Req Field Association (RFA) / Candidate Field Association (CFA): Preparing the Spreadsheet for Import

Resolving The Problem

It is recommend that you always obtain the properly formatted spreadsheet prior to completing your Req Field Association (RFA) or Candidate Field Association (CFA) import in Workbench. To do this follow the below steps:

Req Field Association Export:
· Export the RFA: Tools > Forms > Reqs > Req Forms > Define Custom Req Fields > Export Field Association
· Go into Task Manager (Tools > Task Manager) to retrieve your export & open the file. Save it to your computer as an Excel file type (.xls)
· Your import spreadsheet can only have two tabs: Properties & Associations. Do NOT change the name of the tabs
· You do not need to make any changes to the Properties tab unless you are creating a new association. If so, change the Parent Question cell to include the Database Field Name of the parent question.

If you are creating a brand new RFA, you may create a new spreadsheet by following the sample RFA import spreadsheet format below.
Properties Tab:


Associations Tab:



Candidate Field Association Export:
· Export the CFA: Tools > Forms > Candidate Forms > Administer Form Fields (for the candidate form that houses the CFA you will be uploading) > Export Field Association
· Go into Task Manager (Tools > Task Manager) to retrieve your export & open the file. Save it to your computer as an Excel file type (.xls)
· Your import spreadsheet can only have two tabs: Properties & Associations. Do NOT change the name of the tabs
· You do not need to make any changes to the Properties tab unless you are creating a new association. If so, change the Parent Question cell to include the Database Field Name of the parent question.

If you are creating a brand new CFA, you may create a new spreadsheet by following the sample RFA import spreadsheet format below.
Properties Tab:


Associations Tab:




RFA/CFA Rules
· Field types which cannot be a ‘parent’: Date, Text area, Text box, Label, Grid, SSN, Email, Autofill, & Numeric. (These field types do not have options.)
· The following field types cannot be a child field: Date, Label, Grid, SSN, Autofill
· Text-based child fields must be loaded in each applicable language
· A Parent field can have multiple children fields
· A Child field can have only one parent field
· Circular field associations are not supported. Example: If Department is parent to Location and Location is parent to Business Group, Business Group cannot be parent to Department.
· Field associations are applied across req templates and languages. (In order for association to work consistently, all options should be translated.)
· If you have an RFA/CFA where the child field is a single select and the default value is “Yes” AND you want to default a new value to “yes” then you must first DELETE the existing association before you can create a new one. Example: Parent field is “State” and child field is “City.” My existing association is whenever Massachusetts is selected for the State, Boston is automatically selected in the City field. Now I want to have Waltham default in the City field instead of Boston. I must first delete the association between Massachusetts and Boston before I can create an association between Massachusetts & Waltham. This is done through two different imports – “delete” action on the first one and “update” action on the second one.

Preparing the RFA/CFA spreadsheet for import:
1. The export includes both active and inactive parent and child options. Delete the rows for associations you are not updating
2. On the “Associations” tab, add a new column to the front of the spreadsheet (it will be your new Column A). Name the new column “Import Action”. The only two acceptable values that will be in this column will be “Update” and “Delete”.
3. The Child Option column can include the option’s code or description.
4. For CFAs: The “Child Type” column will always be “Candidate”.


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