Author Topic: Importing Members v1.9x (Read 1845 times)

nimzie · July 09, 2008, 09:08:21 am

So, using the custom data, I've added some fields to my membership and am now trying to import. I"ve done the mapping and worked through the data. The preview says it's going to skip 1/475 rows. When I click the Import button after the preview, no records are imported. When I download the errors, it looks like the import routine has totally messed up in the counting of the file.
By that, I mean that in one of my fields (Contact ID), I have autofilled it with unique values and each row has an ID value. When I look in the errors, it doesn't look like each of my rows has this.

Here's a sample of my errors file:
(link removed for privacy reasons - dgg)

I am not sure why this would report one thing and then a totally other once it runs.

Also, the "matching" fields. I have eliminated the contact matching rules and it's still trying to match and tell me there are mandatories like ContactID (which I would prefer the system generate) etc...

Please advise...

Thanks

Dave Greenberg · July 09, 2008, 11:13:33 am

I've removed the link to your error file - assuming this is real data it shouldn't be exposed publicly.

Are you updating existing contact records with this import. If so, you need to provide CiviCRM with a way to match your import rows to the contact records in the database. The cleanest way to do this is to include the unique CiviCRM contact id - which has been assigned to each existing contact record - as a column in your import file. You can "get" this value by first exporting the contact records which you want to update.

Then you "tell" the import to use the Contact ID column to "match to contacts".

If you're not trying to "update" existing contact records - then I'm not understanding what you're goal and steps are. Maybe you can try explaining a bit more.

nimzie · July 10, 2008, 06:00:17 am

Thank you for removing the link. I thought of that a little later on...

My goal in this process is to take an empty CiviCRM member database and import members from another system in to it. I've got things mapping to files in the DB. I've created a unique contact ID in the CSV file. I'm assuming I've got things way backwards. I am in the CiviMember screen and using the Import Batches of Members routine.

I guess to answer your question, I'm inserting these records, not updating. I would rather the system number them. Following that, I want to make these users "Drupal" members - but first things first.

Thanks for any help.

Dave Greenberg · July 10, 2008, 09:17:15 am

Ok - terminology first...

Every Person, Organization and/or Household in CiviCRM is a "Contact".
Contacts may have one or more "memberships" (if you're using CiviMembers)
Folks with a Drupal account are Drupal "Users". If CiviCRM is turned on, then it will automatically create / link a Drupal User to a CiviCRM Contact record during account registration.

You first want to create CiviCRM "Contact" records for each of the people in your prior system. So use "Import Contacts". You can pass in the old "membership or record id" from that system - as External Identifier - if you want to. But you don't need to do that. CiviCRM will create a unique "contact ID" for each person you import - you do not want to map the "Contact ID" field when inserting new records to CiviCRM.

Once your contacts are in CiviCRM - if you want to use CiviMember to track membership types and membership periods - then you can use CiviMember >> Import to assign memberships to the contacts.

nimzie · July 10, 2008, 01:36:26 pm

Thanks Dave - That clears up some things. I was interpreting things as a member being a contact but only a member - now I understand...

What I've done is re-created my custom data for mapping based on "any" contact. That allows me to map to these in the Import Contacts function. When I get to the preview, it tells me there are 475 error rows now. It's all cause of Birth-Date and Gender - neither of which are mapped. Where is this coming from? Also - rows which were functioning before like State/Province and Country aren't working now...

This is not the most fun I've ever had, but I'm learning...

Thanks for your help.

Cheers

Dave Greenberg · July 10, 2008, 05:38:40 pm

Hmm - I don't think I've heard of import throwing errors on "not mapped" columns. Best if you can take a few of your rows, desensitize the data (change names, phone #'s, emails abit) - then map and import on the public demo. Save the mapping and attach the sample file to this thread if the errors recreate so we can see what's happening.

CiviCRM Community Forums (archive)

News:

Author Topic: Importing Members v1.9x (Read 1845 times)

nimzie

Importing Members v1.9x

Dave Greenberg

Re: Importing Members v1.9x

nimzie

Re: Importing Members v1.9x

Dave Greenberg

Re: Importing Members v1.9x

nimzie

Re: Importing Members v1.9x

Dave Greenberg

Re: Importing Members v1.9x