Import With Packages – Meridian PowerWeb Knowledge Base

You can import large quantities of documents and their metadata properties to Meridian Cloud using import packages.

The import process requires the following steps to be performed in the order listed. These steps involve large amounts of data that can require significant time to import so plan accordingly.

Note: You must be a member assigned to the Senior DC or DC Operations groups to perform this task.

For help with performing this import process, contact Accruent Support.

Step 1: Notify Accruent Support

Before you proceed, contact Accruent Support and provide the following information:

Name of the tenancy to which the data will be imported.
Estimated amount of time that you expect to be importing.

Step 2: Download the Metadata Spreadsheet Template

Download the metadata spreadsheet template for your Meridian Cloud account as described for the Import Profile option in Creating an import package. You will use this in the next step to provide the document metadata for the imported files.

Step 3: Populate the Spreadsheet(s)

Populate one or more copies of the spreadsheet template with the required metadata for the documents to be imported. Specify relative paths to the document files that will be uploaded in a future next step.

Note:

The workbook must contain the worksheets and columns defined in the template that you downloaded in step 2. Custom properties will be automatically appended as additional columns.
The columns in the Document worksheet must meet the requirements listed in the following table. The order of the columns is not important.
Paths to source files must be less than 150 characters and cannot contain special characters. An alternative is to upload a folder instead, which supports up to 220 characters in the path and special characters.
Thumbnail images will not be generated.
References may point to any revision of items in the same import package. References may only point to the latest revision of items previously imported into the repository. In the latter case, placeholder references will appear as warnings in the import audit log as described in Viewing the import audit log. An error will occur if multiple documents with the same value for Document Number are found for a single reference.
Import of project copy references to previous master (Masters root folder) revisions is not supported. All project copy references will be to the latest revision of its master document.
By default, documents will not be scanned for reference integrity. This can be enabled upon request.
To export documents and their metadata from an on-premises Meridian Enterprise vault, see Archiving documents.

Step 4: Create the Source Archive Files

In most scenarios, you should upload the document content source files directly without any preparation. In uncommon scenarios, it can be more manageable to upload sets of source files contained in archive (ZIP) packages as follows.

Create one or more archive files that contain the source files that you want to import. The ZIP files should contain relative paths that you have specified in the metadata spreadsheet described above.

To import documents to the Archive root folder, in addition to creating a separate source archive file, specify values for the Archive Root and Archive Year columns in the metadata worksheets.

Step 5: Upload the Source Archive Files

Upload the source files (ZIPped or not) via FTP to a staging location in Meridian Cloud where the Meridian Explorer package import process can access them. This is described in Upload Import Sources To Your Repository.

Step 6: Create the Import Package(s) In Meridian Explorer

In Meridian Cloud, use the standard import package functionality described in Working with import packages to create one import package for each combination of a metadata spreadsheet and its corresponding source files. Select the import profile that corresponds to the destination root folder of the source files as listed in the following table.

Disable the Use content from a folder option when you create the import package(s).

Import profiles
Profile	Description
Documentation Import	Source archive files destined for the Documentation root folder.
Masters Import	Source files destined for the Masters root folder.
Projects Import	Source files destined for the Projects root folder.
References Import	For creating references between existing items in the repository.
Tag Import	Source files destined for the Tags root folder.

We highly recommend that you test the metadata in the worksheets as described in Creating an import package and resolve all discrepancies before you submit the import package(s). The import will start automatically.

Step 7: Monitor the Results In Meridian Explorer

As each package is imported, you can monitor its progress as described in Viewing and editing an import package. After each import package has finished you can view the results as described in Viewing the import audit log.

Step 8: Report the Results

Report the results of the import to Accruent Support when the import has completed.

The following table describes the valid values for each standard property column in the metadata spreadsheet. Some properties are not present in all templates. Custom properties may be added.

Metadata requirements
Column	Required	Description
<CustomPropertyInternalName>	Configurable	Internal name of custom properties that are defined in Meridian Cloud.
#²	Yes	Unique sequence number. Sort order for revisions instead of Revision Number as described below.
AlternativeID	Configurable	One or more alternative reference identifiers, for example, assigned by an external document creator.
AlternativeRevisionID	Configurable	Alternative revision number or letter, for example, assigned by an external document creator.
ApprovalDate	Configurable	Date when the last reviewer approved the document.
ApprovedBy	Configurable	Name(s) of the last reviewer(s) who approved the document. Multiple values delimited by the asterisk character (). For example, User1* for a single user or User1User2* for multiple users.
ArchiveRoot	Yes³	Destination folder in the Archive branch of the Meridian Cloud repository.
ArchiveYear	Yes³	Year when the documents were archived.
BuildingLevel2	Configurable	Building identifier within the specified plant.
BuildingLevel3	Configurable	Floor identifier within the specified building.
BuildingLevel4	Configurable	Room identifier within the selected floor.
BusinessUnit	Configurable	Division within the organization responsible for the facility. Should be a value from the lookup defined in Meridian Cloud for the property Business Unit.
Classification	Yes¹	Category (label) within the engineering discipline. Can be used to specify a distribution list, for example, of recipients of review packages. Should be a value from the lookup list defined in Meridian Cloud for the property Classification.
Created By	Configurable	Full name of the user who created the document.
CreateDate	Configurable	Date when the document was created.
Delivery State	Yes	Must be one of these values: Start, Open, Closed.
Discipline	Yes¹	Engineering discipline (label). Can be used to specify a distribution list, for example, of recipients of review packages. Should be a value from the lookup list defined in Meridian Cloud for the property Discipline.
Document Name	Yes	File name and extension. Does not need to be unique. New documents are automatically assigned a value that is used to calculate the file name together with the file extension in this column. New revisions are assigned this value as the filename. We recommend using Document Number plus the file extension.
Document Number	Yes	Unique identifier to group revisions of the same document. Rows with the same value in this column will be imported as revisions of the same document (ordered by #). We recommend this be the value of Document Name without the file extension. Rows with the same value for Document Number and for Revision Number will be imported as hybrid documents. Meridian Cloud will attempt to match incoming documents to existing documents in these locations in the order listed: \Archive\<Year>\Projects\<Project Type>\<Project> \Archive\<Year>\<not Projects> \Projects\<Project Type>\<Project> \<not Projects> Document Number must only be unique within each of these locations.
Document Type²	Yes	One of these values depend on the import profile used: Masters Import profile – FacilityDocument, TransmissionDocument Projects Import profile – FacilityDocument, ProjectDocument, TransmissionDocument Documentation Import profile – GenericDocument
Importance	Yes	One of these values: Critical, High, Low, Medium, None
Intellectual Property	Yes	One of these values: Critical, High, Low, Medium, None
Library	Yes	One of these values depending on the import profile used: Tag Import profile – Tags, Archive Masters Import profile – Masters, Archive Projects Import profile – Projects, Archive Documentation Import profile – Documentation, Archive Reference Import profile – any
LocationLevel0	No	Region level in the Facility Document and Transmission Document type hierarchies. Geographical area (label) where the facility or system is located (eg. EU - Europe).
LocationLevel1	Configurable	Plant level in the Facility Document type hierarchy. Name of the facility or system within the selected Region. Type level in the Transmission Document type hierarchy. System type within the selected Region.
LocationLevel2	Configurable	Area level in the Facility document type hierarchy. Geographical space within the selected plant. Sub-Type level in the Transmission Document type hierarchy. Sub-type within the selected Type.
LocationLevel3	Configurable	Unit level in the Facility Document type hierarchy. Physical unit within the selected Area. Transmission ID level in the Transmission Document type hierarchy. Line within the selected Sub-Type.
LocationLevel4	Configurable	System level in the Facility document type hierarchy. Functional system within the selected unit. Component level in the Transmission Document type hierarchy. Component within the selected Transmission ID.
OrganizationDescription	Yes¹	Organization (label) that created the document. Should be a value from the lookup list defined in Meridian Cloud for the property Organization Description.
Project Number	No	Text that identifies the destination project folder. This is matched with the Project Number Property specified as described in Creating an import profile.
PurchaseOrderID	Configurable	Financial system reference ID.
ReleasePurpose	No	Intended purpose of a specific revision. Should be a value from the lookup defined in Meridian Cloud for the property Release Purpose.
Rendition Path²	No	Relative path to the PDF rendition.
ReviewDate	Configurable	Date when the lead reviewer(s) reviewed the content.
ReviewedBy	Configurable	Name(s) of the lead reviewer(s) who reviewed the content. Multiple values delimited by the asterisk character (). For example, User1* for a single user or User1User2* for multiple users.
Revision Number	Configurable	Text field to accept any revision numbering scheme. Because this cannot be reliably sorted, specify the order of revisions in the # column instead. Rows with the same value for Document Number and for Revision Number will be imported as hybrid documents by default. If you will be importing rows with the same value for Document Number and for Revision Number that are distinct revisions but not hybrid drawings, provide an index prefix with the Revision Number value in the form n::<RevisionNumber> where n starts at 1, is applied to the first duplicate revision and is incremented for successive revisions. For example: First revision=A Second revision=1::A Third revision=2::A And so on.
RevisionPurpose	Configurable	Reason for a specific revision.
Root²	Yes	Destination root folder in the Meridian Cloud repository: Objects, Masters, Documentation, Projects, or Archive.
SheetCount	No	Total number of sheets in the set.
SheetNumber	No	Up to 10 characters that represent the ordinal number of the document within the sheet set.
Source Path²	Yes	Relative path to the content file. Must be unique only if reference scanning is enabled.
Title	Yes	Short subject description.
Title2	Configurable	Short subject description.
Workflow State²	No	We recommend leaving this column empty. By default, the document will be imported as Released.

Notes:

When the provided value does not match the values in a destination lookup list (for example, Classification), the value is imported but not added to the lookup list. The respective provided value for Organization ID, DisciplineCode, or ClassificationCode will not be imported.
For import only, not stored in Meridian Cloud.
When importing archived documents only.