Overview
The Data Import Utility can be used to mass import event Registrants for customers in netFORUM. The utility will not be able to import invoices, payments or session registrations, but it will import basic flat registrant information so you'll know who attended the event.
The Data Import Utility won't be able to create new individuals from the spreadsheet. Therefore, if you have new individuals, first create them as described in Data_Import_Utility#Importing_Individuals. Next, put the customer IDs of the new individuals into the registrant import spreadsheet into the cst_id column. When creating new individuals, we recommend using a distinct individual Source Code related to the particular event. This way, immediately after you import the new individuals, you can run a Query to get a list of the newly created individuals by querying against the individual source code; be sure to include the cst_id field plus name, address, etc. You can paste this output into a new sheet in your original registrant spreadsheet and use a VLOOKUP function to populate the cst_id field by looking up the individual.
In more detail:
- The assumption is that you're starting with a spreadsheet (or text file) where you do have IDs or keys relating to existing netFORUM customers.
- If you have some registrants who are not existing netFORUM customers, then extract them into a new spreadsheet and import them as individuals as described in Data_Import_Utility#Importing_Individuals. In order to get their new IDs back, include a new source code (cst_src_key) in the upload file to help you identify exactly which individuals get added. We are assuming you have enough data fields to insert a new individual.
- Run a query of the newly added individuals (using the source code as a filter) and include the Customer ID as well as the same fields you used in the import; this will be needed to cross reference them in the original spreadsheet.
- With the output of the query, include that in a new "sheet" of your original spreadsheet.
- Using Excel's VLOOKUP function, lookup the Customer IDs of the newly-imported individuals into the original spreadsheet.
- You should now have a final copy of the import spreadsheet, containing a list of registrants with their netFORUM Customer IDs, some of which already existed, and others that you have just imported. You may now import these registrants into netFORUM.
Field mappings
At a minimum, you will need the following fields in your import file to designate the individual and the event:
- Customer ID or Customer Key that should be mapped to cst_id or cst_key respectively.
- Event Code that should be mapped to evt_code. Note that the event code for the event must not be duplicated. If you have two events with the same event code, then the import may not work.
If you track attendance, then we recommend including:
- reg_attendance_flag - set to 1 if the person attended, 0 if they did not.