Using tools to import administrative data

Guidewire provides the import_tools command for importing new or updated administrative data into existing tables in the PolicyCenter database. PolicyCenter reads the import data from a comma-separated values (CSV) file or an XML file.

Important: PolicyCenter supports this command for importing administrative data, but not for importing other types of data.

PolicyCenter uses the public ID of each object in the data import to determine if an object with that public ID already exists in the database. See Administrative data and the PolicyCenter data model for a discussion of public IDs

During import, if PolicyCenter finds a match in entity public IDs, it does the following:

  • If there is no difference between the import record and the database record, PolicyCenter ignores the import record.
  • If there are differences between the two records, PolicyCenter overwrites any existing database record values with the values from the import file. PolicyCenter does not throw concurrent data change exception if the imported records overwrite existing records in the database.
  • If there are null entries for a record in the import file, PolicyCenter nulls out those values in the record in the database.

Import administrative data using import tools

Before you begin

The MaximumFileUploadSize parameter in file config.xml must be larger than the size of any file that you attempt to import. The MaximumFileUploadSize parameter value is in megabytes (MB). In the base configuration, the default value of MaximumFileUploadSize is 20 MB.

Procedure

  1. Create a CSV or XML file describing the data, by using one of the following methods:
    • Create the XML or CSV file manually.
    • Export the current administrative data as an XML file from PolicyCenter and modify the file.
  2. Import the CSV or XML file by using the import_tools command:
    • import_tools -password password -import fileName

    The PolicyCenter administration command prompt tools all require that you enter the password of an administrative user for the tool to work. The use of a user name is optional.

    The -import option requires that you provide the name of the file to import (fileName). There are a number of other options that you can set as well.