When doing the Quality Manager definitions, it can be extremely tedious to define all the expected results simply because of the multiplying factors involved. Say for example there are 20 products that each undergo 20 test methods with 6 data capture fields required for each expected result. That leads to 20x20x6 fields that need to be entered manually.

 

In order to reduce this configuration burden we have built a simple utility to import expected results. This utility does requires the Test Method, Test Method Group and Product to have been previously defined. The UOM used also needs to exist. The requirement to do the import is to build a simple CSV file with fields as follows:

 

The columns are required in the following order (with no header):

ProcessName
TestMethodName
ResultType
ProductName
InnerSpecMax
InnerSpecMin
OuterSpecMax
OuterSpecMin
CaptureMax
CaptureMin
ViewName
ImmediateFailInnerSpec
ImmediateFailOuterSpec
UOM
Response

 

A sample file is shown below

 

Sample Import File

 

 

Import Utility

Once the import file has been created, the user can simply select the Import Expected Results option from the Quality Manager menu as shown below.

 

Quality Manager Menu

 

 

They can then browse to the file they require (must have a .csv extension), select the file and click on the import button. Any records that fail to import will then be shown in the grid below. The last column on the right shows the error message AND there is an error file created. This error file has the same name as the original file with the word Failures added. So, in the example above the error file is called dataimport-Failures.csv.

 

 

Import Expected Results Form

 

If the user selects to import an expected result for a product, test method combination that already has an existing result in the database, the existing result will be made inactive and the new result will be imported (i.e. the new result can be said to 'overwrite' the existing data in terms of what the user sees even though both records will still exist in the database.

 

The data has to be valid in order to be imported so for example the Test Method must already exist, as must the product, UOM and the rest of the data. Test Method imports will also fail if the expected results are impossibly configured. For example if the Input Min is greater than the Input Max.