CiviCRM Community Forums (archive)

There was code here http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMDOC40/Importing+Events but it's outdated I think.

Seems it would have to be done via custom code, using the API.

Hi Thane,

For what it's worth - this code certainly simplifies the process, but I'm reasonably sure you'd be able to import events, and activities tied to those events, with the command-line import tools: http://civicrm.org/blogs/xavier/api_batch_tools

In fact, importing events is pretty straightforward with the command line tools if you're comfortable with CSV files (and the command line of course!).  You can export your existing events, and write your new events to a CSV to match that format.  Lots of the code in the script Hershel references is for the API v2, which was more cumbersome - you wouldn't need most of that today.

Importing the participants is trickier - the issue is lookups.  You couldn't import activities by the event's name or the contact's name - you'd have to look up the event ID and the contact ID and put those in your CSV.  The PHP is what simplifies all this - it does the lookups for you.

That said - if you're comfortable with databases (especially SQL) but not PHP, you could write the lookups yourself.  Alternatively, if you're not comfortable with PHP or SQL, but like spreadsheet software like Microsoft Excel or LibreOffice Calc just fine, and know how to write lookup formulas - you could export your contacts and your events to CSV, then write lookup formulas in your spreadsheet formula.

More cumbersome - sure.  But then you don't need to know PHP or SQL.