Importing Articles

Administrators can import articles from a spreadsheet using the Import Data feature in SBM Application Administrator. This enables you to quickly populate the Knowledge Center with articles from another system.

Spreadsheet Preparation

The SBM Application Administrator Guide contains detailed information about spreadsheet preparation for data imports. The guide is available on the Documentation Center; search for the "About Data Import" section.

General guidelines include:

Spreadsheets must be .xls file types. If you have an .xlsx file or any other type of spreadsheet, you must convert it to .xls.
Spreadsheet columns represent SBM fields and all spreadsheet data is treated as text. Spreadsheet columns must be formatted as Text types.
Each row represents an item that will be imported, except for the first row, which is used to define columns available for mapping. Data from this row is never imported.
To preserve formatting, HTML tags must be added to applicable rows in your spreadsheet.
Attachments are not imported.

Recommended Field Mapping and Values

Use the guidelines below to populate your spreadsheet before you import articles.

Field Name	Data Values
State	Import to "Pending Review" state.
Article Type	Imported data must match valid selections in Article Type field.
Article Category	Imported data must match valid selections in Article Category field.
Article Visibility	Must be Private or Public.
Visibility Group	Required for items with Private visibility. You can leave rows empty for Public articles.
Contributor	For auditing purposes, add the user name of the person who imports the articles to this field.
Publisher	For auditing purposes, add the user name of the person who imports the articles to this field.
Section 1 Label	Optional, but you can map to this field to overwrite the default label for templates. When you map to this field, you must provide data in each row.
Section 1 Content	Should include the article content you want users to see. Any formatting must be included as HTML tags in the spreadsheet. When you map to this field, you must provide data in each row.

Import Process

To import articles into Knowledge Center:

Prepare your spreadsheet as explained in Import Process.
Use the Import Data feature in SBM Application Administrator to import data in your spreadsheet. Be sure to import items to the Pending Review state.
In Work Center, run the "Imported Articles in Pending Review" report to Verify that articles were successfully imported.
From the report, select the items you want to publish, then click the Update All Checked button at the bottom of the page.
From the Actions list, select Mass Publish from Pending Review.
Run the Published Articles report to verify that your articles were successfully published.

Using Import to Update Articles

You can use the process described in Using Import to Update Articles to update existing articles. Updated articles need to be republished after the import, however.

To update articles, be sure to select these options in SBM Application Administrator when you import your spreadsheet:

Spreadsheet column for duplicate detection
Select a field that you are sure contains unique data in your articles, such as Article Title or the KM Request ID fields. These fields must be included in your spreadsheet and must contain values that correspond to the articles you want to update.
If matching record exists in the SBM database
Select the Replace mapped attributes option. This will update the article with data in mapped fields in your spreadsheet.