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The purpose of this document is to outline some simple instructions and ‘tool-tips’ around using the ‘Initial Upload’ function when uploading data sets into Apptio.
Instructions
When a table in TBM Studio has been created and its ‘Source’ set as ‘File Upload’, the user will be presented with an option and a space in which to make an ‘Initial Upload’, along with an upload space for each time-period, assuming that the Data Refresh Cycle has been set to ‘Ad-Hoc updates’.
As below, the Initial Upload is in blue, and the Time Period uploads are in red.
However, this is not immediately obvious or available when creating a new table, as there is simply an upload instruction as below.
The first upload of data will result in the data being placed in the ‘Initial Upload’, regardless of which time period is selected.
Whilst it is perfectly possible to upload a full data set into the Initial Upload, it is Apptio’s guidance that the user uploads a ‘Template’ instead. In this case the template is simply the column headers without any of the column data. Please see the example below for a basic ‘Servers’ file (this example is just to demonstrate the concept; it is not necessarily representative of a servers data set).
Benefits
The reason for doing this is to create a more dynamic environment in which to work, allowing the user the freedom to make future changes without encountering errors. It is also better for traceability and generally avoiding mistakes. A user may mistakenly have uploaded a full data set into the Initial Upload by accident but, as time passes, lose track of which time-period that data set was intended for.
Another key benefit obtained from using a template is when the table is going to be used specifically to conjoin several other tables using the Append function. A template means that the column headers are already established for the Append function to automatically match the incoming columns to, however it won’t do this unless you select the Column Type in the Import step. The example below shows that the ‘Incoming Type’ is not recognised, which is to be expected given the lack of data, and the ability to over-ride that selection.
Future Updates to the Template
In the future it is possible that the user will need to update the template. The most likely reason is that the data set has grown in terms of the number columns so the template should have those columns added. A quick trick to create a template of the most relevant data is to navigate to the latest monthly upload and filter out all the rows by typing something in which is not in the data set, as shown below.
Typing ‘ABCDE’ (or anything else that will not return a result) into the Serial Number successfully filtered all the rows. Then a simple Export of the data will create a file with just the column headers that can be uploaded into the Initial Upload.
For more information and guidance on other aspects of loading data in TBM Studio, please see this page on the Apptio Help Center.