Import Documents

At the beginning of a project or at any other time during the course of a project it might be important to include a list of required technical documents (e.g. technical drawings), often known as master drawing list.

PIRS offers therefore a quick and easy way to include all document information without having to manually create a PIRS document for each listed drawing. Hereby, you can either upload the documents in combination with the actual document / drawing file (e.g. the CAD and / or PDF file) or only integrate the necessary document information also known as meta information.

Every PIRS user that has the creator rights to the folder(s) he or she likes to import documents to will be able to choose the "Import Documents" feature presented to him / her in the "New" button options (compare to the screenshot).

By selecting this feature, an Excel file containing all the existing document information can be uploaded into the system.

You can find an excel sheet within the template chapter which can be used as template. All mandatory fields that need to be included are marked blue. Additional values can be added if necessary as new columns. Please make sure that new columns have the same title as the field you like to include in your upload.

In order to use a zip file to upload existing files together with our meta data you need to follow these steps:

Select "Import documents (ZIP)" as show in the screenshot below.

A new window will open allowing you to select the excel file with your document list. In the bottom area of the window you then need to add the ZIP file containing the files you like to upload and attach to your documents. You can add several ZIP files and each uploaded ZIP file will be stored in PIRS for 24 hours allowing you to import several document lists relating to the files in your ZIP file without having to upload the ZIP file every time.

Use the "Browse…​" button to select the excel file that contains the information for your technical documents and please be sure to select the ZIP file after you have uploaded it as illustrated in our example.

In case you have not selected a ZIP file PIRS will notify you that without a ZIP file selected, meta documents will be uploaded without any attachements. You can still proceed in case this was intential.

Start the analyzing process by clicking "Analyse Excel file". Since each document has certain mandatory fields that require the entering of a value before the system allows the user to save the document, these fields also need to be included in the Excel sheet and they need to contain a value for each listed document. Therefor, the excel file must be analyzed before the upload is permitted.

As indicated by the following screenshots, PIRS ensures that all mandatory fields are listed in the attached excel file as well as that the required information is included in the respective cells. PIRS will allow you to upload all other existing document information (e.g. the required transmittal dates). Should the imported excel file contain value fields that cannot be matched with fields in the PIRS document format, the system will also inform you about this fact even though the document import is possible and will be preformed.

The third possible scenario would be that you have all mandatory fields listed and entered a value, but that the entered value for some or all documents cannot be matched to the information stored in PIRS e.g. you entered a name that is not listed in the address book or a document status that does not exist. In this case the import of these documents will not be possible. PIRS will inform you how many documents can and cannot be imported and will offer you an excel file of the analyzed list that you can open. Here you will find all documents that cannot be imported marked and commented.

Following table will give you a list of all mandatory fields, their label as well as remarks on important facts to keep in mind when entering value. The mandatory fields match the fields listed in the document header.

As mentioned above the document import also gives you the opportunity to include the actual document files (e.g. CAD, PDF etc.) stored on your company’s FTP server. As indicated in the screenshot of the PIRS document import box above you are able not only to attach an excel file from your browser but also to enter your FTP server information (IP address) and your log in information. Should your excel file provide PIRS with the path information on the FTP server to the respective document files for each imported document, the files will then be attached to the newly created PIRS documents accordingly. You are of course able to attach multiple files to each document. An example will be given at the end of this chapter.

First, the following tables will list all other fields according to the tab in the content area where they can be found.