What happens when I import artifacts into my project?

You can migrate your existing artifact database into a new Project Tracker database.

You can also synchronize your older or external tracking component database with the Project Tracker database. This allows you to continue using the older tracking component until your project's members are comfortable with Project Tracker. Once the import is completed, you can treat the imported artifacts just like any other Project Tracker artifact.

This feature imports artifact data from XML files. The imported artifacts are treated as new artifacts in the Project Tracker database. You must have the Project Issue Tracking - Submit permission to use the XML import artifacts feature.

Project Tracker accepts only those XML files that follow the Project Tracker Document Type Definition (DTD). The following elements in the "project" section of the XML file must match the settings for the current project:

• Domain: this is the domain in which your project exists. If the URL for your project is project.domain.com, the domain element in the XML file should look like <domain>domain.com</domain>.
• Name: this is the project name. If the URL for your project is project.domain.com, the name element should look like <name>project</name>.
• Code: this is the Artifact code for your project. If the artifact code for your project is set to SC, the code element should look like <code>SC</code>.
• Namespace-title: Every artifact type, artifact attribute and attribute option is associated with a namespace title. The namespace element should look like <namespace-title>DEFAULT</namespace-title>.

The project to which you are importing must contain all of the usernames, artifact types, attributes, attribute options and namespace titles referenced in the XML file. On a successful import, Project Tracker creates a new artifact for each artifact in the XML file and assigns an artifact ID to each. You can then treat these new artifacts as you would any other artifact in the database.

Even if you do not specify a namespace title in the namespace element in the XML file, the import will still be successful. Here, Project Tracker will associate the default domain namespace title to the each imported artifact type and attribute. For example, if you exported artifact "SC1" which has the "IT to PT conversion" namespace title associated with it, the XML file will contain the <namespace-title>IT to PT conversion</namespace-title> tag for artifact "SC1." Now, if you remove the namespace title in this file, and import it once again, Project Tracker will take the default domain namespace name, that is "DEFAULT".

But, if you try import an XML file without the "<namespace-title>namespace name<namespace-title>" tag, or change the namespace title name to an ambiguous name, you will receive an error.