Bommer supports importing bulk data from an Excel spreadsheet or CSV file in nearly any column configuration you may have.  Before Bommer can perform an import, you must configure an import format to tell Bommer how to find matching line items, and which properties to update with the different columns of data.  Read on to learn how to use the Import Formats tab in Settings to configure import formats, or click here to learn about importing data once Bommer has been configured.

Accessing your Import Formats configuration

To configure an import format that Bommer can use to import data, click on the  Settings button open the Settings window

Then, click on the Import Formats tab.  The first time you visit this tab, the list will be empty; like with the other settings tabs in Bommer, grow list will grow as you define your import formats. 

Adding a new import format

All import formats have a name which identifies the format within Bommer, and a series of files, steps, and mappings.  A file is a physical file Bommer will load; a step corresponds to an import step, which is a grouping of mappings with a rule that defines how to match up line items.  A mapping contains a Bommer property and a column name and tells Bommer which properties to update with each column found in the imported data.

To add an import format, we must input this information into Bommer.  Press the + button on the top left to start creating a new import format.

This will pop up the Edit import format... form.  Expanding the + button in this form will reveal a menu of commands you can use to configure the import format; it also contains a shortcut that you can use to quickly define import formats.

Loading from an example file

The Load from example file... menu option is the simplest way of setting up an import format in Bommer.  Once you click this option, Bommer will ask you to select a file to open; it will then read in all sheets and columns into the import format, and attempt to map the columns it finds to properties currently configured within Bommer.

You will still have to manually set up part of the import step to define the matching rule, and you may need to configure mappings that Bommer couldn't figure out.  Because you loaded data from an example file, however, the Columns combo box in these forms will contain all possible column names found within each sheet in the example file.

You can double click on each node in the tree to edit it; you can add additional supported file types by double-clicking on the file, or change or finish a mapping by double-clicking on the mapping to edit.  You can also press F2 on your keyboard, or press the  Edit button to edit the currently selected node. 

If you do not need a mapping, or a step, or you want to delete the imported file, you can select the node in the tree and press  Remove, or select the node and press the delete key on your keyboard.

Once you are done editing this import format, press OK.  Don't forget to press the  Check button in the Settings form to save your changes to Bommer's configuration storage.

Building manually

You can also set up an import format manually, for more fine-grained control over the configuration, or if you do not have an example file handy.  To do this, you will use the other commands in the + button drop-down menu.

Add file to import...

To add a file manually, press Add file to import.... 

In this case, we need to specify a name and one or more supported file types for this file.  This name can be anything you want: if you specify the name of the actual file you will be importing, it can save a few steps when actually importing data; Bommer will also display this name in the title of the open file dialog, so you may prefer to name it something descriptive (e.g."Latest Parts List Made at Home") so that you can find the right file when importing.

Repeat this process to add additional files to this import format.

Add import step...

To add an import step, select the file that will contain this step in the tree, and press Add import step.... 

An import step contains a name and a condition, which is a rule that tells Bommer how to match line items in the BOM with rows in the imported data file.  When importing from an Excel file (.xlsx or .xls), the name must match the sheet in the workbook that will be read during this import step; for .csv files, it's purely ornamental.

The condition lets you specify a Bommer property, a column that will exist in this step (e.g. a column on the specified sheet in the Excel file), and an operator (e.g. equals, not equals).  This tells Bommer how to find line items that can be updated; in the example above, we will align line items and rows in the file for which the Part Number property in Bommer equals the value in the Part Number column for a given row.

Add mapping to import step...

To add a property/column mapping, select the step in the tree that will contain this mapping Add mapping to import step....

Similar to conditions, mappings consist of a Bommer property and Column name; it does not have an operator, because a mapping defines an assignment; it tells Bommer, for matched line items, to update the specified property with the data from the row at the specified column. You can have as few or as many mappings as you would like.  Column names are case sensitive, so be careful when typing it in.

As above, press OK once you are done editing this import format, and press the  Check button in the Settings form to save your changes to Bommer's configuration storage.

Once you are done, press the OK button, then in the settings window press the green checkmark to save your Import Setting.

Errors when saving an import format

Regardless of how you built your import format, Bommer will perform validation when you press the OK button; you must fix any errors it finds before you can save the import format.

To fix these errors, edit the indicated nodes and fill out the required information.  Then, press OK to save this format.

Editing or deleting import formats

Like with other Setting tabs within Bommer, you can use the button bar to edit or delete import formats.  To utilize these buttons, select an import format in the table.  When you press on  Edit, it opens the same form used to add a new import format; the instructions above also apply to editing an existing format.  When you press  Remove, the selected import format will be removed from the table.  

After editing or deleting your import formats, you can press the  Check button to save your changes.