Programmatic data import provides you with extra flexibility to analyze, convert, validate and otherwise re-shape your legacy data as it's being brought into your Virtual Ticket system. The price for this flexibility is that you actually will have to write the import scripts yourself; fortunately, doing so is not as hard as it might sound.

Here's how the process typically looks like:

• Set up your external data source(s) as "linked server(s)"
• Design, write and debug SQL queries for retrieving the data from the linked server(s)
• Design, write and debug a server-side MetaScript that creates Virtual Ticket entities based on the data returned by the SQL queries (make sure to do this on a disposable copy of the database!)
• Backup your production database
• Run your final version of the script against your production database