Additions:
If you are going to send a notification to users, you may want to add a little delay between messages. This can be useful if you need to comply with message limits imposed by your host. Please enter the number of seconds you want phpList to pause between emails. For instance, if you impose a pause of 10 seconds between messages, you will in fact send no more than 360 messages per hour.
>>**//What is a 'foreign key'//**
This has the advantage that if you are importing a lists of users, some of whom may have changed their email addresses in the mean time, phplist will be able to match the user's foreign key and update all other attributes, including the users' email addresses. >> A bit of explanation about matching by email and/or foreign key:
>>**//What is a 'foreign key'//**
This has the advantage that if you are importing a lists of users, some of whom may have changed their email addresses in the mean time, phplist will be able to match the user's foreign key and update all other attributes, including the users' email addresses. >> A bit of explanation about matching by email and/or foreign key:
Deletions:
A bit of explanation about matching by email and/or foreign key:
==Use of the 'foreign key' field==
This has the advantage that if you are importing a lists of users, some of whom may have changed their email addresses in the mean time, phplist will be able to match the user's foreign key and update all other attributes, including the users' email addresses.
Revision [1870]
Edited on 2009-03-24 18:15:21 by AlStillero [Updated options to v2.10.9 + some restructuring]Additions:
The maximum size of the file you can import into phpList will depend on the memory limits of your server, but may not exceed 1Mb. If you need to import a larger file, you will have to split it up in smaller parts.
- Other field names must be exactly the same as the names of the user attributes you created in phpList . However, if you haven't yet created any user attributes in phpList , you may choose to let phpList create these automatically. In the latter case the attribute names will be based on the field names of the import file.
**File containing emails**
Please enter the name of the file containing the data you wish to import.
**Field Delimiter**
The default field delimiter is a Tab. If your import file has a different field delimiter, you can specify it here.
**Record Delimiter**
The default record delimiter is a line break. If your import file has a different record delimiter, you can specify it here.
**Test output**
If you check "Test Output", you will get the list of parsed emails on screen, and the database will not be filled with the information. This is useful to find out whether the format of your file is correct. It will only show the first 50 records.
**Show Warnings**
If you check "Show Warnings", you will get warnings for invalid records. Warnings will only be shown if you check "Test Output". They will be ignored when actually importing.
**Omit Invalid**
If you check "Omit Invalid", invalid records will not be added. Invalid records are records without an email. Any other attributes will be added automatically, ie if the country of a record is not found, it will be added to the list of countries.
**Assign Invalid**
Assign Invalid will be used to create an email for users with an invalid email address.You can use values between [ and ] to make up a value for the email. For example if your import file contains a column "First Name" and one called "Last Name", you can use"[first name] [last name]" to construct a new value for the email for this user containing their first name and last name.The value [number] can be used to insert the sequence number for importing.
**Overwrite Existing**
If you check "Overwrite Existing", information about a user in the database will be replaced by the imported information. Users are matched by email or foreign key. When you import new records, phpList attempts to match them with existing records in the phpList database. Records will be matched in one of two ways:
If you check "Overwrite Existing", when a match is found, information about that user in the database will be updated with the imported information. If you do not check "Overwrite Existing", when a match is found the record currently existing in the phpList database will remain unchanged. Your import data for that record will simply be discarded.
**Note:** If you check "Overwrite Existing" there is an interesting and potentially useful twist: If the records match, but a certain attribute for that record in the import file is blank, then the existing attribute for that record is retained. The same thing happens if that attribute is completely omitted from the import file--then phpList just leaves that attribute unchanged in any existing records. This is useful because it allows you to upload a file that changes certain attributes for users but leaves all the other unchanged. //(Note: this is based on experimentation with phpList ver 2.10.2. Other versions may not work in this fashion.)//
However, this phpList behaviour causes a potential problem: Lets say you have a membership list that you continually update and occasionally re-import into phpList using "Overwrite Existing". Let's say you had some data that you intentionally deleted from some records, say a person's phone number is no longer valid so you delete it. When you import this into phpList with the phone number field blank, phpList will then leave the "phone number" attribute for that field unchanged. //(A possible solution is indicate records you wish to delete with a space or some other character?)//
**Retain Old User Email**
If you check "Retain Old User Email", a conflict of two emails being the same will keep the old one and add "duplicate" to the new one. If you don't check it, the old one will get "duplicate" and the new one will take precedence.
**Send Notification email**
If you choose "send notification email" the users you are adding will be sent the request for confirmation of subscription to which they will have to reply. This is recommended in order to abide with opt-in regulations, and in addition it will allow you to identify email addresses that are no longer in use.
**Notification throttle**
If you are going to send a notification to users, you may want to add a little delay between messages. This can be useful if you need to comply with message limits imposed by your host. Please enter the number of seconds you want phpList to pause between emails.
**Make confirmed immediately**
If you are importing a list of emails of subscribers that have previously confirmed their subscription, you may prefer not sending a confirmation request email and instead make the users confirmed on import.
**Note:** Be aware that this can create a problem in a situation like this: You have a phpList with some subscribers who are members of your organization and some who are just the general public. Your organization members have a foreign key but the general public do not. You periodically update your phpList information with fresh information from your membership list, including the foreign key so that a member always matches correctly. Now the problem arises when a general public subscriber joins your organization. Now that person has a foreign key and when the membership database is imported, match will be done via foreign key. So even though the email address matches, no match will be made. Depending on your setting of "retain old user email", either the existing or imported entry's email will be marked as "Duplicate xxx@yyy.zzz". Potentially you will then lose attribute information or list subscriptions for that user.
When importing you can include a column labeled "//htmlemail//" (formerly "//Send this user HTML emails//"). Values in the column can be 0 or 1. If 1, the user will receive email in HTML, if 0, the user will receive text emails. If blank, the user's existing setting for text/html will remain unchanged.
When importing you can include a column labeled "//Is this account disabled?//". Values in the column can be 0 or 1. If 1, the users account will be disabled, if 0, the user will be normal. This can help in situations like this: You maintain a membership list independent of phpList . Some people indicate to you that they don't want to receive email newsletters and you keep track of it via the membership list. Of course others unsubscribe via phpList. So now you have to reconcile the two. The way to do it would be, include a column in your import file "//Is this account disabled?//". Mark the records with a 1 that have indicated they want to receive no email newsletters. Leave all the other records blank in that column. When you import those with a 1 should be marked as disabled, while the blank records should be left in the state they were previously in. //(It would be wise to test this first on your own phpList installation using a small test list.)//
If you use another ('foreign') database system to maintain you users list and want to synchronize that database with phpList 's users database, you can use the 'foreign key' field. A foreign key is a unique ID -usually generated in the foreign database system- which identifies a user record. When importing, phplist will first check if users in the csv file have a foreign key it can match with users in the phplist database. If so, it will use the foreign key ID to identify the user, instead of the email address as it normally would.
Make sure you correctly configured the temp dir in config.php. Otherwise the file uploads will not work, and phpList wont be able to read the csv file.
- [[http://forums.phplist.com/viewtopic.php?t=5085 Small hack to make CSV import work (Excel - phpList )]]
- Other field names must be exactly the same as the names of the user attributes you created in phpList . However, if you haven't yet created any user attributes in phpList , you may choose to let phpList create these automatically. In the latter case the attribute names will be based on the field names of the import file.
**File containing emails**
Please enter the name of the file containing the data you wish to import.
**Field Delimiter**
The default field delimiter is a Tab. If your import file has a different field delimiter, you can specify it here.
**Record Delimiter**
The default record delimiter is a line break. If your import file has a different record delimiter, you can specify it here.
**Test output**
If you check "Test Output", you will get the list of parsed emails on screen, and the database will not be filled with the information. This is useful to find out whether the format of your file is correct. It will only show the first 50 records.
**Show Warnings**
If you check "Show Warnings", you will get warnings for invalid records. Warnings will only be shown if you check "Test Output". They will be ignored when actually importing.
**Omit Invalid**
If you check "Omit Invalid", invalid records will not be added. Invalid records are records without an email. Any other attributes will be added automatically, ie if the country of a record is not found, it will be added to the list of countries.
**Assign Invalid**
Assign Invalid will be used to create an email for users with an invalid email address.You can use values between [ and ] to make up a value for the email. For example if your import file contains a column "First Name" and one called "Last Name", you can use"[first name] [last name]" to construct a new value for the email for this user containing their first name and last name.The value [number] can be used to insert the sequence number for importing.
**Overwrite Existing**
If you check "Overwrite Existing", information about a user in the database will be replaced by the imported information. Users are matched by email or foreign key. When you import new records, phpList attempts to match them with existing records in the phpList database. Records will be matched in one of two ways:
If you check "Overwrite Existing", when a match is found, information about that user in the database will be updated with the imported information. If you do not check "Overwrite Existing", when a match is found the record currently existing in the phpList database will remain unchanged. Your import data for that record will simply be discarded.
**Note:** If you check "Overwrite Existing" there is an interesting and potentially useful twist: If the records match, but a certain attribute for that record in the import file is blank, then the existing attribute for that record is retained. The same thing happens if that attribute is completely omitted from the import file--then phpList just leaves that attribute unchanged in any existing records. This is useful because it allows you to upload a file that changes certain attributes for users but leaves all the other unchanged. //(Note: this is based on experimentation with phpList ver 2.10.2. Other versions may not work in this fashion.)//
However, this phpList behaviour causes a potential problem: Lets say you have a membership list that you continually update and occasionally re-import into phpList using "Overwrite Existing". Let's say you had some data that you intentionally deleted from some records, say a person's phone number is no longer valid so you delete it. When you import this into phpList with the phone number field blank, phpList will then leave the "phone number" attribute for that field unchanged. //(A possible solution is indicate records you wish to delete with a space or some other character?)//
**Retain Old User Email**
If you check "Retain Old User Email", a conflict of two emails being the same will keep the old one and add "duplicate" to the new one. If you don't check it, the old one will get "duplicate" and the new one will take precedence.
**Send Notification email**
If you choose "send notification email" the users you are adding will be sent the request for confirmation of subscription to which they will have to reply. This is recommended in order to abide with opt-in regulations, and in addition it will allow you to identify email addresses that are no longer in use.
**Notification throttle**
If you are going to send a notification to users, you may want to add a little delay between messages. This can be useful if you need to comply with message limits imposed by your host. Please enter the number of seconds you want phpList to pause between emails.
**Make confirmed immediately**
If you are importing a list of emails of subscribers that have previously confirmed their subscription, you may prefer not sending a confirmation request email and instead make the users confirmed on import.
**Note:** Be aware that this can create a problem in a situation like this: You have a phpList with some subscribers who are members of your organization and some who are just the general public. Your organization members have a foreign key but the general public do not. You periodically update your phpList information with fresh information from your membership list, including the foreign key so that a member always matches correctly. Now the problem arises when a general public subscriber joins your organization. Now that person has a foreign key and when the membership database is imported, match will be done via foreign key. So even though the email address matches, no match will be made. Depending on your setting of "retain old user email", either the existing or imported entry's email will be marked as "Duplicate xxx@yyy.zzz". Potentially you will then lose attribute information or list subscriptions for that user.
When importing you can include a column labeled "//htmlemail//" (formerly "//Send this user HTML emails//"). Values in the column can be 0 or 1. If 1, the user will receive email in HTML, if 0, the user will receive text emails. If blank, the user's existing setting for text/html will remain unchanged.
When importing you can include a column labeled "//Is this account disabled?//". Values in the column can be 0 or 1. If 1, the users account will be disabled, if 0, the user will be normal. This can help in situations like this: You maintain a membership list independent of phpList . Some people indicate to you that they don't want to receive email newsletters and you keep track of it via the membership list. Of course others unsubscribe via phpList. So now you have to reconcile the two. The way to do it would be, include a column in your import file "//Is this account disabled?//". Mark the records with a 1 that have indicated they want to receive no email newsletters. Leave all the other records blank in that column. When you import those with a 1 should be marked as disabled, while the blank records should be left in the state they were previously in. //(It would be wise to test this first on your own phpList installation using a small test list.)//
If you use another ('foreign') database system to maintain you users list and want to synchronize that database with phpList 's users database, you can use the 'foreign key' field. A foreign key is a unique ID -usually generated in the foreign database system- which identifies a user record. When importing, phplist will first check if users in the csv file have a foreign key it can match with users in the phplist database. If so, it will use the foreign key ID to identify the user, instead of the email address as it normally would.
Make sure you correctly configured the temp dir in config.php. Otherwise the file uploads will not work, and phpList wont be able to read the csv file.
- [[http://forums.phplist.com/viewtopic.php?t=5085 Small hack to make CSV import work (Excel - phpList )]]
Deletions:
- Other field names must be exactly the same as the names of the user attributes you created in PHPlist. However, if you haven't yet created any user attributes in PHPlist, you may choose to let PHPlist create these automatically. In the latter case the attribute names will be based on the field names of the import file.
==Overwrite Existing==
When you import new records, PHPList attempts to match them with existing records in the PHPlist database. Records will be matched in one of two ways:
If you check "Overwrite Existing", when a match is found, information about that user in the database will be updated with the imported information.
If you un-check "Overwrite Existing", when a match is found the the record currently existing in the PHPlist database will remain unchanged. Your import data for that record will simply be discarded.
**Note:** If you check "Overwrite Existing" there is an interesting and potentially useful twist: If the records match, but a certain attribute for that record in the import file is blank, then the existing attribute for that record is retained. The same thing happens if that attribute is completely omitted from the import file--then PHPList just leaves that attribute unchanged in any existing records. This is useful because it allows you to upload a file that changes certain attributes for users but leaves all the other unchanged. //(Note: this is based on experimentation with PHPlist ver 2.10.2. Other versions may not work in this fashion.)//
However, this PHPlist behavior causes a potential problem: Lets say you have a membership list that you continually update and occasionally re-import into PHPlist using "Overwrite Existing". Let's say you had some data that you intentionally deleted from some records, say a person's phone number is no longer valid so you delete it. When you import this into PHPList with the phone number field blank, PHPList will then leave the "phone number" attribute for that field unchanged. //(A possible solution is indicate records you wish to delete with a space or some other character?)//
**Note:** Be aware that this can create a problem in a situation like this: You have a PHPlist with some subscribers who are members of your organization and some who are just the general public. Your organization members have a foreign key but the general public do not. You periodically update your PHPlist information with fresh information from your membership list, including the foreign key so that a member always matches correctly. Now the problem arises when a general public subscriber joins your organization. Now that person has a foreign key and when the membership database is imported, match will be done via foreign key. So even though the email address matches, no match will be made. Depending on your setting of "retain old user email", either the existing or imported entry's email will be marked as "Duplicate xxx@yyy.zzz". Potentially you will then lose attribute information or list subscriptions for that user.
==Retain Old User Email==
When importing you can include a column labeled "//htmlemail//" (formerly "//Send this user HTML emails//"). Values in the column can be 0 or 1. If 1, the user will receive HTML email, if 0, the user will receive text email. If blank, the user's existing setting for text/html will be unchanged.
When importing you can include a column labeled "//Is this account disabled?//". Values in the column can be 0 or 1. If 1, the users account will be disabled, if 0, the user will be normal. This can help in situations like this: You maintain a membership list independent of PHPList. Some people indicate to you that they don't want to receive email newsletters and you keep track of it via the membership list. Of course others unsubscribe via PHPList. So now you have to reconcile the two. The way to do it would be, include a column in your import file "//Is this account disabled?//". Mark the records with a 1 that have indicated they want to receive no email newsletters. Leave all the other records blank in that column. When you import those with a 1 should be marked as disabled, while the blank records should be left in the state they were previously in. //(It would be wise to test this first on your own PHPList installation using a small test list.)//
If you use another ('foreign') database system to maintain you users list and want to synchronize that database with Phplist's users database, you can use the 'foreign key' field. A foreign key is a unique ID -usually generated in the foreign database system- which identifies a user record. When importing, phplist will first check if users in the csv file have a foreign key it can match with users in the phplist database. If so, it will use the foreign key ID to identify the user, instead of the email address as it normally would.
Make sure you correctly configured the temp dir in config.php. Otherwise the file uploads will not work, and PHPlist wont be able to read the csv file.
- [[http://forums.phplist.com/viewtopic.php?t=5085 Small hack to make CSV import work (Excel - phplist)]]
Revision [1869]
Edited on 2009-03-17 11:17:47 by TheManWithTheVanAdditions:
When importing you can include a column labeled "//htmlemail//" (formerly "//Send this user HTML emails//"). Values in the column can be 0 or 1. If 1, the user will receive HTML email, if 0, the user will receive text email. If blank, the user's existing setting for text/html will be unchanged.
Deletions:
Additions:
- Show Warnings: select this, but expect warning due to Mantis bug: http://mantis.phplist.com/view.php?id=6275
Deletions:
Revision [1565]
Edited on 2008-05-12 10:52:01 by JulianSAdditions:
This option //only// comes into play when the data you are importing includes a "foreign key" field.
Deletions:
Revision [1547]
Edited on 2008-04-23 13:41:15 by JulianSAdditions:
If you un-check "Overwrite Existing", when a match is found the the record currently existing in the PHPlist database will remain unchanged. Your import data for that record will simply be discarded.
Deletions:
Revision [1401]
Edited on 2007-10-05 23:33:50 by BhugH [updating explanation fo match via email and/or foreign key]Additions:
- the imported data has no "foreign key" field, then matching is done by email; if an existing record matches by email then it is considered a match whether or not that existing record has a foreign key.
- if the imported data has a "foreign key" field, then matching is done by foreign key and no attempt is made to match via email. This could potentially result in two or more records with the same email address, and that problem is handled this way: records with duplicate email addresses are detected, and--depending on whether you have chosen "retain old user email" or not, either the newly imported or existing record is marked "Duplicate xxx@yyy.zzz"
**Note:** Be aware that this can create a problem in a situation like this: You have a PHPlist with some subscribers who are members of your organization and some who are just the general public. Your organization members have a foreign key but the general public do not. You periodically update your PHPlist information with fresh information from your membership list, including the foreign key so that a member always matches correctly. Now the problem arises when a general public subscriber joins your organization. Now that person has a foreign key and when the membership database is imported, match will be done via foreign key. So even though the email address matches, no match will be made. Depending on your setting of "retain old user email", either the existing or imported entry's email will be marked as "Duplicate xxx@yyy.zzz". Potentially you will then lose attribute information or list subscriptions for that user.
- if the imported data has a "foreign key" field, then matching is done by foreign key and no attempt is made to match via email. This could potentially result in two or more records with the same email address, and that problem is handled this way: records with duplicate email addresses are detected, and--depending on whether you have chosen "retain old user email" or not, either the newly imported or existing record is marked "Duplicate xxx@yyy.zzz"
**Note:** Be aware that this can create a problem in a situation like this: You have a PHPlist with some subscribers who are members of your organization and some who are just the general public. Your organization members have a foreign key but the general public do not. You periodically update your PHPlist information with fresh information from your membership list, including the foreign key so that a member always matches correctly. Now the problem arises when a general public subscriber joins your organization. Now that person has a foreign key and when the membership database is imported, match will be done via foreign key. So even though the email address matches, no match will be made. Depending on your setting of "retain old user email", either the existing or imported entry's email will be marked as "Duplicate xxx@yyy.zzz". Potentially you will then lose attribute information or list subscriptions for that user.
Deletions:
- if the imported data has a "foreign key" field, then matching is done by foreign key and email matches are ignored (except that records with duplicate email addresses are detected, and--depending on whether you have chosen "retain old user email" or not, either the newly imported or existing record is marked "duplicate xxx@yyy.zzz")
**Note:** Be aware that this can create a problem in a situation like this: You have a PHPlist with some subscribers who are members of your organization and some who are just the general public. Your organization members have a foreign key but the general public do not. You periodically update your PHPlist information with fresh information from your membership list, including the foreign key so that a member always matches correctly. Now the problem arises when a general public subscriber joins your organization. Now that person has a foreign key and when the membership database is imported, match will be done via foreign key. So even though the email address matches, no match will be made. Depending on your setting of "retain old user email", either the existing or imported entry's email will be marked as "duplicate xxx@yyy.zzz". Potentially you will then lose attribute information or list subscriptions for that user.
Revision [1400]
Edited on 2007-10-05 23:29:40 by BhugH [updating "overwrite existing" documentation again]Additions:
When you import new records, PHPList attempts to match them with existing records in the PHPlist database. Records will be matched in one of two ways:
- If the field "foreign key" exists in your import file, users are matched by foreign key.
- Otherwise, they are matched by email.
If you check "Overwrite Existing", when a match is found, information about that user in the database will be updated with the imported information.
If you un-check "Overwrite Existing", when a match is found the the record currently existing in the PHPlist database will remain unchanged. You import data for that record will simply be discarded.
- If the field "foreign key" exists in your import file, users are matched by foreign key.
- Otherwise, they are matched by email.
If you check "Overwrite Existing", when a match is found, information about that user in the database will be updated with the imported information.
If you un-check "Overwrite Existing", when a match is found the the record currently existing in the PHPlist database will remain unchanged. You import data for that record will simply be discarded.
Deletions:
How are records matched? If the field "foreign key" exists in your import file, users are matched by foreign key. Otherwise they are matched by email.
Revision [1399]
Edited on 2007-10-05 23:24:45 by BhugH [updating "overwrite existing" documentation]Additions:
If you check "Overwrite Existing", information about a user in the database will be updated with the imported information. Leaving "Overwrite Existing" un-checked means that any currently existing record will stay unchanged by your imported data.
How are records matched? If the field "foreign key" exists in your import file, users are matched by foreign key. Otherwise they are matched by email.
**Note:** If you check "Overwrite Existing" there is an interesting and potentially useful twist: If the records match, but a certain attribute for that record in the import file is blank, then the existing attribute for that record is retained. The same thing happens if that attribute is completely omitted from the import file--then PHPList just leaves that attribute unchanged in any existing records. This is useful because it allows you to upload a file that changes certain attributes for users but leaves all the other unchanged. //(Note: this is based on experimentation with PHPlist ver 2.10.2. Other versions may not work in this fashion.)//
However, this PHPlist behavior causes a potential problem: Lets say you have a membership list that you continually update and occasionally re-import into PHPlist using "Overwrite Existing". Let's say you had some data that you intentionally deleted from some records, say a person's phone number is no longer valid so you delete it. When you import this into PHPList with the phone number field blank, PHPList will then leave the "phone number" attribute for that field unchanged. //(A possible solution is indicate records you wish to delete with a space or some other character?)//
How are records matched? If the field "foreign key" exists in your import file, users are matched by foreign key. Otherwise they are matched by email.
**Note:** If you check "Overwrite Existing" there is an interesting and potentially useful twist: If the records match, but a certain attribute for that record in the import file is blank, then the existing attribute for that record is retained. The same thing happens if that attribute is completely omitted from the import file--then PHPList just leaves that attribute unchanged in any existing records. This is useful because it allows you to upload a file that changes certain attributes for users but leaves all the other unchanged. //(Note: this is based on experimentation with PHPlist ver 2.10.2. Other versions may not work in this fashion.)//
However, this PHPlist behavior causes a potential problem: Lets say you have a membership list that you continually update and occasionally re-import into PHPlist using "Overwrite Existing". Let's say you had some data that you intentionally deleted from some records, say a person's phone number is no longer valid so you delete it. When you import this into PHPList with the phone number field blank, PHPList will then leave the "phone number" attribute for that field unchanged. //(A possible solution is indicate records you wish to delete with a space or some other character?)//
Deletions:
However, there is an interesting and potentially useful twist: If the records match, but a certain attribute for that record in the import file is blank, then the existing attribute for that record is retained. The same thing happens if that attribute is completely omitted from the import file--then PHPList just leaves that attribute unchanged in any existing records. This is useful because it allows you to upload a file that changes certain attributes for users but leaves all the other unchanged. //(Note: this is based on experimentation with PHPlist ver 2.10.2. Other versions may not work in this fashion.)//
Also, there is a potential problem: Lets say you have a membership list that you continually update and occasionally re-import into PHPlist using "Overwrite Existing". Let's say you had some data that you intentionally deleted from some records, say a person's phone number is no longer valid so you delete it. When you import this into PHPList with the phone number field blank, PHPList will then leave the "phone number" attribute for that field unchanged. //(A possible solution is indicate records you wish to delete with a space or some other character?)//
Revision [1398]
Edited on 2007-10-05 21:48:30 by BhugH [Added "A bit of explanation about matching by email and/or foreign key:"]Additions:
==Overwrite Existing: More info about match via Email and/or Foreign Key==
A bit of explanation about matching by email and/or foreign key:
- the imported data has no "foreign key" field, then matching is done by email; if existing data has a foreign key, it is ignored
- if the imported data has a "foreign key" field, then matching is done by foreign key and email matches are ignored (except that records with duplicate email addresses are detected, and--depending on whether you have chosen "retain old user email" or not, either the newly imported or existing record is marked "duplicate xxx@yyy.zzz")
**Note:** Be aware that this can create a problem in a situation like this: You have a PHPlist with some subscribers who are members of your organization and some who are just the general public. Your organization members have a foreign key but the general public do not. You periodically update your PHPlist information with fresh information from your membership list, including the foreign key so that a member always matches correctly. Now the problem arises when a general public subscriber joins your organization. Now that person has a foreign key and when the membership database is imported, match will be done via foreign key. So even though the email address matches, no match will be made. Depending on your setting of "retain old user email", either the existing or imported entry's email will be marked as "duplicate xxx@yyy.zzz". Potentially you will then lose attribute information or list subscriptions for that user.
This option //only// comes into play when you the data you are importing includes a "foreign key" field.
- Option Checked: If two users have the same foreign key, the email and associated attributes, list subscriptions, etc., for the entry currently in the phplist database will be retained with no change. A new database entry will be created with the imported information, list subscription, and attributes, with email address of the form "Duplicate xxx@yyy.zzz".
- Option Not Checked: If two users have the same foreign key, the currently existing record's email address will be changed to the form "Duplicate xxx@yyy.zzz" but otherwise remain unchanged. A new database record will be created with the new email address, foreign key, attributes, and list subscription information.
A bit of explanation about matching by email and/or foreign key:
- the imported data has no "foreign key" field, then matching is done by email; if existing data has a foreign key, it is ignored
- if the imported data has a "foreign key" field, then matching is done by foreign key and email matches are ignored (except that records with duplicate email addresses are detected, and--depending on whether you have chosen "retain old user email" or not, either the newly imported or existing record is marked "duplicate xxx@yyy.zzz")
**Note:** Be aware that this can create a problem in a situation like this: You have a PHPlist with some subscribers who are members of your organization and some who are just the general public. Your organization members have a foreign key but the general public do not. You periodically update your PHPlist information with fresh information from your membership list, including the foreign key so that a member always matches correctly. Now the problem arises when a general public subscriber joins your organization. Now that person has a foreign key and when the membership database is imported, match will be done via foreign key. So even though the email address matches, no match will be made. Depending on your setting of "retain old user email", either the existing or imported entry's email will be marked as "duplicate xxx@yyy.zzz". Potentially you will then lose attribute information or list subscriptions for that user.
This option //only// comes into play when you the data you are importing includes a "foreign key" field.
- Option Checked: If two users have the same foreign key, the email and associated attributes, list subscriptions, etc., for the entry currently in the phplist database will be retained with no change. A new database entry will be created with the imported information, list subscription, and attributes, with email address of the form "Duplicate xxx@yyy.zzz".
- Option Not Checked: If two users have the same foreign key, the currently existing record's email address will be changed to the form "Duplicate xxx@yyy.zzz" but otherwise remain unchanged. A new database record will be created with the new email address, foreign key, attributes, and list subscription information.
Deletions:
Additions:
===Tip & Tricks from the forum===
- [[http://forums.phplist.com/viewtopic.php?t=5672 phpList import and safe_mode fixed]]
- [[http://forums.phplist.com/viewtopic.php?t=6553 Import Emails from another Database Solution]]
- [[http://forums.phplist.com/viewtopic.php?t=1172 Importing users without file uploads]]
- [[http://forums.phplist.com/viewtopic.php?t=5085 Small hack to make CSV import work (Excel - phplist)]]
- [[http://forums.phplist.com/viewtopic.php?p=23474#23474 Import users pre-marked to receive html in CSV file]]
- [[http://forums.phplist.com/viewtopic.php?p=20425#20425 Importing more than the 1Mb limit]]
==Related pages==
~-[[ImportUsersWalkthrough Import users walkthrough]]
~-[[ListListsInfo Lists]]
~-[[ListUsersInfo Users]]
~-[[ViewMembersInfo Exporting list members]]
~-[[ConfigureAttributesInfo Attributes]]
~-[[ExportUsersInfo Exporting users]]
CategoryDocumentation
- [[http://forums.phplist.com/viewtopic.php?t=5672 phpList import and safe_mode fixed]]
- [[http://forums.phplist.com/viewtopic.php?t=6553 Import Emails from another Database Solution]]
- [[http://forums.phplist.com/viewtopic.php?t=1172 Importing users without file uploads]]
- [[http://forums.phplist.com/viewtopic.php?t=5085 Small hack to make CSV import work (Excel - phplist)]]
- [[http://forums.phplist.com/viewtopic.php?p=23474#23474 Import users pre-marked to receive html in CSV file]]
- [[http://forums.phplist.com/viewtopic.php?p=20425#20425 Importing more than the 1Mb limit]]
==Related pages==
~-[[ImportUsersWalkthrough Import users walkthrough]]
~-[[ListListsInfo Lists]]
~-[[ListUsersInfo Users]]
~-[[ViewMembersInfo Exporting list members]]
~-[[ConfigureAttributesInfo Attributes]]
~-[[ExportUsersInfo Exporting users]]
CategoryDocumentation
Deletions:
Revision [1245]
Edited on 2007-06-30 03:30:17 by PccNpxAdditions:
===Tip
Deletions:
- [[http://forums.phplist.com/viewtopic.php?t=5672 phpList import and safe_mode fixed]]
- [[http://forums.phplist.com/viewtopic.php?t=6553 Import Emails from another Database Solution]]
- [[http://forums.phplist.com/viewtopic.php?t=1172 Importing users without file uploads]]
- [[http://forums.phplist.com/viewtopic.php?t=5085 Small hack to make CSV import work (Excel - phplist)]]
- [[http://forums.phplist.com/viewtopic.php?p=23474#23474 Import users pre-marked to receive html in CSV file]]
- [[http://forums.phplist.com/viewtopic.php?p=20425#20425 Importing more than the 1Mb limit]]
==Related pages==
~-[[ImportUsersWalkthrough Import users walkthrough]]
~-[[ListListsInfo Lists]]
~-[[ListUsersInfo Users]]
~-[[ViewMembersInfo Exporting list members]]
~-[[ConfigureAttributesInfo Attributes]]
~-[[ExportUsersInfo Exporting users]]
CategoryDocumentation
Deletions:
Additions:
==[[PhplistDocumentation Phplist Documentation]] » [[ListAndUserFunctionsInfo List and User functions]] » ==
----
=====Import Users=====
===Preparing import file===
==Field delimiter==
You can import a list of email addresses and other user data from a Text/CSV or Tab delimited file. Most database and spreadheet programs can produce a Comma delimited or Tab delimited text file. It is recommended to use "tab" instead of "comma" as a field delimiter, because your data is not likely to contain a TAB, and will therefore cause less trouble than files using the comma delimiter.
==File size==
The maximum size of the file you can import into PHPlist will depend on the memory limits of your server, but may not exceed 1Mb. If you need to import a larger file, you will have to split it up in smaller parts.
==File structure==
>>
{{table columns="4" cellpadding="1" cells="Email;Firstname;Lastname;Hobby;john@domain.com;John;Doe;Fishing;karen@domain.org;Karen;Smith;Athletics"}}
>>While an email address is the minimum required field for importing a user list, you may choose to include other user data as well, like first name, last name, address, etc.
There are several structural requirements your import file should meet:
- Make sure all the field names (headers) are in top row (first line) of the list.
- The field name for the column containing the email addresses must be 'Email'.
- Other field names must be exactly the same as the names of the user attributes you created in PHPlist. However, if you haven't yet created any user attributes in PHPlist, you may choose to let PHPlist create these automatically. In the latter case the attribute names will be based on the field names of the import file.
===Importing users into existing lists===
To import a list of email addresses, select 'Manage Users' from the admin page. Then select 'Import Users' from the list of options.
There are four ways to import existing information:
- **import emails with different values for attributes**. The list of emails can have attributes not already defined. They will be created automatically as "textline" attributes. You should use this option, if you are importing a spreadsheet/CSV file that has the attributes for the users in the columns and one user per line.
- **import emails with the same values for attributes**. The list of emails will have to comply with the structure you have already set up in phplist. You should use this option if you are importing a simple list of emails. You can then specify the values for the attributes for each entry. They will be the same for everyone you are importing.
- **import emails from an imap account**. This will search emails in your IMAP folders and add them. Only the Name of the person can be found as an attribute.
- **import emails from another database**.
''[more info needed on the above last 3 import methods]''
===Import options for "Import emails with different values for attributes"===
>>**//Example://**
If, for example, you have a list of email addresses, forenames and surnames -providing you have set up attributes called Firstname and Lastname- a typical import of such as spreadsheet would go like this:
- Select the first option: //import emails with different values for attributes//.
- Select the list to which you wish to add the email addresses.
- Select a tab delimited text file containing your email addresses with the headings //Email//, //Firstname// and //Lastname//.
- The defaults for field delimiter and record delimiter need not be changed, provided that these are the delimiters you use in your import file. However, if you are importing from an .ods or .xsl database, the recomendation is to save that file into a .csv and use TAB as Field delimiter and " " (double quotes) as Record Delimiter. That always works well.
- Recommended: select 'Test Output' to check...
- Show Warnings: select this, but expect warning due to Mantis bug: http://mantis.tincan.co.uk/view.php?id=6275
- Confirm the import, and the email addresses will then be added to the list.>>The first import method, "Import emails with different values for attributes", is the one commonly used to import a user list with email addresses and additional data, like user names, addresses, etc. When using this import method you can use the following options.
==Overwrite Existing==
If you choose the option "Overwrite Existing" then if the records match (based on email and/or foreign key) the newly imported information from that record will overwrite the previous information.
However, there is an interesting and potentially useful twist: If the records match, but a certain attribute for that record in the import file is blank, then the existing attribute for that record is retained. The same thing happens if that attribute is completely omitted from the import file--then PHPList just leaves that attribute unchanged in any existing records. This is useful because it allows you to upload a file that changes certain attributes for users but leaves all the other unchanged. //(Note: this is based on experimentation with PHPlist ver 2.10.2. Other versions may not work in this fashion.)//
Also, there is a potential problem: Lets say you have a membership list that you continually update and occasionally re-import into PHPlist using "Overwrite Existing". Let's say you had some data that you intentionally deleted from some records, say a person's phone number is no longer valid so you delete it. When you import this into PHPList with the phone number field blank, PHPList will then leave the "phone number" attribute for that field unchanged. //(A possible solution is indicate records you wish to delete with a space or some other character?)//
==Retain Old User Email==
This option is the reverse of Overwrite Existing. If two users have the same foreign key or email this will retain the one in the phplist database and create a Duplicated user with the new one.
==Reset import session==
As you work your way along the import process you will see a link marked "reset import session". Use this if you want to go back to the beginning of the import process. You might want to do this because you are in the midst of working on an import and you want to abort and try again. Or if you are done with your import you can go back and try another.
This link is necessary because the import script keeps track of your state and you won't be able to get back to the start of the import process if you are in the middle of it--except via the "reset import session" link.
==Advanced options==
When importing you can include a column labeled "//Send this user HTML emails//". Values in the column can be 0 or 1. If 1, the user will receive HTML email, if 0, the user will receive text email. If blank, the user's existing setting for text/html will be unchanged.
When importing you can include a column labeled "//Is this account disabled?//". Values in the column can be 0 or 1. If 1, the users account will be disabled, if 0, the user will be normal. This can help in situations like this: You maintain a membership list independent of PHPList. Some people indicate to you that they don't want to receive email newsletters and you keep track of it via the membership list. Of course others unsubscribe via PHPList. So now you have to reconcile the two. The way to do it would be, include a column in your import file "//Is this account disabled?//". Mark the records with a 1 that have indicated they want to receive no email newsletters. Leave all the other records blank in that column. When you import those with a 1 should be marked as disabled, while the blank records should be left in the state they were previously in. //(It would be wise to test this first on your own PHPList installation using a small test list.)//
==Use of the 'foreign key' field==
If you use another ('foreign') database system to maintain you users list and want to synchronize that database with Phplist's users database, you can use the 'foreign key' field. A foreign key is a unique ID -usually generated in the foreign database system- which identifies a user record. When importing, phplist will first check if users in the csv file have a foreign key it can match with users in the phplist database. If so, it will use the foreign key ID to identify the user, instead of the email address as it normally would.
This has the advantage that if you are importing a lists of users, some of whom may have changed their email addresses in the mean time, phplist will be able to match the user's foreign key and update all other attributes, including the users' email addresses.
===Configuration of the temp directory===
Make sure you correctly configured the temp dir in config.php. Otherwise the file uploads will not work, and PHPlist wont be able to read the csv file.
**This block in config.php:**
%%(php)
# tmpdir. A location where phplist can write some temporary files if necessary
# Make sure it is writable by your webserver user, and also check that you have
# open_basedir set to allow access to this directory. Linux users can leave it as it is.
# this directory is used for all kinds of things, mostly uploading of files (like in
# import), creating PDFs and more
$tmpdir = '/tmp';
%%
===Tip & Tricks from the forum===
- [[http://forums.phplist.com/viewtopic.php?t=5672 phpList import and safe_mode fixed]]
- [[http://forums.phplist.com/viewtopic.php?t=6553 Import Emails from another Database Solution]]
- [[http://forums.phplist.com/viewtopic.php?t=1172 Importing users without file uploads]]
- [[http://forums.phplist.com/viewtopic.php?t=5085 Small hack to make CSV import work (Excel - phplist)]]
- [[http://forums.phplist.com/viewtopic.php?p=23474#23474 Import users pre-marked to receive html in CSV file]]
- [[http://forums.phplist.com/viewtopic.php?p=20425#20425 Importing more than the 1Mb limit]]
- [[http://forums.phplist.com/viewtopic.php?p=13854 Importing much more than the 1Mb limit]]
==Related pages==
~-[[ImportUsersWalkthrough Import users walkthrough]]
~-[[ListListsInfo Lists]]
~-[[ListUsersInfo Users]]
~-[[ViewMembersInfo Exporting list members]]
~-[[ConfigureAttributesInfo Attributes]]
~-[[ExportUsersInfo Exporting users]]
----
CategoryDocumentation
----
=====Import Users=====
===Preparing import file===
==Field delimiter==
You can import a list of email addresses and other user data from a Text/CSV or Tab delimited file. Most database and spreadheet programs can produce a Comma delimited or Tab delimited text file. It is recommended to use "tab" instead of "comma" as a field delimiter, because your data is not likely to contain a TAB, and will therefore cause less trouble than files using the comma delimiter.
==File size==
The maximum size of the file you can import into PHPlist will depend on the memory limits of your server, but may not exceed 1Mb. If you need to import a larger file, you will have to split it up in smaller parts.
==File structure==
>>
{{table columns="4" cellpadding="1" cells="Email;Firstname;Lastname;Hobby;john@domain.com;John;Doe;Fishing;karen@domain.org;Karen;Smith;Athletics"}}
>>While an email address is the minimum required field for importing a user list, you may choose to include other user data as well, like first name, last name, address, etc.
There are several structural requirements your import file should meet:
- Make sure all the field names (headers) are in top row (first line) of the list.
- The field name for the column containing the email addresses must be 'Email'.
- Other field names must be exactly the same as the names of the user attributes you created in PHPlist. However, if you haven't yet created any user attributes in PHPlist, you may choose to let PHPlist create these automatically. In the latter case the attribute names will be based on the field names of the import file.
===Importing users into existing lists===
To import a list of email addresses, select 'Manage Users' from the admin page. Then select 'Import Users' from the list of options.
There are four ways to import existing information:
- **import emails with different values for attributes**. The list of emails can have attributes not already defined. They will be created automatically as "textline" attributes. You should use this option, if you are importing a spreadsheet/CSV file that has the attributes for the users in the columns and one user per line.
- **import emails with the same values for attributes**. The list of emails will have to comply with the structure you have already set up in phplist. You should use this option if you are importing a simple list of emails. You can then specify the values for the attributes for each entry. They will be the same for everyone you are importing.
- **import emails from an imap account**. This will search emails in your IMAP folders and add them. Only the Name of the person can be found as an attribute.
- **import emails from another database**.
''[more info needed on the above last 3 import methods]''
===Import options for "Import emails with different values for attributes"===
>>**//Example://**
If, for example, you have a list of email addresses, forenames and surnames -providing you have set up attributes called Firstname and Lastname- a typical import of such as spreadsheet would go like this:
- Select the first option: //import emails with different values for attributes//.
- Select the list to which you wish to add the email addresses.
- Select a tab delimited text file containing your email addresses with the headings //Email//, //Firstname// and //Lastname//.
- The defaults for field delimiter and record delimiter need not be changed, provided that these are the delimiters you use in your import file. However, if you are importing from an .ods or .xsl database, the recomendation is to save that file into a .csv and use TAB as Field delimiter and " " (double quotes) as Record Delimiter. That always works well.
- Recommended: select 'Test Output' to check...
- Show Warnings: select this, but expect warning due to Mantis bug: http://mantis.tincan.co.uk/view.php?id=6275
- Confirm the import, and the email addresses will then be added to the list.>>The first import method, "Import emails with different values for attributes", is the one commonly used to import a user list with email addresses and additional data, like user names, addresses, etc. When using this import method you can use the following options.
==Overwrite Existing==
If you choose the option "Overwrite Existing" then if the records match (based on email and/or foreign key) the newly imported information from that record will overwrite the previous information.
However, there is an interesting and potentially useful twist: If the records match, but a certain attribute for that record in the import file is blank, then the existing attribute for that record is retained. The same thing happens if that attribute is completely omitted from the import file--then PHPList just leaves that attribute unchanged in any existing records. This is useful because it allows you to upload a file that changes certain attributes for users but leaves all the other unchanged. //(Note: this is based on experimentation with PHPlist ver 2.10.2. Other versions may not work in this fashion.)//
Also, there is a potential problem: Lets say you have a membership list that you continually update and occasionally re-import into PHPlist using "Overwrite Existing". Let's say you had some data that you intentionally deleted from some records, say a person's phone number is no longer valid so you delete it. When you import this into PHPList with the phone number field blank, PHPList will then leave the "phone number" attribute for that field unchanged. //(A possible solution is indicate records you wish to delete with a space or some other character?)//
==Retain Old User Email==
This option is the reverse of Overwrite Existing. If two users have the same foreign key or email this will retain the one in the phplist database and create a Duplicated user with the new one.
==Reset import session==
As you work your way along the import process you will see a link marked "reset import session". Use this if you want to go back to the beginning of the import process. You might want to do this because you are in the midst of working on an import and you want to abort and try again. Or if you are done with your import you can go back and try another.
This link is necessary because the import script keeps track of your state and you won't be able to get back to the start of the import process if you are in the middle of it--except via the "reset import session" link.
==Advanced options==
When importing you can include a column labeled "//Send this user HTML emails//". Values in the column can be 0 or 1. If 1, the user will receive HTML email, if 0, the user will receive text email. If blank, the user's existing setting for text/html will be unchanged.
When importing you can include a column labeled "//Is this account disabled?//". Values in the column can be 0 or 1. If 1, the users account will be disabled, if 0, the user will be normal. This can help in situations like this: You maintain a membership list independent of PHPList. Some people indicate to you that they don't want to receive email newsletters and you keep track of it via the membership list. Of course others unsubscribe via PHPList. So now you have to reconcile the two. The way to do it would be, include a column in your import file "//Is this account disabled?//". Mark the records with a 1 that have indicated they want to receive no email newsletters. Leave all the other records blank in that column. When you import those with a 1 should be marked as disabled, while the blank records should be left in the state they were previously in. //(It would be wise to test this first on your own PHPList installation using a small test list.)//
==Use of the 'foreign key' field==
If you use another ('foreign') database system to maintain you users list and want to synchronize that database with Phplist's users database, you can use the 'foreign key' field. A foreign key is a unique ID -usually generated in the foreign database system- which identifies a user record. When importing, phplist will first check if users in the csv file have a foreign key it can match with users in the phplist database. If so, it will use the foreign key ID to identify the user, instead of the email address as it normally would.
This has the advantage that if you are importing a lists of users, some of whom may have changed their email addresses in the mean time, phplist will be able to match the user's foreign key and update all other attributes, including the users' email addresses.
===Configuration of the temp directory===
Make sure you correctly configured the temp dir in config.php. Otherwise the file uploads will not work, and PHPlist wont be able to read the csv file.
**This block in config.php:**
%%(php)
# tmpdir. A location where phplist can write some temporary files if necessary
# Make sure it is writable by your webserver user, and also check that you have
# open_basedir set to allow access to this directory. Linux users can leave it as it is.
# this directory is used for all kinds of things, mostly uploading of files (like in
# import), creating PDFs and more
$tmpdir = '/tmp';
%%
===Tip & Tricks from the forum===
- [[http://forums.phplist.com/viewtopic.php?t=5672 phpList import and safe_mode fixed]]
- [[http://forums.phplist.com/viewtopic.php?t=6553 Import Emails from another Database Solution]]
- [[http://forums.phplist.com/viewtopic.php?t=1172 Importing users without file uploads]]
- [[http://forums.phplist.com/viewtopic.php?t=5085 Small hack to make CSV import work (Excel - phplist)]]
- [[http://forums.phplist.com/viewtopic.php?p=23474#23474 Import users pre-marked to receive html in CSV file]]
- [[http://forums.phplist.com/viewtopic.php?p=20425#20425 Importing more than the 1Mb limit]]
- [[http://forums.phplist.com/viewtopic.php?p=13854 Importing much more than the 1Mb limit]]
==Related pages==
~-[[ImportUsersWalkthrough Import users walkthrough]]
~-[[ListListsInfo Lists]]
~-[[ListUsersInfo Users]]
~-[[ViewMembersInfo Exporting list members]]
~-[[ConfigureAttributesInfo Attributes]]
~-[[ExportUsersInfo Exporting users]]
----
CategoryDocumentation
Deletions:
Revision [1087]
Edited on 2007-04-20 06:07:47 by Am4H73Additions:
==[[PhplistDocumentation Phplist Documentation]]
Deletions:
----
=====Import Users=====
===Preparing import file===
==Field delimiter==
You can import a list of email addresses and other user data from a Text/CSV or Tab delimited file. Most database and spreadheet programs can produce a Comma delimited or Tab delimited text file. It is recommended to use "tab" instead of "comma" as a field delimiter, because your data is not likely to contain a TAB, and will therefore cause less trouble than files using the comma delimiter.
==File size==
The maximum size of the file you can import into PHPlist will depend on the memory limits of your server, but may not exceed 1Mb. If you need to import a larger file, you will have to split it up in smaller parts.
==File structure==
>>
{{table columns="4" cellpadding="1" cells="Email;Firstname;Lastname;Hobby;john@domain.com;John;Doe;Fishing;karen@domain.org;Karen;Smith;Athletics"}}
>>While an email address is the minimum required field for importing a user list, you may choose to include other user data as well, like first name, last name, address, etc.
There are several structural requirements your import file should meet:
- Make sure all the field names (headers) are in top row (first line) of the list.
- The field name for the column containing the email addresses must be 'Email'.
- Other field names must be exactly the same as the names of the user attributes you created in PHPlist. However, if you haven't yet created any user attributes in PHPlist, you may choose to let PHPlist create these automatically. In the latter case the attribute names will be based on the field names of the import file.
===Importing users into existing lists===
To import a list of email addresses, select 'Manage Users' from the admin page. Then select 'Import Users' from the list of options.
There are four ways to import existing information:
- **import emails with different values for attributes**. The list of emails can have attributes not already defined. They will be created automatically as "textline" attributes. You should use this option, if you are importing a spreadsheet/CSV file that has the attributes for the users in the columns and one user per line.
- **import emails with the same values for attributes**. The list of emails will have to comply with the structure you have already set up in phplist. You should use this option if you are importing a simple list of emails. You can then specify the values for the attributes for each entry. They will be the same for everyone you are importing.
- **import emails from an imap account**. This will search emails in your IMAP folders and add them. Only the Name of the person can be found as an attribute.
- **import emails from another database**.
''[more info needed on the above last 3 import methods]''
===Import options for "Import emails with different values for attributes"===
>>**//Example://**
If, for example, you have a list of email addresses, forenames and surnames -providing you have set up attributes called Firstname and Lastname- a typical import of such as spreadsheet would go like this:
- Select the first option: //import emails with different values for attributes//.
- Select the list to which you wish to add the email addresses.
- Select a tab delimited text file containing your email addresses with the headings //Email//, //Firstname// and //Lastname//.
- The defaults for field delimiter and record delimiter need not be changed, provided that these are the delimiters you use in your import file. However, if you are importing from an .ods or .xsl database, the recomendation is to save that file into a .csv and use TAB as Field delimiter and " " (double quotes) as Record Delimiter. That always works well.
- Recommended: select 'Test Output' to check...
- Show Warnings: select this, but expect warning due to Mantis bug: http://mantis.tincan.co.uk/view.php?id=6275
- Confirm the import, and the email addresses will then be added to the list.>>The first import method, "Import emails with different values for attributes", is the one commonly used to import a user list with email addresses and additional data, like user names, addresses, etc. When using this import method you can use the following options.
==Overwrite Existing==
If you choose the option "Overwrite Existing" then if the records match (based on email and/or foreign key) the newly imported information from that record will overwrite the previous information.
However, there is an interesting and potentially useful twist: If the records match, but a certain attribute for that record in the import file is blank, then the existing attribute for that record is retained. The same thing happens if that attribute is completely omitted from the import file--then PHPList just leaves that attribute unchanged in any existing records. This is useful because it allows you to upload a file that changes certain attributes for users but leaves all the other unchanged. //(Note: this is based on experimentation with PHPlist ver 2.10.2. Other versions may not work in this fashion.)//
Also, there is a potential problem: Lets say you have a membership list that you continually update and occasionally re-import into PHPlist using "Overwrite Existing". Let's say you had some data that you intentionally deleted from some records, say a person's phone number is no longer valid so you delete it. When you import this into PHPList with the phone number field blank, PHPList will then leave the "phone number" attribute for that field unchanged. //(A possible solution is indicate records you wish to delete with a space or some other character?)//
==Retain Old User Email==
This option is the reverse of Overwrite Existing. If two users have the same foreign key or email this will retain the one in the phplist database and create a Duplicated user with the new one.
==Reset import session==
As you work your way along the import process you will see a link marked "reset import session". Use this if you want to go back to the beginning of the import process. You might want to do this because you are in the midst of working on an import and you want to abort and try again. Or if you are done with your import you can go back and try another.
This link is necessary because the import script keeps track of your state and you won't be able to get back to the start of the import process if you are in the middle of it--except via the "reset import session" link.
==Advanced options==
When importing you can include a column labeled "//Send this user HTML emails//". Values in the column can be 0 or 1. If 1, the user will receive HTML email, if 0, the user will receive text email. If blank, the user's existing setting for text/html will be unchanged.
When importing you can include a column labeled "//Is this account disabled?//". Values in the column can be 0 or 1. If 1, the users account will be disabled, if 0, the user will be normal. This can help in situations like this: You maintain a membership list independent of PHPList. Some people indicate to you that they don't want to receive email newsletters and you keep track of it via the membership list. Of course others unsubscribe via PHPList. So now you have to reconcile the two. The way to do it would be, include a column in your import file "//Is this account disabled?//". Mark the records with a 1 that have indicated they want to receive no email newsletters. Leave all the other records blank in that column. When you import those with a 1 should be marked as disabled, while the blank records should be left in the state they were previously in. //(It would be wise to test this first on your own PHPList installation using a small test list.)//
==Use of the 'foreign key' field==
If you use another ('foreign') database system to maintain you users list and want to synchronize that database with Phplist's users database, you can use the 'foreign key' field. A foreign key is a unique ID -usually generated in the foreign database system- which identifies a user record. When importing, phplist will first check if users in the csv file have a foreign key it can match with users in the phplist database. If so, it will use the foreign key ID to identify the user, instead of the email address as it normally would.
This has the advantage that if you are importing a lists of users, some of whom may have changed their email addresses in the mean time, phplist will be able to match the user's foreign key and update all other attributes, including the users' email addresses.
===Configuration of the temp directory===
Make sure you correctly configured the temp dir in config.php. Otherwise the file uploads will not work, and PHPlist wont be able to read the csv file.
**This block in config.php:**
%%(php)
# tmpdir. A location where phplist can write some temporary files if necessary
# Make sure it is writable by your webserver user, and also check that you have
# open_basedir set to allow access to this directory. Linux users can leave it as it is.
# this directory is used for all kinds of things, mostly uploading of files (like in
# import), creating PDFs and more
$tmpdir = '/tmp';
%%
===Tip & Tricks from the forum===
- [[http://forums.phplist.com/viewtopic.php?t=5672 phpList import and safe_mode fixed]]
- [[http://forums.phplist.com/viewtopic.php?t=6553 Import Emails from another Database Solution]]
- [[http://forums.phplist.com/viewtopic.php?t=1172 Importing users without file uploads]]
- [[http://forums.phplist.com/viewtopic.php?t=5085 Small hack to make CSV import work (Excel - phplist)]]
- [[http://forums.phplist.com/viewtopic.php?p=23474#23474 Import users pre-marked to receive html in CSV file]]
- [[http://forums.phplist.com/viewtopic.php?p=20425#20425 Importing more than the 1Mb limit]]
- [[http://forums.phplist.com/viewtopic.php?p=13854 Importing much more than the 1Mb limit]]
==Related pages==
~-[[ImportUsersWalkthrough Import users walkthrough]]
~-[[ListListsInfo Lists]]
~-[[ListUsersInfo Users]]
~-[[ViewMembersInfo Exporting list members]]
~-[[ConfigureAttributesInfo Attributes]]
~-[[ExportUsersInfo Exporting users]]
----
CategoryDocumentation
Revision [1079]
Edited on 2007-04-13 18:25:28 by AlStillero [added link to Import users walkthrough]Additions:
~-[[ImportUsersWalkthrough Import users walkthrough]]
Revision [992]
Edited on 2006-12-07 02:08:50 by AlStillero [Removed broken forum link + added related pages]Additions:
==Related pages==
~-[[ListListsInfo Lists]]
~-[[ListUsersInfo Users]]
~-[[ViewMembersInfo Exporting list members]]
~-[[ConfigureAttributesInfo Attributes]]
~-[[ExportUsersInfo Exporting users]]
~-[[ListListsInfo Lists]]
~-[[ListUsersInfo Users]]
~-[[ViewMembersInfo Exporting list members]]
~-[[ConfigureAttributesInfo Attributes]]
~-[[ExportUsersInfo Exporting users]]
Deletions:
Additions:
- [[http://forums.phplist.com/viewtopic.php?t=1172 Importing users without file uploads]]
Revision [961]
Edited on 2006-11-22 05:31:20 by AlStillero [Moved export settings config .php to ExportUsersInfo]Deletions:
# the mime type for the export files. You can try changing this to
# application/vnd.ms-excel to make it open automatically in excel
$export_mimetype = 'application/csv';
# if you want to use export format optimized for Excel, set this one to 1
define("EXPORT_EXCEL",0);
