Profiles imports and exports

The easiest way to import or export Marketing Factory profiles is by using CSV (comma-separated file) files. 

CSV files may be generated by different tools, but the most common one is Microsoft Excel. However Microsoft Excel generates many different types of CSV files. In the latest versions, you should use the following procedure to generate a CSV file:

1. File -> Save As...
2. Select File Format : CSV UTF-8

Depending on the platform of Microsoft Excel (Mac, Windows) and its version, it may generate different types of CSV files. The easiest way to determine the type of a CSV file is to use the following command on MacOS or Linux : 

file myfile.csv

This should generate an output such as the following:

myfile.csv: UTF-8 Unicode (with BOM) text, with CR line terminators

You can use this information to select the proper settings in the profile import settings.

If you're not on MacOS or Linux, you could use an online service such as CheckFileType to determine the type of the CSV file.

Profiles exports and imports ease this process with built-in features to configure and save one-time and recurrent exports and imports. 

1. Create / edit a profiles export

Start by giving a name and a description to your export

Export type

Check the "recurrent" option if you want to configure an export to an ftp or network disk on a regular basis (i.e. export all profiles once a day to another server). Configuration of the filepath should be made by the technical team. More information can be found in the integration guide.

Executions

Last 5 executions of the export are displayed, with the date of execution and the total number of profiles that were exported. 

Configuration

• Line separator : Use \n if you want your file to be accessible through Microsoft Excel
• Column separator : Use ; if you want your file to be accessible through Microsoft Excel
• Segment : Use segment selection to define which profiles you want to export

Mapping

Select the profiles properties that you want to export and associate them with the "index". The index is the column number, it starts at 0. 

2. Create / edit a profiles imports

Start by giving a name and a description to your import

Import type

Upload your csv file here or select  the "recurrent" option if you want to configure an export to an ftp or network disk on a regular basis (i.e. export all profiles once a day to another server). Configuration of the filepath should be made by the technical team. More information can be found in the integration guide.

Executions

Last 5 executions of the import are displayed, with the date of execution, the number of failures (1 per line) and the total number of profiles that were exported. For a failed import, it is possible to click on the import and see the details of the errors. 

Configuration

Mergin property : the property that will be used to check if a new profile should be created or if there is an existing one. If there is an existing profile, data overwrite options will apply.

Data overwrite  

• Overwrite existing profiles : if this option is unchecked, profiles being improted through csv will be  skipped if there is an existing profile
• Overwrite all properties : This option is only available if "overwrite existing profiles" is selected. It means that every profile properties will be overwritten.
• Properties to overwrite : This option is only available if "overwrite existing profiles" is selected. Select each property that you want to overwrite in the existing profile.

Options 

• File has a header : Select this option if your file has a header line so that the import will skip it.
• File has a "To delete" column : If this option is selected, the last column of the file will be used to delete profile . For each line, if the content is "TRUE",  the profile will be deleted. 
• Line separator : the line separator of your file
• Column separator : the column separator of your file

Mapping

Map the columns numbers of the csv file to the profile properties