Ardoq uses a single interface called the tabular importer for bringing in data from third-party systems — whether from an Excel file or an out-of-the-box integration.

The tabular importer is analogous to Microsoft Excel in that it operates on a row-column basis. In Ardoq, you can choose to import each row in a table as either a component or a reference. The columns for each table represent the type of data stored in that cell for each row. Every table in Ardoq is imported in a workspace — a container for storing components and references.

In the next sections, we'll go into each part of the import flow in detail.

[An import can be used to create component types and relationships between components — that is, the metamodel — during the import. Imports can also be used to add data to existing metamodels.]

When importing a table into Ardoq as components, each row will be treated as a distinct component.

The columns in the table represent the unique identifier of the component, the component type, as well as additional details related to the component. Ardoq makes no assumptions about what information from the table is relevant to creating your components and provides full flexibility for you to select the relevant data to bring into Ardoq.

If we import the above table as components, Ardoq will create the following components inside a workspace.

Let's say we add another table to our import, this time focused on defining the relationships between components. We can configure this table to be a table of references.

At a minimum, references require a target component, a destination component, and the type of reference between them.

Applying the reference table above to our existing components will create the following relationship in Ardoq:

Workspaces are used to logically organize components and references in Ardoq.

While you have the freedom to organize your components and references as you wish, we recommend that you maintain a set of workspaces related to the component types you are importing. For instance, a People workspace should only store components related to people.

In the importer, each worksheet can be imported into a different workspace or the very same one. Use the component type and reference type preview to help you verify that your imports are going into the right workspace.

We recommend taking a look at our Excel integration for a deeper walkthrough of importing a sample file into Ardoq.