uploader#latest

Genevieve P.

Hi @Chris Mondeau

There currently isn't a configuration within Data Uploader to continually add in rows, even if there are duplicates. However I may have an idea of how to always add data:

You could set up an interim sheet to use Data Uploader to continually add/replace all rows with the content from your source document. This will delete out your current rows in the initial Smartsheet sheet and add in entirely new rows each time (eliminating the need for a Unique Value to ID each row). Then set up a Copy Row workflow triggered whenever a new row is added to this sheet via Data Uploader to copy it to your destination sheet, which will house every row.

Would this work for your process?

Cheers!

Genevieve

Chris Mondeau

@Genevieve P that's a clever idea, I'll have to give it some testing to see if it works with our flow. Thanks for the suggestion!

Can we tag the "add only" tool to data uploader as a feature request? Thanks!

Genevieve P.

@Chris Mondeau No problem! I'd be interested to know if it will work for you.

And yes of course! I'll submit this feature request to our Product team, thanks. 🙂