Automatic addition of ea_guid

[John Brand]

I see Geert talks of entering classes from EXCEL. Surely these classes are then added without an ea_guid? Is it possible to add bulk quantity of classes from ACCESS, or through SQL etc., but outside EA into EA and to somehow allocate an ea_guid?

[Paolo F Cantoni]

If you connect to EA via the Automation Interface (AI), EA will allocate the GUID for you when you store the item.

That's what Geert is talking about when he mentions using Excel.

If you wish to add GUIDs without the AI it can get quite complicated.  It depends on what facilities you have in the access method you choose.

I've done it from Access but it is not for the faint hearted and involves creating a table which generates the GUIDs for you and some serious action queries.

Paolo

[Eve]

Also, adding element from Excel may refer to CSV import.  This will automatically generate guids if they aren't specified or don't match the format expected by EA.

[Geert Bellekens]

John,

When you are talking "bulk", what numbers are you thinking about?.
The excel importer I wrote will import a few thousand classes/attributes in a matter of minutes.

And since it uses the API the ea_guid's (and all other imported fields that you might not think about) are filled in.

Of course adding classes/attributes to the database directly is possible, but unless you have a very good reason to do so I would stick with the API.

Geert

[John Brand]

Thanks for replies - loading tables (class) through ODBC (approx. 1 - 2 K) and copying as entities (different type of class) through form, sql or script. Will test it and come back next week. Thanks again.

[John Brand]

Sorry for delay in replying; it worked and thanks again.