DBText Database to be exported to Victoria Collections

 As at October 2024, 

• our records data is being added to a DBText database.
• our library collection is in physical card index form
• our objects database is in multiple spreadsheet format.
• other records (such as transparency scans etc) are being processed for online access outside the DBText database

We hope to transfer all these records over time to Collections Victoria.

In the interim, we need to extract data from DBText to embed into records (esp photos) as metadata. This involves

• Export of records using DBText export settings where field delimiters do not get confused with characters used in the item descriptions. Currently we use:
• string delimiter as carot ^
• field delimiter as as a semi-colon ;
• record delimiter as a vertical line, vertical slash, upright slash, pipe x3 |||
• Need screen captures of DBText export settings
•  The .dmp file exported from DBText needs to be cleaned of characters that will corrupt the import into an excel spreadsheet.  A spreadsheet is needed to allow import into Victoria Collections or to create aggregated text records suitable for embedding as metadata.
• e.g. Registration Number; Museum Code; Collection Type; Publication Name; Negative Number; Other Number; Storage Location; Supplementary File; Title; Classification; Subjects; Brief Description; Inscriptions; Image; Date; Place; Author; Photographer; Publisher; History of Object; References; Size; Source; Condition; Condition Date; Condition Details; Name Cataloguer; Date Catalogued; Date Entered into DB; Acquisition Type; Donor Name; Donor Address; Acquisition Date; Date Acknowledged; Restrictions; Other Information; Purchase Price; Address; Date Entry Altered|||^dd6af11d2^; ^VDTH^; ^Local History^; ^Document^; ; ; ^Archive room^; ; ^Johann Joseph von Schramm^; ^Family History^; ^Schramm family|Schramm, Johann Joseph von|Schramm, Heinrich Friedrich August von|Schiller, Philline Johanne Marie|Schramm, Philline Johanne Marie von|Schramm, Joseph Karl Albert Maria Philipp Heinrich|Zimmernan, Julie|Schramm, Julie|Schramm, Max|Pickering, Katherina (Kate)|Schramm, Katherina (Kate)|Schramm, Victor Karl|von Dittrich, Klara Friedricke Johanne|Schramm, Klara Friedricke Johanne|Schramm, Marie|Weinzier, Marie|Weinzier, Markus|Schramm, Lizbeth|Schramm, Rhode|Schramm, Rahel Elina|Schramm, Roda Edith|Schramm, Joseph Arthur|Schramm, Ada Marie|Schramm, Victor Philipp|Schramm, Albert Paul|Schramm, Walter Thomas|Schramm, Hubert John|Schramm, Otto Edwart Victor|Schramm Jenny|Schramm, Walter Eric|Schramm, Dorothy^; ^Six photocopies of a handwritten family tree showing the descendants of Johann Joseph von Schramm, the grandfather of Max Schramm. Heinrich Friedrich August von Schramm is the one son of Johann Joseph shown. His wife is shown, and four children, their wives and children.^; ; ; ; ; ^not known^; ; ; ; ; ^A4^; ; ^Fair^; ^25/01/2002^; ^Handwriting difficult to decipher at times. The first copy is reasonably clear, some of the extra copies of the document are very pale in parts.^; ^Mack, Kay^; ^25/01/2002^; ^25 January 2002^; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ^25 January 2002^
• Remove line feeds. Researchers sometimes add line feeds to fields as they type.  These are interpreted by the spreadsheet as new redords. We need to convert them to spaces before import into a spreadsheet.
• Open dmp file microsoft word. 
• Search and replace (Ctrl-H) any line feed (^p) with a space
• Change record delimiter to a line feed 
• Search & Replace ||| with ^p
• Open Excel Spreadsheet "DBText Data Massage"
• Select Data - From Text/CSV 
• Check that data import screen has automatically recognised that the fieled delimiter is a semi-colon.
• Click "Load"
• The spreadsheet will probably import the data into a new sheet.
• Delete the data in the sheet "DBText" but leave the empty sheet to receive the new data
• Copy and paste the new data from the new sheet to the "DBText" sheet (so that the formulas work)
• Delete the new sheet
• Replace all carot characters ^ with nothing to remove them.
• Now the sheet that depend on the data will be refreshed with the new data