When migrating existing data, the first thing you will want to do is import the members of your community. This can be done via the Members tab in our import tool page available by selecting Sim League Toolkit -> Import from the menu on your admin site.

This tool, like all of our import tools requires you to create a CSV (Comma separated values) file in a specific format. When the file is ready you can select it for upload then click the Import button. Once the file has been uploaded and processed a table will be presented showing the data that was uploaded and the outcome of each row. The table will include a column showing any errors or issues with each row, which you can use to fix the file and import it again.

When importing members the most important column in the file is the first one named Email. This must contain the unique email address of each member. When the file is processed the email address is used to find any existing member with this address.

If one is found their profile will be updated using the other values in the corresponding row.

If an existing account is not found a new account will be created and a message sent to the email address giving the member the details and a link they can use to activate the account and set their password. In these cases the second column is mandatory and must contain a unique username for the account. Passwords will be generated automatically, but the message sent to the member will prompt them to change it before activating the account.

A button is provided by the tool for downloading a template containing sample data. We recommend you start from this template, replacing the sample data with your own. The following screenshot shows the template file opened in Microsoft Excel:

The line of the CSV file must contain the column names exactly as shown separated by commas. Each data row must be on a new line with the values separated by commas. If a value is to be blank the comma must still be added. The following screenshot shows the tmplate file opened in a text editor.

Notice some rows have multiple commas with no values. This is essential to ensure values are matched to the correct columns.

Example Data

The template file contains three example rows.

The first provides a value for all columns. If the email address fred@bedrock.com is matched to an existing account the username fredf is ignored. The remainng values will be used to update the corresponding user profile properties if they have not been set. We do not support using these import files for overwriting existing values. If the email address fred@bedrock.com is not matched a new account will be created using all values from the row.

The second provides only some values. If the email address barney@bedrock.com is matched to an existing account the username barneyr is ignored. The remainng values will be used to update the corresponding user profile properties if they have not been set. We do not support using these import files for overwriting existing values. If the email address barney@bedrock.com is not matched a new account will be created using the provided values from the row. User profile properties where no value is provided will be left blank.

The third provides only an email address and a race number. If the email address wilmaf@bedrock.com is matched to an existing account the race number will be set if it is not already set. We do not support using these import files for overwriting existing values. If the email address wilmaf@bedrock.com is not matched the row will not be processed and an error will be displayed in the corresponding row of the import result table. This is because no value is provided for the Username column, an account cannot be created without a Username.