Content Import Resolution Tool

We can encounter several failures while importing content/data in Asta7. So far our approach for handling failures has been to throw an exception and abort the import. But this approach is not user-friendly as most of the failures are recoverable.

We want a tool to handle imports better to ease the mobility of archives between different Asta7 installations and within the same Asta7. The tool should be based on current functionality in Asta5 and adapted to the challenges we have in Asta7.

This tool will be used only for the Single Archive import from Asta7

1 Conflicts
2 Solutions
3 Implementation
4 Things To Do

Conflicts

Type	Description	Solutions	Example

Type	Description	Solutions	Example
UNIQUE	An object with this value for this field already exists Applicable for AMID system field Primary key field (Single PK for now) Any other unique fields Root entity fields with field value pattern	GENERATE SET_BY_USER SET_NULL FAIL	There is an object of entity A with AMID `821df1d4-3ed8-463e-a9a3-ea841be60f81` in the system. When trying to import this object again or any other object of entity A with the same AMID. There is an entity A which has a field `identifier` with a field value pattern. The system already has an object of entity A with identifier `A-0001`. When trying to import any object of entity A with the identifier `A-0001` again.
FK	The parent object referred by this field not found Applicable for fields that are used to store links to their parent objects Not yet supported	IGNORE SET_NULL FAIL	Entity A has a sub-entity Entity B. Entity B then will have a field like `ref_a` which will store the id of its parent object of Entity A. When trying to import an object of Entity B which has a value in the `ref_a` field, but there is no object of Entity A with that id.
REQUIRED	No value present for this required field Applicable for AMID system field Primary key fields Any other non-nullable fields	GENERATE SET_BY_USER FAIL	Entity A has a primary key field `id`. When the import file for entity A contains an object which has no value set for the field `id`.
TYPE	Value type not compatible with the field type	GENERATE SET_BY_USER SET_NULL FAIL	Entity A has a field `id` of type `integer`. When the import file for entity A contains any value for the field `id` which is not an `integer`.
LENGTH	Text length is longer than the limit Applicable for `varchar` fields with a length set	TRIM_EXTRA SET_BY_USER SET_NULL FAIL	Entity A has a `varchar` field `name` with `length` `10`. When the import file for entity A contains any value for the field `name` with a `length` greater than `10`.
Root System Entity UNIQUE	Applicable for root system entities (AKTOR, TAG, RESTRICTION)	IGNORE REPLACE_WITH_EXISTING	The system already has an AKTOR with `identifikator` `AKT-0001`. When trying to import any data that has an AKTOR with `identifikator` value `AKT-0001`.

Solutions

Type	Description	Challenges

Type	Description	Challenges
GENERATE	Generates a new value based on the field type or using the field value pattern Not available for PK and UNIQUE if field type is not `UUID`	For AMID, replace all `objectReference` For PK, replace all FK How to handle composite PK? Should we generate PK for other types? If so then how?
SET_BY_USER	Input from the user Not applicable for conflicts that are gathered during import	Requires user interaction
SET_NULL	Applicable for nullable or not required fields
SET_NULL_OR_REGENERATE	Set `null` if nullable or generate a value (dummy) based on the field type Applicable for conflicts that are gathered during import
TRIM_EXTRA	Trim the extra part Applicable for `varchar` fields with a length set
IGNORE	Ignore this object and it’s descendants Highest precedence	Ignore the whole subtree for this object as well
REPLACE_WITH_EXISTING	Ignore this object and it’s descendants but keep the relation objects (AKTOR_RELASJON, TAG_MAPPING, OBJECT_RESTRICTION) Import relation objects but change the relation to connect to the conflicted row 2nd highest precedence	Ignore the whole subtree for this object as well Keep the relation objects but change their FK Should we consider the possible new sub-entity objects? Should we consider the possible changes for this subtree?
FAIL	Throw an error and abort Applicable for conflicts that are gathered during import

Implementation

We can divide the implementation into four key steps.

Execute Normal Import

As before we will try to import the data without any changes. In case of an exception, we will analyze the exception to check if it is a resolvable exception. If resolvable then the import job dialog will show a button to start the resolving process.

Clicking the Resolve button will start the 2nd step.

Conflict Resolution Options

After clicking the Resolve button a new tab will be opened. In the tab, there will be options to choose how do you want to proceed. There will be options present per conflict type. Either you can gather the conflicts beforehand, or gather and solve them while importing, and the third option is to mix both, meaning gather some types beforehand but resolve the rest while importing.

If all the types are set to resolve at import time then the Resolve and Import button will be shown. In this case, the 3rd step is not needed anymore. Otherwise, you can proceed to the 3rd step by clicking the Gather Conflicts button.

Gather and Show Conflicts with Possible Solutions

After clicking the Gather Conflicts button a background job will be started, which will go through the import file and gather all the resolvable conflicts for the chosen types. After gathering all the conflict they will be shown in a table with possible solutions to choose from. The conflicts will be grouped by the entity name and the conflict type. It is also possible to pick a solution for the whole group.

The current limit for gathering conflicts is 10,000.

Resolve and Import

Clicking the Resolve and Import button will begin the 4th and final step. In this step, the import will run again. All the conflicts gathered beforehand and conflicts gathered while running will be resolved based on the chosen solution.

Things To Do

Support Excel import
Support Composite PK and FK
Generate other types than UUID
Optimize using temporary table and/or files rather than the memory
Add more types of solutions