Start the Direct Import Assistant

To start the Direct Import Assistant choose the table for your import with the Database Navigator and click "Import" in the toolbar. The Direct Import Assistant will open in a new window with your selected table.

Click "Next>>" to continue with the assistant.

Choose Import File

The empty import preview is displayed. Click "Browse" to open your input file, start the automatic file type recognition and display a preview of your file.

Adjust Import Settings

The Direct Import Assistant recognizes most file formats (PC, Unix and Macintosh line breaks, Tab-delimited, comma-delimited, semicolon and colon delimited, etc.). If your file type has not been recognized correctly the preview will no look very well. In this case you can adjust the File Type settings manually (in the drawer). Each change to the file type settings immediatelly reloads the preview with your new settings.

Usually you don't need to make any changes to the File Type settings, but you have to choose the Import File Character Set (if it is different from the default character set on your system and your import file contains international characters) and you have to specify if your import file contains a header line which should not be imported.

As soon as the preview contains the correctly recognized values in tabular form click "Next>>" to continue with the assistant.

Assign database columns to import columns

You have to tell the Direct Import Assistant which column from your import file to store in which table column in the database. You can assign as many columns as you like, but you have to keep your database constraints in mind. If your table requires a field to contain a value you must import some value from your import file or the import will fail.

In the top view all columns from your database table are listed from left to right. Below the column names is a popup list with the recognized columns from your import file for each table column. "No Import" means that this column will not get any value during the import. Selecting an import column means that this column in the database table will receive the values from the specified import column.

As soon as you select an import column a preview is displayed in the Import Table Preview so you can see if the result is what you intended.

Example

Click the image on the left for an example. The first column (id) will not receive any values during the import. This column is defined as auto incremental during the table creation and will automatically increase an id value.

The second table column (name) will receive the values from FIELD1 from the import file, the third column (officeph) will receive the values from FIELD5 from the input file and so on.

After finishing your column assignments click "Next >>" to continue with the Assistant-

Run the Import

To start the import click "Run Import!". The Direct Import Assistant first counts all records in your import file and displays the import progress in the text area (total/remaining records) and with the progress bar.

As soon as the import is finshed click "Close" to close the Direct Import Assistant and check your database for the imported data (don't forget to reload the data to see the new records).