Introduction

When you use the importer to import structural metadata in a custom excel spreadsheet format, you will need to provide an XML mapping file alongside your excel file. This XML file tells the importer how to map the data in each column to the various catalogue elements that are being created from your excel file.

The importer can handle the following catalogue elements:

• Data Classes

• Data Elements (*Mandatory)

• Data Types

• Measurement Units

• Business Rules

As well as the following properties:

• Metadata (key value pairs)

• Multiplicity (mandatory or optional)

Each row in your Excel spreadsheet defines a single Data Element which may be part of a group of data element, called a Data Class. As well as the id, name and description, a Data Element may have metadata (also known as extensions or key-value pairs) and Business Rules. It may also have its multiplicity (whether mandatory or not) specified.

Mapping Catalogue Elements to XML Elements

The following table explains each of the XML elements and how they map to the catalogue elements:

Advanced: Specifying Multiple Metadata and Enumeration Definitions in a Single Cell

It is possible to specify multiple key-value pairs for metadata and enumerations in a single spreadsheet cell by using the separator and keyValueSeparatorattributes. For example, this entry in the XML mapping:

<enumerations separator="\n" keyValueSeparator="|">Enumerations</enumerations>

would allow a definition like this:

Similarly for metadata. It also allows arbitrary metadata keys whereas normally each key must be specified in the XML mapping file. Enumerations can just have keys in which case there is no keyValueSeparator:

<enumerations separator="\n">Enumerations</enumerations>

would allow this sort of definition:

Metadata must always have both a key and value so must have both separators (or neither).

If a metadata entry has no separators, it (the column name) is used as the metadata key and the value is the value in the cell.

Steps

1. Firstly, prepare your excel file for import. Ensure the Excel file you wish to import has a header row at the top with each column with a unique header name that is used to identify that column. It’s also important to check that any elements which are reused throughout the spreadsheet i.e. data type names are spelled the same to avoid creating duplicate catalogue elements.

2. Next, open up your XML mapping file. A blank template XML file has been created here:
   Alternatively it can be generated from the Metadata XML Schema found on the importer pages:

3. It is now time to map the header row to each of the catalogue elements/properties. Simply enter the column header names into the correct sections. In this example file they have been labelled as EnterColumnHeaderHere. Simply replace this text with the name of your column. For example : <dataClassID>EnterColumnHeaderHere</dataClassID> → <dataClassID>Data_Class</dataClassID>

4. Remove any sections that are not present in your spreadsheet. For example, if you have no additional metadata associated with each data element, you can delete the following line.

     <metadata>EnterColumnHeaderHere</metadata>

5. Ensure your spreadsheet columns follow the order of the XML file e.g. Data Class, Data Class Description Data Element, Data Element Description etc.

6. On the “Import a new data model with Structural Metadata (Excel)” page , upload your Excel and XML files and then click Submit.

Worked Examples

Example 1 (Simple)

This simplest possible spreadsheet to import is a single column of data elements:

The corresponding XML mapping file is as follows:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<headersMap xmlns="https://schemas.metadata.works/headersMap"
        xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
        xsi:schemaLocation="https://schemas.metadata.works/headersMap https://schemas.metadata.works/headersMap.xsd">
    <dataElementName>Data Element</dataElementName>
</headersMap>

This would create a data model with 3 data elements and nothing else.

Files:

Example 2 (Complex)

Most models are more complex - for example the default structure used for most structural metadata uploads in the onboarding wizard is this:

The corresponding XML mapping file is as follows:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<headersMap xmlns="https://schemas.metadata.works/headersMap"
        xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
        xsi:schemaLocation="https://schemas.metadata.works/headersMap https://schemas.metadata.works/headersMap.xsd">
    <dataClassName>Table Name</dataClassName>
    <dataClassDescription>Table Description</dataClassDescription>
    <dataElementName>Column Name</dataElementName>
    <dataElementDescription>Column Description</dataElementDescription>
    <dataTypeName>Data Type</dataTypeName>
    <metadata>Sensitive</metadata>
</headersMap>

This would create a data model with two classes (Summary and Required) with three and four data elements respectively. It would also create three data types (Integer, String and Date) and each data element would have a single metadata item with key Sensitive and a value of TRUE or FALSE.

Files:

Example 3 (Advanced)

Here is an example of a more advanced set of structural metadata with nested classes, rules and enumerations:

This XML mapping file was generated to import the following spreadsheet:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<headersMap xmlns="https://schemas.metadata.works/headersMap"
        xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
        xsi:schemaLocation="https://schemas.metadata.works/headersMap https://schemas.metadata.works/headersMap.xsd">
    <dataClassName separator="/">Class</dataClassName>
    <dataElementName>Element</dataElementName>
    <dataTypeName>Type</dataTypeName>
    <dataTypeRule>Rule</dataTypeRule>
    <enumerations separator="\n" keyValueSeparator="|">Enums</enumerations>
</headersMap>

Files: