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Scribe Help
Posted: 31 May 07 2:42 PM
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I cannot find a manual for Scribe, so I have a few questions. I have an Excel sheet that contains accounts and contacts on the same row, i.e. company name, first name, last name, address, city, state... Do I create an Access table for Account, Contact, and Address, import the corresponding fields from the .XLS file to each table, then use Scribe to import from the Access tables? Given this procedure will not be completed often, what would be the best manner to perform this?
My think was that I would import the accounts first. I do not know if the AccountID will be autogenerated, but I will need something to tie the contact and address table to the account information. If someone could point me in the direction of a Scribe manual, I would appreciate that too. |
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Re: Scribe Help
Posted: 01 Jun 07 8:16 AM
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Scribe does not ship with manuals. Checkout community.scribesoft.com and support.scribesoft.com for samples. This is a common format, and it can all be imported in one scribe script. To make things easier first create a named range in the Excel file like "DataImport" by selecting the range and selecting from the menu Insert/name/define. Next sort the range by company, lastname, and first name. Then in scribe create the source as odbc/excel and select the file. The named range created earlier will appear as a table. Connect to the source as an adapter object. Now click Target Configure, and add steps as Update/Insert for Account and Contact. These will be found under Adapter objects instead of tables. The addresses are managed through virtual fields for both. Scribe will automatically manage the foreign key assignment for the account and address tables. Select the Account step and go to the Skip if Repeated tab and select the account or company field because it only needs to be create once for all contacts. This is why the spreadsheet was sorted earlier. Close this window.
I find it easier to work with one step at a time by selecting it from the combo box next to the Target Configure button. Now create the lookup links. Click on the company name field in the source and account and click the lookup link button. Next match the fields and click data link to for all of the account related fields. Repeat these steps for the contact, but the lookup should include the account, first name and last name fields. You will find the address fields at the bottom start with “v” since these a virtual fields managed automatically by scribe. From the Run menu select Test job to preview the import and when satisfied select Run Job from the Run menu. |
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Re: Scribe Help
Posted: 01 Jun 07 9:59 AM
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Okay.insert another column with a unique number in it. and give a proper column headingto those fields.
In Excel select your range and then go to Insert-name-define and define a name which you will use in scribe
Open target slx oledb connection and Insert to account with that unique id in some user defined fields.Fill up the address fields also(they should be virtual fields in acc step if you have s slxoledb connection)
Do the same thing for contact and this time for getting accountid , do a dblookup for that excel unique id and get the account id from there.Do the same as above-map the addresses to the virtual fields and your done!
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Re: Scribe Help
Posted: 11 Jun 07 1:24 PM
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I am running into some issues, this is how far I can get:
-I define the namespace within the Excel sheet
-I set this name space as the source
-I set SalesLogix as the target
-I create steps for each table (accoutn, contact, address)
-I link the source fields with appropriate target fields
Now I run into some problems. First, the virtual fields that are created are not applicable to my import. They are fields such as billing address, shipping address, and primary address. Also, I am not completely certain the purpose of the steps. I need to make sure that the address and contact steps run prior to the account step? I understand that addressID and contactID are automatically generated and linked to the account table, but what about the accountID? I have been pleased with what you have given me so far, and would appreciate any other aid you can give me. |
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Re: Scribe Help
Posted: 11 Jun 07 3:31 PM
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It may be easier to save the XLS workbook to a CSV file (make sure you export the headers). You can then import the CSV file. I find it easier the using XLS ranges.
Also, if all you need to do is inserts (i.e. you do not need to do a lookup to determine is the account or contact already exists) you could use the SalesLogix ImportWiz. |
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Re: Scribe Help
Posted: 11 Jun 07 3:43 PM
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| I have not had any luck getting importwiz.exe up and running. I get runtime error 217 anytime I try to open it. Reinstalling does nothing to fix the error. I have also tried to open importwiz.exe on multiple machines. |
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Re: Scribe Help
Posted: 11 Jun 07 4:01 PM
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I am not aware of any issue with the ImportWiz...
- What version and hotfix level of SalesLogix are you running?
- Is the DB SQL or Oracle?
- What is the OS version and patch level of the system where the ImportWiz fails?
I have seen 217 errors before, but not with the ImportWiz. Last time I got a 217 error it was because the DST patch had not been installed.
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Re: Scribe Help
Posted: 12 Jun 07 7:43 AM
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| I am using SLX 6.2.6.1007 with a SQL Server db. THe ImportWiz fails on a Win XP Pro version 5.1.2600 Service Pack 2 system. |
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Re: Scribe Help
Posted: 12 Jun 07 7:59 AM
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Is your xp machine a SLX client if not you may need to install the DST workaround anyway. Like Frank I think the last time I saw error 217 was with DST. ML |
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Re: Scribe Help
Posted: 12 Jun 07 8:10 AM
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| I am running SLX Client on this system, along with Administrator and Architect. In a different direction, there are some aspects of Scribe that I do not quite understand. Do I not have any control over a field being indexed? The datalink seems straightforward, but what exactly is the function of the lookup link? I have my job running without any errors, but the fields are not being imported into the tables. |
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Re: Scribe Help
Posted: 12 Jun 07 9:39 AM
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Scribe is not indexing fields... it is letting you know what fields are indexed. Note: Scribe is aware of the main SalesLogix relationships between tables.
The lookup link is used to locate an existing record so you can update it or relate another record to it.
The Scribe Web site has helpful examples.
SalesLogix distributed some sample DTS scripts with Scribe. You may want to look around to see if you can find these. |
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Re: Scribe Help
Posted: 12 Jun 07 10:31 AM
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| I have found some literature on Scribe and now understand some of the aspects. I see that Scribe is simply stating whether or not a column is indexed. The lookup links are for updating and deleting, not inserting. Supposedly Scribe will generate SLX ID's, but does this mean when account information is imported, an accountID is autogenereated along with corresponding contactID's and address ID's? |
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Re: Scribe Help
Posted: 12 Jun 07 11:23 AM
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| Supposedly Scribe will generate SLX ID's, but does this mean when account information is imported, an accountID is autogenereated along with corresponding contactID's and address ID's? |
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The SLX IDs will be autogenerated as long as your Scribe Step has an Insert or Insert/Update or Update/Insert action.
While the concept of importing Account, Contact, and Address information is not very compliclated there is a fair amount to learn to about the Scribe tool. I believe Scribe offers consulting services at a reasonable rate. You may want to check it out.
Send me an email and I will send you some sample Scribe scripts that do Accounts and Contacts.
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Re: Scribe Help
Posted: 12 Jun 07 1:36 PM
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| Though my DTS is not throwing any errors, it did not do as I wanted. A contact was created, but there is no accountID or addressID. An address was created with all the needed fields, but no account was created. Would this happen because of something not properly defined in one of my steps? |
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Re: Scribe Help
Posted: 12 Jun 07 2:40 PM
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I generally also stay away from Excel spreadsheets, I save them as tab delimited .txt files. It might just be me, but Excel files in Scribe trouble me. Anyway, first do an Account Insert step. Use the virtual address fields to automatically create the address records with the appropriate Id's. If you have just 1 address, map it to both the Shipping and the Primary. SalesLogix needs/likes having both a shipping and primary address.
Then, add a Contact Insert step. For the AccountID field in the contact table do a lookup/data link based on the Account Name you just imported to make sure you get the same AccountID. Also, map the addresses to the Contact table's virtual fields. Scribe should take care of the rest.
Best wishes
Jeff Parker |
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Re: Scribe Help
Posted: 12 Jun 07 3:06 PM
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Originally posted by Anthony Martie
Though my DTS is not throwing any errors, it did not do as I wanted. A contact was created, but there is no accountID or addressID. An address was created with all the needed fields, but no account was created. Would this happen because of something not properly defined in one of my steps? |
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There should be a constraint on the AccountID and ContactID fields that prevents NULL values.
Are you sure the records were instrted? |
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Re: Scribe Help
Posted: 13 Jun 07 7:55 AM
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| Thanks alot Jeff. A simple example was all I needed to get going. I used a .XLS file and it worked out well, but I will remember to try a tab delimited files if I have any issues in the future. |
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Re: Scribe Help
Posted: 13 Jun 07 8:07 AM
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| Your welcome Anthony. Glad I could help. |
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Re: Scribe Help
Posted: 03 Aug 07 1:26 PM
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For the AccountID field in the contact table do a lookup/data link based on the Account Name you just imported to make sure you get the same AccountID.
Jeff Parker |
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You dont have to do anything to capture the accountid just created by scribe.Dont map for accountid in contact table and the scribe adapter for slx automatically puts the accountid in it... |
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Re: Scribe Help
Posted: 06 Apr 10 9:51 AM
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I am currently attempting to import contact, account, and address information from a .csv file into SLX. Everything works fine except the addressid is not being inserted in the contact record or the account record. Is this something that Scribe should handle automatically, or do I need to make the association between the target fields and virtual fields?
**edit**
I should note that the accountid is being properly inserted for the contact |
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Re: Scribe Help
Posted: 12 Apr 10 11:12 AM
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As far as I recall, Scribe handles this automatically.
Are you populating any address values? If not, try putting a dummy value on an Address field (e.g. Salutation) and see if it creates the address for you.
Also, as far as I recall, you don't need to add the address table, as the fields are "denormalized" into the Account and Contact table within Scribe to hide the complexity from the user. The addresses should be created even if no values are being written. |
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