Delete or Update an Item Type's Field Without Losing Data

Author: Amanda Jennewein

Updated: August 2024

Audience: Everyone

Environments: Jama Connect® 

Understanding your organization's needs before configuring item types is good practice, but even the most careful planner can still face changing requirements. Perhaps your item type has a Flag field that you must change to a Pick List to accommodate a new third option. It is not possible to change a field's type, but it should be reasonably simple to populate your new field with the existing field's data:

1. You can configure your new field to include the options and settings you need, making sure all possible selectable values match your existing field's options exactly.
2. Export all items of the affected type via the Excel Export for Roundtrip office template, including the data from your existing field.
3. Reimport your items, mapping the existing field's data to your new field (note: any field not mapped will be unchanged by the import). At this point, all items of your affected type should have an exact duplicate of the existing field's data in the new field.
4. Once you have verified that all needed data was filled into your new field, could you remove the existing field from the item type?

References

• Success Programs
• Success Catalog
• Datasheets
• Request a Solution Offering or Training from the Success Catalog