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Link Importer

Link importers are used to create dependencies between assets that have already been imported into Txture.

Introduction​

Once assets have been imported via an asset importer, a link importer can be used to create links (dependencies) between them. Each row in the data source typically corresponds to one link between a source asset and a target asset.

Type resolution​

For link importers you need to define the Type Resolution to determine which link type (as defined in your Structure) the imported data should be mapped to.

  • Constant Type: The source provides data for a single link type in Txture. All rows will be imported as links of the selected type.
  • Dynamic Type: The link type in Txture is inferred by identifying the type from one of the columns in the data preview.
  • Inferred Type: The link type is automatically determined by looking at the existing link types between two asset types in the Structure. If there is exactly one link type defined between the source and target asset types, this link type will be used. If there is none or multiple candidates, the importer adds an error to the log and doesn't import the link.

The inferred type resolution is most useful when the datasource for the links doesn't provide an explicit link type (i.e. it only provides source / target IDs) and the assets belong to different asset types. If all assets belong to the same type, a constant link type should be preferred.

Asset matching​

Link importers require an Asset Matching configuration to identify which assets should be linked. You need to define how Txture can identify both the source and target assets for each link.

Match rules​

There are two types of match rules available:

Importer match rule​

The importer match rule matches assets based on their Asset ID from a previous import. You select an asset importer and specify which column in the current data source contains the Asset IDs. Assets imported via the selected importer with matching Asset IDs are selected.

Property match rule​

The property match rule matches assets based on a property value. You select a property and specify which column in the current data source contains the values to match against. Assets where the selected property equals the value in the specified column are selected.

Example​

In the example below you can see the Asset Matching configuration of a link importer for the link type "Virtual server > uses > Storage".

For the Source asset match an importer match rule has been defined. In this case, we use the asset importer "Azure Assets" to match the source assets. This means that we compare the Asset IDs of all the virtual servers imported via the "Azure Assets" importer with the column "Virtual Server", as defined by the Source ID input. Assets (i.e. virtual servers) with an exact match are the source assets for the links to be drawn.

The Target asset match uses a property match rule. So the importer looks at the property Unique Identifier of all the storages in the repository and compares them to the values in the column "Uses Storage" of the data source. The storages where the Unique Identifier equals the value in the column Uses Storage are selected as target assets.

This creates a link for each row of the data source between the virtual server matched by the importer match rule and the storage matched by the property match rule.