The bulk upload links are found under the (+) button, found on the top right of most pages. Each data type has it's own template and field documentation available within the app.
Interactive importing from Google Sheets (Alpha release)
Google Sheets is the Google version of Excel. It's cloud hosted and so allows multiple people to edit the same file at the same time. SheepCRM exploits this to import your data and write back comments. In a perfect world your data would import without a single issue. However in the real world data has mistakes and providing feedback on those mistakes was the biggest challenge with uploading CSV file.
The current Google Sheet loader has 'Alpha' status because the user interface is not yet simple enough. It does however unlock some useful functionality not available through other upload routes.
Setup
Clone our template
Copy your data into the template
Share your file with
sheepcrm-data-loader@sheepcrm.iam.gserviceaccount.com
(this is our system account that will import and update your file)
Importing from a CSV file
Fields that support multiple values
tags, email, telephone, connections and other fields all support multiple values. When uploading a bulk file you need to think carefully about the behaviour you want.
The default behaviour is to over-write or replace the existing fields. Uploading a column 'tags' with a value 'my-new-tag' will remove all existing tags and replace with a single tag.
Dot Notation
For multiple values use multiple columns with a numeric postfix e.g. emails.1, emails.2, emails.3 as three separate columns.
The number after the field name is an index (a counter) into the list of values. If you want to replace values then start counting at '1'. If you want to add values to the list then start with a number that you are confident is above the likely number of values (e.g. 100)
Worked Examples
e.g.
If the data for tags is
apple, banana, pear
upload
orange, kiwi
in column “tags” result. tags =orange, kiwi
upload
orange
in column “tags.1",kiwi
in column “tags.2” result: tags =orange, kiwi, pear
upload
orange
in column “tags.101"kiwi
in column “tags.102” result tags =apple, banana, pear, orange, kiwi
(Sheep will try to add those values as positions 101 and 102, they are beyond the end of the list so they just go on the end)
Deleting Records
To delete records in bulk use a column named delete
and fill the cells with Y
. Be careful, Sheep doesn't offer a bulk undelete.