Import Flow

An exported flow can be imported into  Designer Cloud Enterprise Edition.

• Dev instance: If you are using an instance of the platform for developing and testing your flows, you can import a new flow through the Flows page. 

  NOTE: Unless your instance of the platform has been specifically configured to support deployment management, you are using a Dev instance of the platform.

  NOTE: If you are attempting to share a flow with other users on the same instance of the platform, you should use the sharing functions. See Overview of Sharing.

• Prod instance: If you are importing a flow into a Production instance of the platform, you import it as a package through the Deployment Manager.

  NOTE: Deployment Manager is a feature that enables segmentation of platform usage between Dev instances and Prod instances. This feature must be enabled and configured. For more information, see Overview of Deployment Manager.

Limitations

Imported flows do not contain the following objects:

• Reference datasets
• Samples

• Connections

  NOTE: Exported flows do not contain connections. If your flow relies on a connection to the source, you must create the connection in the Prod environment and create an import mapping rule to assign the local connection ID to the import package. Flows that do not require connections may not require remapping before import. See Define Import Mapping Rules.

  NOTE: If the flow's output object uses connections that are not used for importing datasets in the flow, the output is broken on import. Those outputs and their associated connections must be recreated in the environment into which the flow is imported.

Imported datasets that are ingested into backend storage for  Designer Cloud Enterprise Edition may be broken after the flow has been imported into another instance. These datasets must be reconnected to their source. You cannot use import mapping rules to reconnect these data sources. This issue applies to the following data sources:

• Microsoft Excel workbooks and worksheets. See Import Excel Data.

• PDF tables. See Import PDF Data.

Define import rules

Before you import a package, you may need to create import mapping rules to apply to your package. For example, if the Development data is stored in a different location than the Production data, you may need to create import rules to remap paths and connections to use to acquire the data from the Production environment. 

For more information, see Define Import Mapping Rules.

Import

Steps:

1. Export the flow from the source system. See Export Flow.
2. Login to the import system, if needed.
3. Click Flows.
4. From the context menu in the Flow page, select Import Flow.
5. Select the ZIP file containing the exported flow. Click Open.

If there are issues with the import, click the Download link to review the missing or malformed objects.

The flow is imported and available for use in the Flows page. After import:

• You may need to reconnect your imported datasets to data sources that are available in the new workspace or project. See Reconnect Flow to Source Data.
• You may also need to reconnect your outputs. See Reconnect Flow to Outputs.

Import into Prod instance

After creating any import rules in your Prod instance, please do the following.

Steps:

1. Export the flow from the source system. See Export Flow.
2. Login to the Prod instance. The Deployment Manager is displayed.
3. Click Deployments.
4. Select or create the deployment into which to import the package.
5. Within the deployment, click Import Package.
6. Select the ZIP file containing the exported flow. Click Open.
   1. Any defined import rules are applied to the package during import.
   2. The package is selected as the active one for the deployment.
   3. If there are issues with the import, click the Download link to review the missing or malformed objects.