I have a group of projects that does not match our current project structure, in other words, there are differences in fields and/or table tabs between these older projects and our new projects. Is there an easy way to bring these older projects up-to-date?
I've received a batch of non-gINT files (example AGS, Excel or .CSV) files that need to be imported to gINT. Is there an easier way to do this besides importing each file one by one?
Convert Projects applies a specified data template or a project to one or more projects, altering their data structures to match the specified data template or project. Convert Projects imports data as well as structures into the new database. Additionally, Convert Projects can utilize a correspondence file to map between table-field combinations in the source and destination. This creates a considerable amount of control over the conversion process.
The import log, Batchcnv.LOG, for each conversion is stored in the gINT Temp folder (see File->System Properties). This file contain details of the conversion and descriptions of any errors that were encountered.
One use for Convert Projects is to update a large number of projects to the most current data template or project structure.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Convert Projects is a powerful database conversion utility that should be used carefully. If a field in the project to be converted (source file) is missing from the data template (or project used as the data template) or is not mapped through a correspondence file, the data contained in that field will be lost.
Backups have the .ORG extension. Do not delete the backups until you are sure the converted projects are correct.
In order to perform these steps, you will need to download these two files: convert projects.zip.
To demonstrate a simple application of Convert Projects, do the following:
Go to INPUT. Select File -> Open and open surfaces.gpj.
Click on each of the three table tabs in turn and notice the set of fields in each.
Go to UTILITIES -> Convert Projects.
Click the Browse button to the right of Data Template.
Select data entry.gdt click Open.
Click the Browse button to the right of the input databases (large yellow) list box. Select surfaces.gpj and click Open. (Note that multiple input databases could be selected at this time).
Click Execute. The conversion is processed, and a status log window opens.
Notice the message "LITHOLOGY Table: Field 'Override Color' not found in the Target table." Because that field was not in our data template, it has been removed from surfaces.gpj during conversion and the data is lost.
Click OK to close the status log window. Go to INPUT.
Click on each of the table tabs in turn. Note that empty new fields have been added to the PROJECT, POINT, and LITHOLOGY tables without disrupting the existing fields, and empty SAMPLE, WATER LEVELS, and WELL DETAILS/WELL CONSTRUCTION tables.
Open Windows Explorer and navigate to the folder with the surfaces.gpj. Notice that there is a surfaces.org file, in addition to the surfaces.gpj project file. The surfaces.org file is a backup of your original.
The usual process for the import is to create a new project in INPUT and perform the import of one file, create a second project, import the second file, etc. Assuming each of these source files represents one project, you can use the Utilities->Convert Projects application. Specify the data template file of the project structure into which you wish to import the data and the associated correspondence file, if any. On launching the Convert Files file selection dialog, change the "Files of Type" to the appropriate type for your source files and select one or more files for conversion. Click the Execute button. This will work for any type of file that can be imported to a gINT project.
A correspondence file is often needed to map between table-field combinations in the source and destination.
On converting files, the program creates one gINT project file for each source file. It will place the new project files in your default projects folder (see File->System Properties) and name them as the same name as the original text files but with the gINT project file extension (.GPJ). The original source files are not changed by this process.
We will not be demonstrating this.
See Also
For more information on using Convert Projects, see Help->Index->Convert Projects.