Copying Maps and Defining Local Constants
Aaron asked 8 years ago
Two Newbie questions:
- What’s the best way to copy a Map? (e.g. this map is working well, I want to save it as a backup before continuing with functionality add-ons)
- Can I save a Constant within the scope of a Map? (not a Global Constant). The use case is that I need to do a Multi-entity lookup for a CRM Picklist value. I need to pass an Object Type and a a Field Name. The eOne example shows passing these values from the “source” SQL, however my source is an Excel spreadsheet and I don’t want to introduce a vulnerability by allowing the user to specify the object and field to update!
Answers
Patrick Roth Staff answered 8 years ago
1. Yeah I always look there too …
You could also make a SQL backup of the smartconnect database.
And you can always export the map and save it as a file then import over the existing one if you need to. but I like the duplicate method the best.
2. Well, you can create local constants on the UI but you have to map them. you’d have to use a calculated field (which returned just the value) or use a global constant. But – it won’t work for the multi-entity lookup you are trying to do.
That is what we wanted to do when working the issue when we ran across this – only source data worked. Everything else failed. So In the case of the guy we were working with, it was a SQL table so not a big deal to just add the query as a constant. But any other type of data you’d have to modify the file, spreadsheet, etc.
So that is a current bug and why the blog article does it that way (but doesn’t mention the why…).
patrick
You could also make a SQL backup of the smartconnect database.
And you can always export the map and save it as a file then import over the existing one if you need to. but I like the duplicate method the best.
2. Well, you can create local constants on the UI but you have to map them. you’d have to use a calculated field (which returned just the value) or use a global constant. But – it won’t work for the multi-entity lookup you are trying to do.
That is what we wanted to do when working the issue when we ran across this – only source data worked. Everything else failed. So In the case of the guy we were working with, it was a SQL table so not a big deal to just add the query as a constant. But any other type of data you’d have to modify the file, spreadsheet, etc.
So that is a current bug and why the blog article does it that way (but doesn’t mention the why…).
patrick
Aaron replied 8 years ago Patrick – I appreciate the definitive “no you can’t” so that I don’t continue to chase my tail looking for a better way. Is that a feature that is coming? As I said, it makes a difference for Excel-to-CRM import where you don’t want to expose a big backdoor for bulk loading what amounts to any data into any entity for any attribute.
Issue #2 is still outstanding, but I located the “Duplicate” icon. Foolishly, I was looking at the menu beneath the Ribbon with “Add/Edit/Delete/Run” but not the Ribbon “Map” section with “Create/Duplicate/Run/Activity/Map Logs”.