When to Import from File

Import your invitees from a file when you have new or updated data from an external source, outside of GEVME.


Propagation Rules

When importing invitees from a file:

  1. New invitee records who do not exist in Contacts will be pushed and created in Contacts as well.
  2. Invitee records with a corresponding existing profile in Contacts will be updated in Contacts as well.

In other words, when invitees are imported from a file and their data updated, their corresponding linked profile in Contacts (if they have one) will also be updated. It is therefore important to make sure that you are not importing old data when importing from a file.

Thus consider the scenario where you have the following setup:


When the import is performed, the result will be as follows, where the record in Contacts will be updated, based on a matching email:



Importing Invitees From File

To import invitees from a file, follow these steps:

1. Click on Invitees in the left-hand navigation.


2. If you don't have any invitee, you will see the following screen:



Click on the Import Invitees button.

3. If, however, you already have invitees, you will see the invitees grid:



In that case, click on the Import button in the grid toolbar.

4. STEP 1 - Choose your import source
This will open the Import Invitees wizard popup.



5. Click on the Import from a file button, then click on the Next button.
Note: The CSV file has to be in UTF-8 format for the Special characters, Chinese chanracters, etc to show correctly.


6. STEP 2 - Upload your file
This will bring you to the next step to upload your file.



The options and settings on this screen are:

  1. File to import
    Click the Choose file button to select your file. Alternatively, just drag your file into the No file selected box. 
  2. Match records based on
    This option allows you to choose which column to use to match your records between your import target (in this case Invitees) and your import source (in this case a file) during the import. The values under this option are the following:

    (1) ID
    By default, this option will always be there. The ID is a unique number, generated by the system when you export your records from the grid. Therefore, to match records based on ID, export your records first, edit the exported file as required, then import it back again.
    Note: The ID number is sytem generated and cannot be manually created.

    (2) Any field with unique values
    Any other fields with unique values in your invitees form will also be listed in the dropdown, e.g. the Email field. 
  3. If duplicate records are detected
    This option allows you to choose the action to take when matching records are found between the source and the target. The possible settings under this option are:

    (1) Update with new information
    This option will update the information of the matching record in the target destination (if the information is different from the source).

    (2) Skip
    This option will not update the information of the matching record in the target destination. 
  4. Assign imported records to static list?
    Choosing Yes for this option will add the imported records to a static list of your choice immediately after they are imported. 
  5. Advanced options
    (1) Character encoding 

    (2) Date and time format in your file
    Specify the date and time format that you are using in your file to make sure that the system reads them correctly during import. 
  6. Click on the Upload file button 
  7. STEP 3 - Match your columns & import your records
    This will bring you to the Matching Columns screen.


This step allows you to match the columns in your file to their corresponding fields in your invitees form. By default, GEVME will smartly read the column headers in your file and do the matching, but you can of course override this decision and do the matching manually.


Fields for which GEVME cannot find a matching column from your file will be marked as "Will not be imported", for example, the Country field in the screenshot below:



To do the matching manually, simply select the column in your file from the dropdown for the corresponding invitee field. For example, if your country column was called Origin in your file, select it from the dropdown:


This will then match the Country field in your invitee form to the Origin column in your file:



8. Once you are satisfied with the matching, click on the Import records button.




9. STEP 4 - Results of import

After the import, you will be presented with the Results of import screen.



On this screen will be reported the following:

  1. The number of records in your file.
  2. The static list to which the records were added (if applicable).
  3. The number of records added.
  4. The number of records updated (or skipped, based on the setting that you chose in Step 2).
  5. The number of records which were not imported.

    Note    : For the records which were added, updated or which were not imported, click on the respective links to get more details. This detail is available ONLY from this page.