[Music] welcome to easy import a fair majority of this series deals with importing data so let's start with something easy first we're going to import a spreadsheet into an existing table we'll do a couple of versions of this first an example where the data in the spreadsheet already matches the data in our servicenow table and then another where we need to update records but our spreadsheet doesn't match this will show us many of the major features of easy import in common use cases you might encounter ok let's get started our goal is to import a spreadsheet with some scanner information into the scanner table we've got our sample spreadsheet right here on our instance we're going to go to the scanners table by typing scanners in the navigation filter and clicking the scanners module at the moment we don't have any records so this makes it pretty easy to import them from excel to do that we'll click any column header menu and choose import we're presented with a page with some options first we'll leave the insert option checked since we're creating new records next we'll uncheck this box we already have a nicely formatted spreadsheet with the right column headings so we won't need this this time but i'll show you in the next example what we'll do with it the only thing left is for us to choose the file by navigating to it on our local hard drive and click upload the system imports the data to a temporary table so we can inspect it before we commit it to the final destination our scanners table we'll click preview imported data when this window appears we can inspect the imported rows if needed but since we have confidence in our demo data we'll just click complete import at the bottom and as easy as that we have new records imported in servicenow congratulations you've just done your first integration that was easy the main reason is because the labels in the spreadsheet match the servicenow field names as did the other values like manufacturer and location but what if our spreadsheet format doesn't match the information in our servicenow instance and we want to update some of the data that's already there well that's where the template file comes in handy let's open the second demo spreadsheet i've got scanners update it looks like a couple of the old scanners were being repaired and are back in service and a couple have moved we can also see that the headings don't match the servicenow field labels either so we'll have to deal with that finally some of the dates are inconsistent but fortunately the system is smart enough to take care of most of the date formats for us on import let's walk through the import process for this scenario we'll start the same way by going to the scanners list and using the column header menu to import this time instead of insert we'll choose update and leave that question about the template checked and include all fields when we click create excel template the system generates a file for us and we'll click download to save it to our local hard drive once downloaded we open the file and see a quick start guide providing useful information about the format and layout of this spreadsheet don't forget to take a look at the instructions below the image too particularly the part about the sis id this is a unique identifier to help the system know which record to update on the spreadsheet page labeled page 1 are the records from our scanner table at this point we need to do a little manual work to combine the data from our sample spreadsheet to the template spreadsheet pay special attention not to modify the column names in row 1 or the sys id values on existing records scanners 15 and 18 are no longer being repaired so we'll change the status field on the template using the drop-down list also scanners 2 and 43 have been moved from chicago to san francisco we'll update the corresponding description and installation date field values when we're done updating the spreadsheet we save it and go back to the servicenow import choose the file we just downloaded and update it and click upload once again the system imports the record to a temporary table here are the four records we updated and opening any of them shows the new values and the entire scanners list looks great that's easy import use it to create records and update existing ones