Do you have data or structured content living elsewhere, like in Confluence Page Properties or an Excel sheet? The Import entries feature can help get that data into Orderly. This article will show you how to import entries into an existing Orderly Database and best practices for importing from common tools like Notion, Page Properties, and Excel.
A. Upload Content Into Your Database
There are two ways to upload structured content into your database:
- Directly copy and paste the content Orderly database.
- Use the Import entries option in your database more menu to upload HTML or CSV files.
After you have successfully imported the data, the import entries dialog will open, providing you with multiple options to match the imported content with your database structure. You are able to:
- Exclude rows from the import by deselecting the checkboxes.
- Match columns to an existing database field by selecting the field in the column header. Each field can only be selected once.
- Ignore columns by selecting the ignore option in the column header.
- Create new text fields by typing a new field name into the column header.
Once all columns are either matched or ignored, click apply to upload the changes as new entries into your database.
Not all imported formats can be automatically converted into your existing field types.
Changing the field type can be a bit tricky for some field types. In order to not lose imported content, we recommend that you temporarily create a new text field and then manually transfer the information in the next step.
After applying the changes, all newly imported entries are still in their edit state, marked with an orange border. As a next step, make sure to:
- Check your newly created values.
- Remove temporary fields via the field settings.
When ready, you can complete the import by saving all changes (3). Be aware that after saving, editing and reverting changes becomes more tedious.
The result of how well data is imported and converted into your database can vary heavily based on the tool of origin and the format of the import. The table below contains some tips and tricks for the most common tools:
| Tool | Best Practice |
|---|
 Confluence Tables
| - Use the copy-paste option to insert the data into the database.
- When uploading an HTML file, fields like page links can get converted into text fields instead of page links. In this case, try copy-pasting instead.
- Orderly can only migrate Confluence statuses into select field if these have been added to the field settings as selectable items beforehand.
|
 Confluence Page Properties
| - As page properties consist of tables, the imports from Page Properties works very similar.
- Use the page properties report macro for imports as its structure is very similar to Orderly databases.
- Errors with Confluence statuses can occur.
|
 Notion Databases
| - Importing by uploading a file is less error-prone than using the copy and paste option.
- Depending on the kind of data you want to import, we recommend using:
- CSV files for better field conversions, like dates for example.
- HTML files for better text data recognition.
|
 Airtable Bases
| - Airtable only provides a CSV file download of their tables
|
