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Sales > Contacts > Managing Contacts > Importing Your Contacts

Importing Your Contacts

As a nonadministrator, you can import up to 2000 contacts at a time from a comma-separated value (.csv) file to use with Oracle CRM On Demand.

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When you import contacts, you specify how you want Oracle CRM On Demand to handle duplicate records.

Several utilities are available from the Import and Export Tools page, which augment the import and export facilities in Oracle CRM On Demand:

• Import Assistant. For more information, see Import Assistant.
• Oracle Data Loader On Demand. For more information, see Oracle Data Loader On Demand Client Utility.
• Oracle Migration Tool On Demand. For more information, see Oracle Migration Tool On Demand Client Utility.
• Oracle Web Services. For more information, see Web Services Integration.

For more information about choosing an appropriate import method, see 1801156.1 (Article ID) on My Oracle Support. For more information on importing and exporting in Oracle CRM On Demand, see Import and Export Tools.

You can also import individual contacts by importing vCard files. For more information, see About vCard Files.

NOTE: Company administrators can import up to 30,000 contact records at one time, with a maximum file size of 20 MB.

Before you begin:

• If several employees at your company are importing contacts, coordinate the importing effort to minimize record duplication.
• Prepare your file for importing to make sure you capture all the data in the file. At a minimum, your data file must include all required fields. Also, your administrator can configure a field so that it is conditionally required, that is, the field is not required by default, but becomes required if the data in other fields on the record meets certain criteria. If a field becomes required as a result of the condition defined for the field being true, and if your import file does not include a value for the conditionally required field, then the record is rejected. To determine if there are any conditionally required fields configured for the Contact record type, contact your administrator.

CAUTION: You cannot undo the importing of records or perform a mass deletion of records. Therefore, practice the importing procedure with a file of 5-10 records to avoid cleaning up data afterwards. If your company is importing a large number of records, attend a training session on importing data. For information on those resources, click the Training and Support global link at the top of each page in Oracle CRM On Demand.

To import your contacts

1. Click the Contacts tab.
2. In the Recently Modified Contacts title bar, click Import.

   NOTE: If the Recently Modified Contacts section is not visible on your Contacts Homepage, click the Edit Layout link in the upper right corner of the page, and add the Recently Modified Contacts section to your page layout.

3. On the Data and Integration Tools page, in the Personal Import and Export Tools section, click Import Your Contacts.

   This starts the import assistant.

4. In Step 1 of the import assistant:
   1. Select how you want the import assistant to identify matching records.

      The import assistant uses an external unique ID, which is a unique external ID field that is imported from another system. The import assistant also uses Oracle CRM On Demand predefined fields.

      For information on how duplicate records are defined, see About Record Duplicates and External IDs.

   2. Select what you want the import assistant to do if it finds a duplicate unique record identifier in Oracle CRM On Demand. Your choices are: not to import duplicate records, to overwrite existing records, or to create additional records.
   3. Select the action you want the import assistant to follow if the imported record's unique record identifier does not match an existing record in Oracle CRM On Demand.

      NOTE: If you select Overwrite Records and Don't Create New Record in the previous option, this results in the record being updated.

   4. Decide if the import assistant should create a new record for missing associations (related records) in your data file.
   5. Select the date/time format used in the CSV file.

      For more information, see Field Type Guidelines for Importing Data.

   6. Verify that the file encoding selection is Western.

      NOTE: Do not change this setting unless you are certain another encoding method is used. The default, Western, applies to most encoding systems in Europe and North America.

   7. In the Error Logging drop-down list, select what you want Oracle CRM On Demand to log: All messages, Errors and Warnings, or Errors Only.
   8. Select the type of CSV delimiter used in your file: comma or semi-colon.
   9. Select the Data file records need to be processed sequentially check box if required.

      NOTE: Choosing to process data files sequentially ensures that when an import request is submitted, the child import requests are always processed in sequence. It also ensures that CSV file dependencies are maintained.

   10. Select the Enable Email Notification check box if you want an email notification to be sent after the import process is complete. This check box is selected by default.
5. In Step 2 of the import assistant:
   1. Follow the instructions for validating your file, if necessary.
   2. Select a field mapping file, if available.

      Field mapping files (.map) contain the pairing of fields in your CSV file with existing Oracle CRM On Demand fields. After you perform an import, the system sends you an email containing the .map file with the recent mapping scheme. Save it to your computer to re-use it during later imports.

6. In Step 3 of the import assistant, map the fields in your file to Oracle CRM On Demand fields. At a minimum, you must map all required fields to the column headings in the CSV file.

   The import assistant lists the column headings from your import CSV file next to a list showing all the fields in that area in Oracle CRM On Demand, including the custom fields that you added.

   If the address field you need does not appear in the drop-down list, select the corresponding one shown in this table.

   To filter your list on this field	Select this field from the drop-down list
   Street Number Address 1 Chome	Number/Street
   Ku	Address 2
   Floor District	Address 3
   Shi/Gun	City
   Colonia/Section CEDEX Code Address 4 URB Township	PO Box/Sorting Code
   MEX State BRA State Parish Part of Territory Island Prefecture Region Emirate Oblast	Province
   Island Code Boite Postale Codigo Postal	Zip/Post Code

   If you selected a .map file, verify that the fields map correctly. Custom fields created since you ran the previous import might need to be mapped.

   For information about external IDs, see About Record Duplicates and External IDs.

   CAUTION: If you have selected the wrong file to import, click Cancel to change selections. At this point, using the Back button does not clear the cache, so the import file you originally selected appears in the field mapping step.

   CAUTION: External Unique ID and Manager External ID are key fields that are used to associate Contacts with their Manager Records. If these fields are not mapped, the Manager Record will be associated with Contacts using the Contact Name and Manager fields. When using the Contact Name and Manager fields to do this association, the data file records will be subject to more stringent dependency ordering.

7. In Step 4 of the import assistant, follow the onscreen instructions, if necessary.
8. In Step 5 of the import assistant, click Finish.

To view the queue for your import requests

1. Click the Contacts tab.
2. In the Recently Modified Contacts title bar, click the Import button.
3. On the Data and Integration Tools page, click the Import Request Queue link.

   The Import Request Queue page appears with information about your requests, including the estimated time of completion.

   The following table describes the import status.

   Status	Description
   Completed	The import completed with no errors during import.
   Completed with Errors	The import completed but there were some errors with some of the records.
   Failed	The import completed but none of the records were imported.
   Error	The import did not complete because an error occurred.

The following table describes the import record information.