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Update bulk data

  • 31 March 2024
  • 6 replies
  • 116 views

How can I update attributes that are either missing or need to be changed in bulk?

I’ve read this article that teaches how to do it as if you’re bringing in bulk documents from another platform, but my documents are already in CLM. They need to have certain (existing) attributes changed or added.

Hello, @LglOps 

 

Good question!

 

A suggestion to accomplish your need.

 

  1. Run a report for the folder in question to get the documents IDs of each one.
    Export that as a CSV file.
    Make sure you have the column with the Document ID in the .CSV file.
     
  2. Create an advanced template to read the .CSV file, line by line then Apply attributes using the Step Update Document Metadata through a Loop in the workflow.

Of course, I cannot create a workflow for your on this case, however you can access our portal DocuSign University to learn how to do it. We have some self-paced and recorded sessions about CLM.

 

I hope that suggestion helps!

Alexandre


This is pretty advanced for my capabilities in DocuSign. 

This should be much simpler from an every day user perspective.

Thanks anyway!


Hello, @LglOps 

 

Maybe someone else here in the Community may give another suggestion/solution.

 

Best,

Alexandre


After you create your first workflow, it becomes much easier.  As stated above, start with a csv file of your current data, change the values you want to update.  Also, change the headers to remove spaces or replace spaces with underscores.  Be sure there is always a header value for any data below the first row - ie, data is always in a table format.  Stray data will cause your csv to fail when read by the workflow.   Upload the csv to a location in your DocuSign instance.

Create a new Advanced Workflow.  First step will be “Create Variable from CSV” step.   In that step, link it to the csv file that includes the changes.  in the Output step, create a new variable - I usually call mine CSVtoXML.  CSVtoXML schema must include a node that matches your csv headers.  Modify the schema of CSVtoXML as needed. The column names/CSVtoXML nodes are case sensitive so they must match exactly.

 

Next, create an iterator variable - I call mine RowIterator.  When you create the variable, choose type Iterator and in “Find Iterator” navigate to CSVtoXML.Rows.Row.

You have then set up your required variables that allows the workflow to read your csv entire flie and a single row of your CSV file.  Next you need a For-Each Loop and a Next Loop to iterate row by row to update each document.  Between your For Each and Next, you need a few more steps to set your variable values and metadata update values - see pic below. 

Note, you need a timeout loop.  DocuSign has a limit of how many steps it allows a workflow to run before it requires a break.  If the workflow exceeds those steps, it will be stopped. 

In addition, there is a limit of csv file size but I don’t know what that limit is.  If you have a lot of documents to update, you may need to break your csv file in smaller batches.  I usually create the batches of csvs and name them by adding a sequential number to the file name.  Then I check in file 1 as the file named in the Create Variable from CSV step, start the workflow, check in file 2, start the workflow, etc.  Each time the workflow starts, it will read the version of the file that exists in your document library.

Below is a snapshot of a typical update workflow I use.  I also attached the json file in a zip.  You should be able to import this json then modify the variables and paths to match your documents and workflow name.  

I received the base for this type of workflow from a DocuSign developer - Dustin V to whom I will be eternally grateful.

 

 

 

 


You can also update, I believe up to 20 documents, with the same attribute update for all documents. Just select the impacted documents, go to Manage, Attributes, Add the attribute group, field and the content you need to update them all to. Its still a manual process if you’re trying to do this to a bunch of documents, but if you’re looking for a solution that’s easier for your individual users to handle with smaller groups this is an option. 


The best bet is use to a workflow to update the attributes, might need a technical person involved. I did dozens of migrations of attributes using workflows and SFTP.


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