Order Importer - Import CSV/Excel Files

Order Importer will import order date from Comma separated CSV and Excel Spreadsheet files without much configuration required, the recommended format of these files should conform to the following specifications.

Note: although the following describes the recommended format you may not be able to change the format of your files due to a number of reasons such as your files are generated automaticly by other third party systems. if this is the case you will have to configure CSV/Excel options in the job editor. see Advanced Options for details.

The first row of the file should contain the field names, its best practise to name these fields to correspond with Order Importers build in fields and any custom fields you define. for example:

"CustomerID","ContactName","Address1"

"A1D001","Jim Thomas","67a Station Road"

"CGS001","Jeff Walker","18a Sunderland Road"

In the above example the field names corresponding with Order Importer fields CustomerID, ContactName and Address1 are defined on the first row with the orders data commencing on the second row.

Also note the each field name and value are enclose within quotes, whilst not strictly necessary and you could use the following format it is the recommended method and becomes necessary if one of the values contains a comma because this would confuse Order Importer into thinking that the comma embedded in the value was a column separator, enclosing values within quotes avoids this problem. the following example show this.

This is ok

CustomerID,ContactName,Address1

A1D001,Jim Thomas,67a Station Road

CGS001,Jeff Walker,18a Sunderland Road

This is not

CustomerID,ContactName,Address1

A1D001,Jim, Thomas,67a Station Road

CGS001,Jeff Walker,18a Sunderland Road

The extra comma after the word Jim would cause Order Importer see four columns in that row when it only has three, users inputting their details on your web site can cause no end of problems with the strange things they type into your forms.

Another character that can sometimes find its way into values if the quote ", this also confuses Order Importer, consider the following example:

These will fail

"ProductCode","Description","Price","Quantity"

"CDR002","CDR10432 Read/Write CD Drive","171.00","2"

"MON002","17" Monitor","126.00","2"

"HAR003","30gb Hard Drive","81.00","2"

And

ProductCode,Description,Price,Quantity

CDR002,CDR10432 Read/Write CD Drive,171.00,2

MON002,17" Monitor,126.00,2

HAR003,30gb Hard Drive,81.00,2

The reason they will fail is because the description value 17" Monitor in the second row contains " to depict inches.

But These are ok:

"ProductCode","Description","Price","Quantity"

"CDR002","CDR10432 Read/Write CD Drive","171.00","2"

"MON002","17"" Monitor","126.00","2"

"HAR003","30gb Hard Drive","81.00","2"

And

ProductCode,Description,Price,Quantity

CDR002,CDR10432 Read/Write CD Drive,171.00,2

MON002,17"" Monitor,126.00,2

HAR003,30gb Hard Drive,81.00,2

If you look close you will see that the " character in the offending description has been escaped by simply changing " to "", this is how you escape a problem character, by doubling it up you are telling Order Importer that the " is actually part of the value and not a column separator.