This option is not available for LDAP- or SQL-enabled
Address Books. It is only for use with the FootPrints Address Book.
Before you begin, the Address Book fields must first
be created to match the fields in the data to be imported. Also,
the contact data must be placed into a single, flat text file in CSV format. See Creating the Address Book Data File for details
on creating the text file. Only the CSV file format is supported.
To load data from the web screens:
Select Administration
| Address Book | Load Data.
Complete
the fields as follows:
Select Time to Load Contact Information —The
data can be imported immediately or scheduled for a future time.
If your import file is large (e.g., more than 1,000 contacts) and
the FootPrints server is in use, we recommend scheduling the import for
a time when the server is not being accessed by users.
Please browse for the data import file ...—Click
the Browse button to browse your local machine or network drives
for the file. A link is also provided to review the schema of the data.
Data encoding—Select the type of data encoding to use for the import file from the following options:
Server
Default - If you're planning to view the CSV file in Excel or other
non-UTF-8-aware application, or if you are loading data saved from Excel,
select this option.
UTF-8
- If you are sure that the application used to view the data in the CSV
file can handle UTF-8 encoded data, select this option.
Userid or full name of an agent...—There are two
different methods for indicating the default submitter of the contact:
If no submitter is
indicated, the user ID of the administrator performing the data import
becomes the submitter for all Issues being imported.
Enter a valid one-word
FootPrints ID in the field provided.
This user becomes the submitter for all of the Issues being imported.
After confirming that everything is correct, click GO at the bottom of the screen to load the data. A new Load External Data page displays, showing information about the data to be loaded at the top of the page.
Complete the
fields as follows:
You may use the parameters in a built-in Field-Mapping List...—If you have saved mappings previously, a list of built-in and saved field mappings displays on the left side of the Schema section. To use a saved or built-in mapping, select the mapping from the list and the click the Use Selected List button. The fields for mapping will be populated from the selected list. To delete a saved list, select the field and then click the Delete Selected List button.
Check here if your Load File...—Select this check box if your import file has a Heading line. If the box is checked, the first line of the import file will not be loaded as data.
Save Field-Mapping List —Click this button to save the mappings that you create. You are prompted to enter a name for the saved field mapping. Saved mappings display in the list on the left side of the page.
Field Mapping—Map the fields in the load file to Address Book fields by selecting the appropriate load file fields from the drop-downs. To skip a field mapping, select Do Not Import from the drop-down. If you select Do Not Import, no data is entered into that field. You can also select Blank Field #1 to leave fields blank.
Check here to create/update Master Contact Records with values from your import file...—Check the box to ensure that Master Contact Records are updated for all Address Book entries with information from the import file.
Click the GO button at the bottom of the page to import the data.
The data is validated.
If the data is good, the import proceeds. If bad data is present,
an error message displays with the line numbers of contacts containing
errors.
If you scheduled
the import to occur in the future, the import does not occur until that
time. To
remove a scheduled import, click the Review
a List of Address Book Load events link. Imports
that are in process cannot be removed.
Load Data As Batch Process
You can import data into the FootPrints Address Book using a batch process without using the web screens. You must prepare the Upload file as described in Create the Address Book Data File. Batch Upload files receive no error checking; they are loaded as-is, so it is essential that your Upload file be properly set up and that it contains no errors.
The batch process is run via the command line interface.
For loading a web queue of Address Book imports, the command is:
perl MRloadBackgroundABData.pl
For importing a CSV file to the Address Book, the command is:
perl MRloadBackgroundABData.pl [args]
where the arguments [args] are:
-abnumber=<address book number> (address book number for target address book)
-file=<path to CSV file>
-csvEncoding=<'local' or 'utf8'> (optional; defaults to "local"; enter "utf-8" if the upload file is in utf-u format - applies only to utf8 installations)
-updateMasterContact=1 (optional; set to 1 if updating master contact records from imported contacts)
-updateContactsFromMasterContact=1 (optional; set to 1 if updating
Contacts from the updated Master Contact record)
-submitter=<address book submitter> (optional; defaults to 'ABLOAD' and will affect only the ability to delete or edit depending on role. This can be set by contact in the file.)
The default is to not update Master Contact records and to not
validate fields in the background except to require that the primary
key value be set.