Guide
Connect a Data Source for Custom Metadata
A data source keeps a Custom Object’s instances, or a Custom Property’s values, current from a file you do not have to touch again.
- On the Inventory page, click “Inventory Options” ([…]) and select “Manage your metadata”.
- Click “Metadata Options” ([…]) next to the desired custom metadata.
- Click “Edit”.
- Select either “SharePoint file (CSV or Excel)” or “SharePoint library (folder of CSV/Excel files)”.
- Enter the location and file name of the file (e.g.
https://contoso.sharepoint.com/sites/governance/Shared%20Documents/data.csv). - For the imported data, select either:
- Keep only the latest file: rows the file no longer holds are removed from this object (overwrites the data with the current version of the file, and removes items not present in it).
- Add up data from every file: rows are matched by a key property and updated in place (appends the data from the current version of the file, and does not remove items).
- Click the dropdown and select the property that identifies the row (e.g. Name).
- Click “Analyze” to read the file.
- The file’s first row needs to hold the name of each property. The columns can be in any order, and upper or lower case does not matter.
- If a name does not match, an error is shown, and the file is not imported if you save at this point.
- Make any adjustments until there are no errors, then check again by clicking “Analyze again”.
- Click “Save and import”.
Each refresh writes one entry to the source’s run log with the trigger, the time, the status, and how many rows were added, updated, and removed. A file over 100 MB is not imported, Rencore Governance states the size and the limit when you try to save or refresh. If a scheduled refresh fails, the previous data stays in place and the failure appears as a warning in the scan log.
Policies, Reports, and Segments that reference the refreshed data pick up the change automatically. You do not need to open and re-save them after a refresh.
Format your file
Write each value in the format of its property’s data type. An empty cell leaves the property empty for that row.
| Data type | Required format | Works | Fails or comes out wrong |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number | A period as the decimal point, no thousands separator. Put a minus sign in front of a negative number. | 1234, 1234.56, -3.2 | 1,5 is saved as 15. 1.234,56 and €12 are left empty. |
| Date | YYYY-MM-DD. In Excel, format the date cells to show this format. | 2026-04-13 | None |
| Yes-No | True or False | True, False | Yes, No, Y, and N are ignored and leave the property empty. |
| Text | Any text, saved as written. Spaces at the start and end are removed. | Finance team | None |
| Single select | The choice exactly as it is named in the property, including capitalization and spaces. | High | high is saved but does not match the choice. |
For a CSV file:
- Separate the values with a comma.
- Put a value that contains a comma in double quotes (e.g.
"Smith, Anna"). - Save the file as UTF-8 without a byte order mark (BOM).
For an Excel file, only the first worksheet is read. A cell that holds a formula is imported empty, so replace formulas with their values before you import.