3. Data Import

Before you can use the batch system you have to import some data. There are three different import actions in OpenCA's batch system:

  1. new users

  2. new processes

  3. data for processes

All three formats are described in the following. You must store the three files on your dataexchange media in the files batch_new_user.txt, batch_new_process.txt and batch_process_data.txt. After the specifications you can find an example.

First a description of the formats to create a new user and a new process. Both formats are very simple.

The format to import the data is a little bit more complicated because it must support some special cases.

Please respect the minimum keylength to avoid trouble. __user_defined__ means that you can store other data in the batchprocessor too. This requires that you customize the batch functions. __user_defined__ should be an uppercase word, there are no spaces allowed in the name. This identifier is used as filename, by default we put the file into the "data" directory of the process, if you want to put it somewhere else, you can give the directory after the name with the @ sign, e.g. "PIN@private" will create a file called PIN in the directory private. You can pass mulitline data using mime-style limiters, the limiters will NOT go into the data file, so if you want to pass data which already has limiters and keep them, e.g. a PKCS7 structure, you have to add a second set of limiters. If you need other data which you cannot import with this system then please write a mail and explain your requirements.

Here you find now a very simple example for the two users Jon and Jane Doe.

The above example describes the classic import mechanism with three files. So you can create user, process and data in three single steps, and if you see something going wrong (e.g. creating a user already there) you can stop the process. OpenCA provides a QuickImport Feature that needs only the last file (batch_process_data.txt) and creates user, process and process data in a single step. It will take care and not override already existing process, but create more than one process even if the user exisits in the system. Nevertheless the QuickImport Feature should fit 98% users needs.