New v5.0.1 - Importing data directly from web interface

[lfrazier]

Hello Shaun,

I noticed in the changelog for v5.0.1 that it mentions "Importing data can now be performed directly from the web interface"

I perused your demo and could not find where that can be done.

Also, what kind of data can be imported?
-schedules?
-employees?
-punches?

Is this available in the free community version?

thanks,

[shaunw]

You can find it in the new v5.0 interface by going to Employee -> Employees, clicking on an employee in the list, then clicking the Import icon at the top right of the menu.

Its only enabled for a small subset of the possible data that TimeTrex handles right now, but will be expanded considerably in the future. As of right now it supports importing Employees, Branches, Departments, Wages, Clients (Pro edition).

[Surpass]

Hi Shaun, are there template CSV files for the import data sets?

Thanks in advance!

[shaunw]

No template files are needed as its completely customizatable to virtually any format.

[Surpass]

Thanks Shaun, I guess my question was more to the point of which fields were available for use. I figured it out once I uploaded a dummy CSV. I have discovered a few bugs/challenges, how would you like them reported?

1) A column header of "First Name" defaults to birth date as a field, but a column head of "First_Name" seems to work fine. Last Name does not have this problem.
2) After doing an import, the cache needs to be cleared on the server for updates to show correctly. To me this defeats the purpose of a web import process. I disabled cache in the timetrex ini file, but the import process still created cache there.
3) Adding a user to a particular hierarchy doesn't seem to work. I have tried using the hierarchy name, the hierarchy number, and the option select value as defined in the html source code of the version 3 interface.
4) When updating a user I had to add Country and Province as fields even though I didn't need them to create the users.

Thanks again for the fast responses. This is in TimeTrex 5.0.3.

[shaunw]

1) A column header of "First Name" defaults to birth date as a field, but a column head of "First_Name" seems to work fine. Last Name does not have this problem.

The import wizard attempts to find the closest match for each column, but its far from perfect. We will continue to improve this though.

2) After doing an import, the cache needs to be cleared on the server for updates to show correctly. To me this defeats the purpose of a web import process. I disabled cache in the timetrex ini file, but the import process still created cache there.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by this? Its impossible for new employee records to be cached, by the very nature of caching itself. You may need to refresh the current view after the import is done, but clearing the cache should definitely not be required.

3) Adding a user to a particular hierarchy doesn't seem to work. I have tried using the hierarchy name, the hierarchy number, and the option select value as defined in the html source code of the version 3 interface.

Importing the hierarchy isn't support at this time unfortunately.

4) When updating a user I had to add Country and Province as fields even though I didn't need them to create the users.

I will pass this on to the developers to investigate further.

[Surpass]

2) After doing an import, the cache needs to be cleared on the server for updates to show correctly. To me this defeats the purpose of a web import process. I disabled cache in the timetrex ini file, but the import process still created cache there.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by this? Its impossible for new employee records to be cached, by the very nature of caching itself. You may need to refresh the current view after the import is done, but clearing the cache should definitely not be required.

This was on an import update of user data not a new import.

I failed to mention number 5.

5) After running the import process once, going back in to run it again fails due to a blank page on step 4. I log out and back in to resolve. It may resolve with just a refresh of the browser though.

How do you refresh? Or do you mean refresh my browser to reload the flex app?

Thanks!

[shaunw]

To refresh the data on the screen without refreshing the browser you can simply click on the menu option at the top again. You can refresh your browser as well, but that method is a little slower as the entire TimeTrex application has to reload.