CiviCRM Community Forums (archive)

Hi,

As of now, it is not possible to import a CSV file which includes contacts as well as columns with assignments to groups or tags.

In order to simplify the interaction of our users with CiviCRM we circulate a Excel template (using the great macro here http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMDOC33/Making+Microsoft+Excel+give+you+clean+data+to+import) this means that our tech team is able to do some data cleaning and therefore keep an eye on the quality of data.

We use the technique described here http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMDOC32/Import+Tags,+Groups i.e. using a custom field to specify the tag or group assignments which then need to be reprocessed. There is a script which we don't use yet but seems to be meant to solve this particular issue : http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMDOC33/Script+to+import+multiple+groups+and+tags+relations

Since it seems that most of the code logic to handle relationships on import (individual/org) exists, it would be great to adapt it to allow users to specify tags and groups at import.

I believe this is something which could generally increase the quality of data in CiviCRM installs out there, since it would allow users to use a well known tool (a spreadsheet editor) to enrich throughly their data, through groups and tags, making contact selection really meaningful and permitting roundtrip enrichement of batches of data by non-technical users. (It could be part of an órganisation's contact database quality workflow to export 100 contacts regularly and assign them to staff for quality control or enriching by tags or groups).

Let us know if that's something you would use as well!

Best,

Jun.