We are trying to build in an algorithm into our application. To do this, we need to pull values from old data that was not collected in CommCare, but was imported (or can be imported) using the excel importer. However, my understanding is that using the excel importer will not populated those case properties because the case properties were created later? Is that right? Is there any way around this?
Anything you include inside of your excel import will be populated in the case model on the server, but it sounds like you are describing a situation where you are importing inputs to an algorithm and are asking how to populate the outputs of that algorithm?
The things that jump to mind for me are to
Re-implement the algorithm to execute offline and import the results along with your import
Set a flag on imported cases (like needs_algorithm_output='yes') that is used by Form Display Logic to show a form which will run the algorithm with the imported inputs for the case, allowing the user to fill in the remaining fields from the stubs that were uploaded
Use Web Apps with the imported cases to update them with the logic from your form before assigning them to mobile workers.
-Clayton