What's the best way to import data from an external database in to the Appian database?

Question

I have a relatively east concept idea that a business user wants to do. 
 They want to take their data in their SQL database and put it on Appian as a dashboard to be viewed by users. 
 What's the easiest way to do this? 
 I essentially want to query their database for all of the rows and assign them to a CDT and save them in the appian Database. Then, I can put this data in an interface grid for them to view. 
 Any thoughts/suggestions? 
 Thanks,

gianninol · Accepted Answer

Ideally you would create a new Data Source in the admin console in order to connect Appian to the database in question, then query the data directly so you have the most up-to-date information. If round trip times from that database are too high and the data doesn't change often within a day's time, you could consider creating a nightly sync process that would query the data directly from the external database and copy it into Appian's database. 
 
If adding it as a Data Source in Appian is not an option, you could try exporting the data in the database into a format that can be read programatically, such as Excel, and then use that to upload the values to Appian. There is an Excel Tools plug-in that can help with importing data from Excel into Appian.

aloks0189 · Answer

Hi joh4 as per my understanding, import Excel to SQL could be the best option for your case, however in such case you can't expect the latest data to be in sync with your data store . 
 
Running a scheduler can allow you to keep the data in sync (instead of exporting and importing all the data at a time) but it's a memory intensive operation, however it all depends on your requirement, whether you need one time import or regular sync after some time interval. 
 
I don't think, service backed record is applicable for your use case, because of following reasons: 
 
1. You are expecting target system to provide you an API to access their data , it's not applicable if they are not agreed for it, or if it's already in production and they are not interested in creating an API for this purpose(if it's not exist already) and adding that as a patch to their application which is in production. 
 
2. In case, If you have got an API to consume, in such case also, you will be representing their data in Appian(in case of service backed record), whereas your requirement is to import their data into your Appian system, which means data must exist in your Appian system. 
 
Hope it will help you.