Import

Copyright 1997-2007 Mekashron.
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<p <span style="font-size:14pt">'''Importing Entities'''</span><br /></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<ol>
<p class="style8"></span> In this chapter you will read:</span></font></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
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<ol>
      <li><a href="#ImportFromCDTF" target="_self">Importing Entities from a Comma Delimited Text File</a></li>
      <li><a href="#ImportFromMicrosoftExcel" target="_self">Importing Entities from Microsoft Excel </a></li>
      <li><a href="#ImportFromODBC" target="_self">Importing Entities from Data Source (ODBC)</a> </li>
    </ol></td>
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<p class="style2" style="text-align: left" align="center" width="90%">
    <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">In this chapter of our users manual, we will guide you, through various steps, on how you can import entities into Mekashron Business. Entities have been defined and </span><a href="http://www.mekashron.com/MB3_EntitiesProfile.ashx" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">talked about before</span></a><span
                style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">. When a company grows, the information in the database also grows. Various programs interact with each other in the world of computer software. For example, let us assume that you have a contact list in a database related program and you would like your contacts to also appear as entities in Mekashron Business. In order to do this, you can export your data from the other program and simply import them into our software. Another example is when your company has been using a contact-software such as Microsoft Outlook to keep track of employees and others who are somehow connected with the corporation. In such an event, you could simply extract your contacts from Microsoft Outlook and import them into our software. In order to export data, you must be familiar with how you can </span>
    <a href="http://www.mekashron.com/MB3_ExportingEntities.ashx" target="_blank"><span
        style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">export entities using Mekashron Business</span></a><span
            style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">. This has been written about in the 
        </span><a href="http://www.mekashron.com/MB3_ExportingEntities.ashx" target="_blank">
            <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">Exporting Entities</span></a><span
                style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial"> chapter. Let us now focus on how we can import entities rather than exporting them.</span></p>

<p class="style3" ><a name="ImportFromCDTF" id="ImportFromCDTF"></a><span>
        1 - Importing Entities from a Comma Delimited Text File </span>
</p>
<br />
<p class="style2" style="text-align: left" align="center" width="90%">
    <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">&quot;Delimited&quot; means 
marked off with something. A comma delimited text is a text file (plain ASCII) which is marked off with commas. Commas are punctuation marks (,). When two text parts are comma delimited, a comma comes between them in order to separate them from each other. For example, &quot;this, that&quot; are comma delimited. The white-space after the comma does not count as any special character. The text could also be formatted as &quot;this,that&quot;. Comma Delimited text files are important because many programs can interact with them in the sense they can read from and write to them, due to their simplistic nature of formatting. Mekashron Business is no exception to this. In fact, in next sections of this manual you will also get to know about various methods of importing data into Mekashron Business other than Comma Delimited Text Files.</span></p>
<p class="style2" style="text-align: left" align="center" width="90%">
    <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">Let us now get started on how we can
        import Comma Delimited Text Files into Mekashron Business. In order to do this,
        please follow the below steps. We are assuming that you have already logged into
        the data-base with our software and you have our software's main screen right in
        front of you. You can read more about these in the </span><a href="http://www.mekashron.com/MB3_Installion.ashx" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">Installation and Logging
                in</span></a><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial"> section of our manual.</span></p><div align=center width=90% style="text-align: left">
<p class="style2" style="text-align: left" align="center" width="90%">
    <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial"><b>Important Note: when you import data from a CSV file into Mekashron, you should ensure that any date fields are formatted as yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm. Otherwise Mekashron will not recognize them correctly.</b></p>
<ol>
  <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">In the main window of Mekashron Business, click on the <strong>Entities</strong> main menu to the top left section of the program. At this time, you will be presented with the below list of sub-menus:<br />
    <br />
    <img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure1.PNG" alt="Import Menu" width="163" height="163" longdesc="http://www.mekashron.com" /><br />
      <strong>Figure 1.1 - Entities menu items </strong><br />
    <br />
  </span>
  </li>
  <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">At this time, select the <strong>Import Entities</strong> menu item. At this time, you must be presented with the <strong>Import Wizard</strong> window as shown below:<br />
    <br />
  </span>
    <a name="Figure12" id="Figure12"></a><img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure2.PNG" alt="Import Wizard" width="441" height="275" longdesc="http://www.mekashron.com" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial" /><br />
      <span style="font-family: Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt">
    <strong>Figure 1.2 - Import Wizard window</strong><br />
    <br />
      </span></span>
  </li>
  <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">Bear in mind that there is an alternative method for showing the Import Wizard other than the above steps. <strong>If you are keen to know</strong> this method also, follow the below sub-steps. <strong>If not</strong>, simply </span><a href="#Step4" target="_self"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">
          jump to the fourth step</span></a><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">
              of importing Comma Delimited Text files.
    <br />
    <br />
          </span>
    <ol>
      <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">In the Mekashron Business' main window, click on the drop-down indicator of the Add Entity button as marked in a red rectangle in the below shape:<br />
        <br />
        <img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure3.PNG" alt="Drop Down Button" width="437" height="278" longdesc="http://www.mekashron.com" /><br />
        <strong>Figure 1.3 - Drop Down indicator of the Add Entity button - enclosed within a red rectangle </strong><br />
        <br />
      </span>
      </li>
      <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">By clicking on the above slip,
          you will be presented with a pop-up menu as that shown below. Simply click on the
          Import Entities menu-item which will also take you to the </span><a href="#Figure12" target="_self"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">Import Wizard window</span></a><span
                  style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">.<br />
          <br />
          <img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure4.PNG" alt="Popup Menu" width="134" height="61" longdesc="http://www.mekashron.com" /><br />
              <strong>Figure 1.4 - The Import Entities pop-up menu</strong> <br />
            <br />
              </span>
      </li>
    </ol>
  </li>
  <li style="text-align: left"><a name="Step4" id="Step4"></a><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">
      Once in the Import Wizard window, you will see a various of selections. We are now interested in importing comma delimited text files. Therefore, makes sure that the <strong>ASCI/Text File (Comma Delimited) </strong>radio-button is selected in the list, as depicted in </span><a href="#Figure12" target="_self"><span style="font-size: 10pt;
          font-family: Arial">Figure 1.2</span></a><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">. After this, please click on the <strong>Next &gt;&gt; </strong>button at the bottom right side of the Impoprt Wizard window:<br />
    <br />
    <img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure5.PNG" alt="Next Button" width="441" height="275" longdesc="http://www.mekashron.com" /><br />
    <strong>Figure    
    1.5 - Click on the Next button in the Import Wizard window</strong> <br />
    <br />
          </span>
  </li>
  <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">After clicking on the Next Button, you will be presented with the next step of the importing process. This window is depicted below:<br />
    <br />
    <img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure6.PNG" alt="Second stage" width="441" height="275" longdesc="http://www.mekashron.com" /><br />
    <strong>Figure 1.6 - The second step of importing a file</strong><br />
    <br />
  </span>
  </li>
  <li style="text-align: left">    <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">There are various fields in the window in Figure 1.6 that need explanation. Let us go through them one by one:
    <br />
    <br />
  </span>
    <ol>
      <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-family: Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt"><strong>File Name:</strong> this is the field where you can enter the source Comma Delimited text file. You have the option of either manually entering the file name or you can simply click on the <img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure7.PNG" alt="Browse Button" width="21" height="18" longdesc="http://www.mekashron.com" /> button in order to browse through your local files.<br />
          <br />
      </span></span>
      </li>
      <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-family: Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt"><strong>Delimiter:</strong> this field specifies how the text fields in the file are separated from each other. By default, the delimiter is set to a comma punctuation character. You can choose any valid character for this field. By default, we have put a comma, a period and a dash. You can put your own character if needed.<br />
        <br />
      </span></span>
      </li>
      <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-family: Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt"><strong>Assign Fields:</strong> when reading the comma delimited text file, you must define for Mekashron Business how it should interpret the various information in the text file. For example, you have the First Name, Last Name, Company and other fields for each of your entities but you know that the text file which you are about to import only includes information about the First Name and the Company of each of the entities. In this case, you can select the First Name field, click on the space to its right highlighted in dark blue in Figure 1.6 and then simply select which field in the text file should be associated with this column.<br />
        <br />
      </span></span>
      </li>
    </ol>
  </li>
  <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">Let us now try to import a file into the Import Wizard window. This is depicted below:<br />
    <br />
  </span>
    <a name="Figure17" id="Figure17"></a><img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure8.PNG" alt="Importing Entities" width="441" height="275" longdesc="http://www.mekashron.com" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial" /><br />
      <span style="font-family: Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt">
    <strong>Figure 1.7 - Importing a Comma Delimited text file</strong><br />
    <br />
      </span></span>
  </li>
  <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">Let us now have a look how our &quot;Entities.txt&quot; file's contents and realize how it is actually formatted:<br />
    <br />
  </span>
    <a name="EntitiesTxtFile" id="EntitiesTxtFile"></a>
    <table width="200" border="1" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">
      <tr>
        <td bgcolor="#E9E9E9">Vandad,NP,AlexiLaiho.cob@gmail.com,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,<br />
          Agnieszka,D.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,<br />
          Danielle,Greene.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,<br />
          Suzanne,Thomas,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,<br />
        Rachel,Springstone,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,</td>
      </tr>
    </table> 
    <strong><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">Contents of the "Entities.txt"
        file being imported in </span><a href="#Figure17" target="_self"><span style="font-size: 10pt;
            font-family: Arial">Figure 1.7</span></a></strong><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">
                <br />
    <br />
    As you can see, there are 5 lines of text in this file. Each line starts with the forename of the entity which is the comma delimited with the surname and then what appears to be an email for the first entity and empy for the rest of the entities. This means that there are 5 entities in this text file and they only contain the forename, surname and the email address of each of the entities although the email address has only been assigned to the first entity.<br />
    <br />
            </span>
  </li>
  <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">After trying to import the &quot;Entities.txt&quot; file (as shown in Figure 1.7), you can now click on the list-box that appears to the right side of each of the fields in the Assign Fields group-box. For example, by clicking on the First Name field's list-box, the below results will be shown:<br />
    <br />
    <img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure9.PNG" alt="List Box" width="441" height="275" longdesc="http://www.mekashron.com" /><br />
    <strong>Figure 1.8 - The Assign Fields group-box's functionality</strong><br />
    <br />
  </span>
  </li>
  <li style="text-align: left">    <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">You can see that Mekashron Business has already intercepted the structure of the &quot;Entities.txt&quot; file and has come up with a plan in which the first field is the First Name, the second field is the Last Name and etc. You now get the opportunity to assign each of the fields in the text file to whichever field that you believe is more accurate, in Mekashron Business. The First Name and the Last Name fields can be assigned to field 0 and 1 respectively and the Email field to field 2 of the text file:<br />
      <br />
      <img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure10.png" alt="New Fields" width="441" height="275" longdesc="http://www.mekashron.com" /><br />
          <strong>Figure 1.9 - Fields assigned to First Name and Last Name </strong><br />
        <br />
  </span>
  </li>
  <li style="text-align: left">    <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">Now it is time to assign the Email
      field to the 3rd column present in the </span><a href="#EntitiesTxtFile" target="_self">
          <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">"Entities.txt" comma delimited text
              file</span></a><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">:<br />
    <br /> 
    <img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure11.PNG" alt="Email Field" width="441" height="275" longdesc="http://www.mekashron.com" /><br />
    <strong>Figure 1.10 - The email address field assigned to the Email column</strong><br />
    <br />
              </span>
  </li>
  <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">Once you have made all your required changes, you can perform various operations such as going to the Next window to finish up the wizard or you could save your settings and etc. You must have already noticed the three small graphical buttons we have implemented in the Import Wizard window's second stage. These are shown in Figure 1.10, 1.9 and etc below the Assign Fields group box, to the left. These buttons' functionalities are explained below:
    <br />
    <br />
  </span>
    <ol>
      <li style="text-align: left"><img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure12.PNG" alt="Align All" width="20" height="23" longdesc="http://www.mekashron.com" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial" /><span
              style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial"> this button will align all the fields
              automatically for you. This means that the First name field will be the first column
              in the text file, the Last Name field will be the second and so forth. </span>
      </li>
      <li style="text-align: left"><img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure13.PNG" alt="Load" width="20" height="22" longdesc="http://www.mekashron.com" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial" /><span
              style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial"> this button will load a <strong>Field Assignment File (.faf) </strong>into the program and align all the fields accordingly. Please read the description for the button below in order to understand what FAF files are. </span></li>
      <li style="text-align: left"><img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure14.PNG" alt="Save FAF" width="21" height="22" longdesc="http://www.mekashron.com" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial" /><span
              style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial"> this button will save the current settings assigned to the Assign Fields group-box, as a <strong>Field Assignment File (.faf). </strong>FAF files are produced and loaded by Mekashron Business program which facilitate easy access to previously saved settings in the assigning of fields to data files and etc. For example, we have now assigned the First Name, the Last Name and the Email fields to various columns in the </span><a href="#EntitiesTxtFile" target="_self">
                  <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">"Entities.txt" comma delimited text
                      file</span></a><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">. Every time you would want to import a text file similar to this, you do not have to align the fields over again. What you can do is to save your current Assign Fields settings and then load them with the Load settings button described above.<br />
        <br />
                      </span>
      </li>
    </ol>
  </li>
  <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">After completing the above steps, you can now click on the <strong>Next </strong><strong>&gt;&gt; </strong>button to the bottom right side of the window to go to the next and the final step of the importing wizard. The last step of the wizard is depicted below: <br />
      <br />
      <img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure15.png" alt="Last Step" width="441" height="275" longdesc="http://www.mekashron.com" /><br />
          <strong><a name="Figure111" id="Figure111"></a>Figure 1.11 - Last step of the Import Wizard after having checked the &quot;Check for duplicated values&quot; check-box </strong><br />
            <br />
  </span>
  </li>
  <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">The &quot;Check for duplicated values&quot; check-box will allow you get rid of all the duplicate values in the data-base and the ones that are about to be imported. Please note that if this check-box is unchecked, the <strong>Match duplicated values by </strong>and the <strong>When duplicate value found </strong>group-boxes will both disappear and you won't see them on the screen. Now we will go about describing the various adjustable fields in the above two group-boxes:
    <br />
    <br />
  </span>
    <ol>
      <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-family: Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt"><strong>Match duplicated values by: </strong>here you can select how duplicated values should be detected. For example, if in an enterprise or a corporation, the email address of two people can not be the same, then you can check the <strong>Email</strong> check-box and our software will take care of the rest. However, what our software will do depends on the option which is selected in the <strong>When duplicate value found </strong>group-box described below. Bear in mind that the fields displayed in this group-box (Match duplicated values by) is originated from the </span></span><a href="http://www.mekashron.com/MB3_EntitiesProfile.ashx" target="_new"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">fields that you have
                  created before</span></a><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">.<br />
        <br />
                  </span>
      </li>
      <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-family: Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt"><strong>When duplicate value found: </strong>when our software finds a duplicate value in one or some of the fields specified in the <strong>Match duplicated values by </strong>group-box, it will take an action according to what is selected in this group-box (When duplicate value found). Various fields in this group-box are explained below:
        <br />
        <br />
      </span></span>
        <ol>
          <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-family: Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt"><strong>Ignore the duplicated record: </strong>will, as its name implies explicitly, ignore the record in the file to be imported and will not add it to the data-base.<br />
            <br />
          </span></span>
          </li>
          <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-family: Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt"><strong>Overwrite original record: </strong>if a record is found in the database that matches the specific information (selected through the Assign fields) by the record that is being added, the former record will remain in the database and its various (field) information will be overwritten by the record from the file which is being imported. For example, if you have checked the <strong>Email </strong>check-box in the <strong>Match duplicated values by </strong>group-box and there is already an entity with that information in the database, Mekashron Business will overwrite that entity's information with the one being read from the file to be imported. Therefore, all the information related to the fields that are selected will be overwritten by the new data. This option will also overwrite the category settings. Therefore, suppose your previous data is in a category called &quot;Master&quot; and the new category name is called &quot;Slave&quot;. This will force the entities to be moved to the &quot;Slave&quot; category. This option is mostly used when you are importing data with values that are more up-to-date than the one that arleady exist in the data-base. <br />
            <br />
          </span></span>
          </li>
          <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-family: Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt"><strong>Update original record: </strong>will update the duplicated records' in the database according to the values specified by the file being imported. Again, if you have checked the <strong>Email </strong>check-box in the <strong>Match duplicated values by </strong>group-box and there is already an entity with that specific information in the database, our software will update that entity's <strong>empty fields</strong> according to the value specified in the file to be imported. The entity will <strong>not </strong>be deleted but it will be updated. <strong>None</strong> of the fields that already have value inside them will be updated. Also note that the entity will stay in the same category. This option is usually used when you have missing information for your entities that you would like to import.<br />
            <br />
          </span></span>
          </li>
          <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-family: Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt"><strong>Delete original record: </strong>as its name implies will delete the original record from the database instead of updating it. Please bear in mind that the record from the external file will <strong>not</strong> be imported after the original record is deleted. This option can also be used when you have a list of people that have to be removed from the database. You will just import the &quot;black list&quot; and select this option with the field on which the comparison should be made. As soon as duplicated values are found, our software will delete them from the database. <br />
            <br />
          </span></span>
          </li>
        </ol>
      </li>
    </ol>
  </li>
  <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">The <strong>Import into Category </strong>group-box shown in </span><a href="#Figure111" target="_self"><span style="font-size: 10pt;
          font-family: Arial">Figure 1.11</span></a><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">
              will ask for the name of the category and the sub-category into which the data should
              be imported. You can read about adding, deleting and selecting categories in the
          </span><a href="http://www.mekashron.com/MB3_EntitiesProfile.ashx" target="_blank">
              <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">Manage Entities Profile chapter</span></a><span
                  style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">. <br />
      <br />
              </span>
  </li>
  <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">After you have selected all the required options, you can click on the <strong>Next &gt;&gt; </strong>button to the rightmost bottom side of the screen as shown below. <strong>Note</strong> that the <strong>Main Category </strong>and the <strong>Sub Category </strong>fields are required for the Wizard to finish its work. Please bear in mind that you can add, delete or edit categories using the three red buttons for both the main and the sub-categories. In order to read more thorough information about editing, deleting and adding categories and sub-categories, it is highly recommended that you </span><a href="http://www.mekashron.com/MB3_EntitiesProfile.ashx#ManagingCategoriesAnchor" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">read this section
              of the Manage Entities Profile section</span></a><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">. <br />
    <br />
    <img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure16.PNG" alt="Next Button" width="441" height="275" border="0" longdesc="http://www.mekashron.com" /><br />
    <strong>Figure 1.12 - The last button to press before finishing the Import Wizard</strong>    <br />
    <br />
              </span>
  </li>
  <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">Congratulations! You will now be shown the below message box which indicates the success of the importing process:<br />
    <br />
    <img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure17.PNG" alt="Successfully Imported" width="218" height="122" longdesc="http://www.mekashronc.om" /><br />
    <strong>Figure 1.13 - Successful import of data</strong><br />
    <br />
  </span>
  </li>
  <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">You can now view the imported data, as shown below:<br />
    <br />
    <img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure18.PNG" alt="Imported" width="491" height="321" longdesc="http://www.mekashron.com" /><br />
    <strong>Figure 1.14 - The list of imported entities in the Entities List in the main window of the program</strong> <br />
    <br /> 
    You can see that only the First Name and the Last Name of entities are imported and also the Email address of the last entity. The reason is of course because there were no information related to the Email column for any other entities in the </span>
      <a href="#EntitiesTxtFile" target="_self"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">
          source file</span></a><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">. 
          </span>
  </li>
</ol>
                </div>
<br />

<p class="style3" ><a name="ImportFromMicrosoftExcel" id="ImportFromMicrosoftExcel"></a><span> 2 - Importing Entities from Microsoft Excel</span> 
</p><br />
<p class="style2" style="text-align: left">
    <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">Excel is a spread-sheet product from Microsoft which allows formulating values in cell-based organizations. This software facilitates importing and exporting date just like Mekashron Business. If you already have some data in your instance of Microsoft Excel and you would like to be able to use them in Mekashron Business, you can simply export those data and import them in our software. In this section, we will learn more about the concept of importing data (that has been exported from Microsoft Excel) into Mekashron Business. </span>
</p>
<p class="style2" style="text-align: left">
    <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">Let us now get started on how we can
        import Excel Files into Mekashron Business. In order to do this, please follow the
        below steps. We are assuming that you have already logged into the data-base with
        our software and you have our software's main screen right in front of you. You
        can read more about these in the </span><a href="http://www.mekashron.com/MB3_Installion.ashx" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">Installation and Logging
                in</span></a><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial"> section of our manual.</span></p>
<ol>
  <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">In the main window of Mekashron Business, click on the <strong>Entities</strong> main menu to the top left section of the program. At this time, you will be presented with the below list of sub-menus:<br />
      <br />
      <img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure1.PNG" alt="Import Menu" width="163" height="163" longdesc="http://www.mekashron.com" /><br />
      <strong>Figure 1.15 - Entities menu items </strong><br />
      <br />
  </span>
  </li>
  <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">At this time, select the <strong>Import Entities</strong> menu item. At this time, you must be presented with the <strong>Import Wizard</strong> window as shown below:<br />
    <br />
  </span>
    <a name="Figure116" id="Figure116"></a><img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure19.PNG" alt="Import Wizard" width="441" height="275" longdesc="http://www.mekashron.com" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial" /><br />
      <span style="font-family: Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt">
      <strong>Figure 1.16 - Import Wizard window</strong><br />
      <br />
      </span></span>
  </li>
  <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">Bear in mind that there is an alternative method for showing the Import Wizard other than the above steps. <strong>If you are keen to know</strong> this method also, follow the below sub-steps. <strong>If not</strong>, simply </span><a href="#Step4Excel" target="_self"><span style="font-size: 10pt;
          font-family: Arial">jump to the fourth step</span></a><span style="font-size: 10pt;
              font-family: Arial"> of importing Excel files. <br />
      <br />
          </span>
      <ol>
        <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">In the Mekashron Business' main window, click on the drop-down indicator of the Add Entity button as marked in a red rectangle in the below shape:<br />
            <br />
            <img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure3.PNG" alt="Drop Down Button" width="437" height="278" longdesc="http://www.mekashron.com" /><br />
            <strong>Figure 1.17 - Drop Down indicator of the Add Entity button - enclosed within a red rectangle </strong><br />
            <br />
        </span>
        </li>
        <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">By clicking on the above slip,
            you will be presented with a pop-up menu as that shown below. Simply click on the
            Import Entities menu-item which will also take you to the </span><a href="#Figure116" target="_self"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">Import Wizard window</span></a><span
                    style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">.<br />
            <br />
            <img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure4.PNG" alt="Popup Menu" width="134" height="61" longdesc="http://www.mekashron.com" /><br />
            <strong>Figure 1.18 - The Import Entities pop-up menu</strong> <br />
            <br />
                </span>
        </li>
      </ol>
  </li>
  <li style="text-align: left"><a name="Step4Excel" id="Step4Excel"></a><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">
      Once in the Import Wizard window, you will see a various of selections. We are now interested in importing Excel files. Therefore, makes sure that the <strong>Microsoft Excel </strong>radio-button is selected in the list, as depicted in </span><a href="#Figure116" target="_self"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">Figure 1.16</span></a><span
              style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">. After this, please click on the <strong>Next &gt;&gt; </strong>button at the bottom right side of the Impoprt Wizard window:<br />
      <br />
      <img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure20.PNG" alt="Next Button" width="441" height="275" longdesc="http://www.mekashron.com" /><br />
      <strong>Figure    
        1.19 - Click on the Next button in the Import Wizard window</strong> <br />
        <br />
          </span>
  </li>
  <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">After clicking on the Next Button, you will be presented with the next step of the importing process. This window is depicted below:<br />
      <br />
      <img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure21.PNG" alt="Second stage" width="441" height="275" longdesc="http://www.mekashron.com" /><br />
      <strong>Figure 1.20 - The second step of importing a file</strong><br />
      <br />
  </span>
  </li>
  <li style="text-align: left"> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">There are various fields in the window in Figure 1.20 that need explanation. Let us go through them one by one: <br />
      <br />
  </span>
      <ol>
        <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-family: Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt"><strong>File Name:</strong> this is the field where you can enter the source Excel file. You have the option of either manually entering the file name or you can simply click on the <img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure7.PNG" alt="Browse Button" width="21" height="18" longdesc="http://www.mekashron.com" /> button in order to browse through your local files.<br />
            <br />
        </span></span>
        </li>
        <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-family: Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt"><strong>Worksheets: </strong>a single Excel file could contain more than one worksheet. Mekashron Business will, after opening the file, analyze its contents and detect the number of worksheets available in the file. Then it will allow you to decide which worksheet you would like to import into the database. <br />
            <br />
        </span></span>
        </li>
        <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-family: Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt"><strong>Assign Fields:</strong> when reading the excel file, you must define for Mekashron Business how it should interpret the various information in the file. For example, you have the First Name, Last Name, Company and other fields for each of your entities but you know that the datasheet which you are about to import only includes information about the First Name and the Company of each of the entities. In this case, you can select the First Name field, click on the space to its right highlighted in dark blue in 
        </span></span><a href="#Figure121" target="_self"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">
            Figure 1.21</span></a><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial"> and then simply select which field in the Excel file should be associated with this column.<br />
            <br />
            </span>
        </li>
      </ol>
  </li>
  <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">Let us now try to import a file into the Import Wizard window. This is depicted below:<br />
      <br />
  </span>
      <a name="Figure121" id="Figure121"></a><img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure22.PNG" alt="Importing Entities" width="441" height="275" longdesc="http://www.mekashron.com" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial" /><br />
      <span style="font-family: Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt">
      <strong>Figure 1.21 - Importing an Excel file</strong><br />
      <br />
      </span></span>
  </li>
  <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">Let us now have a look how our &quot;Contacts.xsl&quot; file's contents and realize how it is actually formatted:<br />
      <br />
  </span>
      <a name="ContactsXlsFile" id="ContactsXlsFile"></a><img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure23.PNG" alt="Contacts.xls" width="303" height="69" longdesc="http://www.mekashron.com" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial" /><br />
      <strong><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">Contents of the "Contacts.xls"
          file being imported in </span><a href="#Figure121" target="_self"><span style="font-size: 10pt;
              font-family: Arial">Figure 1.21</span></a></strong><span style="font-size: 10pt;
                  font-family: Arial">
                  <br />
      <br />
    As you can see, there are 3 lines of information in this file. Each line starts with the forename of the entity which is followed by the surname and then what appears to be an email for the first and the third entity and Not Available (N/A) for the second entity. This means that there are 3 entities in this  file and they only contain the forename, surname and the email address of each of the entities although the email address has only been assigned to the first and the third entity.<br />
    <br />
              </span>
  </li>
  <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">Now you can decide which datasheet within the Excel file you would like to use as the primary source of data. This can be adjusted using the <strong>Worksheets </strong>combo-box depicted in </span>
      <a href="#Figure122" target="_self"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">
          Figure 1.22</span></a><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial"> below:<br />
    <br />
          </span>
    <a name="Figure122" id="Figure122"></a><img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure24.PNG" alt="Worksheets" width="441" height="275" longdesc="http://www.mekashron.com" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial" /><br />
      <span style="font-family: Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt">
    <strong>Figure 1.22 - Worksheet to be imported</strong> - <strong>Sheet 2 and Sheet 3 are empty</strong> <br /> 
    <br /> 
    <br />
      </span></span>
  </li>
  <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">After adjusting all the settings above, you can now click on the list-box that appears to the right side of each of the fields in the Assign Fields group-box. For example, by clicking on the First Name field's list-box, the below results will be shown:<br />
      <br />
      <img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure25.PNG" alt="List Box" width="441" height="275" longdesc="http://www.mekashron.com" /><br />
      <strong>Figure 1.23 - The Assign Fields group-box's functionality</strong><br />
      <br />
  </span>
  </li>
  <li style="text-align: left"> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">You can see that Mekashron Business has already intercepted the structure of the &quot;Contacts.xls&quot; file and has come up with a plan in which the first field is the First Name, the second field is the Last Name and etc. You now get the opportunity to assign each of the fields in the  file to whichever field that you believe is more accurate, in Mekashron Business. The First Name and the Last Name fields can be assigned to field A and B respectively and the Email field to field C of the Excel file:<br />
      <br />
      <img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure26.png" alt="New Fields" width="441" height="275" longdesc="http://www.mekashron.com" /><br />
      <strong>Figure 1.24 - Fields assigned to First Name and Last Name </strong><br />
      <br />
  </span>
  </li>
  <li style="text-align: left"> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">Now it is time to assign the Email
      field to the 3rd column present in the </span><a href="#ContactsXlsFile" target="_self">
          <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">"Contacts.xls" Excel file</span></a><span
              style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">:<br />
      <br />
      <img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure27.PNG" alt="Email Field" width="441" height="275" longdesc="http://www.mekashron.com" /><br />
      <strong>Figure 1.25 - The email address field assigned to the Email column</strong><br />
      <br />
          </span>
  </li>
  <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">Once you have made all your required changes, you can perform various operations such as going to the Next window to finish up the wizard or you could save your settings and etc. You must have already noticed the three small graphical buttons we have implemented in the Import Wizard window's second stage. These are shown in Figure 1.24, 1.25 and etc below the Assign Fields group box, to the left. These buttons' functionalities are explained below: <br />
      <br />
  </span>
      <ol>
        <li style="text-align: left"><img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure12.PNG" alt="Align All" width="20" height="23" longdesc="http://www.mekashron.com" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial" /><span
                style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial"> this button will align all the fields automatically for you. This means that the First name field will be the first column in the Excel datasheet, the Last Name field will be the second and so forth. </span>
        </li>
        <li style="text-align: left"><img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure13.PNG" alt="Load" width="20" height="22" longdesc="http://www.mekashron.com" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial" /><span
                style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial"> this button will load a <strong>Field Assignment File (.faf) </strong>into the program and align all the fields accordingly. Please read the description for the button below in order to understand what FAF files are. </span></li>
        <li style="text-align: left"><img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure14.PNG" alt="Save FAF" width="21" height="22" longdesc="http://www.mekashron.com" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial" /><span
                style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial"> this button will save the current settings assigned to the Assign Fields group-box, as a <strong>Field Assignment File (.faf). </strong>FAF files are produced and loaded by </span><a href="http://www.mekashron.com" target="_blank">
                    <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">Mekashron Business</span></a><span
                        style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial"> program which facilitate easy access
                        to previously saved settings in the assigning of fields to data files and etc. For
                        example, we have now assigned the First Name, the Last Name and the Email fields
                        to various columns in the </span><a href="#ContactsXlsFile" target="_self"><span
                            style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">"Contacts.xls" Excel datasheet </span>
                        </a><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">. Every time you would want to import an Excel file similar to this, you do not have to align the fields over again. What you can do is to save your current Assign Fields settings and then load them with the Load settings button described above.<br />
            <br />
                        </span>
        </li>
      </ol>
  </li>
  <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">After completing the above steps, you can now click on the <strong>Next </strong><strong>&gt;&gt; </strong>button to the bottom right side of the window to go to the next and the final step of the importing wizard. The last step of the wizard is depicted below: <br />
      <br />
      <strong><a name="Figure126" id="Figure126"></a></strong><img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure28.png" alt="Last Step" width="441" height="275" longdesc="http://www.mekashron.com" /><br />
      <strong>Figure 1.26 - Last step of the Import Wizard after having checked the &quot;Check for duplicated values&quot; check-box </strong><br />
      <br />
  </span>
  </li>
  <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">The &quot;Check for duplicated values&quot; check-box will allow you get rid of all the duplicate values in the data-base and the ones that are about to be imported. Please note that if this check-box is unchecked, the <strong>Match duplicated values by </strong>and the <strong>When duplicate value found </strong>group-boxes will both disappear and you won't see them on the screen. Now we will go about describing the various adjustable fields in the above two group-boxes: <br />
      <br />
  </span>
      <ol>
        <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-family: Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt"><strong>Match duplicated values by: </strong>here you can select how duplicated values should be detected. For example, if in an enterprise or a corporation, the email address of two people can not be the same, then you can check the <strong>Email</strong> check-box and our software will take care of the rest. However, what our software will do depends on the option which is selected in the <strong>When duplicate value found </strong>group-box described below. Bear in mind that the fields displayed in this group-box (Match duplicated values by) is originated from the </span></span><a href="http://www.mekashron.com/MB3_EntitiesProfile.ashx" target="_new"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">fields that you have
                    created before</span></a><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">.<br />
            <br />
                    </span>
        </li>
        <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-family: Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt"><strong>When duplicate value found: </strong>when our software finds a duplicate value in one or some of the fields specified in the <strong>Match duplicated values by </strong>group-box, it will take an action according to what is selected in this group-box (When duplicate value found). Various fields in this group-box are explained below: <br />
            <br />
        </span></span>
            <ol>
              
              <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-family: Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt"><strong>Ignore the duplicated record: </strong>will, as its name implies explicitly, ignore the record in the file to be imported and will not add it to the data-base.<br />
                  <br />
              </span></span>
              </li>
              <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-family: Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt"><strong>Overwrite original record: </strong>if a record is found in the database that matches the specific information (selected through the Assign fields) by the record that is being added, the former record will remain in the database and its various (field) information will be overwritten by the record from the file which is being imported. For example, if you have checked the <strong>Email </strong>check-box in the <strong>Match duplicated values by </strong>group-box and there is already an entity with that information in the database, Mekashron Business will overwrite that entity's information with the one being read from the file to be imported. Therefore, all the information related to the fields that are selected will be overwritten by the new data. This option will also overwrite the category settings. Therefore, suppose your previous data is in a category called &quot;Master&quot; and the new category name is called &quot;Slave&quot;. This will force the entities to be moved to the &quot;Slave&quot; category. This option is mostly used when you are importing data with values that are more up-to-date than the one that arleady exist in the data-base. <br />
                  <br />
              </span></span>
              </li>
              <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-family: Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt"><strong>Update original record: </strong>will update the duplicated records' in the database according to the values specified by the file being imported. Again, if you have checked the <strong>Email </strong>check-box in the <strong>Match duplicated values by </strong>group-box and there is already an entity with that specific information in the database, our software will update that entity's email address according to the value specified in the file to be imported. The entity will <strong>not </strong>be deleted but it will be updated. Also note that the entity will stay in the same category. This option is usually used when you have missing information for your entities that you would like to import.<br />
              </span></span>
              </li>
              <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-family: Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt"><strong>Delete original record: </strong>as its name implies will delete the original record from the database instead of updating it. Please bear in mind that the record from the external file will <strong>not</strong> be imported after the original record is deleted. This option can also be used when you have a list of people that have to be removed from the database. You will just import the &quot;black list&quot; and select this option with the field on which the comparison should be made. As soon as duplicated values are found, our software will delete them from the database.<br />
                <br />
              </span></span>
              </li>
              </ol>
        </li>
      </ol>
  </li>
  <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">The <strong>Import into Category </strong>group-box shown in </span><a href="#Figure126" target="_self"><span style="font-size: 10pt;
          font-family: Arial">Figure 1.26</span></a><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">
              will ask for the name of the category and the sub-category into which the data should
              be imported. You can read about adding, deleting and selecting categories in the
          </span><a href="http://www.mekashron.com/MB3_EntitiesProfile.ashx" target="_blank">
              <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">Manage Entities Profile chapter</span></a><span
                  style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">. <br />
      <br />
              </span>
  </li>
  <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">After you have selected all the required options, you can click on the <strong>Next &gt;&gt; </strong>button to the rightmost bottom side of the screen as shown below. <strong>Note</strong> that the <strong>Main Category </strong>and the <strong>Sub Category </strong>fields are required for the Wizard to finish its work. Please bear in mind that you can add, delete or edit categories using the three red buttons for both the main and the sub-categories. In order to read more thorough information about editing, deleting and adding categories and sub-categories, it is highly recommended that you </span><a href="http://www.mekashron.com/MB3_EntitiesProfile.ashx#ManagingCategoriesAnchor" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">read this section
              of the Manage Entities Profile section</span></a><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">. <br />
      <br />
              </span>
      <a name="Figure127" id="Figure127"></a><img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure29.PNG" alt="Next Button" width="441" height="275" border="0" longdesc="http://www.mekashron.com" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial" /><br />
      <span style="font-family: Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt">
      <strong>Figure 1.27 - The last button to press before finishing the Import Wizard</strong> <br />
      <br />
      </span></span>
  </li>
  <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">Congratulations! You will now be shown the below message box which indicates the success of the importing process:<br />
      <br />
      <img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure17.PNG" alt="Successfully Imported" width="218" height="122" longdesc="http://www.mekashronc.om" /><br />
      <strong>Figure 1.28 - Successful import of data</strong><br />
      <br />
  </span>
  </li>
  <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">You can now view the imported data, as shown below:<br />
      <br />
      <img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure30.PNG" alt="Imported" width="496" height="330" longdesc="http://www.mekashron.com" /><br />
      <strong>Figure 1.29 - The list of imported entities in the Entities List in the main window of the program</strong> <br />
      <br />
    You can see that only the First Name and the Last Name of entities are imported and also the Email address of the first and the second entity. The reason is of course because there were no information related to the Email column for any other entities in the </span><a href="#ContactsXlsFile" target="_self"><span style="font-size: 10pt;
          font-family: Arial">source file</span></a><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">.
              Please also note that the Main Category of Students and the Sub-category of PhD
              have been built using the + buttons of Main and Sub categories as shown in </span>
      <a href="#Figure127" target="_self"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">
          Figure 1.27</span></a><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">. </span>
  </li>
</ol>
<p>
<br />

    <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial"></span>
<p class="style3"><a name="ImportFromODBC" id="ImportFromODBC"></a><span>
    3 - Importing Entities from Data Source (ODBC) </span>

<br />
</p>
<p class="style2" style="text-align: left">
    <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">In previous sections of this chapter we read about Mekashron Business allowing various types of data to be imported into the database. For example, comma delimited text files and Excel datasheets. In this section, we will talk about all other different data-sources such as Access Databases and etc. Mekashron Business has the ability to import data from Microsoft Access, SQL Server, dBase and in general any other ODBC related sources that are accessible through the ODBC administration tool. In this sub-section, we will go through the steps that are required to be traversed in order for an Access data-base to be imported into the Mekashron Business software's database. </span>
</p>
<p class="style2" style="text-align: left">
    <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">Let us now get started on how we can
        import Access Files into Mekashron Business. In order to do this, please follow
        the below steps. We are assuming that you have already logged into the data-base
        with our software and you have our software's main screen right in front of you.
        You can read more about these in the </span><a href="http://www.mekashron.com/MB3_Installion.ashx" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">Installation and Logging
                in</span></a><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial"> section of our manual.</span></p>
<ol>
  <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">In the main window of Mekashron Business, click on the <strong>Entities</strong> main menu to the top left section of the program. At this time, you will be presented with the below list of sub-menus:<br />
      <br />
      <img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure1.PNG" alt="Import Menu" width="163" height="163" longdesc="http://www.mekashron.com" /><br />
      <strong>Figure 1.30 - Entities menu items </strong><br />
      <br />
  </span>
  </li>
  <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">At this time, select the <strong>Import Entities</strong> menu item. At this time, you must be presented with the <strong>Import Wizard</strong> window as shown below:<br />
    <br />
  </span>
      <a name="Figure131" id="Figure131"></a><img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure31.PNG" alt="Import Wizard" width="441" height="275" longdesc="http://www.mekashron.com" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial" /><br />
      <span style="font-family: Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt">
      <strong>Figure 1.31 - Import Wizard window</strong><br />
      <br />
      </span></span>
  </li>
  <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">Bear in mind that there is an alternative method for showing the Import Wizard other than the above steps. <strong>If you are keen to know</strong> this method also, follow the below sub-steps. <strong>If not</strong>, simply </span><a href="#Step4Access" target="_self"><span style="font-size: 10pt;
          font-family: Arial">jump to the fourth step</span></a><span style="font-size: 10pt;
              font-family: Arial"> of importing Access files. <br />
      <br />
          </span>
      <ol>
        <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">In the Mekashron Business' main window, click on the drop-down indicator of the Add Entity button as marked in a red rectangle in the below shape:<br />
            <br />
            <img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure3.PNG" alt="Drop Down Button" width="437" height="278" longdesc="http://www.mekashron.com" /><br />
            <strong>Figure 1.32 - Drop Down indicator of the Add Entity button - enclosed within a red rectangle </strong><br />
            <br />
        </span>
        </li>
        <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">By clicking on the above slip,
            you will be presented with a pop-up menu as that shown below. Simply click on the
            Import Entities menu-item which will also take you to the </span><a href="#Figure131" target="_self"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">Import Wizard window</span></a><span
                    style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">.<br />
            <br />
            <img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure4.PNG" alt="Popup Menu" width="134" height="61" longdesc="http://www.mekashron.com" /><br />
            <strong>Figure 1.33 - The Import Entities pop-up menu</strong> <br />
            <br />
                </span>
        </li>
      </ol>
  </li>
  <li style="text-align: left"><a name="Step4Access" id="Step4Access"></a><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">
      Once in the Import Wizard window, you will see a various of selections. We are now interested in importing Excel files. Therefore, makes sure that the <strong>ODBC Data Source (System DSN)  </strong>radio-button is selected in the list, as depicted in </span><a href="#Figure131" target="_self"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">Figure 1.31</span></a><span
              style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">. After this, please click on the <strong>Next &gt;&gt; </strong>button at the bottom right side of the Impoprt Wizard window:<br />
      <br />
      <img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure32.PNG" alt="Next Button" width="441" height="275" longdesc="http://www.mekashron.com" /><br />
      <strong>Figure    
        1.34 - Click on the Next button in the Import Wizard window</strong> <br />
            <br />
          </span>
  </li>
  <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">After clicking on the Next Button, you will be presented with the next step of the importing process. This window is depicted below:<br />
      <br />
      <img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure33.PNG" alt="Second stage" width="441" height="275" longdesc="http://www.mekashron.com" /><br />
      <strong>Figure 1.35 - The second step of importing a data-base </strong><br />
      <br />
  </span>
  </li>
  <li style="text-align: left"> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">There are various fields in the window in Figure 1.35 that need explanation. Let us go through them one by one: <br />
      <br />
  </span>
      <ol>
        <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-family: Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt"><strong>Data-source:</strong>specifies the type of data-source you would like to choose. In other words, you can specify what type of data-base you are intending to import into Mekashron Business' data-base. You can select from the list of predefined and selected data-sources. If you believe you are the type of data-source you are looking for is not listed in the Data-source combo-box, you can simply click on the <img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure34.png" alt="ODBC Button" width="64" height="26" longdesc="http://www.mekashron.com" /> button to the right side of the Data-source combo-box.<br />
          <br />
          <img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure35.PNG" alt="Predefined Sources" width="408" height="113" longdesc="http://www.mekashron.com" /><br />
          <strong>Figure 1.36 - Predefined data-sources</strong> <br />
          <br />
            <br />
        </span></span>
        </li>
        <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-family: Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt"><strong>Table: </strong>specifies the source table in the chosen data-source. For example, if you are browsing for an Access data-base, Mekashron Business will analyze the Access file and list all the available tables in this combo-box. Also if you are browsing an SQL Data-base, you will be able to see the available tables in the list. <br />
            <br />
        </span></span>
        </li>
        <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-family: Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt"><strong>Join Tables :</strong> in any data-base system or (R)DBMS, you can have differnet data-bases each of which could consist more than one table. Each of the tables could have inner or outer joins to each other and be connected. Each table is recommended to have its own Primary Key or Foreign Key. A Primary Key is a column in a table whose values should be identical and unique. A Foreign key acts like a primary key but is actually a column which is connected to a primary key in another table. We will only concentrate on learning what a Primary Key is. Suppose you have thousands of entities in your firm/corporation and you want a simple way of distinguishing between them. You could simply assign a unique ID to each individual in your company. The ID an not be the same for two entities or more. Each entity gets his/her/its own ID. This ID will then be stored in a table of information. The ID field could thus be the primary key for that table of information. The <strong>Join Tables</strong> group-box allows you to specify what field should be unique in the system. You can choose the table in your data-base, the Primary key column and the ID field which will specify the final primary key systemwide.<br />
          <br />
            <br />
        </span></span>
        </li>
      </ol>
  </li>
  <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">Let us now try to import a file into the Import Wizard window. This is depicted below. Please note: to be able to select your Access Database, select the <strong>MS Access Database </strong>item from the <strong>Data-source </strong>combo-box which is explaind above. At this time, you will be presented with the below browser window:<br />
      <br />
  </span>
      <a name="Figure137" id="Figure137"></a><img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure36.PNG" alt="Add Data Source" width="402" height="243" longdesc="http://www.mekashron.com" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial" /><br />
      <span style="font-family: Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt">
      <strong>Figure 1.37 - Importing an Access file<br />
      <br />
      </strong>As you can see above, here you can select a data-source. To the left, you can select your files with the Access' default extension (.mdb) and to the right, you can navigate into the directory hierarchy of the selected drive until you reach the directory which contains the Access source file.  After having selected the desired .mdb Access Database file, click on the <strong>OK </strong>button to the top rightmost side of the <strong>Select Database </strong>screen shown in Figure 1.37 above.  <br />
      <br />
      </span></span>
  </li>
  <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">Let us now have a look how our &quot;db1.mdb&quot; file's contents and realize how it is actually formatted:<br />
      <br />
  </span>
      <a name="ContactsmdbFile" id="ContactsmdbFile"></a><img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure37.PNG" alt="Access file" width="347" height="140" longdesc="http://www.mekashron.com" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial" /><br />
      <strong><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">Contents of the "db1.mdb"
          file being imported in </span><a href="#Figure137" target="_self"><span style="font-size: 10pt;
              font-family: Arial">Figure 1.37</span></a></strong><span style="font-size: 10pt;
                  font-family: Arial">
                  <br />
      <br />
    As you can see, there are 3 lines of information in this file. Each line starts with the forename of the entity which is followed by the surname and then what appears to be an email for the second and the third entity and Not Available (N/A) for the first entity. This means that there are 3 entities in this  file and they only contain the forename, surname and the email address of each of the entities although the email address has only been assigned to the second and the third entity.<br />
    <br />
              </span>
  </li>
  <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">Now you can decide which table within the Access file you would like to use as the primary source of data. This can be adjusted using the <strong>Table </strong>combo-box depicted in </span><a href="#Figure122" target="_self"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">Figure
              1.38</span></a><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial"> below:<br />
      <br />
              </span>
      <a name="Figure138" id="Figure138"></a><img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure38.PNG" alt="Worksheets" width="441" height="275" longdesc="http://www.mekashron.com" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial" /><br />
      <span style="font-family: Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt">
      <strong>Figure 1.38 - Table to be imported</strong> -<strong> &quot;Contacts&quot; was the only table available in the &quot;db1.mfd&quot; Access database </strong><br />
      <br />
      <br />
      </span></span>
  </li>
  <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">Now that you have your database and the table inside it selected in the Data-source and the Table fields respectively, you can use the Join Tables option in order to join two tables into a single source. If not, you can simply leave this option empty for Table and Primary ID and click on the <strong>Next &gt;&gt; </strong>button to the rightmost bottom side of the <strong>Import Wizard </strong>depicted in </span><a href="#Figure138" target="_self"><span style="font-size: 10pt;
          font-family: Arial">Figure 1.38</span></a><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">.<br />
    <br />
          </span>
</li>
  <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">After adjusting all the settings above, you can now click on the list-box that appears to the right side of each of the fields in the Assign Fields group-box. For example, by clicking on the First Name field's list-box, the below results will be shown:<br />
      <br />
      <img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure39.PNG" alt="List Box" width="441" height="275" longdesc="http://www.mekashron.com" /><br />
      <strong>Figure 1.39 - The Assign Fields group-box's functionality</strong><br />
      <br />
  </span>
  </li>
  <li style="text-align: left"> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">You can see that Mekashron Business has already intercepted the structure of the &quot;db1.mdb&quot; file and has come up with a plan in which the first field is the First Name, the second field is the Last Name and etc. You now get the opportunity to assign each of the fields in the  file to whichever field that you believe is more accurate, in Mekashron Business. The First Name and the Last Name fields can be assigned to field <strong>Contacts.&quot;FirstName&quot;</strong> and <strong>Contacts.&quot;LastName&quot;</strong> respectively and the Email field to field <strong>Contacts.&quot;Email&quot;</strong> of the Access table:<br />
      <br />
      <img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure40.png" alt="New Fields" width="441" height="275" longdesc="http://www.mekashron.com" /><br />
      <strong>Figure 1.40 - Fields assigned to First Name and Last Name </strong><br />
      <br />
  </span>
  </li>
  <li style="text-align: left"> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">Now it is time to assign the Email
      field to the 3rd column present in the </span><a href="#ContactsmdbFile" target="_self">
          <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">"db1.mdb" Access file</span></a><span
              style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">:<br />
      <br />
      <img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure41.PNG" alt="Email Field" width="441" height="275" longdesc="http://www.mekashron.com" /><br />
      <strong>Figure 1.41 - The email address field assigned to the Email column</strong><br />
      <br />
          </span>
  </li>
  <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">Once you have made all your required changes, you can perform various operations such as going to the Next window to finish up the wizard or you could save your settings and etc. You must have already noticed the three small graphical buttons we have implemented in the Import Wizard window's second stage. These are shown in Figure 1.40, 1.41 and etc below the Assign Fields group box, to the left. These buttons' functionalities are explained below: <br />
      <br />
  </span>
      <ol>
        <li style="text-align: left"><img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure12.PNG" alt="Align All" width="20" height="23" longdesc="http://www.mekashron.com" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial" /><span
                style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial"> this button will align all the fields automatically for you. This means that the First name field will be the first column in the Access table, the Last Name field will be the second and so forth. </span>
        </li>
        <li style="text-align: left"><img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure13.PNG" alt="Load" width="20" height="22" longdesc="http://www.mekashron.com" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial" /><span
                style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial"> this button will load a <strong>Field Assignment File (.faf) </strong>into the program and align all the fields accordingly. Please read the description for the button below in order to understand what FAF files are. </span></li>
        <li style="text-align: left"><img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure14.PNG" alt="Save FAF" width="21" height="22" longdesc="http://www.mekashron.com" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial" /><span
                style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial"> this button will save the current settings assigned to the Assign Fields group-box, as a <strong>Field Assignment File (.faf). </strong>FAF files are produced and loaded by </span><a href="http://www.mekashron.com" target="_blank">
                    <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">Mekashron Business</span></a><span
                        style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial"> program which facilitate easy access
                        to previously saved settings in the assigning of fields to data files and etc. For
                        example, we have now assigned the First Name, the Last Name and the Email fields
                        to various columns in the </span><a href="#ContactsmdbFile" target="_self"><span
                            style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">"db1.mdb" Access Table </span></a>
            <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">. Every time you would want to import an Access table similar to this, you do not have to align the fields over again. What you can do is to save your current Assign Fields settings and then load them with the Load settings button described above.<br />
            <br />
            </span>
        </li>
      </ol>
  </li>
  <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">After completing the above steps, you can now click on the <strong>Next </strong><strong>&gt;&gt; </strong>button to the bottom right side of the window to go to the next and the final step of the importing wizard. The last step of the wizard is depicted below: <br />
      <br />
      <strong><a name="Figure142" id="Figure142"></a></strong><img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure42.png" alt="Last Step" width="441" height="275" longdesc="http://www.mekashron.com" /><br />
      <strong>Figure 1.42 - Last step of the Import Wizard after having checked the &quot;Check for duplicated values&quot; check-box </strong><br />
      <br />
  </span>
  </li>
  <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">The &quot;Check for duplicated values&quot; check-box will allow you get rid of all the duplicate values in the data-base and the ones that are about to be imported. Please note that if this check-box is unchecked, the <strong>Match duplicated values by </strong>and the <strong>When duplicate value found </strong>group-boxes will both disappear and you won't see them on the screen. Now we will go about describing the various adjustable fields in the above two group-boxes: <br />
      <br />
  </span>
      <ol>
        <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-family: Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt"><strong>Match duplicated values by: </strong>here you can select how duplicated values should be detected. For example, if in an enterprise or a corporation, the email address of two people can not be the same, then you can check the <strong>Email</strong> check-box and our software will take care of the rest. However, what our software will do depends on the option which is selected in the <strong>When duplicate value found </strong>group-box described below. Bear in mind that the fields displayed in this group-box (Match duplicated values by) is originated from the </span></span><a href="http://www.mekashron.com/MB3_EntitiesProfile.ashx" target="_new"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">fields that you have
                    created before</span></a><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">.<br />
            <br />
                    </span>
        </li>
        <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-family: Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt"><strong>When duplicate value found: </strong>when our software finds a duplicate value in one or some of the fields specified in the <strong>Match duplicated values by </strong>group-box, it will take an action according to what is selected in this group-box (When duplicate value found). Various fields in this group-box are explained below: <br />
            <br />
        </span></span>
            <ol>
              
              <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-family: Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt"><strong>Ignore the duplicated record: </strong>will, as its name implies explicitly, ignore the record in the file to be imported and will not add it to the data-base.<br />
                  <br />
              </span></span>
              </li>
              <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-family: Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt"><strong>Overwrite original record: </strong>if a record is found in the database that matches the specific information (selected through the Assign fields) by the record that is being added, the former record will remain in the database and its various (field) information will be overwritten by the record from the file which is being imported. For example, if you have checked the <strong>Email </strong>check-box in the <strong>Match duplicated values by </strong>group-box and there is already an entity with that information in the database, Mekashron Business will overwrite that entity's information with the one being read from the file to be imported. Therefore, all the information related to the fields that are selected will be overwritten by the new data. This option will also overwrite the category settings. Therefore, suppose your previous data is in a category called &quot;Master&quot; and the new category name is called &quot;Slave&quot;. This will force the entities to be moved to the &quot;Slave&quot; category. This option is mostly used when you are importing data with values that are more up-to-date than the one that arleady exist in the data-base. <br />
                  <br />
              </span></span>
              </li>
              <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-family: Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt"><strong>Update original record: </strong>will update the duplicated records' in the database according to the values specified by the file being imported. Again, if you have checked the <strong>Email </strong>check-box in the <strong>Match duplicated values by </strong>group-box and there is already an entity with that specific information in the database, our software will update that entity's email address according to the value specified in the file to be imported. The entity will <strong>not </strong>be deleted but it will be updated. Also note that the entity will stay in the same category. This option is usually used when you have missing information for your entities that you would like to import.<br />
              </span></span>
              </li>
              <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-family: Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt"><strong>Delete original record: </strong>as its name implies will delete the original record from the database instead of updating it. Please bear in mind that the record from the external file will <strong>not</strong> be imported after the original record is deleted. This option can also be used when you have a list of people that have to be removed from the database. You will just import the &quot;black list&quot; and select this option with the field on which the comparison should be made. As soon as duplicated values are found, our software will delete them from the database.<br />
                  <br />
              </span></span>
              </li>
              </ol>
        </li>
      </ol>
  </li>
  <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">The <strong>Import into Category </strong>group-box shown in </span><a href="#Figure142" target="_self"><span style="font-size: 10pt;
          font-family: Arial">Figure 1.42</span></a><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">
              will ask for the name of the category and the sub-category into which the data should
              be imported. You can read about adding, deleting and selecting categories in the
          </span><a href="http://www.mekashron.com/MB3_EntitiesProfile.ashx" target="_blank">
              <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">Manage Entities Profile chapter</span></a><span
                  style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">. <br />
      <br />
              </span>
  </li>
  <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">After you have selected all the required options, you can click on the <strong>Next &gt;&gt; </strong>button to the rightmost bottom side of the screen as shown below. <strong>Note</strong> that the <strong>Main Category </strong>and the <strong>Sub Category </strong>fields are required for the Wizard to finish its work. Please bear in mind that you can add, delete or edit categories using the three red buttons for both the main and the sub-categories. In order to read more thorough information about editing, deleting and adding categories and sub-categories, it is highly recommended that you </span><a href="http://www.mekashron.com/MB3_EntitiesProfile.ashx#ManagingCategoriesAnchor" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">read this section
              of the Manage Entities Profile section</span></a><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">. <br />
      <br />
              </span>
      <a name="Figure143" id="Figure143"></a><img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure43.PNG" alt="Next Button" width="441" height="275" border="0" longdesc="http://www.mekashron.com" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial" /><br />
      <span style="font-family: Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt">
      <strong>Figure 1.43 - The last button to press before finishing the Import Wizard</strong> <br />
      <br />
      </span></span>
  </li>
  <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">Congratulations! You will now be shown the below message box which indicates the success of the importing process:<br />
      <br />
      <img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure17.PNG" alt="Successfully Imported" width="218" height="122" longdesc="http://www.mekashronc.om" /><br />
      <strong>Figure 1.44 - Successful import of data</strong><br />
      <br />
  </span>
  </li>
  <li style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">You can now view the imported data, as shown below:<br />
      <br />
      <img src="GetFile.aspx?File=ImportingEntities/Figure44.PNG" alt="Imported" width="495" height="301" longdesc="http://www.mekashron.com" /><br />
      <strong>Figure 1.45 - The list of imported entities in the Entities List in the main window of the program</strong> <br />
      <br />
    You can see that only the First Name and the Last Name of entities are imported and also the Email address of the first and the last entity. The reason is of course because there were no information related to the Email column for the second row in the </span><a href="#ContactsmdbFile" target="_self"><span style="font-size: 10pt;
          font-family: Arial">source file</span></a><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">.
              Please also note that the Main Category of Students and the Sub-category of PhD
              have been built using the + buttons of Main and Sub categories as shown in </span>
      <a href="#Figure143" target="_self"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">
          Figure 1.43</span></a><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial">. </span>
  </li>
</ol><br/>
<p style="text-align: left">&nbsp;</p>

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