Import

The Import menu allows you to import the master course and personnel data as well as historical training records (transcripts) from a .csv file. If your data is currently in MS Excel format (.xls), you will need to save the spreadsheet as a .csv file before importing the data.

Existing records will be updated when the "Update" checkbox is checked on the import tab, or if a matching record cannot be found, the record will be added as a new record. Training Manager uses the following criteria when checking for a matching record to update:

•	Update Personnel Record: If an existing Personnel record has a matching Personnel Number or Login Name in the source file, and the fields have been mapped on the Field Mappings tab, the record will be updated with any changes.

•	Update Course Record: If an existing Course record has a matching Course Number or Course Title field in the source file, and the fields have been mapped on the Field Mappings tab, the existing record will be updated with any changes.

•	Update Training Record: If an existing Transcript entry has a matching Course, Person, and Completion date, and the fields have been mapped on the Field Mappings tab, the existing record will be updated with any changes.

•	New Personnel, Course, or Training Record: If a matching record is not found, a New record will be added to the database.

You may import a source file which contains all or only some of the data fields. For example, for initial import, you may want to import as many data fields as possible. However, to update only the changes in Job Role, Personnel Group, or Employment status, you may want to use an import file which contains just the Personnel Number field and the Job Role, Personnel Group, or Employment Status field.

Important: Be sure to test out your import files on a test database and backup your production database prior to importing the data. It is a good idea to develop a repeatable and consistent process for creating your import file if you plan to perform the operation on a regular basis.

The Data Source tab is the first tab on the Import Wizard accessed using the menu option Tools --> Import. This tab allows you to select an import file and configure the settings to match the import file format.

The import file is the .csv file which contains the data to import. For example, if you have a list of personnel in an Excel spreadsheet, you can save the spreadsheet as a .csv file using the File Save As command in Excel, and then import the personnel records rather than entering them all manually.

The following sections are examples of the contents of a valid .csv file for Personnel, Courses, and Training Records. You may copy and paste this data into a Notepad document and save it to test importing the file into the system:

"PERSONNELGROUPNAME","LOGINNAME","FIRSTNAME","LASTNAME","EMAILADDRESS","PHONENUMBER","HIREDATE","CLASSIFICATION"

"Engineering","jdoe1","Jonathan","Doe1","jdoe@company.com","123-123-1234","2009-04-20T00:00:00-07:00","Full-Time"

"Human Resources","jsmith1","Jane","Smith1","jsmith@company.com","123-123-1235","2009-04-20T00:00:00-07:00","Full-Time"

See Also: Sample .csv files for importing located in the Program Files\Training Manager directory.

MS Excel will sometimes leave out the ending comma if the last column in the file contains data in only some of the rows. For example, if you have a Notes column in the last column of your file, and only a few of the rows have any data in the Notes field, the file may not get saved in a proper .csv format with an ending comma for the empty columns. In this case, you may want to delete the last column and then resave the file for import, or ensure that each row contains data in that column in order for the import file to be saved in a valid .csv format.

You may need to remove any unused or empty columns in your source file to avoid creating a malformed .csv file.

The "Save As file type" feature in Excel will sometimes create a malformed csv file which cannot be used in the import process; however, you can try exporting to a unicode text file instead. The Unicode text option produces an output similar to tab-delimited text, but it allows for the inclusion of non-ASCII characters such as Chinese, Arabic or Hebrew letters, which otherwise may appear as question marks.

1.	Choose "Unicode Text (txt)" instead of CSV when saving the Excel file.

2.	When using this option, be sure to select the .txt file instead of the .csv file when you select the import source in Training Manager.

3.	Also, change the field delimiter to a tab instead of a comma on the Data Source tab.

Field Delimiter: For .csv files, the field delimiter will be a comma. This is the character which separates the fields in the file.

Text Qualifier: The Text Qualifier is used to surround the values for each field. For example, if you have a field with a comma in it, you will need to include the value in quotes so that it is recognized correctly.

First row contains column names: Check this box if the first row of your import file contains file names.

The Data preview section displays the first few rows of the import file so you can check to see if the settings are correct.

This tab provides options for mapping the data from the fields in your source file to the fields in the Training Manager database. The Source Fields are listed in the column on the left side. For each field that you want to map to a Training Manager field, click in the area to the right of the field and then select a destination Training Manager field to map it to.

Training Manager Field: The Training Manager Field is the corresponding field in Training Manager to map the source field to.

Click the "Import" button on this tab to import the data into the database. A summary of the import results will be provided in the Import Summary section after the import process is completed.