Enter, or click to select, a parameter ID of up to 15 alphanumeric characters. Choose characters for your parameter ID that help identify the type of selections you made on the screen, such as PERIOD or QUARTERLY.

When you save your record, all the selections made on the screen are stored with the parameter ID. Later, you can retrieve the parameter using Query.

You can use the parameter to run the process more efficiently because you can select the parameter ID with its previously defined screen selections. After the default selections display on the screen, you can override the defaults.

Enter, or click to select, a parameter description of up to 30 alphanumeric characters.

Enter the location of the input file you are importing. There are two ways to do this:

• In the File Location field, enter, or click to select, the alternate file location where the input file is located. Alternate file locations are set up in the Manage Alternate File Locations screen.
• From the Global Menu, click Process > File Upload. On the File Upload Manager dialog box, click Browse and use the dialog box to select the file you want to import. If you select the Overwrite? check box, Costpoint will overwrite any file of the same name that already exists in the Costpoint database. Click Upload when you are finished. If you use this method, leave the File Location field blank. For more information about the File Upload Manager, see the File Upload Manager topic in the Getting Started Guide.

Enter, or click to select, the name of the ASCII text file to be uploaded. The file cannot have an extension of .ERR. The .ERR extension is reserved for the error file.

You can process only one input file at a time. The file being processed can contain different line types. Only the Item Line is required for inserting new items. All other lines are optional. The order of the lines is inconsequential.

Use the drop-down list to select the file format. Valid options are:

• Delimited: Select this option to indicate that the input file has delimiters as field separators. This is the default.
• Fixed Length: Select this option to indicate the input file contains fields that start and end in a specified column. If the Input File is a fixed-length format file, you must fill every position with the appropriate number of either characters or spaces for a given column before entering data for the next column. It is not necessary to zero fill numbers; you can use spaces to maintain the proper format. Numeric fields must be right justified; character fields must be left justified. After you have entered the last character of meaningful data for the input file, you need not fill the remaining column lines with spaces. 

  For example, if the Item (ITM) record format's maximum line length (that is, the entire input file) is a total of 451 characters and the last character of meaningful data is in position 113, you do not need to add the remaining 338 spaces. However, let's say that the Commodity Code (beginning at position 114 on the input file) is only five characters long. You must include the Commodity Code plus three additional spaces before entering the Hazardous Material Flag in position number 122. Refer to the Processing Details section for additional information.

If you selected Delimited in the File Format field, use the drop-down list to select a file delimiter. Valid options are:

• Comma
• Other

The default is Comma. To use another delimiter, select the Other option and enter a single character in the Other Delimiter field.

If you selected Other in the File Delimiter field, enter the delimiter here.

Use this drop-down list to determine how validation errors are handled. Errors occur if the input file record is not valid or a condition is not met for a field that is being processed in an input file record. Valid options are:

• Process Valid Records: If you select this option, all valid rows on the input file are processed. This option is the default.
• Process No Records: If you select this option, no input rows are processed when errors are encountered.

In either case, an error report listing all validation errors is produced along with an ASCII error file (if the GenerateError File check box is selected). The error file has the same filename as the original input file but for the suffix, which is .ERR, and the file contains all input rows that are in error. You can then correct this error file, rename it, and reprocess it until all rows are processed. TheTIMESTAMP field at the end of each record indicates the date on which the file was created.

Select this check box to produce an ASCII error file listing the input file records not processed.

To execute the application and import the items, click the arrow to the right and select one of the following options:

• Import Items: Select this option to import the items.
• Print/Import Items: Select this option to import the items and print the error report.