[Meagan Boehl]

I am trying to import a lot of listings for a business directory under one particular category. When I go to Tools, select Import, choose a CSV file, then click upload, nothing appears to happen. The next step, which is being presented with the CSV mapping options, according to the documentation, does not materialize.

Am I doing something wrong? I need your assistance please.

Thank you.

[Steven Zahm]

@ Meagan

Are you trying to import new entries or new categories (only)?

Assuming you are just importing categories…

As for the mapping step not showing, it sounds like an error is occuring during the processing that occurs after uploading the CSV file but before the mapping is displayed.

A lost of things may cause that to occur from a bad file to plugin / theme conflicts.

My first suggestion is to make sure the CSV being uploaded is a properly formatted CSV file.

Since this is a category import, the CSV file should contain only the following headers of which the last three are optional:

• Name, Slug, Parent, Description

The exact names are not important since they can be mapped, but if you use the above names, they will be mapped automagically.

If you’ve already have done the above, the please try:

• How do I increase the PHP Execution Limit?
• How do I increase the WordPress Memory Limit?

If that does not correct it, then move on to the conflict checks:

• How do I check for a plugin conflict?
• How do I check for a theme conflict?

Hope this helps, let me know.

[Meagan Boehl]

Okay here’s what I’m trying to do and you can tell me the best way to handle it:

I have a website that has multiple directories, each directory his it’s own category ID. I’m importing the directory listings for each category as a CSV file. I originally used the CSV import option but each of the categories have hundreds of listings. If I use CSV import I am having to open each entry and manually update the category ID which will take lots of time with hundreds of entries. Is there a way to have the CSV file import the entries with the correct category ID? Do I use CSV import? Do I use the import tab under Tools? What is the best way to import?

Thanks.

[Meagan Boehl]

[Steven Zahm]

@ Meagan

RE: I’m importing the directory listings for each category as a CSV file.

You should use the CSV Import addon to import entries, not the bulk Category Import tool.

The bulk Category import tool only imports categories, nothing else … it can not associated imported categories to entries, for example.

RE: I originally used the CSV import option but each of the categories have hundreds of listings. If I use CSV import I am having to open each entry and manually update the category ID which will take lots of time with hundreds of entries.

If I understand correctly… when the entries were imported, they were not imported with their assigned categories. Is that correct? And now you wish add those category associations to the imported entries?

Probably the easiest solution is to export the entries using the Export All tool found on the Connections : Tools admin page under the Export tab at the bottom.

You would then edit the exported file to include the the categories that each entry should be assigned to. Then import that modified CSV file.

If I recall correctly, the import should update the existing entries with the associations to the categories.

I recommend doing a test import of only a row or two to verify if you get the desired result or not.

Hope this helps!

[Meagan Boehl]

Hi Steven

Doing the All Export did help by making it easier to edit the categories via CSV but when I imported the edited CSV file, the edited entries did not copy over the previous entries, creating duplicate listings for every entry. I need to do this process again because I have multiple categories to add entries for so is there a way to make sure the old entries are copied over?

Thanks.

[Steven Zahm]

@ Meagan

RE: the edited entries did not copy over the previous entries

Did you remove the Entry ID column from the exported CSV file or not map it on import? That column must exist and those IDs must match the entry ID in the directory in order for the entry to be updated.

[Meagan Boehl]

I did not remove the entry ID column. All of the fields appeared to be mapped correctly. The only thing I updated was the category for the listings that needed to be in the ‘restaurants’ category. I do have to do this process again for the other five categories I have entries for. I will see if this happens again.

[Steven Zahm]

@ Meagan

Ok, you’ll know what it is doing by the status updates during imports. It say how entries added or updated.

[Jaclyn Brandt]

Steven, how will this work if we have multiple categories for the same person? Should we include Name, Slug, Parent, Description multiple times, or can we put them in the same csv field, separated by commas?

I have been manually assigning categories after upload but I run 4 websites and they each send me a new member list each month and it’s just too much for me to update.

Thank you!

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