The import assistant

The Import Assistant is used to load your recipient data into the OpenEMM database. You only have to give the system two pieces of information for this to take place: The save location of your CSV file and an import profile. Proceed as follows:

1. Click on the navigation bar entry Recipients and call the Import submenu. In the dialog that follows, you first tell the system where your CSV file is located. Clicking on the Browse button calls the file dialog that lets you select your CSV file. Open confirms your choice and returns you to the import dialog. If you want to select another CSV file, click on the Browse button.

Fig. 4.18: The Import Assistant needs a CSV file and an import profile to be able to import recipient data into the database.

2. OpenEMM makes all import profiles saved in the system available with the menu point Select import profile. Choose a profile that fits your recipient data.

3. Once you have selected a CSV file and an import profile, start the Import Assistant using the Proceed button.

4.4.4.1 Assigning the CSV columns to the database columns

The Import Assistant now reads the CSV file in and analyses it in exactly the way defined in the import profile. If the column names in the import profile are identical with the column names of the CSV file, both columns are automatically assigned to one another. In the next window, the system displays a preview of the recipient data to be imported, showing a maximum of the first 20 lines of your CSV file.

Fig. 4.19: The Import Assistant shows a preview of the CSV file of up to 20 lines in length.

In the preview, only the columns that are actually to be imported appear. Note that this is only a preview and the data cannot be changed. If you discover errors here, you must change these in the original file and prepare a new CSV file for import.

Ple ase note : In this first step, OpenEMM only checks whether the CSV data is in the correct format and whether a filled-out key column exists for each recipient. If for example the email address has been defined as being the key column, it must contain content. OpenEMM does not however carry out deeper syntactical checks here. The system therefore does not check either capitalization or spelling of the CSV data.

For this reason, you should go through the complete CSV list carefully before the import.

Experience shows that import files often contain erroneous data. This can cause considerable problems after the import. When such erroneous recipient data has been stored in the OpenEMM database, tracking it down is difficult and takes a lot of effort. Voluminous imports in particular often harbor much potential for conflict.

In addition to the preview, in this import step the Assistant offers you the possibility of directly allocating the recipients listed in the CSV file to a mailing list. You can find out more in chapter "

Selection of mailing lists". Clicking on the Start import button starts the actual import procedure.

Ple ase note : To allow the recipient data to be allocated to a mailing list, this must already have been created in OpenEMM. You can find out more on the subject of mailing lists in chapter "

Mailing lists - Managing list subscription".

4.4.4.2 Selection of mailing lists

All mailing lists that you have previously created for sending to your recipients are listed in the first Import Assistant window in addition to the preview. By simply clicking on the corresponding checkbox, you select those lists for which the recipient should be registered or deregistered.

Depending on the import mode (see chapter "Determining the process settings") you can also use

this function to deregister recipients from one or more mailing lists.

Selecting one or more mailing lists simultaneously activates an OpenEMM security function: If there is a recipient in the CSV file whose administration status has already been set to opt-out, the data will no longer be imported by OpenEMM. This prevents the recipient accidentally receiving mails even though he has already deregistered from the mailing list.

Fig. 4.20: You automatically register the imported recipients for mailing lists with a mouse click.

Ple ase note : The selection of one or more mailing lists applies for all recipients to be imported.

For a selection in which some recipients must be added to mailing list A and other recipients to mailing list B, an additional step is needed.

Example: Your CSV file consists to one third of recipients who are to be added to mailing list A, a further third should be added to mailing list B, and the final third to both mailing lists A and B. In this case you must split the recipients into three separate CSV files and carry out the import procedure with each of the three CSV files. For the first import procedure, tick mailing list A, for the second import procedure tick mailing list B, and for the third import procedure tick mailing lists A and B.

As soon as you have marked the mailing list you want with a mouse click, you can start the read-in procedure by clicking on Start import. You can watch the import procedure via the progress bar.

Further information can be found under Result.

4.4.4.3 Error handling

In principle, two kinds of error can occur when importing CSV files into the database:

The import profile chosen does not match the CSV file.

The CSV file contains errors.

If the Assistant does not even display the first lines of the CSV file as a preview, the import file chosen does not match the CSV file. This can occur when no information on the column names or on the key column is noted in the import profile. OpenEMM therefore indicates an error and switches directly to the input mask of the selected import profile for correction.

Fig. 4.21: The Assistant reports an error when importing recipient data. The import profile chosen does not match the CSV file.

Now switch to the Manage columns tab. You can there see that OpenEMM has already read out the column names of your CSV file and added the import profile as a CSV column. Assign the

CSV columns whose information that you want to import – at a minimum the key column – to a database name and accept the changes with Save. Then click on the submenu Import in the navigation bar, again select your import profile and restart the Assistant via Proceed.

In the second case – the CSV file contains errors – OpenEMM does not switch to the import profile but remains directly in the Assistant. After clicking on the Start import button in the import preview, the system carries out a search for errors. This includes a search for erroneous e-mail addresses and wrong numerical values. If discrepancies occur, the system announces those found on the following page, for example with the following output:

Fig. 4.22: OpenEMM has discovered an error in the CSV file. In this example, the key field with the email address is missing for one of the recipients.

OpenEMM highlights CSV fields containing wrong information in yellow, and requests that you enter the correct data. The corrected information is accepted with Save. The search for errors is subsequently restarted to check your corrections. Alternatively, you can Ignore errors found. The erroneous information is then not imported.

If in the import profile you have given an email address in the field Email for report, OpenEMM sends a message that can contain the following information:

A CSV file containing the found and corrected errors A CSV file corresponding to the figure above would consist of two lines. The first line contains individual categories such as gender, last name and email address; the second line contains the data record for the recipient that has the wrong email address.

A CSV file with the wrong lines that were not imported.

A report containing import statistics.

4.4.4.4 Importing the CSV-file

In the next step, the Assistant transfers the CSV file to the database while simultaneously checking for errors. Amongst other things, the system searches for agreements with the blacklist and

duplicate addresses, and also checks for the correct line structure of the CSV file.

In principle, OpenEMM can import erroneous CSV files because the lines containing errors are skipped during the import. It is however a good idea to first correct all errors in the CSV file.

Otherwise you will never know exactly whether the desired recipient data was imported or not.

Fig. 4.23: You have successfully finished the import. You can call up a summary via the diskette symbol.

After the import up to four reports are available. If you click on the diskette symbol, you can download them as a CSV file. If the Assistant tells you that errors occurred during import, you can easily go through the list and modify the import data accordingly by, for example, deleting the recipients with erroneous data.

Valid recipients: Successfully imported respectively updated recipients.

Invalid recipients: Recipients, which could not be imported

Duplicate recipients: Recipients, which were recognized as duplicates corresponding to the setting. The source of the multiple duplicates will be displayed in an additional column with file (within the import file) or db (within the data base).

Fixed recipients: Recipients, which were manually corrected in the previous step.

When you have imported the data from your CSV file into the system, click on the Finish button to switch to the submenu Overview in the navigation bar entry Recipients. The overview

automatically displays the most important parameters such as salutation, first name, last name and email address. You can read more about managing the recipients in chapter "Managing recipients".