Tools Imports - ION Manual
Overview
The Tools importer bulk-creates or revises tools. In ION, a tool is a part with the tool part type, so this importer follows the same revision flow as the Parts importer but exposes a narrower, tool-relevant column set. Two things are set automatically on every row:
- Part type is always
tool. - Tracking type is always
serial, because tools are serial-tracked. Including atracking_typecolumn in the CSV is rejected.
Columns
| Column | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
part_number |
Yes | The tool’s part number. |
revision |
No | The revision. Omit to let ION assign the next revision automatically (or the scheme’s initial value if the tool is new). |
revision_scheme |
No | Name of the revision scheme to use when creating a brand-new tool. Defaults to the org’s default scheme. |
description |
No | Free-text description. |
export_controlled |
No | Whether the tool is export controlled. Boolean field (see accepted values). |
maintenance_interval |
No | Maintenance interval as a duration. See Duration format. |
subtypes |
No | Semicolon-delimited list of tool subtype names, such as Torque Wrench;Calibrated. |
Duration format
The maintenance_interval column accepts a duration written in days, hours, and minutes. Use the units d, h, and m, in that order, with optional spaces between terms. Each unit is optional. The value is rounded down to the nearest minute. A plain number with no unit is read as a number of seconds. Valid values include:
| Value | Meaning |
|---|---|
30d |
30 days |
1d 2h |
1 day, 2 hours |
1d 2h 20m |
1 day, 2 hours, 20 minutes |
45m |
45 minutes |
3600 |
3,600 seconds (1 hour) |
The Review step flags a value that uses any other unit (such as weeks or seconds), lists the units out of order, or is otherwise unparseable.
Revisions
Revision behavior mirrors the Parts importer: rows with an explicit revision create or update that exact (part_number, revision), while rows that omit revision either initialize a new tool at the scheme’s first value or auto-revise an existing tool from its latest revision.
Subtypes
The subtypes column attaches one or more subtypes to the tool. Subtype names are matched case-insensitively; names that don’t exist yet are created automatically, so you can bootstrap your subtype list from the same CSV. Associations that already exist are skipped, keeping re-imports idempotent.
Custom attributes
Any column not in the standard list above is treated as a custom attribute on the tool. Custom attribute columns must match a configured attribute key for your organization; unknown columns cause a validation error.