Bulk Importing Users

Before starting an import you’ll need to create a spreadsheet containing your user data. Each row in your spreadsheet will correspond to one user account. At a minimum you will need columns for Email and Name, but you can also optionally provide values for Division/College, Curriculum Area and a Reference Code.

The optional fields will be used to populate user profiles and to enable filtering in the Skills Exchange.

If you would like to assign groups on an individual user basis you can also provide a Groups column. Multiple groups can be assigned to each user by supplying comma-separated values within that column, e.g. Early-career, Geography. Any groups that don’t already exist will be created automatically.

If you want to assign a group or groups to every user in your import you don’t need to include them in your spreadsheet — they can be added to your import-wide settings later on.

You don’t need to use exact column names because you’ll have the opportunity to match each column to a corresponding app field during the import process.

Browse to the colleagues area and select the Import button at the top-right hand corner of the page.

You will be prompted to choose between uploading a file and pasting directly from a spreadsheet. If you’re only importing a few rows then copying and pasting might be simplest, but you can choose whichever option you prefer.

If you’ve chosen to upload a file you’ll need to export your spreadsheet to CSV format. This is usually just a case of selecting the File menu, then Export, Download or Save As, depending on the application that you’re using.

If you’re using Excel, see this guide from Microsoft for further details.

If you’ve chosen to paste records all you need to do is select the spreadsheet rows that you want to import (or all of them!) and copy the values to your clipboard.

You can then paste directly into the box on the import screen, at which point you should see something like this.

You can now click the Continue button to progress to the next step of the import process.

Having uploaded your data we now need to match the columns in your spreadsheet to HOW2 app fields. You will be taken to a screen which shows a series of boxes — one for each column in your spreadsheet.

Each box will contain a preview of the first few records in that column. The dropdown field at the top of each box shows the app field that the column is currently associated with. If the box is highlighted in red and the field label says ​‘Select a field’ then it hasn’t been assigned to an app field yet.

We’ll do our best to assign app fields automatically, but if we couldn’t detect your column names you may need to assign each field manually. In the example below three of four fields have been automatically assigned. 

At a minimum you will need to assign the Email and Name fields before proceeding, but you can leave some of your columns unassigned if you wish — they will just be ignored.

The next step is to adjust the import settings and configure the users that you’re importing. You can choose the kind of accounts you’d like to create, whether they should receive invitation emails immediately and whether they should be assigned to any of your Groups.

When assigning groups you can select from existing groups or you can type a new group name directly into the groups field and hit enter to create it as part of the import. New groups will have personal visibility by default, but you can edit them later on if you’d like to share them with colleagues.

Another key setting is the update existing users checkbox. By default this is disabled and if we find any existing accounts in your import data they will be ignored.

If the setting is enabled then, in addition to processing any new users, any existing users will have their profiles and group memberships updated with the data from this import. If you forgot to include some key data in a previous import this can be a really helpful way of filling in the blanks.

This page provides a summary of your import settings. It’s your last opportunity to check that everything looks as it should — if you spot any issues you can go back to the previous import steps as necessary.

Assuming everything looks okay you can click the Complete Import button and your import will be queued for processing.

Having submitted your import you will be taken to your Import History page. If you wish you can stay on this page to monitor the progress of your import, but you can safely browse to other pages or close your browser.

When your import has been processed you’ll receive a confirmation email with a breakdown of the users created and updated, as well as a link to view issues if applicable.