Turbocharge Your Internal Developer Portal Onboarding and Maintenance with configure8's New Import and Export Feature

Internal developer portals offer transformative benefits, but only if they are realized in a timely fashion. To ensure a rapid time to value, configure8 has always made onboarding easy thanks to multiple methods for data ingestion as well as automations to map data together. We found in certain scenarios, however, that users also want the flexibility to easily bulk import data without writing custom code to call our APIs. We’re therefore thrilled to announce our newest onboarding innovation that further streamlines onboarding and maintenance –  bulk edits via TSV files.

Why It Matters

configure8’s plugins make it easy to automatically pull in data from your tools and you can push in any data via our API and schematize it; however, we’ve introduced TSV import and export functionality to help you make bulk edits without writing custom code to call our APIs. Now you can leverage scripts to populate a TSV file, say with links for documentation and runbooks for each service, and easily ingest and map this data into your catalog without writing an API integration. You can use this new functionality to populate information about services and to make bulk edits, all in a file format you already know and can easily work with.

How It Works

The process is straightforward and designed to be user-friendly:

• You’ve already connected your tools and manually configured how you want a service detail page to look (i.e., defined a “Template Service”) via our no code UI. This takes a few minutes, it’s ridiculously easy
• Select a Template Service: Choose the right template from a list of available services you’ve previously created. This service will serve as the baseline for your TSV file
• Export TSV: With a template service selected, export a TSV file directly from configure8. This file will form the foundation for your bulk changes. Note this is separate from exporting data to avoid vendor lock-in, this would be accomplished via configure8’s API.
• Fill in the Fields: You can then manually or programmatically fill in the fields of the TSV to reflect the changes or additions you want to make to your catalog.   You can do this by hand or if this information is scattered throughout your organization in different databases, create a quick script to fill in the information
• Upload and Validate: Once your TSV is ready, upload it back into configure8. The platform will validate the data to ensure everything is in order before applying the changes.
• Apply Changes: After validation, apply the changes to your catalog with a simple click, and voilà, your catalog is updated.

What Are the Benefits

The TSV feature offers numerous benefits:

• Flexibility: You can choose how to manage your catalog updates. Whether it's through the plugins, API, UI, or TSV, you have the flexibility to select the method that works best for you at any given time.
• Efficiency: Bulk changes mean you can update large sections of your catalog quickly, without the need to go through each entry individually or to write custom code to integrate with our API.
• Accuracy: Manual entry is prone to error. By using a TSV file, you can reduce the risk of mistakes during data entry and ensure that your catalog is accurate and up-to-date.
• Integration: This feature works in tandem with existing plugin, API and UI functionalities, providing a seamless integration and a cohesive experience.

In conclusion, configure8's TSV import and export is an innovative solution that enhances your ability to efficiently manage the universal catalog component of your internal developer portal. It's a testament to configure8's commitment to providing tools that are not only powerful but also easy to use, catering to the diverse needs of enterprise customers. More details may be found in configure8’s documentation.