This requires Admin privileges.
Question:
What are the differences between Internal IDs and Global IDs? How does this effect exporting and importing of iDashboards entities?
Answer:
There are two IDs that are used within iDashboards, Internal IDs and Global IDs. There is a need to understand how they each effect the import and export process.
Explanation:
This describes the Global IDs and Internal IDs, and their role in the import /export process.
The first ID is the Internal ID of the entity (category ID, chart ID, dashboard ID, picklist ID, forms ID, data source ID, ETL ID, data set ID, and stored procedure metadata). The Internal ID is specific to the installation and is assigned automatically every time a new entity gets saved. For example, if the last chart in an installation is saved as Internal ID 5, the next chart will be saved as Internal ID 6.
The Global ID is used exclusively in the Import/Export process. To import/export an entity you need to supply and save a 'source' Global ID. This Global ID is how it connects to the correct data source(s) upon import/export. To do this, select Import/Export from the System dropdown box. Then in Operation: drop down menu select Manage Global IDs. Only when you supply a Global ID to an entity will it be able to be imported/exported.
The internal ID of the source installation is ignored in the idbarchive.zip (Admin Console) or etlarchive.zip (Data Hub) id. When an idbarchive.zip (Admin Console) or etlarchive.zip (Data Hub) file gets imported, the 'target' iDashboards server looks at the Global IDs on both the idbarchive.zip (Admin Console) or etlarchive.zip (Data Hub) entities and the existing entities on the 'target' server. If any Global IDs match, the target server overwrites any existing target entity’s properties with the ones from the idbarchive.zip (Admin Console) or etlarchive.zip (Data Hub). This replaces the original target entity with the newly imported source entity. So, you can see how important it is to check and compare the Global IDs before completing any import if you do not wish to overwrite any existing target entities. The target Internal ID will remain unchanged if this replacement occurs. If the Global ID does not match, the entity will get created and a new Internal ID will be applied at the target installation. The number is based on the last ID number already used. If a chart gets created and the last internal chart ID was 8, the new chart ID will be 9, the next 10 and so on.
A dashboard ID (Internal ID) of 14 that is used at the source installation does not need to, or have to be the same on the target installation. It could be 14 at the source installation and be 248 when imported into the target installation. It would be coincidental that the source and target installations share the same internal ID.
Global IDs are assumed to be unique within an entity type; in effect, the same Global ID cannot be assigned to two charts but a chart and a dashboard can have the same Global ID. This means that if a chart on the target server has the same Global ID as a dashboard on the source server, the target chart will not overwrite the source dashboard at import time.
If the name of an entity already exists on the target server, the imported entity will have its name appended with’[x]’ where x is the next sequential number. For example, if a chart named MyChart is imported and that name already exists on the target server, it will still be imported and it will not overwrite the existing chart with the same title. It will instead be saved with a new chart name of MyChart[1].
Summary
- ALL: Categories, Charts, Dashboards, Picklists, Forms, Data Sources, ETL Jobs, Data Sets, and Stored Procedures REQUIRE Global IDs before importing/exporting. Global IDs must match from one environment to another.
- Importing Charts/Dashboards/Picklists/Forms/Articles utilizes idb_archive.zip files which are uploaded through iDashboards Data Admin.
- Importing Data Sets/ETL Jobs utilizes etl_archive.zip files which are uploaded through Data Hub Data Admin.
For More Information:
- iDashboards Admin Manual 4. Starting the iDashboards Administrator Application
- iDashboards Admin Manual 13.8 Importing and Exporting
- Read Next: Import/Export: Charts, Dashboards, Picklists, Forms
If the above is unable to resolve the issue, then please contact iDashboards Support for further assistance.
Comments
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How do I find my id
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