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Importing Data

Forums: Questions and Answers About Building Your Site
Created on: 07/16/08 02:57 PM Views: 1592 Replies: 9
Wednesday, July 16, 2008 at 2:57 PM

I'd like to be able to upload additional information besides just name and address on each classmate to the site as I'm transferring data from another site. I don't want my classmates to have to manually reenter their data. Is there a way to do this?

Thanks,
Suzanne

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Monday, July 21, 2008 at 1:09 AM - Response #1

Short of writing a custom script to import all that data, no. You must use your Excel template and/or the manual Classmate entry process to get Classamtes details into the system.


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Wednesday, August 6, 2008 at 11:12 PM - Response #2

Hi Brad,
I'm new but wanted to say congrats on the birth of your son, oh, and this site rocks! Thank you!

I found your site quite late in our planning process, or shall I say, we weren't moving until I found this site. Our 20 yr reunion is 2 mths away. I have already announced the site, and classmates are creating their profiles.

Can I use the Excel download to quickly enter info that I'm gathering and then upload it, or will it tamper with info as the classmates are creating their own profiles? ie. email addresses, married names.

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Thursday, August 7, 2008 at 12:04 AM - Response #3

Hi Crystal, thanks for the nice words.

You can use the Excel upload feature to add any NEW Classmates to your system. If you've already got a Classmate's name on your site and you try to upload that record again, or system will just ignore it. Once you've batch imported a Classmate record into the system, from that point forward you have to edit that entry using the manual edit function. The batch import option is generally a one time thing you do to get Classmates into the system. Note though, that you can download a live snapshot of your Class List using the Excel download function at any time.


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Thursday, September 29, 2011 at 2:17 PM - Response #4

Hi Brad,

You sort of lost me. You're answering a question I also had, I think! I entered our committee members in right away so we could start communicating, etc., and now have the Excel sheet ready to upload, but didn't know whether the members I loaded and they entered profiles for would be over written by the spreadsheet.

I'm not the most techno savvy person, so didn't quite follow you explanation. Should I delete those names from my Excel sheet first in order to keep them current/valid as set up by the member?

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Thursday, September 29, 2011 at 2:40 PM - Response #5

If the names (first, last, and maiden names) all match exactly, the imported record will be skipped.
If the names don't match, you will get two records that are for the same classmate.
After the import, just delete the duplicate classmates that don't have any data or if there is new information in the upload file, copy the new information before deleting the duplicate classmate.

To not have any problems at all, just delete the classmates who are already in the system. However the only problem you will have is not a bad one. No classmates are ever deleted on an import. You just might get duplicates.


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Wednesday, October 5, 2011 at 7:08 PM - Response #6

Hi, I downloaded your Excel spreadsheet and began to fill it in. Since I don't know the married names of most of my classmates I thought I would just enter the names as they are in the yearbook, as suggested. Here's the catch, and I don't know if it will be a problem when I try to upload the list. Our yearbook shows most classmates first, last and middle names (many are known by their middle name) so I changed the spreadsheet that you provided from "maiden name" to "middle name" and figured the individuals could edit as necessary. Now I'm wondering if this will cause problems when I try to upload the class list? Will I be better off just deleting the middle names and changing the heading back to "maiden name" and leaving that column blank? Thanks.

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Wednesday, October 5, 2011 at 9:42 PM - Response #7

The MAIDEN NAME needs to remain the maiden name.

Maiden Name IS THE LAST NAME OF THE WOMEN BEFORE MARRIAGE. This should be the last name of all of the female classmates that you find in the yearbook.

Most of the other admins of other websites put nicknames in parenthesis after their name. For example, "Jim (Jimmy)". For their middle names, don't use the parenthesis. For example, FIRST NAME = Mary Louise , Maiden Name = Smith , then when they she updates her profile, she would add their married last name.


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Wednesday, October 26, 2011 at 12:16 PM - Response #8

Okay, so I followed your advice. When I went to upload the names, oops, got the following:
"Oops!
One or more rows in your file contained invalid data.
No data was inserted! Please correct the following errors and try again.
Row #3, column #2 (last_name): Column cannot be blank.
Etc.
Etc.
It looks like one or more fields is missing a last name. The most common cause of this is that the Last (Maiden) Name and Married Name fields are swapped in your file. Please make sure that ALL classmates have a last name, and only enter a "married name" for married classmates who have taken on a new last name."

First of all, the spreadsheet I downloaded did not have a "Married Name" field. It has first, last and maiden name. Your example will not work. You cannot upload Mary Louise Smith by putting "Smith" in the "Maiden Name" column UNLESS you also put it in the "Last Name" column. A bit redundant. Second, the spreadsheet I downloaded is a .csv file extension which the upload page said was required to upload the file. But when I went back to download the spreadsheet again it is in the .xls file extension, which is the default (and proper) file extension for Excel. Minor stuff though, I got it done. Thanks.

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Wednesday, October 26, 2011 at 12:31 PM - Response #9

The Upload Template file has a "Married Name" field and NOT a "Maiden Name" field.

Classmates' names as they were in school should be in the "First Name" and "Last Name" fields, and if their names have changed then the new surname goes in the "Married Name" field.

ALL "First Name" and "Last Name" fields MUST have values, and the "Married Name" field is optional.

Also, EXCEL will open and save CSV files, but the database cannot import XLS files.


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