How do I import contact data?

How You Map Your Source Data to Target Object Attributes

To import your contact data into Oracle Applications Cloud, you must populate a .csv file with your source data and map that source data to target object attributes in Oracle Applications Cloud.

You must do the following before creating the .csv file for data import:

Identify how your source data attributes map to the target object attributes in Oracle Applications Cloud.
Ensure prerequisite steps are complete, such as understanding what attributes are required for importing your objects.
Understand your options for uniquely identifying the records.
Ensure parent records exist before importing child records.
Identify the target object attributes that are required in the .csv file for a successful import

To better manage your contact information, the contact object has the following child objects:

Address
Classification
Relationship
Sales Team Member

Note: You can't set an attribute value to NULL in optimized import (standard import with the option Enable High-Volume Import selected). However, when updating a record, you can change an attribute value from NOT NULL to NULL

If you want to import only a few records, then you can create a single CSV file for all contact attributes. However if you want to import a large number of records, then you may decide to create multiple CSV files, one for each of the contact child objects. Note that you must have imported the CSV file for contact object successfully before trying to import the CSV files for the child objects. There are separate help topics describing how to import each of these child objects. For more information, see the related topics section.

Before You Start

You must do some basic checks before starting your import. For example, make sure that:

You have completed all the prerequisites for importing each attribute in your source data.
You have all parent records in place before importing child records.

Select a Unique Identifier for Your Records

All records must be unique in the application. You can use one of these to identify records:

Public unique identifiers: If you're creating records, then you can provide an easily understandable public unique identifier. These are, usually, denoted with 'Number' and visible in the business object's UI. PUID attributes are usually named <object> Number. If you're updating a record with a Number attribute, then use the Number attribute to identify the record. For more information about public unique identifiers, see the topic "How You Use Alternate Keys to Import Records" in Related Topics section.
Source system and source system reference: Source system is an identifier for the external system, and source system reference is a unique identifier within the external system. If you're importing new contacts or are updating contacts that have source system reference data, then provide the source system and source system reference values.

Required Attributes and Validations for the Contact Object

To import data successfully into Oracle Applications Cloud, your .csv file must include the required attributes. Ensure that you provide valid values for the attributes.

This table lists the required attributes for contact records, prerequisite setup tasks and specific validations, if any:

Attribute	Description	Prerequisite Setup Task or Import Validations	Creating a Contact Record	Updating an Existing Contact Record	Deleting an Existing Contact Record
`SourceSystem`	The code representing the source system for the contact.	Identify the source system or configure source systems either by using the Manage Trading Community Source System task, or by importing the source system information into Oracle Applications Cloud using the Source System Reference import object.	Conditionally Required For uniquely identifying a contact record, provide one of the following reference information: SourceSystem and SourceSystemReferenceValue PartyNumber	Conditionally Required For uniquely identifying a contact record, provide one of the following reference information: SourceSystem and SourceSystemReferenceValue PartyNumber	Conditionally Required For uniquely identifying a contact record, provide one of the following reference information: SourceSystem and SourceSystemReferenceValue PartyNumber
`SourceSystemReferenceValue`	The reference number or text representing the source system unique ID for the contact.	Identify the source system or configure source systems either by using the Manage Trading Community Source System task, or by importing the source system information into Oracle Applications Cloud using the Source System Reference import object.	Conditionally Required For uniquely identifying a contact record, provide one of the following reference information: SourceSystem and SourceSystemReferenceValue PartyNumber	Conditionally Required For uniquely identifying a contact record, provide one of the following reference information: SourceSystem and SourceSystemReferenceValue PartyNumber	Conditionally Required For uniquely identifying a contact record, provide one of the following reference information: SourceSystem and SourceSystemReferenceValue PartyNumber
PartyNumber	The public unique identifier of the contact.	No prerequisite tasks	Conditionally Required	Conditionally Required	Conditionally Required
FirstName	First name of a person party.	No prerequisite tasks	Required	Not required	Not required
LastName	Last name of a person party.	No prerequisite tasks	Required	Not required	Not required

Note: For the Time Zone import attribute, specify the time zone of the contact to know the preferred time to call or send e-mail to the contact.

You can use the profile option ORA_HZ_IMPORT_MULTI_ADDRESS_TYPE to control how address types are entered. By default this profile option is set to Yes, so you can enter multiple address types, during high-volume import of Account, Contact, and Household objects . You can disable this profile option to improve the import performance. When you set this profile option to No, you can enter only a single address type.

Go to Navigator > Tools > Import Management > Import Objects, to see all the attributes of the contact object. The page also lists attribute information like type, length, description, and so on.

Create the Source CSV File

You include the data that you want to import into CX Sales and Fusion Service in a source CSV file.

You can use the templates available in the Import Objects UI page to create the source CSV file. To download a template:

Go to Navigator > Tools > Import Management > Import Objects.
Select the Contact object in the table and click Download.

You can now edit the downloaded file and provide valid values for the required attributes.

Providing the ZIP and Country Code values in the import CSV file won't automatically populate the State/County/City fields. Values for these fields should be separately provided in the import file.

Note: For help in populating the CSV file and to avoid any issues in entering values, see the topic Potential Issues When Opening CSV Files With Excel in Related Topics section.

Create the Import Activity

After you have the CSV file ready, create an import activity to import the contact information. To create an import activity:

Go to Navigator > Tools > Import Management > Import Queue.
Click Create Import Activity in the Manage Imports page.
In the Enter Import Options page, provide a name for the import activity, and select Contact from the Object drop-down list.
Select the CSV file in the File Name field, and click Next.
You would see that the source and target attributes are automatically mapped in the Map Fields page. Review and edit the mappings if required.
Check the file for unmapped columns or data format issues by clicking Validate Data. Click Next.
Review the import details on the Review and Submit page, and click Submit when you're ready.

Review the Import Results

Check if your import succeeded on the Manage Imports page. This page shows the status of all active, completed, and unsuccessful imports. To check the status of the import activity:

Go to Navigator > Tools > Import Management > Import Queue.
Click All Imports and search for the import activity that you created earlier.
Check the Status column for the import activity. The import is successful if the status displays as Completed. You can drill down on the import activity to go to the Import Status page which provides the status details of the import activity.

Note: After importing your data successfully, you need to run a couple of post processing jobs for duplicate identification, duplicate resolution, and account assignment. For more information on import management post processing jobs, see the topic: Import Management Post Processing for Accounts and Contacts.