2. Click the New button.
3. In the Name field, type in a suitable name for the import. Leave the Template field blank.
4. Click OK. The Data Import dialogue box, containing a number of different tabs, is displayed.
5. In the LDAP Query tab, you must now complete the fields in the Connection section to define the connection to the relevant LDAP service. First enter the DNS-resolvable host name or IP address of the computer on which Active Directory Services or the dedicated LDAP service is running.
6. If the LDAP server is enabled for SSL encryption and you want to use it, check the Use a Secure Connection (SSL) option.
7. In the Port Number field, either leave the number at its default value of 389 or, if the LDAP server uses a different TCP port, enter its number.
8. Ensure that the appropriate LDAP version is selected. Note that ADS supports both versions.
9. In the Authentication field, specify the method of authentication to be used in connecting to the LDAP service. You can opt for either Simple
Authentication, which logs directly into an LDAP account, or Windows NT Authentication, which provides access via any valid NT account. There is also a third option, which allows automatic negotiation of the authentication method from those currently available. In the case of a scheduled import, you should bear in mind that authentication will take place in the context of the scheduler, and you should ensure that the relevant rights exist.
10. If you check the “Login with username and password” option, you will be able to enter a suitable name and password (in the fields below) for logging into the LDAP service. You can keep this option disabled if you have selected Windows NT Authentication and you will not be scheduling the import, or if the LDAP service is configured not to require logins.
11. Click the Test Connection button to confirm that the connection works. If so, the Data Import Manager will display a message indicating that the test completed successfully. If, on the other hand, you see an error message, you will have to sort out the connection details before continuing any further. 12. With a valid connection defined, you now need to define the LDAP query
itself. First specify a search root, which is the path to the container level at which the top-down search should start for suitable data to be imported. Click the browse button next to the Search Root field to display the Browse LDAP Directory and select the required naming context. Then select the required container level from the tree browser and click OK. Notice that the path appears in the Search Root field with the appropriate syntax.
this field selects the entire contents of the root container (but subject to the Scope setting described in the next step).
14. Using the drop-down menu in the Scope field, you can choose how much of the container hierarchy, from the root downwards, should be considered for data importation. Data can be obtained from the root container only, from the root and its immediate “children”, or from the root and all of its
“descendants”.
15. If required, you can opt to limit the number of records to be returned by the query. This would normally be useful for testing purposes only.
16. For extra speed, the LDAP query will use paging by default. You can specify the required size of each page in the relevant field. However, some LDAP servers (Lotus Domino, for example) do not support paged mode. In this case, you can set the query page size to 0 (zero), which will turn off paging. 17. With the LDAP query defined, you now have to retrieve a sample of data
from the LDAP server to help you assess the query and choose exactly which data items to use for the import. Click the Query Sample button and observe that the Query Attributes/Data Preview list now shows the first of the queried set of sample records as follows:
The record is displayed as a list of attribute names (indicating the available data items), together with their respective values. You can display other records in the set by means of the >> and << buttons at the top right. 18. Another perspective on the queried data is provided by the Preview Data
button. Click it to open a separate window displaying that data.
19. Once you have decided which attributes should be included in the import process, select their associated checkboxes. Only these attributes will now be available to you for mapping to the target Supportworks database, as described in the following steps. If you now wish to view your chosen data as a single, scrollable, list of records, click the Preview Data button, which displays the list in a separate window.
21. In the Database field, select the database into which you want the data imported.
22. In the Table field, select the table, within that database, into which you want the data imported. Note that the Unique Key field is now filled by default with the name of the selected table’s primary-key column, and that the Target Columns list is populated with all the columns of that table.
23. If necessary, you can manually select a unique key other than the primary key.
24. By virtue of the default Data Update Operations setting, the import process will both create (insert) and update records in the Supportworks database, as dictated by their absence or presence with respect to the corresponding source records. If, however, you wish to preserve the Supportworks data on this import, you should enable the “Only allow inserts” option. Alternatively, if you wish to prevent further Supportworks records being created on this import, you should enable “Only allow updates”.
25. You are now ready to map your previously selected source data attributes to columns of your selected target table. First select the checkboxes associated with your proposed target columns.
26. Highlight one of the selected target columns and click anywhere in the Value Transformation and Assignment field.
27. For a simple mapping, click the Insert Value button and, from the menu that pops up, select the LDAP data attribute that you want mapped to the target column you have highlighted. Notice that the chosen attribute appears in the field in the form ldap.<attribute>.
For more complex mappings, you would have to manually type the required expression into the Value Transformation and Assignment field. See the section entitled Advanced Import Techniques on page 56 to find out what is possible here using JavaScript.
28. If you want the import process to skip each LDAP record where there is no value assigned for the attribute (or for any attribute in the expression), enable the “Non-empty value required” option. This will always be enabled if the target column being mapped is a unique key.
29. If you have entered an expression manually into the Value Transformation and Assignment field, you can confirm correct resolution of the currently highlighted target column’s values by clicking the Check Syntax button. This will display, one at a time in the Preview Value Assignment field, the values for that column as computed by the expression, using the set of sample data you previously queried. You can use the >> and << buttons to show the following and preceding values, respectively.
30. Repeat step 26 to step 29 for each of your proposed target columns. 31. Click Apply.
32. Having completed the mapping, you can now run or schedule the import. First select the Control & Schedule tab.
33. If you wish to run the import immediately, click the Run Import Now button. A separate window is displayed, in which you can see the import’s progress. 34. On completion of the import, you can click View Log in the progress
window to view the details of the import process. Note that this is a
cumulative log, which means that the current import details are appended to any existing details already logged in this session. (The log will be deleted when you exit from the Data Import Manager.) You can also view the log by using the View Log File button located next to the Run Import Now button. 35. Click Close to dismiss the progress window.
36. If you wish to schedule the import, first enable the “Schedule this import” option.
37. Specify when, or how often, the import is to run by selecting the relevant item from the “Run this import when” field’s drop-down list. If you select “Once a day”, some additional options are immediately displayed:
In this case, select the day(s) of the week on which the import should run, and choose whether this should keep occurring indefinitely, or a specified number of times.
If you select any frequency other than “Once a day”, the multi-day selection options are replaced in all but one case with a single-day drop-down
selection field that allows you, for example, to choose the first day of the relevant period on which the import should run. The exception is “Once every period”, which retains the multi-day selection options, but replaces the Starting At field with an Every (n) Minutes field, allowing you to specify repeated occurrences of imports during the course of selected days of the week.
In the Starting At field (for those options that have it), specify the date and time at which the import is to run, or at which the import scheduling is to “switch on”. Alternatively, for the “Once every period” option, enter the