Importing ticketing data into the RT SQL database

Hi,

I’m about to import a large amount of ticketing data into the RT SQL
database. I spotted three sections in the SQL db (objectcustomfieldvalues,
attachments, tickets) to import the data to. Since I’m unfamiliar with the
db backend, can I generate any of my own set of identifiers as long as they
aren’t duplicate of the identifiers that are already present in the SQL db?

Thanks in advance,

Hi Dave

I would strongly recommend against importing ticket data directly into the RT database, I sincerely doubt you will end up with anything usable!
There are a myriad of internal references (very normalized table structure, as I’m sure you saw).

There may be better ways to do it, but when I had to shift tickets from two different support tools into RT I wrote an importer to do it.
The importer used RT’s command line interface to push the old systems into RT, one ticket at a time.
That way, RT creates all the requisite references, objects, etc.

As to adding your own fields to the RT database, I cannot answer that, sorry!

  •      BrentFrom: rt-users [mailto:rt-users-bounces@lists.bestpractical.com] On Behalf Of Dave Florek
    

Sent: Wednesday, April 27, 2016 12:31 PM
To: rt-users@lists.bestpractical.com
Subject: [rt-users] Importing ticketing data into the RT SQL database

Hi,

I’m about to import a large amount of ticketing data into the RT SQL database. I spotted three sections in the SQL db (objectcustomfieldvalues, attachments, tickets) to import the data to. Since I’m unfamiliar with the db backend, can I generate any of my own set of identifiers as long as they aren’t duplicate of the identifiers that are already present in the SQL db?

Thanks in advance,

Hi Brent,

Thanks for the heads up. Does Best Practical keep any updated documentation
on the RT CLI syntax somewhere as the RT versions change? I have the
Essentials book and the Wikia has some useful information, but I’d like
something that provides in-depth coverage. I made several custom fields, so
I’m not sure how that would change the CLI inputs. This is going to be a
fun expedition.

Sincerely,
DaveOn Wed, Apr 27, 2016 at 1:05 PM, Parish, Brent bparish@cognex.com wrote:

Hi Dave

I would strongly recommend against importing ticket data directly into the
RT database, I sincerely doubt you will end up with anything usable!

There are a myriad of internal references (very normalized table
structure, as I’m sure you saw).

There may be better ways to do it, but when I had to shift tickets from
two different support tools into RT I wrote an importer to do it.

The importer used RT’s command line interface to push the old systems into
RT, one ticket at a time.

That way, RT creates all the requisite references, objects, etc.

As to adding your own fields to the RT database, I cannot answer that,
sorry!

  •      Brent
    

From: rt-users [mailto:rt-users-bounces@lists.bestpractical.com] *On
Behalf Of *Dave Florek
Sent: Wednesday, April 27, 2016 12:31 PM
To: rt-users@lists.bestpractical.com
Subject: [rt-users] Importing ticketing data into the RT SQL database

Hi,

I’m about to import a large amount of ticketing data into the RT SQL
database. I spotted three sections in the SQL db (objectcustomfieldvalues,
attachments, tickets) to import the data to. Since I’m unfamiliar with the
db backend, can I generate any of my own set of identifiers as long as they
aren’t duplicate of the identifiers that are already present in the SQL db?

Thanks in advance,

Hi Dave

Documentation can be found here: RT 4.4.6 Documentation - Best Practical

Not sure which side you made the custom fields on? If you mean in the old system that you are importing into RT, it shouldn’t be an issue (not from the RT side I mean).
RT has some fantastic support for custom fields. Some of the fields from the old systems that I exported (and imported into RT) went into stock/out-of-the-box RT fields (e.g. subject, date started, etc). Others went into custom fields I had created in RT for the import. These can be easily created and maintained via the RT web interface.
The CLI interface supports data entry into RT custom fields, as do the REST and Command-by-mail interfaces.From: Dave Florek [mailto:dave.a.florek@gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, April 27, 2016 2:09 PM
To: Parish, Brent bparish@cognex.com
Cc: rt-users@lists.bestpractical.com
Subject: Re: [rt-users] Importing ticketing data into the RT SQL database

Hi Brent,

Thanks for the heads up. Does Best Practical keep any updated documentation on the RT CLI syntax somewhere as the RT versions change? I have the Essentials book and the Wikia has some useful information, but I’d like something that provides in-depth coverage. I made several custom fields, so I’m not sure how that would change the CLI inputs. This is going to be a fun expedition.

Sincerely,
Dave

Le 27/04/2016 18:30, Dave Florek a �crit :

Hi,

I’m about to import a large amount of ticketing data into the RT SQL
database. I spotted three sections in the SQL db
(objectcustomfieldvalues, attachments, tickets) to import the data to.
Since I’m unfamiliar with the db backend, can I generate any of my own
set of identifiers as long as they aren’t duplicate of the identifiers
that are already present in the SQL db?

I strongly suggest to use the RT perl API by writting a script taht does
sql in source DB and create tickets/users/rt objects using the RT API.
Doing this with RT cli is possible but will be very slow will not allow
you to skip some internal RT auto-et of values (such as Created date for
transactions, tickets, …).

Here is an example script I did to import tickets from a third party DB
(ICW) into RT. It’s just an example as it was done for a one shot
execution and very specific needs, but this way we imported more than
300k tickets with users/history/customfields.

Easter-eggs Sp�cialiste GNU/Linux
44-46 rue de l’Ouest - 75014 Paris - France - M�tro Gait�
Phone: +33 (0) 1 43 35 00 37 - Fax: +33 (0) 1 43 35 00 76
mailto:elacour@easter-eggs.com - http://www.easter-eggs.com

import-icw.pl (25.7 KB)

your example script isn’t allowing itself to be viewed or downloaded (at least not for me). I realize this is years later but if you still get these notifications, would you be willing to repost please?