General Resource Loader (GRLoader) › How to Prepare for Loading Spreadsheet Data › Spreadsheet Considerations

Spreadsheet Considerations

The spreadsheet input area contains two areas, column headings and data. The GRLoader options bind the square input area for the start row, end row, start column, and end column. If you do not supply these options, then the bounds define the natural limits of the spreadsheet.

If you want to import CI data and CI relationships from spreadsheets, consider the following information:

• GRLoader considers the first populated row in the input area as column headings, and must contain CI attribute names or relationship attribute names, as XML attribute names appear for XML-based input.
• GRLoader does not process comments from Excel spreadsheets.

  Note: A red triangle in the upper right corner of the cell indicates a comment in Excel.

• GRLoader ignores the entire column when the heading row value is prefixed with the comment character (#).
• If a heading line consists entirely of comment, GRLoader considers it as a blank line and skips it.
• GRLoader can view hidden rows and columns in spreadsheets.
• GRLoader ignores embedded objects within spreadsheets.
• GRLoader identifies embedded relationships by an attribute name when it is an actual relationship type.
• GRLoader supports embedded relationships with the following limitations:
  • The CI identified by name, serial number, mac address, and so on, represents the provider CI.
  • In the relationship column, specify the CI as the dependent, when you use a provider/dependent relationship type.
  • Using a dependent/provider relationship type reverses the roles of the two CIs.
  • Multiple embedded relationships can occur in a single relationship cell. You separate each partner name from other partners by the grloader.spreadsheet.embeddedseparator character specified in the config file.
  • If you must specify more than one identifying attributes for a dependent or provider in a relationship, then you must fall back to the fully qualified style of creating relationships. In this case, you specify provider_name, provider_mac_address, type, dependent_name, dependent_mac_address, and so on. If you want to specify more than one identifying attribute, you cannot use embedded relationships.
• GRLoader can evaluate most functions in a spreadsheet, but not all functions. The following functions are known to be incompatible with GRLoader:
  • edate()
  • text()

  Important! Any cell that directly or indirectly references an incompatible function generates an error message and GRLoader ignores the cell.