HaloITSM

HaloITSM Guides

Documentation to assist with the setup and configuration of the HaloITSM platform

Guides > Importing Data

Importing Data

In this guide we will cover:

- Spreadsheet templates for imports

- How to complete an import

- Importing Data to Specific Fields

- Finding Errors When Importing



Spreadsheet templates for imports

How to import data into the relevant areas of your system


The best place to start before completing any imports, is with a template spreadsheet to gauge the information needed dependent on what you're importing.


You can download our example import spreadsheets from https://haloservicedesk.com/importspreadsheets


Each spreadsheet will have its own instructions for importing to the chosen area of halo, on a separate tab of the spreadsheet, for example:


Fig 1. Instructions for importing on spreadsheet


Generally, always leave the headings in blue as they are. If you don't have this information, just leave the column name the same and the rows blank, rather than removing the column.


You can also add custom fields by field name at the end of the spreadsheet and these will be imported too - it's important that the custom field has been created in Halo beforehand. The column name will be: cfname, where name would replace the actual name of your custom field i.e. cfamountdue


An example entry from a ticket import spreadsheet is shown below, where you can see some of the default columns filled in appropriately:


Fig 2. Example entry for ticket import spreadsheet


How to complete an import- example using ticket imports

To get started with a ticket import for example, first navigate to Configuration > Tickets > General Settings and scroll to near the bottom of the page - you'll see the following:


Fig 3. Ticket import section


If this is your first time importing into halo, after clicking on "Import Tickets" you can click out of the document file selection screen and download sample spreadsheets from the halo import screen:

Fig 4. Download samples button


To import from an existing spreadsheet, click 'Import Tickets' and it will bring up your documents file. Select the ticket spreadsheet that you have configured:


Fig 5. select spreadsheet to import from


Once selected, this will show the rows that will be imported into Halo from the spreadsheet, as shown below:


Fig 6. Import preview


You have the option to select/deselect which tickets you'd like to import. Once happy, you can click 'Start' in the top-right corner. Clicking on the first checkbox beside the "Result" column, will select all of the rows to be imported, and unselecting it will unselect all rows that are to be imported. 


The 'Result' column will then update with whether the import of each item has been successful or has failed. If you encounter any failures and are unsure why, hit "Fn + F12" on your keyboard to see the message in the 'Console' tab of the development tools on your browser, if you have further troubles, please contact Halo support.


Completing imports for other entities

This process is similar for each type of import - please see below for where to navigate to so that you can complete different imports:


Actions: Configuration > Tickets > General Settings > *scroll to nearly the bottom* > Import Actions


Assets: Configuration > Asset Management > General Settings >  *scroll to the bottom* > Import Assets


Asset Types: Configuration > Asset Management > General Settings > *scroll to the bottom* > Import Asset Types


Clients and Sites: Configuration > Users > General Settings > *scroll to the bottom* > Import Clients & Sites


Client Contracts: Configuration > Contracts > *scroll to the bottom* > Import Client Contracts


Items: Configuration > Items and Stock Control > Import Items


Stock: Configuration > Items and Stock Control > Import Stock


Knowledge Base Articles: Configuration > Knowledge Base > *scroll to the bottom* > Import Articles


Appointments: Configuration > Calendars and Appointments > General Settings > *Scroll to the bottom*


Supplier Contracts: Configuration > Contracts > *scroll to the bottom* > Import Supplier Contracts


Suppliers: Configuration > Suppliers > Import Suppliers


Tickets: Configuration > Tickets > General Settings > *scroll to nearly the bottom* > Import Tickets


Services: Configuration > Services > *scroll to the bottom* > Import Services


Holidays: Configuration > Service Level Agreements > Workdays > "Holiday Tab" > Import Holidays Or Configuration > Teams & Agents > Workdays "Holiday Tab" > Import Holidays


Users: Configuration > Users > General Settings > *scroll to the bottom* > Import Users


Addresses: Configuration > Users > General Settings > *scroll to the bottom* > Import Addresses


All imports other than Tickets, Actions, Client & Supplier Contracts and Knowledge Base Articles can also be used to update existing information - you just need to set a unique identifier in the Import set-up to ensure the existing records are matched. Please see the example below for a Clients Import:

Fig 7. set unique identifier for import


The unique identifier here is 'Name', so if the name matches correctly between the spreadsheet and Halo, then that record will be updated, rather than a new record created.


Importing Data to Specific Fields

Halo has the ability to show the field names given to all areas of the application(Navigation Areas and Configuration Modules). To acheive this you can append any URL in Halo with "?showfieldnames=true", or if you already have a deep link you want to append, you can use "&showfieldnames=true". Some of the fields may not work for pulling through data, you can check the console for errors if the data is not importing, the error logs in the API are explained near the end of this guide.

Fig 8. Append URL with showfieldnames=true


To import data to custom fields on halo, the column name will be that of the custom field, meaning that if you have a custom field for example of the location of an office, and it appears as CFLocation on the custom field list in halo, you would also give the column on the import the same name. You may notice that the custom fields will be displaying differently when using the showfieldnames URI parameter, this is because the unique id is stored and not the custom field name, when importing custom fields, use the name i.e. CFagentonsite


Finding Errors When Importing

As Halo is an API driven software, all of the fields accessible on Halo are logged on the developer console, changes made to a page will be found in the payload tab of network. To get specific field names in Halo you can use the developer console of your web browser. If for example I wanted to know the field name in the API of a certain variable of the assets section of Halo, I can find this by pressing "Fn+F12" which will open the developer console, use the network module of the console:

 

Fig 9. developer console


When a change to the assets configuration is made, you can see the fields that have changed. After I make a change on the details tab of an asset i.e. change the status to "Not Ready" I can see this change in the Payload tab(make sure to save the page in Halo so that the changes made will populate on the developer tools tab:

Fig 10. change in payload tab


As shown in the above screenshot, I have opened the dev tools menu navigated to Network > Fetch/XHR, made the status change on Halo and then clicked into the API call on the dev tools associated to the change. From here I can then go to the payload tab of the call and see all the changes made on the page. In this case it is the status_id field that has changed. So now I know to put the status_id field on the import sheet.


For a more detailed guide on how to import assets and asset data using a spreadsheet import, see our article here.


For a guide on how to import recurring invoices see our article here.

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