Importing Items & Codelists

25R1 & Later

When designing a study in Studio, you can import a CSV template to automatically create Items and Codelists. Importing can be done for one Casebook version per study.

How to Import

To import items:

1. Navigate to your Study in Studio.
2. Under Study Objects, click Items.
3. Select Import Items.
4. Drag and drop your import CSV file into the Drag and drop file here area. You can also click into this area to upload your file.
5. An Import Items preview page appears.

To import codelists:

1. Under Study Objects, click Codelist and select Import Codelist.
2. Drag and drop your import CSV file into the Drag and drop file here area. You can also click into this area to upload your file.
3. An Import Codelists preview page appears.

Click Cancel to stop the import.

Import Section

The import section shows the following:

• Filename
• File size
• Number of rows

A link to this help page is available below the import section for quick access to the CSV templates (see Codelist and Items sections to download the CSV templates).

Preview Results Table

Once a file is selected, it is automatically processed and validated. If at least one file can be processed successfully the preview results table displays. This table includes the following:

• Total number of records processed
• Number of records that passed validation
• Number of records that failed validation
• Import Status column in the Results table
• Results column for each template column (columns are not sortable)
• Number of results on the page

You can filter records based on three statuses: Error, Warning, and Ready for import.

The navigation options on the page allow you to move forward to the next results page or back to the previous one. You can also enter a specific page number to jump directly to that results page for quicker access.

Importing Items

After a successful import, itemdefs and item_def_codelist_defs are recreated in CDMS. You can view itemdefs in Studio. Item_def_codelist_defs can only be accessed in Admin > Business Admin.

The itemdefs CSV file should be error-free. Any issues can be corrected in the template outside of Studio and then re-imported. Once items are successfully imported, the Items section displays each item from the CSV file as a distinct entry, with properties matching those defined in the CSV. For example, if an item’s data type is set to “Time”, this property will reflect in Studio.

If an itemdef already exists in the system, attempting to import it again results in an error. To update an existing item, make the changes directly in Studio. Any properties not included in the CSV, such as Indent, Controlling Items, or Progressive Display, must be manually updated in Studio after import.

Use the template below as your import file.

  Download the Items Import Template

Item Required Columns

The following columns are required in your items import file:

Column	Description
Item Name	Text
External ID	Text
Label	Text
Item Type	Text; Veeva values. Options: EDC, Status, Header, Read Only, Derived
Data Type	Text; Veeva values. Options: Text, Date, Datetime, Time, Boolean, URL, Codelist, Label, Number, Unit
Codelist Def	Text. Must match an existing codelist definition. *Required if data type equals codelist.
Unit Def	Text. Must match an existing unit codelist item definition. *Required if data type equals unit.

The following columns are optional:

Column	Description
Description	Text

Importing Codelists

Upon a successful import, codelistdefs, codelistitemdefs, and codelist_def_codelist_item_defs are recreated in CDMS. You can view codelistdefs and codelistitemdefs in Studio. Codelist_def_codelist_item_defs are only visible in Admin > Business Admin.

The codelistdefs CSV file should be error-free. Any issues can be corrected in the template outside of Studio and then re-imported. Once codelists are successfully imported, the Codelists section displays each codelist as a separate, distinct item, containing the items assigned to it. Each imported item’s properties match those defined in the CSV, so if Code = “1” for “Item 1” in the template, it appears the same way in Studio.

If a codelistdef being imported already exists, an error appears. To update an existing codelist, make changes directly in Studio.

Use the template below as your import file.

  Download the Codelists Import Template

Codelists Required Columns

The following columns are required in your codelists import file:

Column	Data Type
Codelist Name	Text (128 character maximum)
Codelist External ID	Text (128 character maximum)
Codelist Description	Description
Codelist Item Order	Number (0 - 9,999)
Codelist Item Code	Text (100 character maximum)
Codelist Item Label	Text (1,500 character maximum)
Hidden	Boolean (Yes/No)

The following columns are optional:

Column	Data Type
Codelist Description	Text (256 character maximum)
Codelist Item Description	Text (255 character maximum)

Hidden values are case-sensitive.

You do not need to add a separate row to identify the Codelist.

Formatting

Sequential order number and accepted field characters are also validated after import.

For a codelist, if the order numbers are out of sequence, the system automatically reassigns them based on the last valid number. For example, if a codelist has three items numbered 1, 10, and 3, 10 will be reassigned to 3 and 3 will become 2.

For fields, only the following characters are accepted:

• a-z, A-Z
• 0-9
• hyphens (-)
• single underscores (_)

If invalid characters are found in a row, an error message appears for that record.

Default Values

Default values are automatically provided for required properties not included in the templates. You can update these values in Studio. All Item Definitions default to required except for boolean data types. Items with a Codelist or Unit data type must reference an existing codelist or unit definition for successful import. If a row refers to a non-existent object, an error occurs, and the file cannot be imported. To address this, import the missing Codelist or Unit Definition first or remove the reference from the file.

Validation Errors

The table below lists possible validation errors and their descriptions:

Error	Description
The following columns are missing in the import file: [missing column names]	The CSV file is unable to be processed at all. For example, the wrong file was selected.
The following column headers are missing in the import file: [comma separated list of missing column headers]	Columns are missing.
[comma separated list of missing column headers] are required	Required values are missing.
Value for [comma separated list of exceeded column headers] exceed char limit.	The value has more characters than the limit for a respective text field.
[Column Name] value [column value] is invalid	The value is not accepted in the respective picklist, boolean, or number field.
Order Number is not unique for the Item	The order number is not unique for a particular codelist.
Duplicate entry in file	Two or more rows share the same Item Name (for item imports) or the Codelist Name + Codelist Item Label (for codelist imports).