Edge Import - Material Load and Feed
A material can either be a website URL or an uploaded file such as an image, pdf, Excel file, Word file, etc.
The Material load type supports the creation of new materials as well as updating existing materials in the system. The material load can be used to load materials with or without their content. A file-based material cannot be updated with a URL and vice-versa.
Permissions
| PERMISSION NAME | PERMISSION DESCRIPTION | CATEGORY |
| Access LMS - Material Transcripts Load | Grants access to the Material Transcripts data load via Edge Import. This permission cannot be constrained. This is an administrator permission. | Edge Import |
| Access LMS - Materials Load | Grants access to the Material data load via Edge Import. This permission cannot be constrained. This is an administrator permission. | Edge Import |
Starter Guide
Select this link to download the Edge Import - Learning Starter Guide.
Select this link to download the Edge Import Learning Loads Migration Guide.
Unique Identifiers
When loading material data, the unique identifier for materials can be provided in the following ways:
- Material ID - Select this option when you have Material IDs available and want to import new materials or update existing materials.
- Learning Object ID - Select this option only for updating existing materials by Learning Object ID.
- You can create a custom report to locate the Learning Object ID of each material.
File Name or URL
A material record can either have its File Name or URL column populated, but not both. In addition, a material can be created without any content.
- File - The File Name should include the name of the file along with the file type extension that is associated with this material. File types are limited to doc, docx, xls, xlsx, ppt, pptx, pps, ppsx, pdf, jpeg, jpe, jpg, gif, and zip. The actual file needs to be present on the Cornerstone FTP site. Maximum file size is 50 MB.
- URL - The URL must include the protocol (e.g., http://, https://). Maximum URL length is 500.
File FTP
If the file name is provided, the actual file needs to be present on the Cornerstone FTP site in a separate dedicated system folder: LMS/Material.
The material files will not be removed from the FTP after the one-time load.
Files - Insert or Update
- If a new file name is provided for an existing material, the new file replaces the existing file.
- If the file name in the load file is blank, no update happens to existing files.
The following scenarios may occur:
| Material LO in the System | File Name in the Load File | Result - Material LO in the System | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| File1.pdf | File1.pdf | File1.pdf | File 1 updated |
| File1.pdf | File2.pdf | File2.pdf |
File 1 removed File 2 added |
Localization for URL Materials
The file name and URL value is applied with default language only (provided in the file) or with the language selected in the configuration.
The translation load can be used to associate the URL with multiple languages. For example:
| Material ID | Material Title | URL | Translation Culture |
|---|---|---|---|
| COM1 | English Website | https://company.com | en-US |
| COM1 | German Website | https://company.de | de-DE |
Localization for File Materials
A material can have multiple files with one for each localization, however they should be not be given in the same load file; it should be given in separate load files. For a material with multiple files, the resource file names cannot be edited once loaded. The File Localization column can be used to associate a file with a language.
As an example, a Material LO should have File1.docx and File2.docx uploaded. File 1 called “Datei1.docx” should be associated to German and French, whereas File 2 called “Arquivo.docx“ should be associated to Portugal and Spain. To accomplish this, there should be two separate load files:
- File 1: Material1.xlsx
- Material ID: Mat1
- File Name (FTP): Datei1.docx
- File Localization: de-de;fr-fr
- File 2: Material2.xlsx
- MaterialID: Mat1
- File Name (FTP): Arquivo.docx
- File Localization: pt-pt;es-es
Versioning
New materials will always be created with version v1.0.
Edge Import will not trigger any reversioning functionalities upon updating a Material.
To update metadata for several versions of a Material, always use the Learning Object IDs (and not the Material ID), and create a record for each version.
Learning Object Availability Settings
Availability for this learning object type is set using the Learning Object (LO) Availability Load.
Only the following availability related criteria can be loaded using this data load type:
- Availability: All Users - When this is set to true, it overrides all other availability settings for the learning object.
- Register Upon Approval
- Pre-approved
- Include Subordinates
Thumbnail Images
An optional Thumbnail field is available which allows administrators to apply thumbnail images to training in bulk. If no value is provided for this field, the Default Training Image Preferences are applied. The thumbnail image file must be placed in the Cornerstone FTP location in the following folder: LMS/[TRAINING LOAD TYPE]/Thumbnail. This FTP folder structure should be created it if does not already exist.
To remove a thumbnail image that is already set for a training item, load the training with a blank value for the Thumbnail field and set the configuration to Apply Default Value for blank values. Following the load, the default thumbnail image will be applied based on Default Training Image Preferences.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What will happen if I have a material in my load files which should be retrieved from the FTP server, but the file is not available in the FTP folder?
If a material file should be retrieved from the FTP server, then the optional File Name field should provide the file name, and the file should be in the LMS/Material folder on the FTP server.
The load will fail for material records with missing file attachments.