Importing idno values to existing records, matching on object_id?

becca

I am trying to create an import mapping that will let us import ca_objects.idno values into existing Object records that lack them, without changing anything else about the records. (For workflow reasons, my organization has many Object records that have no value in ca_objects.idno.)

Ideally the mapping would match records on ca_objects.object_id

Is doing this possible?

Here is a link to my most recent mapping attempt, such as it is.

I am very comfortable creating importers for new records, but haven't messed much with mappings for updating existing records, and I haven't been able to make this one work.

monica

becca are you getting an error?
Firstly, you don’t want to skip the object_id in the mapping, as you’re matching in that one, it has to be read.
Secondly, you will need a type in setting, or it gives an error (in my experience). You can set ‘ignoreTypeForExististingRecordPolicy’ to 1, so it just matches on object_id and not type too.

becca

Thanks, Monica. Even with your helpful suggestions (I updated the link to my mapping above to include them), my idno values aren't importing. There's no error message, it just doesn't add the new value to the ca_objects.idno field.

My data looks like this:

1 2 3 ca_objects.idno ca_objects.object_id ca_objects.cfaInventoryNumber Identifier CollectiveAccess ID Existing inventory number (not imported, just for reference) F.2026-09-0001 38317 Item 439 F.2026-09-0002 38318 Item 440 F.2026-09-0003 38319 Item 441

monica

becca try with ‘merge_on_id_with_replace’ for the existing record policy.
If you can have the logging set to debug, you can then look at the log in app/logs to see how its processing the data and doing matching.

becca

It's working! Thanks again for sharing your knowledge, Monica. It's much appreciated.