The User Import functionality within the Admin Interface provides an easy way for you to add and update your Users in bulk. This article details the standard User Import tool available in the Absorb Admin Interface. If you're looking for information on historical or scheduled data import services, please see our Data Imports article.

• For more information on .csv files, see What Is A CSV File.... It covers how to save a CSV file for importing Users, and what a CSV is.
• Important: During a User Import, the first row of the .csv file is used as the header row and is required to validate that all mandatory fields are present. While this header row is processed as part of the import, it is not counted when reporting error locations. As a result, any line numbers or item references shown in error messages correspond to the data rows only, effectively shifting reported line numbers up by one compared to their position in the original file.

Creating a CSV File

The First Name, Last Name, and Password columns are required for new User Import (the Password column can be removed if you are updating existing Users).

• The order of the columns is irrelevant and can be changed or altered, without affecting the validity of the import file.
• While the Email Address and Gender fields are not required to import Users, if your .csv file has columns for these fields, the system will perform a formatting check on the cells in these columns, which blank values will fail. As such, you may need to split your CSV into multiple files if you have some Learners with values for these fields, and others without.
• When the Update Existing Users option is enabled (toggled ON), new Users can be included, but First Name, Last Name, and Password will be required for the whole file. Blank values for First Name and Last Name will overwrite current values for existing Users, however the Password field can't be overwritten via a User Import, and can be left blank.
  

Please note that the upload will not check for data integrity (for example, if an Email Address is a valid Email Address, please review your data carefully).

File Encoding

Save your CSV file using UTF-8 encoding, which is the default in most spreadsheet applications. UTF-8 supports the widest range of characters and is the recommended choice for the majority of User Imports.

Available Fields

The following fields are available to be imported via the Admin Interface:

• Username
• Middle Name
• Gender
• Language (for a full list of Absorb's Language codes click here)
• Address
• Address2
• City
• State/Province (if this in your CSV file, Country must also be present)
• Country
• Zip/Postal Code
• Phone
• Employee Number
• Location
• Job Title
• Notes
• Email
• Date Hired
• Termination Date
• External ID
• Custom Fields

Password Requirements

When importing new Users, the Password supplied for each User must meet your portal's configured password strength requirements. These are the same rules that apply when a password is set manually.

If a Password does not satisfy these requirements, that row will fail validation and the User will not be created. Review your portal's password policy before preparing your import file.

Field Character Limits

Text fields in your CSV file are subject to maximum character limits. Values that exceed these limits will fail validation. The following limits apply:

Date Format for Importing Users

When importing Users, the only supported date format is YYYY-MM-DD. Please note that using any other format is not currently supported, and we cannot guarantee that the User Import will complete successfully if another date format is used.

Absorb Country Codes

Under the Attachments section on the right side column of this article is a file that contains a list of acceptable Country code values. Note that upon importing, the two-letter Country code should be used instead of the three-letter code, as the three-letter code will cause validation errors. These codes mirror the ISO 3166-2 list of standardized values for these attributes.

Country codes are managed manually by Absorb, based on the ISO 3166-2 standards. For more information about this standard, review the following Wikipedia article:

• ISO_3166-2 | Wikipedia

Absorb aims to keep up to date with international name standard updates, if you notice any of our Country name data is out of date. Please feel welcome to submit a support ticket or reach out to your client support representative to discuss the matter.

Province/State Column

When adding a Province/State code to your CSV for the purposes of a User Import, the tool expects the value for the State/Province column to be written out in its full name. If including a State/Province value, a Country value must also be provided.

As an example:

• Alberta instead of AB.
• Ohio instead of OH.

Department

Department can be assigned to imported Users by mapping a Department column in your CSV file, or by selecting a Department in the Additional Data section during the import.

A single User Import can only assign one Department per CSV file or batch, even when a Department column is mapped. If you need to import Users into more than one Department, split your data into separate files, one for each Department. You can also update a User's Department after the import through the Users Report.

Unavailable Fields

The following fields cannot be included in the Import:

• Supervisor
• Avatar
• CC Email Addresses

The Supervisor, Avatar, and CC Email Addresses must be updated manually through the Users Report.

Additional Fields / Settings

Additional Fields are available during the import process. The difference between the information you provide in the .csv and the Additional Fields is that additional fields will be the same for all Users in the import.

The available additional fields are:

• Department
• Roles
• Learner
• Admin
• Instructor
• Language
• Country
• Province
• City
• Location
• Job Title
• Date Hired
• Date Terminated
• Notes
• All Custom Fields

Boolean Fields

Some Custom Fields are configured to accept a boolean (true/false) value. When importing data into one of these fields, you may use either of the following value pairs:

• 0 or false
• 1 or true

Keep in mind that you must use a consistent syntax for boolean values. Don't mix and match the usage of 0/1 or false/true.

Minimum Amount of Valid Fields for New User Import

When uploading a CSV file for the purposes of User Import, the following fields represent what is absolutely mandatory to pass validation and successfully import new Users:

• First Name
• Last Name
• Password

If you are preparing a template to be referenced for future User Imports using a CSV file, it can be beneficial to start with the minimum number of fields and then slowly add more, until the full scope of data is being included and successfully validated by the User Import tool.

Mutually Dependent Fields

When preparing a CSV file for User Import it is important to make sure that the fields included are not dependent on another set of missing information.

A common example of mutually dependent fields would be State/Province and Country. If you include a value for the State/Province field without including the Country field for the Users an error will be produced when uploading the CSV because State/Province requires Country to be included.

Uploading a CSV File

Once your CSV file is prepared, follow these steps to upload it and begin the User Import:

1. Navigate to the Users Report and click the User Import button from the top or side bar.
   
2. Select the .csv file you created from the File Manager, or upload a new one.
   

Mapping the User Fields

Once you have successfully uploaded your file, you will be presented with several options that will determine how the imported data will be used.

1. Select the Username format using the LMS Username drop down menu. You can choose from any of the fields that are included in your CSV (like Email Address, or by combining the FirstName.LastName entries together).
   • For consistency, be sure to format Usernames the same as existing Users.
   • It is not possible to update the LMS Username via the Import.
     
      
2. Choose whether you wish to Update Existing Users that already exist in your LMS with the imported data. Enabling Update Existing Users will update/replace data in existing Users. If not enabled, all data will be imported as new Users. Proceed with caution here.
3. If Updating Existing Users, match the Link Spreadsheet Field with the fields available in the to LMS Field drop down.
   
    
4. Enabling Send New User Email will email your portal's New User Message Template to all the new Users that are being created by the import. Updated Users will be omitted.
5. Next, you will see the Source Data Preview. This will show you the top 5 records in your document to aid in selecting the appropriate Absorb field to map to. The LMS will attempt to intuitively auto-match your column headers with Absorb fields, and this auto-matching is not case-sensitive, so the capitalization of your headers will not affect how they are matched. You can adjust any match using the drop-down menu below each header. Review each column and the mapped Absorb field, add and alter as necessary.
   

Additional Data

Below the Source Data Preview section, you'll find an expandable Additional Data section. This area allows you to specify additional data that will apply to all Users being imported.

1. Check off the fields that you want to include in the import.
2. Select or enter the relevant data.

• Imports can only include one Department at a time. If you wish to import multiple Users into various Departments you will have to split the imports up into their respective Department and select it in the Additional Details. You can also change the Department after the Users are uploaded.
• If you have a Blended Billing Model, a tool tip will state whether the Department you've selected has Internal or External Billing applied. Please ensure you have selected the correct Department and the Department has the expected Billing Type.

Validation

Once the Mapping and Additional Data have been reviewed and confirmed, click the Validate button. During validation any data conflicts will be shown as errors (including the row number). The validation process reports up to 10 errors at a time, so if your file contains more than 10 issues you may need to correct the reported errors and validate again to reveal any that remain. The data will need to be corrected by altering the .csv file or by adjusting the mappings. If no conflicts are found, you'll be shown the total amount of Users that will be created and updated. Click Load once you are ready to have all Users added to your Portal.