In this article
This article contains a few frequently-asked questions, and answers to those questions.
My source is file import to target survey db. I don’t select columns in Source. By selecting columns in Target – would that mean that only those selected columns are imported/updated?
When your source is a file, you do not have the option to select a column in the Source tab. However by selecting columns in your Target tab, only the questions that have been selected will be imported/updated regardless of how many other questions you may have in your upload file.
My Source and my Target are both Survey dbs. I select columns in the Source on which some calculations/actions are to be performed. I do not select any columns in the Target. Will only the columns selected in the Source be updated in the Target, or will all columns be updated because I didn’t select which ones were to be updated in the Target?
Only the columns that are selected in your Source tab will be updated with any action/calculation you may have performed in the Action tab.
My Source and my Target are both Survey dbs. I do not select any columns in the Source (and no action), and my Target is a different Survey db. If I select columns in the target, does this determine which columns are imported/updated?
If you do not select any columns in your Source tab and only select in your Target tab, only the columns selected in your Target tab will be imported/updated in the database. You will notice that once you have selected columns in the Target tab, if you go back to the Source tab the "Inherit from Target" property is automatically selected and the "All columns" option will no longer be available. So by default, if you do not specify any columns in the Source tab, it will inherit the details from the Target tab.
My Source and my Target are both Survey dbs. I select columns in the Source on which to perform some calculations/actions. I select different columns in the Target tab. Will any data be updated?
If you have different questions selected in your Source tab and Target tab, when you run the rule you will be presented with an error message saying that the columns selected in the Source do not exist in the Target. You can however override this by selecting "Allow variables in source schema template that do not exist in destination schema template" under the General tab. This will allow the rule to execute, but NO data will be updated since it will not be able to find any matching columns/questions to update in the destination/target schema/tab. Also, you will notice that ONLY the Source columns are available for scripting in the Action tab.