Bulk Updater: Formatting rules and best practices

Bulk Updater is a web application that allows you to update in bulk the properties (also called metadata) of your AODocs documents. Only library administrators and super administrators can use Bulk Updater.

Learn more:

This article provides information about:

Formatting rules
 Tips and best practices


Formatting rules

When you update the values of properties, respect these formatting rules. Properties won't be updated if any values entered manually don’t respect these formatting rules.

Tips: Before the update, check: 
- the document for typos 
- that any values you enter for Category fields are defined in AODocs (you can ignore this tip if the AODocs category is dynamic)

Note: Take care when you use the following characters in the values of properties:
- the character > (greater than) is used to separate category sublevels, for example:
  USA>Georgia>Atlanta.
- the character | (pipe) is used to separate values for multi-value fields, for example:
  HR|Finance

If you don't want to use these characters for these purposes, escape them with the character \ (backslash)

Column

Formatting rule

Property type: 
Integer

Use integer values.
For example: 0, 1, 2, -1

Property type: 
Decimal

Use decimal values with the dot separator “.”
For example: 0.1, -5.1

Property type: 
Text

No formatting rules

Property type: 
String

Enter a string with fewer than 400 alphanumeric and special characters.

Property type: 
URL

Enter a link to the document.

Property type: 
Person

If you try to update a Person property with an invalid email address, the property won't be updated.

Property type:
Boolean

Enter one of:

  • true
  • false

Property type: 
Date&Time/Date/Time

For the Date & Time field, use the format: dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm:ss

For the Date field, use the format: dd/MM/yyyy

For the Time field, use the format: HH:mm:ss

Property type: 
Category

Enter values registered in the AODocs category definition. 
If the category is set with dynamic values, you can also input new values.

Property configuration: 
Multiple value

To enter several values in a single cell, use the separator | (pipe)
For example: Finance|HR

Property configuration: 
Hidden

Hidden fields can be updated.

Property configuration: 
Mandatory

Bulk Updater doesn't force you to enter a value for mandatory fields.
Note: You can remove values from a mandatory property if the cell is blank.

Workflow state

If you try to update a workflow state with a value that isn't configured in AODocs, the state won't be updated.


Tips and best practices

System properties versus custom properties

Note: Learn more about difference between system properties and custom properties in AODocs: What is an AODocs document?

In the exported spreadsheet, you can update:

  • all custom properties that aren't grayed out
  • only the following system properties:
    • Title
    • Last updater
    • Last update date

Tip: Make sure you respect the formatting rules for the property when you update a cell.

Avoid modifying any properties that are grayed out in the exported spreadsheet. These properties are ignored during the update.

 

Keep the last modification date unchanged

By default, documents updated by Bulk Updater have the same date of last update and date of modification.

If you don't want this date to be modified, select the Preserve last modification date field checkbox in the sidebar before launching the update.

 

Export with multiple document classes

When you export a library with multiple document classes or a view displaying multiple document classes, the generated spreadsheet contains:

  • in the rows: all documents from all documents classes
  • in the columns: all custom properties from each document class

For a given document, cells corresponding to properties that don’t belong to the document’s class will be left blank in the spreadsheet. Avoid modifying these cells.

Note: On update, only the properties configured in a document’s class are updated. The others are ignored.

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