Have you ever tried to import different columns of an Excel sheet into 1 attribute?
Usecase:
your boss wants you not to loose any information imported from the BA-Excelsheet, but not all columns fit to an attribute, what now? Hmm..ok, lets put everything what doesnt fit an attribute to comment or description, but uhhh:
The standard behaivor of Excel_Import is to overwrite the attribute with the most right column assigned to this attribute...
(As we learned from the comments at my Blog Using the Excel_Import.xem there is also the way to create an extended Attribute for every column but this article was already written at this time , and sometimes it´s really the case that you want to combine 2 or more columns into 1 attribute)
After diggin deep in the code of the xem, here is a 5 step solution with approx. 10 lines of vbs code and an additional extended attribute:
Step 1
locate the Excel_Import.xem (defaultpath is C:\winapps\Sybase\PowerDesigner 16\Resource Files\Extended Model Definitions) and copy it into MyExcel_Import.xem
Step 2
Include the MyExcel_Import.xem into your model (See my blog Using the Excel_Import.xem if you don´t know how) and open it, then rename the name and code to MyExcelImport so you see the difference to the original one
Step3
add the extended attribute Append2Attribute at location: MYExcelImport::Profile\ExtendedSubObject\Stereotypes\ColumnMapping\Extended Attributes\
(HINT:copy the line above and paste it into the highlighted adressbar!)
![addxa.PNG]()
insert the values:
![addxa2.PNG]()
Step4
make this attribute selectable in the Importform :
MYExcelImport::Profile\ExtendedSubObject\Stereotypes\ColumnMapping\Forms\ImportColumn
![addxa3.PNG]()
by adding the extended attribute Append2Attribute:
![addxa4.PNG]()
give some more information:
![addxa5.PNG]()
Step5
locate on the global macro:
![myexcelimport_xem.PNG]()
In function CommitRowData, locate the codelines:
For each colnMap in colnCol key = colnMap.Name if dictValues.Exists(key) and not colnMap.GetExtendedAttribute("%CurrentTargetCode%.Skip") then
replace the (2) lines
oldVale = dictValues.Item(key) vale = oldVale
with this code:
Dim Append2Attribute Append2Attribute = colnMap.GetExtendedAttribute("%CurrentTargetCode%.Append2Attribute") if Append2Attribute then attrName = colnMap.GetExtendedAttribute("%CurrentTargetCode%.Attribute") if not isnull(newObj.GetAttribute (attrName) ) then ' when the object exists then here we find the older values ! oldvale = newObj.GetAttribute (attrName) & vbCrLf end if vale = oldVale & dictValues.Item(key) else oldVale = dictValues.Item(key) vale = oldVale end if
and save your work.
Enjoy!
DJ
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PS: please rate this, cos i wanna know if its worth to continue
Hi, I mapped the entities of a Logical Data Model as the source to entities of a target Cconceptual Data Model using the Mapping Editor. I wanted to create a Dependency Matrix with Conceptual Entities as row headers and Logical Data Model Entities in the Column Heading. I tried all the tricks in the PowerDesigner Help file with a spectacular failure. I attempted to define the Dependency Matrix in the Conceptual Data Model. The entities of the CDM showed up in the row heading all right but nothing in the column heading.