Imports

The Admin > Imports screen is where users go to manage their saved imports. Everything is organized by import type, and you can create a new import by clicking on the New Import button for that type.

Users who are in a group with the “Manage all Imports” or “Application Administration” permission are able to see and edit all imports. Otherwise, they can see and edit imports that they (or a group that they’re in) own.

You can apply a filter at the top of the page to change which imports are showing. You can filter based on things like owners, names, and whether the last import was successful. If there are more than 10 saved imports, this screen will automatically add a filter for only your imports to save time when you first view the screen.

Clicking on one of the imports will expand the row to show the import details. You can see the results of the last import, edit the import details, or change its schedule.

Import Connections

The Admin > Import Connections screen is where you go to manage all of the data sources that Imports use. Users with the “Application Administration” permission can see all imports. Otherwise, you can only see the imports to which you have been assigned an owner.

Imports and Import Connections are managed separately so that the people who manage data imports don't need to have all of the server connection information. System administrators can manage import connections and normal users can use those connections to import data.

For example, a high-level system administrator could set up a connection to a folder of spreadsheets on an FTP server, a connection to the HR database, and a web service connection to PowerBI. That system administrator could then quickly create placeholder imports that use those connections (without spending the time to built out the data mapping) and make various users and groups owners of those unfinished imports. Those people would be able to take over the management of the data mapping, import schedule, and other import properties, all without having to know how to connect to the underlying data sources.

Adding Import Connections

To add an import connection, just click on the Add Connection button in the corner of its panel.

Database connections ask for information like the database name and password.

(S)FTP connections allow you to choose the authentication type and an optional starting directory.

Adding a Google Sheets connection opens a dialog where you give Spider Impact permission to access your Google data.

The process of creating a web service import connection or a Zapier import connection is a little more complicated, so they each have their own articles.

Security Note for Self-Hosted Customers

It’s important to note that all users who have the Modify Import Connections permission have the ability to communicate from the Spider Impact server to other servers. This is by design so Spider Impact can pull in data via web services.

It is the responsibility of customers who manage their own instances of Spider Impact, however, to ensure that the Spider Impact server is properly restricted from accessing sensitive internal information. This can be accomplished via router configuration, hardware firewalls, or on the operating system via Linux IP Tables or Windows Firewall. This is already managed by Spider Strategies for hosted customers.

For example, if you have Spider Impact installed at an internal datacenter and the Spider Impact server isn’t restricted from communicating with other servers at that datacenter, users with the Modify Import Connections permissions can communicate with those other servers. Again, this design is intentional for pulling in data via web services, but it’s important to note.

Spider Impact was designed to have import connections separate from actual data imports for this very reason. System administrators with open network access can set up connections to data sources, and then normal users can use those data source connections to securely build data imports.