Prepare your data for importing into Assets

To ensure that Assets can understand your data it should follow some basic specifications. These specifications are different for each data type. Some attribute types may also require specific formatting to be properly imported.

Importing CSV files

• You can use any of the following formats: UTF-8 (default), UTF-16, ISO-8859-1, ISO-8859-15, Windows-1250, Windows 1252.

• The CSV file must have a header as it is used to create the data locators for the imports.

• The CSV file must include a single-character delimiter. The default delimiter is, naturally, the comma. You can select a custom delimiter in the Delimiter field when you create an import configuration. To include a delimiter character, place the value between double quotes. To include a delimiter or a double quote character, place each value between double quotes. You can also enter “\t” to use a tab-delimiter.

• To divide multiple values (for the Assets attributes with multiple cardinalities), you can use “||” (2 pipe characters) within the CSV file.

• If you wish to join multiple values into one Assets attribute, you can use a concatenator in the CSV file. The default is a dash symbol “-”. If the data is concatenated with a space, you can enter “\s” in the Concatenation field when creating an import configuration.

• The expected Date Format for a Date Attribute is MM/dd/yyyy, where MMindicates the month of the year, dd indicates the day of the month, and yyyy indicates the year. If the source file uses a different format than MM/dd/yyyy, you must explicitly set the date format to dd/MM/yyyy in the import structure to correctly convert the date format so that the date information can be correctly read by Assets.

• If you are importing objects from a CSV file into Assets, you must identify the objects by the attribute that is assigned as a Label, not their Name or Key.

• If you are importing Jira users or groups into Assets, you must identify the users or groups by their IDs, not their Name(s).

• If you are importing URLs into Assets they must begin with with http:// or https:// to be converted into the URL attribute type. If the http:// or https:// prefix is not included, they will be imported as the String attribute type. Learn more about attribute types.

• If you are importing CSV data from a Google Sheets link, the URL you use must be edited before it will work properly. Remove /edit#gid=0 from the ending of the URL and replace it with /export?format=csv.

Here’s some sample CSV data that contains information about three business services. Note that multiple values for a single attribute are included by separating them with the double-pipe “||” characters:

Importing JSON files

• JSON files that are imported into Assets must have properly formed headers and follow JSON standards.

• The selector for the JSON import must be in the format [Attribute.*[Attribute]. Only JSON arrays are valid as a selector.

• When importing objects from a JSON file into Assets, the objects must be identified by the attribute assigned as a Label.

• If you are importing Jira users or groups into Assets, you must identify the users or groups by their IDs, not their Name(s).

Here’s some sample JSON information that contains three hosts. If the attribute “Name” is selected as the Label, 3 objects will be created: “exchange.prod.app7”, “exchange.prod.main”, and “mail server”.

Importing Assets Discovery files

Assets Discovery is a network scanning tool that can be used with or without an agent. It detects hardware and software that is connected to your local network, and extracts detailed information about each asset. This data can then be imported into Assets in Jira Service Management to help you manage all of the devices and configuration items within your local network.

• If you are importing data from Assets Discovery, it must be in the correct ZIP file format.

• You are not required to specify a date pattern in the Create Import configuration - General fields screen, but specifying a date pattern may result in improved performance:

  • Example date pattern: dd/MM/yyyy

  • Example date/time pattern: dd/MM/yyyy hh:mm