Need Help Migrating Data Into New Records

[neil_b]

Hi everyone!

I am trying to do some maintenance on our record producers and identified 3 record producers that share the same 4 variables, so to clean this up I created a variable set and included those 4 variables in a variable set and deactivated the 12 individual variables (4 variables * 3 record producers).

My predicament now, is that I'm not sure how I would go about migrating the data that has been entered in the question_answer table, to the new variable set, as these record producers have been in production for some time.

I have the sys_ids of the old variable and the new variable, but I don't know how to generate a new question_answer record for each request that was submitted and copy the old value from the old question_answer record to the new record. I got a script started but I got stuck.

var gr = new GlideRecord('question_answer');
gr.addEncodedQuery('table_sys_id=[enter sys_id here]');
gr.query();
while(gr.next()) {
}

This is a record of the old variable. I need to know how to copy this value, generate a new question_answer record using the new variable set, and pasting the value in the record record.

Here are the variables; the old ones were the individual variables, and the new ones are the ones that are now in a variable set.

Old Variable 1 Name & Sys_ID: "First Name" | "ABC";
New Variable 1 Name & Sys_ID: "First Name" | "123";

Old Variable 2 Name & Sys_ID: "Middle Name" | "DEF";
New Variable 2 Name & Sys_ID: "Middle Name" | "456";

Old Variable 3 Name & Sys_ID: "Last Name" | "GHI";
New Variable 3 Name & Sys_ID: "Last Name" | "789";

Old Variable 4 Name & Sys_ID: "Suffix" | "JKL";
New Variable 4 Name & Sys_ID: "Suffix" | "012";

[KKM]

Hi Neil,

You need a script that migrates question_answer records from old variables to new variables while maintaining the request association. Below is a GlideRecord script to do this efficiently.

 Migration Script

This script will:  Find all records using the old variable sys_ids.
Create new question_answer records using the new variable sys_ids.
Copy over the values from the old variables to the new ones.

var oldToNewVarMap = { "ABC": "123", // First Name "DEF": "456", // Middle Name "GHI": "789", // Last Name "JKL": "012" // Suffix }; var grOldQA = new GlideRecord('question_answer'); grOldQA.addQuery('question', 'IN', Object.keys(oldToNewVarMap)); // Fetch only old variable records grOldQA.query(); while (grOldQA.next()) { var newVarSysId = oldToNewVarMap[grOldQA.question.toString()]; if (newVarSysId) { var grNewQA = new GlideRecord('question_answer'); grNewQA.initialize(); grNewQA.request_item = grOldQA.request_item; // Associate with the same request grNewQA.question = newVarSysId; // New variable sys_id grNewQA.value = grOldQA.value; // Copy the old value grNewQA.insert(); gs.info("Migrated value for Request: " + grOldQA.request_item + " | Old Variable: " + grOldQA.question + " | New Variable: " + newVarSysId); } }

How This Works

1. Creates a mapping of old variable sys_id → new variable sys_id.
2. Fetches all old question_answer records where question is in the list of old variable sys_ids.
3. Loops through each old record and creates a new record in question_answer:
   • Assigns it to the same request_item
   • Uses the new variable's sys_id
   • Copies over the value
4. Inserts the new record into the question_answer table
5. Next Steps

• Test on a Dev instance before running in Production.

• Disable Business Rules on question_answer if they interfere.

• Verify migrated data using a query like:

  var grCheck = new GlideRecord('question_answer'); grCheck.addQuery('question', 'IN', ["123", "456", "789", "012"]); // New Variables grCheck.query(); while (grCheck.next()) { gs.info("Request: " + grCheck.request_item + " | Variable: " + grCheck.question + " | Value: " + grCheck.value); }

This should successfully migrate the variable data to your new Variable Set.

This should solve your issue!

Kindly mark it as "Accepted Solution"/"helpful", as it resolves your query. Please press like button for the resolution provided.

With Regards,
Krishna Kumar M - Talk with AIT3ch
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mkrishnak4/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@KrishAIT3CH
Topmate: https://topmate.io/mkrishnak4 [ Connect for 1-1 Session]

[neil_b]

Thank you @KKM for the elaborate script! I will test this out in DEV momentarily! Could I just run this as a background script or do I have to implement it using a different method?