Overview of Data Import
With data import features, you can add new contacts, answers, assets, incidents, organizations, and custom objects to your Oracle database from a data file.
For example, you can import lists of prospects or recently acquired customers into your knowledge base as new contacts or update existing answers to keep your database synchronized with an external knowledge base.
You can also import configuration setting values and message base text values that you have edited from the Configuration Settings and Message Bases editors. For example, suppose you want to create a site in another language and need to make changes to your text labels. You can create a CSV (comma-separated value) file that includes all of your message base text and do a global search and replace. Then, using the Data Import Wizard, import your file and your changes will be made to the message bases. For complete details and procedures about the Configuration Settings and Message Bases editors, see Overview of Site Configuration.
Additionally, you can import custom configuration setting and message base metadata into other sites. This can save time, especially when you have large numbers of custom settings and message bases.
- Data Import Wizard—Use the powerful import wizard to map the data file to columns in the Oracle database and prescan the file for problems, such as duplicate records or invalid email addresses. After an import, you can run external events or business rules on the imported records. You can also add contacts to a mailing list or use them to initiate a campaign.
- Data import templates—For imports that you want to perform more than once, you can create column mapping templates that can be selected when importing data with the wizard.
- Data imports reporting—View the Data Imports report to track information about past imports.