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Import Field Guide

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Import: Field Guide

Only Common and Membership fields can be imported. All other data related to events, donations, finances etc. can only be exported (not imported)

This page provides additional details related to importing contact / member records into your Wild Apricot database as described in the Import Guide.

Here are some of the things you can do with import:

  • Import new records into your Wild Apricot database or update existing records
  • Import members or other contacts
  • Create Membership Levels (including Bundle Memberships)
  • Create new fields on the fly
  • Set Member Renewal Dates

Mapping your records to Wild Apricot database fields

  • Use system fields if the information corresponds to an existing system field (i.e. Member Since, Member Status).
  • Use Common (Contact) Fields if the information being collected applies to everyone (contacts, members, donors, event attendees, etc.).
  • Use Member Fields if the information only applies to members.

Erasing Values

If you would like to erase the current value of a field rather than just change it to a new value, you have the following option. However, before starting your import, note that both NEVER and CLEAR are case sensitive.

  • Clearing Date Fields - for any system date fields use the value NEVER to clear the current value.
  • Clearing Custom Fields that you add and System fields called "Group participation" and "Notes" fields -  use the value CLEAR to clear the value of the field.

Wild Apricot System Database Fields

System Field
Accepted Values
Notes
User ID (aka Member ID)
  •  Usually a 5, 6 or 7 digit number
  • This is a unique ID automatically generated by the system
  • You CANNOT create your own User ID; any invalid values are ignored and replaced with the system generated ID
  • If specified ID or Email already exists - the record is updated, otherwise a NEW record is created
  • If specified ID and Email both DO NOT exist (or are left empty) - a new contact record is created with a new system generated ID
  • If you duplicate valid User IDs, then all subsequent records with that ID are not imported
Email
  • Any valid email format (i.e. randymarsh@naccp.com)
  • Each email must be unique; all subsequent records with duplicated emails are not imported
  • Though admininstrators can add contacts with no email, Email is required in order to log in (it is then used as the username)
  • If email used already exists in the database, then the existing record will be updated
GROUP PARTICIPATION
  • You can only assign members to one or more groups that have already been created within Wild Apricot (see Member Groups)
  • Because you cannot create new groups via import, you cannot assign a member to a group unless it already exists.
  • To assign a member to more than one group, write the group names on separate lines
  • All non-existent group names you specify will result in a warning during import and will simply be ignored.
PASSWORD
  • Any combination of of letters, numbers and characters
  • No spaces
  • Number of characters: Min 3, Max 50
  • Passwords can only be imported, not exported
  • Leave empty if you do not want to update the current user passwords
MEMBERSHIP ENABLED
  • Yes - contact is a member
  • No - membership is suspended; contact no longer treated as a member
  • If set to "No" all membership fields are ignored during import
MEMBERSHIP LEVEL
  • Name of your membership level
  • Any combination of letters, numbers, characters and spaces
  • Use this field to specify the membership level which you have already created in Wild Apricot, or if the Membership level does not exist you will have the option to create it during the import 'mapping stage'
  • See Membership levels
MEMBER BUNDLE ID OR EMAIL
  • The member ID or the email address of a bundle administrator
MEMBER SINCE
  • Use supported date format (see below)
  
RENEWAL DUE
  • Use supported date format (see below)
  • Or set to Never - if member is not required to renew.
STATUS
  • Active -  Member enjoys all member benefits
  • Lapsed - Member has not paid his/her dues in time
  • Pending - Renewal - Member initiated the renewal process, but payment has not been confirmed yet
  • Pending - Level Change - Membership level change was initiated, now waiting for payment confirmation or approval.
  • Pending - New - New application is awaiting approval or payment confirmation.
SUBSCRIBED TO EMAILS
  • Yes
  • No
  • If Yes, Contacts will be able to receive automatic email notices.
  • If No, disables any emails that would be sent to this contact (the following fields Automatic Event Reminders and Emails and e-Newsletters will have no effect).
AUTOMATIC EVENT REMINDERS
  • Yes
  • No
  • This controls whether or not automatic event notices / reminders are sent to the contact - set to "Yes" to enable and "No" to disable.
  • This setting is overridden if subscribed to emails is set to "No" (i.e. will also be set to "No").
EMAILS AND E-NEWSLETTERS
  • Yes
  • No
  •  This controls if the user will receive emails sent by Wild Apricot. Set to "No" to disable emails being sent out. This is specifically helpful if you have contacts that do not have a valid email address.
ARCHIVED
  • Yes
  • No
  • Set to "Yes" if you want the contact archived, otherwise set it to "No".
ACCESS TO PROFILES BY OTHERS
  • Yes
  • No
  • Set to "Yes" if you want this profile seen by others, "No" to hide it from everyone else.
DETAILS TO SHOW
  • Member ID&&Nobody
  • First Name&&Anybody
  • Last Name&&Members
  • etc.
  • You can specify if a field should be shown by using the following format Fieldname&&Permission; where Permission is to the right and separated from the field name by a double ampersand '&&' and could be one of the following: Nobody, Anybody or Member.
PHOTO ALBUMS ENABLED
  • Yes
  • No
  • Set to yes if you would like to enable photo albums for this member or no if you would like to disable this feature for this member.
NOTES
  • Any string or characters
  • Admin-only field, typically used by the system to record information not captured by other fields (i.e. automatic membership emails sent, when member was renewed, etc.)

Additional fields available in the export file

In addition to the fields above, there are several additional fields available in Export files (see Exporting members and other contacts)

  • ADMINISTRATION ACCESS
  • RENEWAL DATE LAST CHANGED
  • LEVEL LAST CHANGED
  • MEMBER ROLE
  • BALANCE
  • TOTAL DONATED

These fields will be ignored during import if present in your import file.

Supported Date Formats

(This applies for CSV Files - Excel files store dates in special internal Excel format)

  • dd mm yyyy 16 Nov 2003
  • yyyy-MMM-dd 2008-Dec-31
  • MM / dd / yyyy 12/31/2008
  • dd / MM / yyyy 31/12/2008
  • yy / MM / dd 8/12/31
  • dd-MMM-yy 31-Dec-08
  • yyyy-MM-dd 2008-12-31
  • dd.MM.YYYY 31.12.2008
  • MM.dd.YYYY 12.31.2008

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