Importing web app items

[twopointfiver]

Hi all, is there a way to insert a web app item into your web page based on the ExternalID number that I have created in my imported CSV file?

I will be replacing the CSV file everyday.  When you import the web items why does it randomly re-create a different itemID?  I have set up my web page for reading individual web app item based on my first import but on day two those itemID's have changed.  I want to control the output with the ID number created in the imported CSV.

Any ideas?

[keihamm]

The short answer is no, based on the information you provided. This is how webapps work. If you were to create all of your webapp items in the admin, and then export them, they would all have the webapp "item id" assigned as the "external id" in your spreadsheet. At this point you could upload a new spreadsheet on day 2, but you would have to keep the external id that was generated by the system intact. What would happen is all of the webapp items that were currently in the system will be overwritten with the new items on day 2's spreadsheet. If you were to upload a new spreadsheet with new "external ids" then  new webapp items will be created along with new item ids, as long as there was not a duplicate external id in the system already, otherwise the duplicate will just be overwritten with the new information. This would satisfy your first question, however, this would be a manual process at the beginning. I must also note, that if you delete all of your webapp items in the system and then upload them again, then the system will generate new external ids which would cause new webapp item ids.Maybe you could be a bit more specific in what you are trying to accomplish, as well as the number of webpages, items per page etc. If it is a small number of items , maybe you should try using classifications instead.