There are times when multiple users need to be loaded into iPassport and the New User feature only allows adding one user at a time. To make this process more efficient, the Import Users feature allows loading a number of users in one operation.
The importer tool can be found in the ‘Users’ area by navigating to ‘Administration > Users > Import Users’:
Records uploaded to the staging area of importer tools will not be added to the account until the final import operation is completed. They will remain in a ‘reception’ area until all parameters are validated and one of the import options is clicked.
The Import Users tab is found by navigating to Administration > Users. It’s only visible to users with the permission, “User Accounts:Create User Accounts” (included in the system role, “Administration Editor”). The user performing the operation will need this permission in every OU which is declared as the Home OU of any of the users being imported.
A new framework has been developed for this tool and other importer tools in the system. The aim is to make it easier for users to quickly populate their iPassport accounts with information migrated from other systems.
The data can be uploaded to a staging area in three steps and can then be checked and adjusted before importing it to the records within the account.
To facilitate the import, a formatted Excel™ template is available to download and populate, so the information can be uploaded to the system in a structured manner. Simply click the link, ‘Download blank Excel file’, to retrieve a template which you can open in Excel.
The template file will have a header row with the fields which will be imported. This row should not be altered; no additional columns should be added and they should be kept in the order they are presented. If such changes are made, the system will reject the file with a message saying the “upload validation failed” and a reason. The red triangles in the top right corner of cells in the header row, indicate that a ‘help’ comment is available when you hover over the cell.
To populate the spreadsheet, use one row for each material record and please follow these guidelines:
There are 2 types of fields on the spreadsheet - free-text fields and look-up fields.
This free-text field is compared with other information in the account to ensure uniqueness:
These fields require a string of text, which is not compared with other data in the system:
The following fields reference records elsewhere in iPassport. It is important that the spelling of these exactly matches the record name or iPassport will not be able to pair them up. The lookup is case sensitive, so the most reliable way to get the information across is to copy/paste from the records in the system to the spreadsheet.
These fields have their own dropdown menus:
Once the spreadsheet is ready, it can be simply saved and uploaded in one of two ways:
In the start page of the ‘Import Users’ tab, before any records have been added:
After adding user records, additional spreadsheets can be uploaded in the staging page:
The data imported will immediately start appearing on the screen and the system will quickly validate all the information. Feedback is available on this screen to easily identify and fix problems.
This image shows all the fields:
But, they normally don’t fit on the screen and scrolling is required to reach the fields on the right:
The staging area will display all records which have been uploaded.
It has a Search field to help locate particular records, and two filters:
Four buttons are available at all times:
Clear Import Queue - This button will delete all the records in the staging area.
Import All Users - This button will import all rows below which have passed validation.
Add New Records - Records can be added to the staging area by clicking this button. It will bring up a pop-up window like the initial screen (before the staging area is populated), where a template can be downloaded, if needed, and where a populated file can be uploaded.
Edit in Excel - Clicking this button will invoke a pop-up window, similar to the one above, containing a link to a spreadsheet populated with the information currently in the staging area (’Download Queue in Excel file’). It also offers a place to upload the edited file again.
The information is displayed in a table with the following columns and features:
If any of the cells have an error, they will be highlighted in pink.
If a row still displays a yellow warning triangle in the status column, and no cells appear to be invalid (highlighted in pink), it might be a permissions issue.
Clicking a cell (where the pointer turns to a hand) or the row’s magnifying glass, will bring up the ‘Edit User’ pop-up window, which includes all the fields of the single row so they can be edited.
Once fixed, click Save User to validate, update and return to the staging area.
If multiple rows contain the same error, they can be selected and clicking the button, ‘Edit x User(s)’ will allow editing and applying the same fix to all the selected records. In this case, reasons are not provided for cells with errors; the fields will state, ‘Multiple values, click to edit…’. Upon clicking in a field, the message, ‘Leave this blank to clear on all selected records.’ will appear below it, with the option to ‘Cancel edit’.
When a single user is being edited and an error declares that the item was not found, another item can be selected if available, or the item which is producing the error can be selected and then removed before saving, to clear the field.
There are three ways of importing users once they are ready:
A confirmation dialogue box will appear, stating how many users are to be imported.
Once imported, the users will be added in the corresponding Organisational Units within the Users area.
Setting the field, “Send Welcome Email?” to false, will prevent the new users from receiving an email with login credentials.
This is the last article in this user guide.
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