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Best way to migrate data from old vault to new

Question asked by John Fair on Feb 13, 2015
Latest reply on Feb 16, 2015 by Prasad Bhonsule

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For some background, Our first EPDM Admin's MO was individual vaults per project. Then he moved on and another guy came in and he pushed for combining multiple projects into one vault. He got the vault setup, and one project is in process in that vault. Althought it's fairly early in development. But now that guy left and it's fallen to me to complete integration. yay...

We have a project in one of those individual vaults that is soon to hit a milestone, and we are looking at migrating that project to the new vault after the milestone. Bringing the data in is not a problem. We don't care about file history because the old vault will be maintained if we need to use it as a resource for file history.

It's the custom properties/variables that has me concerned. The variable names on the old templates is different than their equivalent in the new vault. There are a good 15-20 variables that will need to be mapped from the old vault to the new vault in order to use the new templates. Parts in the old vault used "Partnumber" for the part number which is now "Piecemark" in new vault. Any drawings/parts we touch in the new vault will have the drawing template replaced (ie. Drawnby in old vault is Draftername in new vault)

I'm looking for advice on mapping the old variable values to the new variables for all the old data so it shows up properly in the new drawing templates (ie Drawnby value is maintained in titleblock, Piecemark shows in BOM with the Partnumber value, etc.). Is it possible to do this in the initial file checkin?

Hope that explains my issue... Any advice is appriciated.

Prasad Bhonsule Feb 15, 2015 7:53 PM

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Hi John, I've come across this problem a couple of times, and without programming, the procedure below is the only way I can think of.

1) Create new datacards (or modify existing datacards) and variables in the new vault to match the ones from the old vault.

2) Create appropriate mappings to custom properties for those variables (CustomProperty, $PRPSheet etc)

3) When the files from the old vault are added to the new vault, the corresponding entries in the datacards should fill up

4) Create a workflow to handle these legacy files (assign a workflow condition for specific folders etc)

5) Add a transition in the workflow.

6) In the transition properties, add a Set Variable action. This action will update a variable in your new vault with the value of a variable from your old vault.

See the attached screenshot, my example is Revision (new vault) being updated by "Legacy Revision" which is a variable in my old vault

So for you, you would have Drafter being updated by DrawnBy from the old vault.

I hope this makes sense, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Best regards,

Prasad Bhonsule

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Prasad Bhonsule Feb 15, 2015 7:53 PM

Hi John, I've come across this problem a couple of times, and without programming, the procedure below is the only way I can think of.

1) Create new datacards (or modify existing datacards) and variables in the new vault to match the ones from the old vault.

2) Create appropriate mappings to custom properties for those variables (CustomProperty, $PRPSheet etc)

3) When the files from the old vault are added to the new vault, the corresponding entries in the datacards should fill up

4) Create a workflow to handle these legacy files (assign a workflow condition for specific folders etc)

5) Add a transition in the workflow.

6) In the transition properties, add a Set Variable action. This action will update a variable in your new vault with the value of a variable from your old vault.

See the attached screenshot, my example is Revision (new vault) being updated by "Legacy Revision" which is a variable in my old vault

So for you, you would have Drafter being updated by DrawnBy from the old vault.

I hope this makes sense, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Best regards,

Prasad Bhonsule

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Brian McEwen @ Prasad Bhonsule on Feb 16, 2015 11:19 AM

Ouch, that sounds painful for 20 variables, but not totally unreasonable. Prasad's approach would be easy to test with some sample files, and sounds pretty robust once you have it all set up correctly. If you don't have a lot of time on your hands this may be something it is worth paying a VAR to do, they have tools for such things.

As you may have realized, multiple vaults is not good for data reuse, and more for Admin to maintain.

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John Fair @ Prasad Bhonsule on Feb 16, 2015 4:34 PM

Yea, that makes sense. But I've tried it,and have a few questions...

1&2) Any reason I can't just export the file card from the old vault and import it for use in the project folder in the new vault? Would this not handle all the variable mapping as well? Anyway, that's what I did and seemed to work fine because;

3) all the corresponding entries fill out the same way...

4) Do I need to create a separate workflow of these files? Id really like them to follow the same workflow as the rest of this vault.

5&6) I've actually previously tried that but it wrote the value in the custom property as "%var_DrawnBy%" instead of replacing that with the value of DrawnBy, so I didn't think that was possible. I've added an action in the initial checkin transition of the existing workflow to map "DrawnBy" to "Drafter" again but the custom property isn't created in the file at all this time. I've even tried manually editing a test drawing to include the "Drafter" custom property leaving the value blank, but after checking in the drawing, "drafter" does not exist in the custom properties. It's being removed...

I'm doing something wrong.

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Prasad Bhonsule @ John Fair on Feb 16, 2015 5:03 PM

Hi John, thanks for the reply. You don't need to create a separate workflow, I suggested that in case you wanted to keep your old vault files segregated from your new vault files.

As for the properties not being written correctly, assuming the mapping are correct, when the files are checked in, the variables should be mapped to custom properties within the files. Then the set variable action should work.

Would you mind attaching a CEX file of the vault (or atleast the data cards and workflow), would be interesting to have a play.

Kind regards,

Prasad

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John Fair @ Prasad Bhonsule on Feb 16, 2015 5:56 PM

Thanks for the reply Prasad. Here are the File card and workflow cex files.

I'm fairly new to PDM administration so I haven't got a good grasp on it yet, although I have been thru the class. Several years ago. And then didn't use any of the knowledge til now.

Attachments

workflow.cex.zip8.5 KB
File Card.cex.zip7.6 KB

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Prasad Bhonsule @ John Fair on Feb 16, 2015 7:43 PM

HI John, I think I figured out the problem.

1) You don't have any control on the data card linked to the variable "Drafter". You need to have this.

2) In the workflow transition "Automatic checkin", you have 2 set variable actions for the variable Drafter, one to get the logged in users name, and 1 to get the value of the the variable "DrawnBy". in this circumstance, EPDM is evaluating the actions in sequence, it will first write the logged in username, and then replace that with the value of the DrawnBy variable.

I had a play with the CEX files, see screenshots attached.

Hence I would suggest a new workflow and new datacard for files from your old vault so you can differentiate between the two types of files.

I hope this helps,

Best regards,

Prasad

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6 Replies

Prasad Bhonsule Feb 15, 2015 7:53 PM
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Correct Answer
Hi John, I've come across this problem a couple of times, and without programming, the procedure below is the only way I can think of.

1) Create new datacards (or modify existing datacards) and variables in the new vault to match the ones from the old vault.
2) Create appropriate mappings to custom properties for those variables (CustomProperty, $PRPSheet etc)
3) When the files from the old vault are added to the new vault, the corresponding entries in the datacards should fill up
4) Create a workflow to handle these legacy files (assign a workflow condition for specific folders etc)
5) Add a transition in the workflow.
6) In the transition properties, add a Set Variable action. This action will update a variable in your new vault with the value of a variable from your old vault.

See the attached screenshot, my example is Revision (new vault) being updated by "Legacy Revision" which is a variable in my old vault

So for you, you would have Drafter being updated by DrawnBy from the old vault.

I hope this makes sense, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Best regards,

Prasad Bhonsule
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- Brian McEwen @ Prasad Bhonsule on Feb 16, 2015 11:19 AM
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  Correct Answer
  Ouch, that sounds painful for 20 variables, but not totally unreasonable. Prasad's approach would be easy to test with some sample files, and sounds pretty robust once you have it all set up correctly. If you don't have a lot of time on your hands this may be something it is worth paying a VAR to do, they have tools for such things.
  
  As you may have realized, multiple vaults is not good for data reuse, and more for Admin to maintain.
  Like • Show 0 Likes0
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- John Fair @ Prasad Bhonsule on Feb 16, 2015 4:34 PM
  Mark Correct
  Correct Answer
  Yea, that makes sense. But I've tried it,and have a few questions...
  
  1&2) Any reason I can't just export the file card from the old vault and import it for use in the project folder in the new vault? Would this not handle all the variable mapping as well? Anyway, that's what I did and seemed to work fine because;
  
  3) all the corresponding entries fill out the same way...
  
  4) Do I need to create a separate workflow of these files? Id really like them to follow the same workflow as the rest of this vault.
  
  5&6) I've actually previously tried that but it wrote the value in the custom property as "%var_DrawnBy%" instead of replacing that with the value of DrawnBy, so I didn't think that was possible. I've added an action in the initial checkin transition of the existing workflow to map "DrawnBy" to "Drafter" again but the custom property isn't created in the file at all this time. I've even tried manually editing a test drawing to include the "Drafter" custom property leaving the value blank, but after checking in the drawing, "drafter" does not exist in the custom properties. It's being removed...
  
  I'm doing something wrong.
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  - Prasad Bhonsule @ John Fair on Feb 16, 2015 5:03 PM
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    Correct Answer
    Hi John, thanks for the reply. You don't need to create a separate workflow, I suggested that in case you wanted to keep your old vault files segregated from your new vault files.
    
    As for the properties not being written correctly, assuming the mapping are correct, when the files are checked in, the variables should be mapped to custom properties within the files. Then the set variable action should work.
    
    Would you mind attaching a CEX file of the vault (or atleast the data cards and workflow), would be interesting to have a play.
    
    Kind regards,
    
    Prasad
    Like • Show 0 Likes0
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    - John Fair @ Prasad Bhonsule on Feb 16, 2015 5:56 PM
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      Correct Answer
      Thanks for the reply Prasad. Here are the File card and workflow cex files.
      
      I'm fairly new to PDM administration so I haven't got a good grasp on it yet, although I have been thru the class. Several years ago. And then didn't use any of the knowledge til now.
      Attachments
      workflow.cex.zip8.5 KB
      File Card.cex.zip7.6 KB
      Like • Show 0 Likes0
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      - Prasad Bhonsule @ John Fair on Feb 16, 2015 7:43 PM
        Mark Correct
        Correct Answer
        HI John, I think I figured out the problem.
        
        1) You don't have any control on the data card linked to the variable "Drafter". You need to have this.
        2) In the workflow transition "Automatic checkin", you have 2 set variable actions for the variable Drafter, one to get the logged in users name, and 1 to get the value of the the variable "DrawnBy". in this circumstance, EPDM is evaluating the actions in sequence, it will first write the logged in username, and then replace that with the value of the DrawnBy variable.
        
        I had a play with the CEX files, see screenshots attached.
        
        Hence I would suggest a new workflow and new datacard for files from your old vault so you can differentiate between the two types of files.
        
        I hope this helps,
        
        Best regards,
        
        Prasad
        Attachments
        datacard.png46.4 KB
        workflowchange.png62.4 KB
        newfilecard.png43.0 KB
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Best way to migrate data from old vault to new

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