Organizers are able to import a variety of data into their Spaces using a Comma Separated Values (CSV) files.
Automatic data import is not yet available. In the meantime, you can still submit a request to import data.
In order to properly process data included in an import, it must be formatted using the following guidelines:
| Category | Field | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Freeform | Memo | Unstructured block of text that is imported directly. This can contain up to 1 million characters. Max Length |
| Text | ||
| Numeric | Currency | Numeric fields should contain numbers and up to a single period, indicating a decimal. Any alphabetic or other special characters will be stripped during import. Min Value Max Value |
| Number | ||
| Percentage | ||
| Boolean | Checkbox | This must be either |
| Toggle | ||
| Moment | Date | Fields containing a date should be formatted using one of the following:
We will attempt to parse any other values that you provide into a valid date, but the results can be inconsistent. |
| Time | A field representing a time. This can be in 12 or 24 hour format, for example:
| |
| Selection | Choice | Selection Represents the name of the option chosen using a Selection Field. If the imported value does not match an available option, it will be ignored. |
| Dropdown | ||
| Slider | ||
| Collection | Checklist | Collection
|
| Listbox | ||
| Tag | ||
| Special | Color | The full hexadecimal representation of the color, which is a hash followed by six alphanumeric characters, for example:
|
| Text representing an email address. Any text that fails validation will be ignored. | ||
| Phone | This can only contain numbers, two parentheses and a single hyphen in the following format:
Any data not in this format will be ignored. | |
| Rating | This must be a number. | |
| Website | This must be a website. | |
| Zip | This must be a 5-digit numeric value, representing a zip code. |
Escaping Data
Files formatted using Comma Separated Values (CSV) utilize the following special characters:
- Commas
Used to separate columns. - Newlines
Used to separate rows. - Quotes
Used to contain data that contains non-text characters.
If you use a text editor to edit your data (e.g. Notepad++ or SublimeText), you will need to ensure that these characters are included correctly to ensure that your data is processed correctly.
If you use a spreadsheet editor to manipulate a CSV file (e.g. Microsoft Excel, Apple Numbers, or Google Sheets), these characters will be managed for you automatically behind the scenes.
Most notably, any data that contains anything other than alphanumeric characters should be contained in quotes. If the data itself contains a quote, it should be escaped using a second quote.
Members
Ideally, your Members will register for your Space on their own, since they will be able to utilize a single Account to access multiple Member.buzz Spaces. However, it can sometimes be useful to import an existing list of Members into your Space, especially when migrating from a different system.
Imports are processed using a CSV file containing the required information on your new Members. At the very least, this file must contain the following fields:
Username
- The username that will be used for the Member's Account.
- The email that will be used for the Member's Account. This is where the Member's new login information will be sent (including their password).
- Membership Name
- The name of the Membership to enroll the Member in. If this is a paid Membership, they will be manually registered as if you had manually specified which Membership to assign to an existing Member in the Member Dashboard.
Username and Email has to be unique across all Spaces on Member.buzz. If there is a conflict with the Email field, an invitation will be sent to the user with a link to register with your Space using their existing Account. If there is already a Member on your Space with a given Email, it will be skipped.If there is a conflict with a Username, a number will be appended to it to make it unique.
You also have the option of including information on the following built-in Fields:
Name
- The User's First and Last Name. If the Member already exists, this will be ignored.
- Email Aliases
- Alternative emails that should be associated with the new Member. If the Member
- Membership Expiration
- The date that the Membership will expire. If this is not included, then the Membership will use its default properties.
Finally, you can reference any custom Fields or Taxonomies to associate with your imported Members. To ensure that custom fields end up in the right place, the column headers must be named as following:
| Type |
|---|
Profile FieldsProfile Fields are created in your Member Dashboard and are associated with a Member regardless of which Membership they register with. Format Examples |
Membership FieldsMembership Fields are created in your Membership Dashboard and are associated with any Member who has chosen to register with a given Membership. Format Examples |
TaxonomiesTaxonomies help to organize your Members into groups that can then be granted special access. Format Examples |
The easiest way to see the required format for importing new Members is to do an export of your existing Members using the CSV file type.
