Watch the walkthrough
https://www.loom.com/share/819be6f9e6334863975b35c720650e05
Introduction
You can create new contacts on Makerble by importing a CSV spreadsheets containing their details.
When you create a contact, you populate the red section of their Contact Profile page. (You can populate the purple section - their Timeline - by importing attendance, notes and survey results using Import Stories about tagged contacts)
Makerble guides you through the steps to match the columns in your spreadsheet to the fields in your Contact Forms.
Considerations
Each spreadsheet must be in the CSV file format
Each spreadsheet must contain less than 800 rows
Each spreadsheet must contain a header row
You can import contacts into a specific project or you can import them at an organisation-level
Preliminary steps to complete before you begin the import process
Every contact that is imported will be recorded as being created by a particular user. The default will be that you will be set as the creator of each contact. However if you would like contacts to be shown as being created by other users, you should do these two steps before importing:
1. Add those users to your Organisation on Makerble
2. Add a column called “Created by” to your CSV spreadsheet and include the email addresses of those users. (Note that the email address used for the users must match the email address that those users use to login to their Makerble Account)
Ensure that any Fields that are being imported have been created on Makerble.
Import steps
Select Create in the top menu
A dropdown menu appears
Select Import
In the Choose the type of record you are importing field: select Import Contacts
There are six tabs
TAB 1: UPLOAD SPREADSHEET:
Give your import a Name - consider naming it after the file you are importing
For the destination: you can choose whether to import the contacts to a
single project (this will create the contacts and add them to that project within the organisation; they will also be visible at the organisation level because the organisation owns the project)
organisation (this will create the contacts and only add them to the organisation)
Attach the file - it must be a CSV file
Press Next
TAB 2: PREVIEW AND EDIT:
This simply shows you the contents of your CSV file. You can edit it directly here if you want to, but you shouldn’t need to.
If there are any fields that are not being matched, make sure you select Skip This Field. Otherwise you won’t be able to proceed.
Press NEXT
TAB 3: MATCH COLUMNS TO FIELDS
Here you can match the columns in your spreadsheet to the fields
Press NEXT
TAB 4: SET RULES FOR MATCHING
This displays each list field
This relates mostly to the list type fields. It allows you to match the different Answer Choices in the column of the spreadsheet and match them to the Answer Choices available in that list field on Makerble
If there are any Answer Choices that are not being matched, make sure you select Skip Column. Otherwise you won’t be able to proceed.
Once you’ve matched these up you can press Next
If you don’t have any list fields being matched, you can simply press Next
TAB 5: SET RULES FOR MERGING
If enabled, this allows you to merge the imported contacts with existing contacts on Makerble.
TAB 6: CONFIRM IMPORT
This is a preview of what will be imported
Simply scroll to the bottom and press Next (alternatively displayed as Start Import or Finish)
A popup appears to let you know that the import has begun
You arrive on the Manage Imports page - https://www.makerble.com/record_importer/ - and the import process happens in the background
Troubleshooting
Question | Answer |
If there are 00 prefixes in the CSV file that don’t display when you open the CSV file in Excel | https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/270336-saving-as-csv-and-keeping-leading-zeros |
Importing contacts via CSV is only compatible with Classic Contact Forms. If your organisation uses Custom Forms for Contacts, you will have to import your contacts via the API. You can do this using:
a custom integration if you have requested that Makerble build a custom integration
Contact helpdesk@makerble.com for guidance on how to action either of these options.