Current PMA Beta guidance
Importing Existing Data into PMA
Upload a generic animal CSV, detect its structure, map columns, normalize values, inspect duplicates and relationships, preview the plan, and confirm only after the review is safe.
Purpose
Use Import Review when moving an existing animal inventory from a spreadsheet or supported export. This workflow focuses on staged animal imports with review before any live records are changed.
Before you begin and permissions
- Owners and administrators can upload, map, stage, review, and execute imports.
- Managers and other non-administrator roles do not receive import write access.
- Read-only access to completed results still follows normal organization permissions.
- Template approval permissions remain separate from import permissions.
Step-by-step workflow
Prepare the source
Keep an untouched source copy. Include stable external IDs, species, reference code, name, sex, date, Housing reference, genetics, and lineage fields when available. Do not replace original dates with today’s date.
Upload and detect
Open Import Review and select the CSV. PMA reads the file in staging and identifies supported columns; upload does not create animals.
Map columns
Match source columns to PMA fields. Review required fields, unsupported values, transformations, source identifiers, and date or unit interpretation.
Review normalization
Confirm normalized species, sex, statuses, dates, reference codes, and optional values. Ambiguous species, morphs, genetics, or lineage remain review items.
Inspect duplicates
Review evidence for reference-code, permanent-ID, name/species/date, source-ID, and other potential matches. PMA never merges on name alone.
Preview the import plan
Filter all eight classifications and confirm the exact ready, warning, review, missing, duplicate, unsupported, unresolved, and excluded counts.
Resolve or exclude rows
Choose Create new, Update existing, Skip, or Resolve manually where permitted. Download rejected rows for offline correction and later retry.
Confirm execution
Only an owner or administrator can execute the final reviewed batch. PMA requires explicit confirmation and keeps an execution record for later review.
Review results
Open import history, warnings, skipped rows, source IDs, original dates, transformations, and the final execution record. Correct unresolved items through a new review rather than silently changing evidence.
Expected result
No authoritative animal record is written during upload, detection, mapping, normalization, duplicate analysis, or preview. Confirmed execution applies only the reviewed plan and preserves source and decision evidence.
Safety boundaries
- No staged import writes authoritative records before explicit final confirmation.
- PMA never silently merges animals, invents lineage, confirms uncertain genetics, or guesses Housing assignments.
- Verified settings and existing records are not silently overwritten.
- Sample records must remain clearly labelled and separately removable from real records.
- A PMA readiness recommendation is not professional husbandry, veterinary, biosecurity, legal, or facility certification.
Troubleshooting
The CSV has unsupported columns
Keep the columns in source evidence, map supported fields, and export rejected rows. Some source-specific formats may require a dedicated migration adapter.
A date looks wrong
Confirm the source date format and original value before execution. PMA must preserve the historical event or animal date rather than substitute the import timestamp.
The same batch was submitted twice
PMA protects completed imports against accidental duplicate execution. If the same completed request is submitted again, PMA returns the existing result instead of creating duplicate records.