KeepnTrack Tip of the Week

For the week of 10.26.09

Importing People Information

Overview

KeepnTrack stores personal and other pertinent information on Volunteers, Students, Staff and Vendors. These are collectively known as People in KeepnTrack. There is a People menu and a submenu labeled Import, where it is possible to import information from an existing database rather than type them in one by one. Understanding and taking advantage of this tool can save many hours of manual data input. Only Operators with an Account level have access to the Import menu.

Data Import

To begin with you need to save the data you wish to import in a tab delimited ASCII text format. The application where your data is stored may allow you to export data to this format or you can export the data from your current application is a CSV or other text format and then change the data to a tab delimited format using Excel or some other tool.

In the Import screen there are options for Duplicate Handling and Data File Encoding. The default settings are almost always used so you can assume there are correct as they are.

It is important to mention at this point that you can save a lot of time by importing people with your ID number that is permanent and will stay the same for any one individual. Then as you re-import files, this Person ID number will insure that information is updated for the appropriate individual. If your current database of people your are importing does not include a ID number it is suggested that you add an permanent ID number prior to importing the data.

Another mandatory part of every import is the Facility Id number.  This number can be found by going to your facilities preferences window.  When the import process is performed KeepnTrack will only know how to associate the people in the import to the proper facilities by this Id number.  Without out this number, the people will be imported but will not be found when a search is performed by an operator or be able to sign into a kiosk.

Once you have the data saved in a tab delimited text format you can proceed to import it using the Import dialog. By clicking on the Browse button you can indicate the location of the text file. Clicking on the Next button then moves you to the Field Mapping window. You will notice two columns. The column on the left is the list of fields from the your text file. The column on the right are pull down menus that list the possible fields from KeepnTrack. The object is to now match your fields on the left with KeepnTrack fields are the right. You do that using the pull down menus for each field.

One feature of the import is the ability to mark the record for a particular person type; volunteer, vendor, student or staff. Each person record must have the appropriate person type indicated in order for them to log in and out of KeepnTrack. The ability to assign this information during an import again will save time in doing it manually.

To import the person type information, create a column or columns in your text file and add the word Yes to the column. Then match that field with the corresponding field: “Is Volunteer”, “Is Student”, “Is Staff”, or “Is Vendor” to have the boxed checked in that persons record.

Once you have fields on the left you wish to import matched with the appropriate field on the right click on the Import Data button to complete the import. Once the import is complete check the your records for completeness and accuracy. If the import was not completed correctly you may delete the records and try again or correct the missing/incorrect data and re-import.