The Essential Project Forum

Hi,

Am new to Essential and currently evaluating the tool for implementing EA for few clients. Is there a standard template available for capturing user inputs in all 4 layers (as a excel / csv file) ? Currently we are going through sample repository and identifying mandatory fields and mapping for each layers and trying to create our own.

Just curious to know if any template available for data capture ?

Cheers
Sankaran

Hi Sankaran,

Thanks for your post.
From what I've seen on the forums, many people are importing information from external sources and mostly from Excel and I believe most are producing an XML version of the Excel content that they then import. This XML could be directly in the Essential XML format or to a format that is then transformed to an import script, using a transform.

We are working on a component to make importing from Excel as straightforward as possible. We're 'road testing' this at the moment.

There are currently no 'default' import spreadsheets that cover all the meta classes. With all the possible relationships between the meta classes, these spreadsheets could be very complex. Indeed, we've found that when capturing relationships between elements, spreadsheets do not always scale that way and it's often simpler to import the definitions of the elements (e.g. Processes, Roles, Actors, Applications, etc.) from the spreadsheet and then 'wire up' the relationships between them in Protege.

Hope this helps - and we'll keep you all posted about the Excel importing component.

Jonathan

Any news on the Excel importing component ?

Yes, this is in field-testing at the moment and we're hoping to release this early in 2012.

Jonathan