Property types and actions for them

Once you choose the destination object, you need to determine what properties to populate and what actions to perform on them. Will the property be copied directly from the source? Will the property be ignored (not updated or left empty)? Will the property be replaced with a value that is different from the source? Each property, because of its nature, will permit different kinds of actions on it. All property types are listed in the following table, along with the actions that are available to them when mapping source data.

The property types and actions described here are also applicable when creating relationships between objects.

Property Type	Action	Description
Boolean	None	Do not import a value for the property. Leave a property as-is if you are updating an existing object, or if you have no content for the property
	Value	The property requires a Boolean value, which must be entered as true/false.
Date	None	See Boolean property for description.
	Copy	Select the column from the source that contains the date and choose the format used in the source. The formats supported for the custom date are described by Microsoft as .NET Framework 1.1 Custom DateTime format strings. In general the format specifiers are: d for day, M for month, y for year, and m for minute. For example, enter dd/MM/yy for dates formatted in your source as 06/03/11. Please visit http://msdn.microsoft.com for more information on this format.
	Value	Choose a new date with the date selection tool. This action ignores your source data.
Decimal	None	See Boolean property for description.
	Copy	Use the contents of the source file or database for the property. Select the column from your source which corresponds to the property being imported. A decimal value can only have three decimal places. If it has more than two places, it is rounded up to two places. Only use your source content if it is valid for the property. If your content is not valid, then choose Value to manually input a correct value for the property.
	Value	Enter a new value for the property. This action ignores the source data. A decimal value normally has only two decimal places. If it has more than two places, it is rounded up to two places. Each object created or updated will contain the same value for the property. Use Value when your source has no value for the property, or when you do not wish to use its value.
Integer	None	See Boolean property for description.
	Copy	See Decimal property for description, but consider that an integer can not have any decimal places.
	Value	See Decimal property for description.
List	None	See Boolean property for description.
	List Copy	Copies the value from your source content as-is. Ensure that the values in the source are valid for the list. If they are not, use List Lookup to map your source list values to their correct predefined list values.
	List Lookup	Choose List Lookup in either of these situations: when the source content has values that are different from the predefined ones for a given property; or when you have multiple values to map against a property. In the first situation, if your source contains 1 and you map 1 to the predefined value retired, then all the destination objects will have a property of retired whenever the source contains 1. In the second situation, your source may contain the values 1, 2, 3, and 4, which need to be equated to a specific life cycle status. Use the List Lookup option to equate 1 to installed, 2 to retired, 3 to disposed, and 4 to shipped. The objects created will contain life cycle statuses according to the mapping you defined.
	List Value	Ignore the contents of the source file or database. Instead, select a predefined value for the property. Each object created or updated will contain the same value for the property. Choose List Value when the source has no value for the property, or when you do not wish to use its value.
String	None	See Boolean property for description.
	Concatenate	String multiple values together to form a single value for the property. Select one or more columns from your source to use in the string and combine them with your own text values. For example, the Asset Name property could be formed by concatenating two columns and a text string: Asset Tag + “ - " + Model. The Asset Name would then look something like: 10074589 - Lenovo ThinkPad 520.
	Copy	See Decimal property for description.
	Split	Use split to extract a string from the source using the position of its segment and a delimiter. For example, if the source contained the value sn-xyz-001, you could extract any of the three segments using the hyphen delimiter to distinguish between segments. In this case, entering the delimiter as - and the position as 3, would yield a result of 001. Changing the position to 2, would yield the value of xyz.
	Substring	Use substring to extract a string from the source using character start and end positions. For example, if the source contained the value Model T450 Lenovo ThinkPad, you could extract a portion of that text to use as the value. If the start position was 7 and the end position was 26, then the result would be T450 Lenovo ThinkPad.
	Value	See Decimal property for description.