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Supporters: Importing Supporters

To import supporters to your list in large groups, you'll want to use the import tool, located in the Supporter Management tab. To get to step one of the importer, click the Supporter Management tab, then click "Import Supporters" in the sub-navigation menu:

Import Step 1

Step one of the import process has two ways to import data: from a file, or from a pasted selection. If you're importing a large amount of data, the file import will work best, while for small uploads, the upload from paste option will allow you to see your input before the system processes it. Import from file appears at the top of the page, import options appear in the center of the page, and the text area where you can paste input appears at the bottom:

Importing from a file

To import from a file, click the "Browse" button next to the Filename field:

Import from Paste

If you're working with a small amount of data, you can simply paste it into the textarea at the bottom of the page:

Once you've selected your data source, it's important to choose the options appropriate to what you're uploading. First, choose the field delimiter that your data uses (most data will be in Tab or Comma delimited formats). Next, choose the table that you'll be uploading data to (in most cases it's fine to leave this as "Supporter"). Finally, choose whether this upload is similar to any previous uploads, which will assist in matching fields correctly.

Once you've chosen all your options, click the "upload data" button:

Import Step 2

In step two of the process, you have a number of basic options:

Reference Source Name: The Reference Source Name is the name that will be given to the file stored on our servers which holds a copy of your uploaded data. You can leave the value that is entered by default, unless you would like to specifically identify the source. Please note that this is the value which will appear in the Source Details portion of each supporter record created by this upload.</dd>

Field Matching: It will be necessary to choose an appropriate matching field for each of the columns in your upload, by selecting one from the drop down box next to the value from the first row of that column.

Supporter Groups: If you would like supporters created by this upload to be added to a particular group (which must exist prior to the upload), you can specify the Group here.

It's important, when completing the field matching step, to choose the correct database field to receive your data, as a misconfigured upload can require you to delete your new supporters and reupload. Make sure that you've chosen either the field that best matches the column you're seeking to match, or that you've chosen "Ignore," which will leave that column out of the upload altogether.

Additionally, there are advanced options available:

Skip Lines: In the Skip Lines field, you can supply a number of fields at the beginning of the uploaded file to be ignored. Often, the first line of a file will have the column names in it, instead of actual values, and it can be helpful to skip that line in order to avoid create a supporter whose first name is "First Name."

Deduplication: By default, uploaded supporters are deduplicated by email address (or supporter_KEY number). You can also set the deduplication field to any of the supporter fields, or turn off deduplication entirely for the current upload.

Overwrite Options: By default, the system will overwrite any existing records that it deduplicates against, unless the value in the uploaded file is blank. An example would be an upload to a supporter with the values Email: tom@domain.tld, First Name: Tom, Last_Name: BLANK, where the uploaded values are Email: tom@domain.tld, First Name: BLANK, Last_Name: Thompson. In that case, the upload would deduplicate based on email address, which would cause the incoming record to overwrite the blank Last Name field with the new Last Name value, "Thompson," while NOT overwriting the existing first name field, since the uploaded file does not have a first name value. With the two checkboxes in the Overwrite Options section, you can first, cause no overwriting to occur, period (effectively making the uploaded record a kind of "fill in the blanks", secondary record) or you can make the uploaded record overwrite even with blanks, with the second checkbox.

Once you've uploaded your file by choosing the appropriate options and hitting the Submit for Upload button, you'll be taken to the import status screen:

When you first see this screen, the various fields for your recent upload will be blank. However, if you return to this page after the system has had time to process your upload (usually less than twenty minutes, though large upload can take longer), your upload should display the number of supporters created and updated by your upload, as well as the number of errors encountered, if any:

If you go to your supporter listing, you'll see that your uploaded supporters are now part of your full supporter list:

Return to your Supporter Management Tab