This tutorial explains how to import a graph from a table structured format using the Tabular Import Wizard. The basic steps involve selecting an input file, mapping columns of the input file to entities and creating links between entities. The information that defines a mapping is known as a mapping configuration and the Wizard allows you to save and load existing mapping configurations. This tutorial can be shown in a separate window by clicking on the “Pop out” button and/or deactivated to not show again by checking the “Don't show again” checkbox.
First choose whether you want to create a new mapping configuration or load a saved one. By default the most recent saved mapping configuration will be chosen.
Clicking the “Manage” button will bring up the Mapping Manager window which shows a table of all the currently saved mapping configurations. Mapping configurations are persisted according to their name which must be unique. The name and description of a saved mapping configuration can be edited by clicking the edit icon (black arrow below). Mappings can also be deleted by clicking the corresponding delete icon (red arrow below).
After choosing a new or existing mapping configuration, choose the file to be imported and click on “Next”.
Note: When loading a saved mapping configuration, Maltego will alert you if the selected mapping is not compatible with the data-file selected.
In this step the user is presented with three tabs which separate mapping configuration creation into three logical processes. At least one entity needs to be defined in the “Map Columns to Entities” tab, and for two or more defined entities the user can then optionally create and edit links between them (“Connectivity” tab) and/or assign link properties to input file columns (“Map Columns to Links” tab).
Note: If a saved mapping configuration were chosen in the “Select File” step, the entities, links and column mappings would be pre-configured for this step.
Entity mapping is performed by completing three steps for each entity that will be mapped. First, one or more “unmapped” columns must be selected, then the entity to which the selected columns are mapped must be selected from the “Map to” list.
Tip: To add or remove a column from the selected entity hold down <Ctrl> and click on the column.
Once an entity has been chosen, the property to which each column maps can be edited in step 3.
Steps 1 to 3 are repeated for each entity that should be mapped.
Maltego will automatically generate links between newly mapped entities in the “Map Columns to Entities” tab. These can be viewed and deleted or additional links can be created in the “Connectivity” tab to customize the connectivity of the entities that will be created. Multiple links can be selected by holding down <Ctrl> or <Alt> and dragging the mouse across the graph to create a selection box.
The steps for mapping columns to links are exactly the same as the steps for mapping columns to entities, the only difference being that the “Map to” combo box will present the list of links (created in the “Connectivity” tab) as opposed to entities.
After the mapping configuration has been defined, the wizard presents a “Settings” screen where various tabular import settings can be set such as sampling, empty values, graph size and link merging. If a current graph exists the user will have the option to merge the imported graph with it. The user is also given the option to save the mapping configuration (checked by default) with a default name and description. Mapping configurations are persisted according to their names, and therefore the names need to be non-empty and unique. If the entered name is not unique the existing mapping configuration will be overwritten but a warning will be shown in such cases.
If the user chooses not to save the mapping configuration, Maltego will save it automatically as “Auto-saved mapping” — overwriting the existing auto-saved mapping configuration if it exists.
Note: When the “Auto-saved mapping” is loaded in the “Select File” step, the default name will be blank forcing the user to define a more descriptive name.
If the import has failed, the wizard will inform the user and give as much information as possible about the problem. If the import completed successfully a summary of the import result is presented which include the name under which the mapping configuration has been saved.