About the Program CSV Loader

Course administrators can add, update and delete learning programs individually or in bulk via the Program CSV Loader. The Program CSV Loader imports a comma—or semicolon—separated values (CSV) file containing a heading row and any number of data rows. Additional headers and data can be included for custom module and session attributes.

An extract of the first four fields in a Program CSV file as it would appear in a text editor

Action,ProgramID,ProgramTitle,ProgramDescription

A,PRG-0123,O,Onboarding,"This program is for new starters and takes you through a number of different courses."

You do not need to add values for every heading to import a Program CSV file, but certain fields must have values, depending on the action. You can continue to configure programs created or updated from a CSV import in the Catalog Editor.

Programs are added, updated and deleted according to the following rules, applied to each row (record) in the CSV file.

Table: Effects of A, U and D actions

Action Value	Effects
A (add)	If the ProgramID does not exist in the LMS, a new program is created. If the SessionID does not exist in the LMS, a new session is added (SessionTitle must be specified). Assigned modules are also added based on the ProgramID or SessionID (to be specified in assigned program and event date). If the SessionID already exists in the LMS, a new assigned module is added based on the ProgramID or SessionID (to be specified in assigned program and event date). If the SessionID already exists in the LMS and assigned module is already added, the record is not processed.
U (update)	If the ProgramID does not exist in the LMS, the update is not processed. If the ProgramID and SessionID do not exist in the LMS, the program module fields are updated. If the SessionID exists in the LMS, program session fields are updated. If assigned module information exists, the assigned module is updated (even added, if the CourseID is not already assigned).
D (delete)	If the ProgramID is entered, the program module is removed from the LMS. If ProgramID and SessionID are entered and not the assigned module CourseID and SessionID, the session is removed from the program. If ProgramID and SessionID is entered with the assigned module, the assigned module is removed from the session (not the session from the program).

Preparing CSV Files for Import

To prepare a Program CSV file for import, you can download a template CSV file from the Program CSV Loader page and populate the fields as required, or you can run report R246 or R247 to export one or more courses to a CSV file and update the field values. The CSV file template you download from the Program CSV Loader page includes any custom module and session attributes.

Note that CSV files are likely to be opened by Microsoft Excel if it is installed on your system. If you encounter any problems with importing a CSV file into the LMS, it could be caused by Microsoft Excel applying extra formatting to the file. Alternatively, you can edit CSV files in a text editor instead of Microsoft Excel. The data should conform to the formatting required by the template as specified in the corresponding CSV Formatting Help.

The values for text area fields, such as ProgramDescription, must be enclosed in double quotation marks (" ") so that they can include punctuation. Do not include commas or semi-colons in other fields as they could be interpreted as a field delimiter (depending on your choice of delimiter at import).

Additional Information

Import Programs with the Program CSV Loader

Program CSV Loader Field Reference