This page lists known limitations of the CollectionSpace Converter tool. We do not expect to address these issues in any near timeframe.

General

Structured date fields

✅ You can import the whole date value as a string. If possible, it will be parsed into the more specific date elements (dateEarliestYear, dateEarliestMonth, datePeriod, dateLatestQualifierValue, etc.) that are viewable in the box that pops up when you click on a structured date in the record.

❌ If you have more granular date data (separate day, month, year values), you cannot import them directly into the more specific structured date fields. You will need to combine them into a full date for import.

ℹ️ Regardless of whether your date string can be parsed into the more specific structured date elements, the string you import will remain in the “dateDisplayDate” and will be visible in the record.

⚠️ The date parsing algorithm used by the current CollectionSpace Converter Tool is different from the one applied when you manually type a date in a form in CollectionSpace.
Dates including text or ranges are not well-supported by the CollectionSpace Converter Tool.
Test your date format to make sure it is being parsed as expected.

The new CSV import tool currently in development will use a fast, simplifed date parsing on common numeric date formats. When that date parser does not work, we will call on CollectionSpace’s internal date parser.

Osteology inventories

Batch importing osteology inventory details is not supported.

The form interface for this section of the osteology procedure is graphically and technically structured very differently than other CollectionSpace record data. It contains hundreds of cryptically named fields that would be extremely unwieldy to manage in a tabular format.

Fields populated from multiple authorities – mixing order of terms from different authorities

The Acquisition Source field can be populated with names from the Person or Organization authorities.

When editing a record in the CollectionSpace application, you can do this:

For CSV import your acquisitionSourceOrganization names must be in a separate column from your acquisitionSourcePerson names, and these columns are processed in a certain order. This means it’s impossible to end up the above in an imported record.

In the current CollectionSpace Converter Tool, that order of data processing is somewhat arbitrary, depending on how the code was written. Particularly when a field like this is part of a repeating field group, it is very important to test that your results are as expected!

You want to make sure the following CSV data gets imported as expected:

Depending on the order the acquisitionFundingSource columns get processed by the import tool, you could end up with two very different sets of assertions in your records!

In the new CSV Import Tool under development these fields will consistently be handled in the order they appear in the downloaded CSV templates. Manually changing the order of the columns in your file will NOT affect the order in which the data is processed.

Current CollectionSpace Converter Tool

Only supports imports for profiles, record types, and fields that we have needed to support existing data work.

Supported profiles

Profiles listed in the Github repository’s data directory are at least partially supported.

Supported record types

If you have access to the Converter Tool, the easiest way to see what record types are available is:

Go to Import > CSV
Record types in the Profile drop down are at least partially supported

If you do not have access to the Converter Tool:

Look at the config.yml file for your profile. It is always in the following location (insert your profile name in place of lhmc or anthro):
- https://github.com/collectionspace/cspace-converter/blob/master/lib/collectionspace/converter/lhmc/config.yml
- https://github.com/collectionspace/cspace-converter/blob/master/lib/collectionspace/converter/anthro/config.yml
Look in the registered_profiles section of the file. For LHMC, I can see the following are available:
- acquisition
- cataloging
- concept (associated)
- hierarchies
- location
- media
- organization
- person
- place
- relationships
- vocabularies
The data directory for LHMC only has three templates: acquisition, collectionobject, and person. This is because we have not needed to batch import any LHMC-specific fields in other record types, so we are using the core mappers for concept, location, and organization.
Note also that the LHMC collectionobject template specifies that it is partial. It only contains required fields and any fields where the definition differs from core. To get a full LHMC collectionobject template, you’d need to add the LHMC columns to the core columns, removing any duplicates

To see what is different between your profile and core, refer to the “core-to-profile” comparison spreadsheets for your version and profile available here.

Supported fields

For the core profile: only fields represented in the CSV templates are supported.

For other profiles:

Fields supported for core are supported if they are not defined differently for your profile
Fields defined differently for your profile are supported if they are present in CSV templates for your profile