Uploading data from the clipboard

You can use import via clipboard if you need to add a small number of profiles to the database by copying their data from various sources.

To import clients from the clipboard, select "Clipboard". A new window opens.

Step 1: Enter customer data

There is a field with an instruction Just copy any data and paste it here. So you should do it.

The first line is the table header. Enter the names of the fields whose data you want to import. For example: Email,First Name,Last Name. Put a comma after each column name omitting the spaces.

Let's move on. One line is one profile. Add the data of each profile, separating the fields with a comma, as in the header. For instance: example1@example.com,Kelly,Griffin.

Put a tick to activate the Do not start triggers related to this action option if you do not want these clients to receive trigger alerts after importing their data into the database.

Click Import and you switch to a new page, where the import form opens.

Step 2. Configure the import.csv file

import.csv is a temporary file. It is created automatically to store data from the clipboard. Thus, the data you just entered is converted into a CSV table.

CSV (Comma-Separated Values) is a text format designed to represent tabular data.

1. Choose the profiles matching mode

By setting the mode, you let the platform know what data you want to use in the future when updating profiles that are already in the database. It can be email, phone number, ID, push subscription data, or any other custom field. This mechanism helps to avoid profile duplication when several profiles are created for one client at once.

For example, if you select email, the platform compares the email addresses of clients that you upload with the addresses of clients that are already in the database when you update it. If the platform finds a match, it will update the client's data. If the client with a certain email address is not in the database, the platform creates a new profile for that client.

2. Add Subscriptions

Add subscriptions to the resource to all the profiles you import. To do this, click "Add subscription". Select:

• subscription resource to which the profile should be subscribed;

• channel for communicating with the subscriber;

• subscription status;

• contact data source - this is the column on the clipboard where the contact data for a certain communication channel (e.g. Email) is stored.

3. Match a column in the database to a column in the source

Match the columns on the clipboard to the fields that are in the database. The data from the buffer column will be recorded in the selected database field.

Altcraft can do it itself if the names of the columns in the database and in the source are the same. The example below shows the case when the Email column in the buffer matches the Email field in the database, but Altcraft hasn't found a match for the FirstName and LastName columns, so we have to configure the fields manually.

To do this, click on the necessary column in the database and select the appropriate one manually. In the example below, the FirstName and LastName columns are appropriate for correctly recording the data. In each column the first record is displayed, so you can easily understand what type of data you are about to record.

If you are not going to add any column data from the buffer to a database column, select the Skip option or delete the column by clicking on the cross on the right side of the table.

The Ignore empty option is used when updating the already imported profiles. It comes in handy if you don't have any data on a certain client and therefore you left the field in the file empty. If the option is ticked, the platform will not update the value of the field in the database. That is, if a test value was recorded in the profile field, the same value will be saved after the update.

If instead of skipping the column where the information is unknown, you have none, null or undefined, the platform can also treat these values as empty. To do this, you need to click on the Treat null value as empty and Ignore empty fields next to the column where the unknown value is specified. In this case, the platform will not update the field.

As for the Skip lines parameter, here you should select the number of rows in the buffer that are not profile data and, therefore, can be skipped during import. For example, in our case the first line is the header of the table, so we skip only one line.

Step 3: Configure the details of the import

1. Adding new clients to the database or updating the data of old ones? Choose between:

• Add new leads and update existing ones

• Add new leads, do not update existing ones

• Update only

2. Extra options

Silent mode — scenarios and trigger campaigns configured to start while importing the profiles won’t get started when ticked.

Detect geolocation by Reg IP / IP — when transferring data to the fields Reg IP or IP Altcraft can automatically

• define the client’s location;

• fill in the fields of the profile RegCountry and RegCity;

• mark the customer’s location on the map widget.

Resubscribe customer profiles regardless of their current subscription status — the global status of all the newly imported profiles gets configured as Subscribed.

Create a static segment from the results of this import — all the profiles imported get into the automatically created segment.

Step 4: Import the data

Click the import button on the top panel, and the task to import the profiles will be performed. You can watch the progress in the section Tasks:

When the import is completed you can see the number of users that have been successfully imported, or updated, or considered as invalid. The errors are reported as well. Sometimes they can’t be avoided.