Import Organization Data via the Data Loader

In this topic, we focus on importing organization data in bulk.  For information about maintaining organization data in Organization Maintenance, please see Organization Maintenance Tasks.

To import organization data, your user role must have unrestricted access to the Organization Data Loader feature in System Roles (Manage Features > User Manager Features).

Create the CSV File

You have two options for creating a CSV Import File.

  • Export organizations to a CSV file - Run report R132 to export one or more organizations to a CSV file and update the field values.
  • Download the CSV template:
  1. Go to Manage Center > Users > Group and Organization > Organization Data Loader. 
  2. Download the CSV file template. 

Prepare the CSV File for Import

Once you have created the CSV import file, you prepare it for import by entering the necessary values in the fields. Please see Organization Data Loader Field Reference for detailed information about the fields.  Or, you can click the CSV Formatting Help link for guidance on each field. 

When adding a new organization, the required fields are:

  • Action
  • Org Code
  • Parent

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.

If the values for text area fields include punctuation, these fields must be enclosed in double quotation marks (" "). Do not include commas or semicolons in other fields as they could be interpreted as a field delimiter (depending on your choice of delimiter at import).

Import the CSV File

To add, update or delete organizations via the Organization Data Loader

  1. Go to Manage Center > Users > Group and Organization > Organization Data Loader. 
  2. Click + Import CSV file.
  3. Click Choose File to select the CSV file to upload.
  4. If your CSV file was saved with a specific file encoding the LMS can automatically detect it, otherwise you can select it from the list.
  5. Select the delimiter used to separate fields in your CSV file. This can be a comma or a semicolon.
  6. Click Preview. The contents of the CSV file are shown in the Data Loader page so that you can review the data before importing the file.
  7. Click Upload to import the CSV file. The Summary Report shows how many records in the file were imported successfully and how many failed.
  8. If any records failed to import, you can go back to the Organization Data Loader page and click the CSV Error Report link for the failed import. The error report downloads to your desktop as a copy of the imported file that includes the error message.