Importer module provides an easy way for creating database tables from various files. All variants of delimited text files are supports, and with an external class .xls files are also supported.
With this module the user can also insert new data into the existing table, provided that the number of columns in the table (not counting the primary key column) matches the number of columns in the file. If the ordering of the columns is not matched, the user can alter the ordering in which the data is inserted. Types of the appropriate columns in the table and the file are
displayed as means of ensuring that no sql error is generated (unintentionally).
If the user has a field in the data that should serve as a link to files in the file system, the procedure is as follows:
- upload the data to the database ensuring that the appropriate field contains
the file name of the file to which it should point
- zip all files that are relevant to the table
- upload files to the server using "Batch file upload" feature of the module,
making sure that appropriate table and field is selected
Uploaded files are saved in the directory of user choice under the files/ directory (it has to be created by this module). After this, the data in the chosen field are updated with the relative path to files uploaded on the server.