Hi,
I wanted to share an some UI Actions and a UI Page—in the attached Update Set—that I created to make it easier for me to work with Import Sets. The primary value of the items in the Update Set is that it gives you the ability to debug the scripts in an Import Set transform using the Script Debugger, which I’ve found very helpful, and I hope you will find helpful too.
What’s in the Update Set?
- UI Page: run_import_no_back_ground. This UI Page is a copy of the OOTB run_import UI page with a change that makes the transform run in the foreground instead of the background. This is what enables you to run the transform in the foreground.
- UI Action: Transform run with debugger. This UI action calls the UI page so the transform runs in the foreground. It contains a check so that if the number of Import Set Rows to transform is greater than 10, an info message is displayed so that you can decide if you really want to run the transform in the foreground. (There is a reason why transforms run int the background: They can take a loooong time to complete, and you don’t want to sit around and wait.)
- UI Action: Mark all import set rows as skipped. As the name says, this UI Action marks all the Import Set Rows in the update set as skipped. This is so that if you have an import set with say 50,000 rows and you want to debug it’s transform map, you can set the State of all the records to Skipped, and then set the State of only one or two records to Pending. Then you can step through the transform map for only those few records in the Script Debugger.
- UI Action: Reprocess no import rows reset. This UI action changes the State of the Import Set from processed to loaded without changing the State of all the Import Set Rows back to Pending. This helpful when you are debugging your transform. For example, if you have 50,000 rows in your import set and all the rows except for one behave as you expect, you can just re-run the transform on that one pesky row.
- UI Action: Show import records in table: This UI Action lets you jump from the Import Set record to the table that contains the set's Import Set Rows. This might not sound like a big deal, but it is amazing to me how often I am looking at an Import Set—gazing into it’s eyes—and I want to see the rows that contain the data. It’s great to be able to be able to jump to that data with one click. I know that the rows are right there in the Import Set Rows related list, but that uses the sys_import_set_row table, and so the fields containing the data you are importing aren’t available. If you work with import sets, I think you’ll find you use this link a lot.
- UI Action: Complete Synchronous Set: This UI action changes the mode of an Import Set from synchronous to asynchronous and changes the state from loading to loaded. With a synchronous Import Set, the Import Set Rows are transformed as soon as they are created. If you want to debug the transform of one of the Import Set Rows, you need to change the mode of the Import Set to asynchronous, which you can do with this UI action. Note that the next record that is added to the Import Set Row table that doesn’t have an Import Set specified, will cause a new synchronous Import Set to be created, and all new Import Set Rows will be added to that synchronous Import Set until midnight, which is when the synchronous sets become asynchronous and haunt the night.
After committing the update set you'll see new Related Links when you are looking at an Import Set
| With a Loaded Import Set you'll see | With a Processed Import Set you'll see | With a Synchronous Import Set you'll see |
 |  |  |
Running an Import Set transform in the Script Debugger
- Load the data you want to transform.
- If there are a lot of rows in the data, click the Mark all import set rows as skipped link, and then change the State of one of more of the rows to Pending.
The rows with a State of Pending are the ones that will be transformed. - In the Transform Map for the Import Set, set one or more breakpoints in the scripts that you want to step through in the debugger.
- Launch the Script Debugger.
- In the Import Set, click the Transform run with debugger link.
If there are more than 10 records in the data, an Info Message will appear at the top of page telling you the number of rows in the Import Set and containing a link that will let you run the transform anyway. - Click the Run transform in the foreground anyway link.
As soon as one of your breakpoints is hit, the Script Debugger will become active.
Hope this makes things easier for you
As I said at the top, the items in the attached Update Set have made working with Import Sets easier for me. I hope that you find they make working with imports sets easier for you, and if you find that it makes working with Import Sets easier, click on that Helpful icon thing at the bottom of the page.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Thanks,
Cody
