Having accurate and maintained data in Ardoq is key to making the right decisions. Ensuring that your imported source data is reflected accurately in Ardoq is possible by selecting to remove redundant data. When importing data into existing workspaces you can choose to delete or update existing data in the workspace that doesn’t correspond to the new data you’re importing.
This article will address an advanced settings feature that will allow you to delete, create or update workspace assets. There are two key features with some sub-features connected to them.
1. Update Existing and Create New Assets
This is the first of two main advanced settings you can apply upon importing or updating an existing import into a new or existing workspace.
1a. Create New and Update Existing Components
This option is always set as default unless you change it. With this option you will both create new components, as well as updating existing ones. Let's look at an example:
You have an existing workspace populated with data imported from e.g., the Excel Importer. You want to add a new application to an existing workspace without having to run the full import again, and create a reference from a person to the new application.
You have to upload the source document and select the correct workspace. Then configure the data as usual. In the above image, since we are either creating a new asset and/or updating an existing asset, if there is an application with custom ID ‘App 11’, it will be updated. If there is no application with custom ID ‘App 11’, it will be created.
1b. Update only existing assets when using custom ID or Ardoq OID
When applying this option within Data Sync Strategy, you can update existing assets using custom ID or Ardoq OID. Here’s an example:
You have an existing workspace populated with people and want to add their email addresses.
In the payload (e.g. Excel) you have 4 people for which three custom id exist in the workspace. You’d like to update existing users only with their respective email.
Existing users get updated, “Paul” is ignored.
In the original import, the row with Paul was not included. By selecting the option ‘update only existing assets when using custom ID or Ardoq OID’ the system registers that the 3 first people already exist in the workspace, and should be updated.
1c. Create only existing assets when using Custom ID or Ardoq OID
When applying this option within Data Sync Strategy, you can create existing assets using custom ID or Ardoq OID. Here’s an example:
You have an existing workspace populated with people and their email addresses. In the payload (e.g. Excel) you have 4 people for which three custom id exist in the workspace. You’d like to add a new person without updating the existing ones.
In the original import, only the row with Paul was included. By selecting the option ‘create only existing assets when using custom ID or Ardoq OID’ the system registers that the 3 first people already exist in the workspace, and that only Paul needs to be added.
Delete Missing Assets
When you activate this feature for your imports, it will automatically remove any data that doesn't match the source data. During manual import processes, you have the opportunity to examine and approve which data and components are deleted before finalizing the import. It's advisable to manually review your imports initially to prevent accidental loss of essential data from your workspace. For those using automatic imports or synchronizations with particular workspaces, you can opt to consistently eliminate data in Ardoq that is not present in the source data.
Please note: Only component types configured in the import will be affected. More specifically, only component types defined in the Component Name column mappings in the component tables, and in the Source column mappings in the reference tables.
Let’s look at an example to see how ‘Delete Missing Assets’ works in practice using Ardoq:
Let’s say you have an existing workspace populated with Applications from your CMDB and relationship to Application Owners. Once a month you run an update to make sure that the data is correct for both the number of applications still in Ardoq and also the relationships to Application owners which can change.
You have an Application workspace with relationships to owners. Before the update you have 7 applications with relationships to people.
In your CMDB:
App 0 has been deleted
App 1 application owner is now Bill (people 1) instead of Emma (people 2)
App 7, 8, 9 and 10 have been created
You want to update it and make sure to not only add but also remove applications and replace relationships. The “Delete Missing Assets” option is applied to all components of type “Application” in the workspace and all references of type “Owns” between the two selected workspaces defined in the reference column mapping.
Result after import: