Creating the Contact import file
You can import Contacts contained in a delimited file format such as CSV file into an Address Book. This section describes the requirements for the import file used to import Contacts:
- The data in the file must be delimited using the supported formatting (see below)
- The file must be encoded using UTF-8, if it contains unicode characters
- The first row of data in the file must contain the names of the various data columns:
- At least one column must contain an identifier to uniquely identify Contacts (see Contact identification below)
- Other columns whose values you want to import must map to the extended detail fields being used
- To import Contacts into the (All Contacts) node at System Administration level, the file must contain a column that you can map to the
GROUP_KEYVALUEfield (the row value must specify the Key value of an existing Address Book)
- Configure logging for import in the OutboundEmail.xml configuration file.
Contact identification
Contacts have a default set of extended detail fields in which the combination IDENTIFICATION_KEY and IMPORT_SOURCE are used to uniquely identify individual Contacts. The procedure for changing and configuring contact identification fields and adding Contact Extended Details (executed by a Database Administrator) is described in the implementation documentation.
Specifying default mapping
In the <ContactDetails> section of the configuration file OutboundEmail.xml you must specify extended detail fields for Contacts. These fields reflect the extended details as defined in Audience Manager databases. To provide default mapping, specify the same column names in the file as those specified for the extended detail fields. For more information about configuration, see the installation topics in the SDL Tridion Sites product documentation.
In addition to the extended detail fields, Contacts also come with a fixed set of fields for each Contact which are assigned default values if not mapped. You can ensure that the mapping works by default by creating columns with the names in the following table:
| Field | Possible values | Default value |
|---|---|---|
| SUBSCRIBE_STATUS_ID |
| 2 |
| EMAIL_TYPE |
| 1 |
| BOUNCE_STATUS_ID |
| 1 |
| ENABLED | true or false | true |
GROUP_KEYVALUE | The Key value of an existing Address Book |
File formatting
The following table describes how the data may be formatted in your Contact import files:
| Format option | Description | Supported Values |
|---|---|---|
| Field separator | Specifies how fields/columns are separated. |
|
| String delimiter | Specifies how fields that contain commas, double-quotes, or line-breaks are delimited. |
|
| Decimal separator | Specifies the symbol used to mark the boundary between the integral and the fractional parts of a decimal numeral. |
|
| Group separator | Specifies the symbol used, before or after the thousand separator (to ease the reading of large numbers). |
|
| Date format | Specifies the date format. | Dates must be formatted according to the data formats supported by your Audience Manager database:
|
| Row separator | Specifies how rows are separated
|
|