How to set attributes for multiple software products

If you want to set software attributes for large number of software products without having to do so by visiting each software product individually, Applixure has functionality to assign attributes to number of software product assets in one go.

Currently attributes that can be mass-assigned are:

• Approval state
• Lifecycle state
• Information whether if licensing is needed

You can assign software attributes both at the general product level (e.g. all products having just name "7-Zip") or at the level of individual product version (e.g. all products having name "7-Zip" and version "19.05").

Please note that all functionality described below necessitates that the user account has been granted permissions to asset properties.

You can access mass operations for attribute assignments from the Settings screen, under individual environment's settings using selection called Bulk operations:

Once in the bulk operations -screen, follow the steps below for assigning multiple attributes for multiple software products:

1. First you need to create a CSV (comma separated values) file to import to Applixure, which lists all eligible software products to assign attributes for, and all the needed attributes.
   
   CSV file needs to be saved in UTF8 format, and must contain three columns, separated by either commas (,) or semicolons (;). You can double-quote each column if it contains the separator character.
   
   If you export CSV file from Microsoft Excel (using Save As -functionality), please note that Excel saves CSV files by default using system's local text encoding so you should use text editor such as Notepad++ in Windows or TextWrangler in macOS to change/re-save resulting CSV file in correct encoding.
   
   Six columns that must be present in the CSV file are:
   
   
   1. software product's name, this is used for matching to existing software in your environment
   2. software product's version, this is used alongside with name for matching to existing software in your environment - this column is optional, leave empty to match all products having name defined in column 1
   3. software product's vendor, this is used alongside with name (and version) for matching to existing software in your environment - this column is optional, leave empty to match all products having name (and version) defined in columns 1 & 2
   4. approval status to set for matching software product, valid values are:
      
      • Approved
      • Unapproved
      • Unknown
   5. lifecycle status to set for matching software product, valid values are:
      
      • Discovered
      • Testing
      • Piloting
      • In production
      • Retired
   6. is license needed -status to set for matching software product, valid values are:
      
      • true
      • false
   
   Any attribute columns left empty means that the attribute in question won't be modified.
   
   An example would be: "Adobe Photoshop CS6";"";"";"Approved";"In production";""
   
   Please note that if software product does not match to any product currently in your Applixure environment, this attribute assignment will not be remember if matching software product happens to appear in the environment later on!
   
   You can download example CSV file for software attribute assignment as attachements to this article, these will contain the correct encoding and fields. Please note that these example files have header row for describing the fields; you may omit header row as Applixure will try to process all rows.
   
   
2. Once you have CSV file ready, you can import it for processing using Upload software attributes import file -buttons on the Bulk Operations page.
   
   
   
   If you have large number of products in your environment, processing and matching may take a while, please be patient.
   
   No assignments of attributes will be done during this phase! Applixure will show you preview of assignment operations to be performed and ask for confirmation before actually doing any mass operation.
   
   
   
   Please note that any software products for which match could not be found are simply skipped.
   
   
3. After you have reviewed that bulk assignment operation is what is intended, you can press Confirm -button to start import. Again, if there is large number of assets to process, this may take a while to complete.
   
   
4. After attribute assignment has been done, you will be notified of the bulk operation's result.