Import/Export/Reindex

Info on getting data in and out of a deployed terminology server.

For some admin operations, you will need the “admin key” for your deployment. This is part of the information provided to you when Getting started.

Exporting Local Changes

Some installations of the tool will be configured to support editing features (creating new concepts or synonyms, adding or editing mappings or subset/refset member information).

The typical data life-cycle of the tool is to deploy with a collections of terminologies (and other data assets) of interest based on a particular version, then allow editing to take place for some time, and then rebuild the initial data set with the updated versions of those terminologies and layer on local edits made in the mean time. This is envisioned as a 6-monthly or annual cycle for most users.

For example, you might visualize the process like this:

Open

In order for this process to work, it is important to pull out any local changes made during the previous “editing cycle”. As changes are made, the system tracks all of these changes with a “local” flag so they can be easily identified.

To export local changes, go to the “Admin” tab and expand the “Actions” accordion. After doing so, it should look like this:

Open

Click the “Export Local Changes” button and the system will prepare and automatically download a .zip file containing all of the local changes made since the beginning of the editing cycle.

This file is provided back to WCI to package alongside updated versions of the terminologies (and other data assets) used to build and deploy the data for the next cycld.

Importing Synonyms

This feature supports bulk-loading of preferred name. These changes get marked as “local” editing changes. To use this feature, click the “Import Preferred Names” button to open the dialog:

The input must be a text file with one line per synonym and four columns separated by vertical-bar (pipe) characters:

• Terminology abbreviation

• Code (in the indicated terminology)

• Language (likely “en”)

• Synonym

For example, you could use a synonyms file to add additional synonyms to a UCUM terminology to augment the standard codes:

Browse for a file in this format, enter a label, and then click the “Import” button.

The label is important because it is a way to mark that synonyms were added for a particular reason. If an entry in the file already exists as a name for the specified concept, it won’t get added again, but the label will be applied and visible through the UI.

The results of the import will be displayed on the dialog.

Importing Preferred Names

This feature is also available on the “Admin” tab after expanding the “Actions” accordion.

This feature supports bulk-loading of preferred name. These changes get marked as “local” editing changes. To use this feature, click the “Import Preferred Names” button to open the dialog:

The input must be a text file with one line per preferred name override and four columns separated by vertical-bar (pipe) characters:

• Terminology abbreviation

• Code (in the indicated terminology)

• Language (likely “en”)

• Preferred name (the new preferred name to use).

For example, you could use a preferred names override file to replace the ugly LOINC names for vital signs:

Browse for a file in this format and then click the “Import” button. The results of the import will be displayed on the dialog.

Importing Terminology

This feature is also available on the “Admin” tab after expanding the “Actions” accordion.

This feature is available to support post-deployment loading of terminologies that were originally excluded. It supports only the “simple terminology format” which is a .zip file containing a “concepts.txt”, “parChd.txt”, and “attributes.txt” file. This can be described in further detail if needed but is considered out-of-scope for the documentation at this time.

Reindex Terminology

An individual terminology can be completely reindexed. This normally isn’t needed, but with some code updates and some admin operations, it may be required. This process completely rebuilds the indexes based on data in the database.

This feature is also available on the “Admin” tab after expanding the “Actions” accordion.

To enable the “Reindex Terminology” button, you first have to select one of the terminology buttons at the top of the page (e.g. “SNOMEDCT_US”). Click the button and it will reindex the terminology. This can take a while and the browser will remain grayed out until finished.