When importing relationships, there are two common approaches depending on your goal:

1. Linking records during import

2. Creating relationship records without linking to specific records

Linking records during import

This approach is used when both records already exist in Slate. Because relationships are simply connections between records, any record types that support relationships can be linked during import.

Field Mapping destinations:

Relationship Type vs. Inverse Relationship Type

These fields can be confusing when mapping imports.

• Relationship: Linked Record Inverse Type describes how the relationship appears from the main record (RefID / Slate ID Matching Only)

• Relationship: Type describes the linked record (Linked Record GUID)

For example: If the Slate ID matching identifies the Parent record, then Relationship: Linked Record Inverse Type = Parent. If you are linking that parent to their child, the Linked Record GUID would be the child record, and Relationship: Type = Child.

Example linked relationship import

Import File:

Field Mappings:

Result:

Importing relationships without linking

In some cases, you may want to create relationship records without linking them to another record during the import, particularly if the related record does not exist in Slate and doesn’t need to.

In these situations, you can map values to any field in the Relationship destination type except the Relationship: Linked Record destinations. This allows the relationship record to be created and associated with the main record without requiring a linked record.