Latest revision as of 03:24, 2 January 2016

1 Overview

There are a number of ways of loading data into bxp forms. All these functions are located in the Form Management > Form - Data Import section.

There are four primary sources of data import in this section and eight ways of getting data into a form

1. Using Inbound Contact or Case Management modules, log forms manually
2. Using Public Forms inside or outside of bxp
3. Using the bxp API to inject records
4. Load records (Add Only)
5. Load records (Smart Update)
6. Retrieve email from an Inbox and convert them to data records
7. Restore data from a backup archive

Form - Data Import manages the following functions:

• Load Data Records - Add Only - Upload File
• Load Data Records - Add Only - Use Existing Uploaded File
• Load Data Records - Smart Update - Upload File
• Load Data Records - Smart Update - Use Existing Uploaded File
• Load Data Records - Retrieve Email-2-Form
• Load Data Records - Business Express Archive (Data and Contact History)

2 Add Only

This process adds records from the supplied Excel spreadsheets. It will add all the records found from "Sheet1" into the selected form.

These instructions assume that an excel spread sheet is to be used to import data into bxp.

Problems can sometimes occur when there is hidden information in cells so try and keep the data (text) as clean as possible

• The file will be imported only if the headings in the spread sheet are mapped to the New Column Names in Field Mapping
• bxp is designed to handle ASCII characters. Foreign characters can be challenging.
• Click "Load Data Records - Add Only - Upload File", browse to the file and click Upload file
• The system now allows you to verify that the column headings have been correctly mapped. Click Verify
  • Ensure all your fields are mapped correctly as you want them to be
  • Scroll to the bottom of the page to view all unmapped fields from the spreadsheet
  • If mistakes are found there are two options. Alter field mapping or upload a new file.
• If you are sure the data is correct continue.

Half way through some processes, people find that their field mapping is slightly off. Instead of having to upload the file twice (especially for large files), "Use Existing Uploaded File" allows a user to use an already uploaded file.

• Click Load Data Records – Use uploaded file
• A list of files will be displayed
• Choose the file you want to upload
• If no files have been added to the system, no files will be displayed
• Continue with the instructions as above

Note: Functionality has recently been added to allow an outcome to be uploaded as part of the file upload process. A contact history must be added to the record during upload or the custom outcome won't remain on the records if the contact queue is reset in the Outbound module. If no custom outcome is used the default outcome on the records will be Imported, also if the no contact history is added and the records are reset the outcome will be set to Imported

3 Smart Update

Smart update provides an extension on the Add Only process. In this case, the file you are uploading needs to be compared to the existing records as there may be overlap or records that need updating. Smart update allows you to select a "matching" field. If a record exists (a match has been found) in the spreadsheet and in the form, you can choose which information is to take priority. Then for any record that is not matched a new record is added to the form.

This process is ideal for also performing mass updates to remove "do not call" numbers. You can load a list of "do not call" numbers and where a match is found, the record is removed from the active calling list.

Following the steps from the process above. The final screen gives a number of Smart configuration options.

• The file to process from
• The form into which the files will be processed
• The Id field against which to match (only one field can be used)
• If a match is found,
  • Keep Data From. If a match is found, should the data from the form be kept, or data from the Excel overloaded into it
  • Status Found. If the Status column is supplied, should the status from the file over the status or should the current status be kept
  • Replace all columns. If the file does not contain all the columns, should the fields in the form be blanked. This can be useful for when a validation file is overloaded to confirm that a master external data source is confirming it has the data it needs.
• Add Contact History. This can add an extra CCL to the records to show they were updated / interacted with

While performing the Smart Update function of bxp, it is now possible for a user to enable the bxp WasIs engine, this allows for a log to be kept of all the changes that came about from the Smart Update. This log is created only if there is a difference between the original value (value Pre Update) and the new value (value post update) of a question. This log can be stored in either the CCL of a record or stored in a separate question in the CDA of the record. If you want the log to be stored in a CCL you must set the option "Add Contact History" to be "Add Contact".

When the log is being save it will take the following default format: Field_Question_Name Was [value_Pre_Update] Is [Value_Post_Update]. You are also able to enter is a custom format for this log by simply typing in plain text the wording for the log into the options box "WasIs Engine Custom Layout". in order to get the field name that was updated, the pre update value and the post update value you will need to add the following into your custom layout

[ [--X--]] - This will be replaced by the Pre Update Value
[ [--Y--]] - This will be replaced by the Post Update Value
[ [--Z--]] - This will be replaced by the Field Question Name

Example Custom WasIs Layout - The field [ [--Z--]] before the smart update contained the value [ [--X--]] and after the smart update contained [ [--Y--]]

Example Custom WasIs Layout Output - The field Customer Name before the smart update contained the value Patrick and after the smart update contained Paddy

3.1 WasIs Engine Settings

• Enable WasIs Engine Tracking - This setting let's the function know if it should perform the WasIs engine tracking
• WasIs Engine Custom Layout - This allows you to enter in a custom log entry for the WasIs engine
• WasIs Engine field to store results - This allows you to select what field in the form to store the WasIs Log

Please not all changes are immediate. The bxp team can make emergency "middle of the day" backups if you are updating critical live data. Please let us help you.

4 Retrieve Email-2-Form

This the retrieval engine for the process. Please review BEmail_(_Email-2-Campaign_) for more information.

5 bxp Archive

bxp can export custom archives that contain CDA and CCL data. This is the load process for those archives. For more details please review Form_Complete_Archive