New Importer in Windows Client

Overview 

The new Importer was initially introduced in Action IMPORT.FEATUREDATA. 
It functioned as the import engine for the Import Wizard within the Web Client.

Note: In version 2025-R2, it also deprecates the previous importer, now referred to as the Legacy Importer, in the Windows client.

The new Importer is available in the Import/Export menu.
It is located in the same place as the previous importer:

Selecting the “Import Data” menu will direct you immediately to the Import dialog for the new importer. 

The Legacy Import option remains accessible through the Windows Client. To access it, click the down arrow located just below the “Import Data” menu, then select the “Legacy Import” option from the menu that appears.

The Import-dialog for this function is designed similarly to the dialog used in the previous importer, as it is displayed below:

Import an Excel file

To import an Excel file, at least two steps must be completed:

1. Select a file for import.
2. Select a “Feature to Import to".

In the screenshot below, both of these steps have been completed, the tab contains data that displays the name of the picked file:

Optional steps are as follows:

3. Optional: 
Select the “Key column name”, which refers to the column containing a unique value for each product. When step 1 is done, the Importer will suggest the first column (from the left) that can be used as the key. 

In this example, it is the first column in the spreadsheet, named Product, which represents the base value of the “Feature imported to”, also named Product. This column could also have been called _Value, as required in the Legacy Importer. This is allowed due to the backward compatibility.
 

4. Optional: 
Modify any of the default options provided by the Importer.

When all steps are done, a click on “Start Import” will do three things: 

1. Perform a quick validation of “simple” error in the spreadsheet.  This includes checks that can be performed quickly, such as “can all column names be identified as features (or import-designators like _Value etc)” or “the same key is used twice” etc.  
    
2. If Import file passes the quick validation, the job will be sent to the Application Server carrying out the Actual import.  
    
3. If a job is sent, a new Tab in the dialog is created in which progress of the Import Task running on the Application Server is shown. 

The screenshot below displays the dialog following the completion of a single import. 
The green checkmark in the tab indicates that the task has been completed and was successful:

If an import task fails for any reason, the green checkmark will be replaced by a red X, as illustrated in the screenshot below:

New Importer vs. Legacy Importer

The new Importer has the following advantages over the Legacy Importer:

As opposed to the Import Wizard there is no support for mapping columns in the Windows Client Import. The new Importer relies, just as the Legacy Importer, solely on column naming for figuring out where data should go. 

The New Importer includes nine different settings that govern various behaviors of the Import process. Detailed descriptions of each setting can be found in the parameter descriptions for the IMPORT.FEATUREDATA action, as documented here.

Please note that while most parameters are accessible within the Action on the Windows Client, not all parameters are available.