Astra Schedule provides an Excel import utility for updating Instructor information from an existing system to at once.  The Instructor import feature utilizes the ATE to provide mapping and import functionality.  In this system, an Excel file is the data source from which data will be imported.  An xml configuration file provides instructions for mapping and querying the Excel file, and for any rules to be applied to the data.  Finally, a transformation service interprets the incoming data and inserts it into the Astra Schedule database.

 

 

General Excel Template Formatting Notes:

•If the column header is highlighted in yellow, the data is required.  You may choose to exclude entire tabs from the import, but if you put some data in the tab, you must fill in all required columns.

•There can be NO white spaces in the column headers.  The template has been updated and no longer has spaces.  If spaces occur in the future, the wrong template is being used, or the spaces were added manually.

•All of the tabs need to be spelled correctly.  The template has been updated and all of the tabs are spelled correctly.  If misspellings occur in the future, the wrong template is being used, or the tab names were changed manually.

•“InstructorLoadUnitCode” on the “InstructorTypeLoads” tab requires a numeric value.  The options are listed below.

oCredit Hours = 810

oNum Sections = 811

oContact Hours = 812

•“BaseCostType” in the “InstructorTypes” tab requires a numeric value.  The options are listed below.

oUndefined = 0,

oAnnual = 1700,

oSection = 1701,

oCredit Hour = 1702

 

•There can be no duplicate data.

 

Example (these rows would be considered duplicate data):

 

Data Notes:

•If there is already instructor data in Astra that was imported from the SIS, the SisKey values for each tab will need to match what is in Astra or new records with similar names, descriptions, etc will be created.

•If data was already manually created in Astra, we will need to either delete the data or update the SisKeys in the database. We look the data items being imported up by SisKey and if they were manually created in Astra they do not have a SisKey.  So we would create new records for them with the SisKey specified in the Excel import file.

•If you put data in for the “AvailabilityTemplates” tab, but do not put data in the “AvailabilityTemplateRules” tab, you will create an empty availability template that will need to be configured in the application.

•If you put data in the “InstructorTypes” tab, but no data in the “InstructorTypeLoads” tab, then you will have empty Instructor Type records in the application that will need to be configured with Instructor load after import.

 

Running the Import:

When you run the import, you will need to set the filters appropriately.  If there is no data in some of the tabs/columns in the Excel file, you will need to update the import filters to “Do Not import” for those tabs/columns