Importing/Exporting Custom Lists

Formatting the Data

This import gives you the ability to do a mass import of Custom Field Lists. This import should be done before importing Custom Fields if the Custom Fields use any Custom Lists. If the Custom List already exists it will be modified. This document also describes the format for how data is exported. You must create a CSV file formatted in a way that Fishbowl knows what to do with the data. This is easiest to do with a spreadsheet program.

All fields will be one of two types:

Text - A textual value. May contain any character, but if it contains a line break, comma or double quote, it must be wrapped with double quotes on both ends. If a field is wrapped, all text must be inside the double quotes. Double quotes in the text value must be doubled to import properly
Numeric - A decimal number greater than or equal to zero with up to four digits after the decimal point. The number must not have thousands' separators in it - 1234.56 is a valid number, while 1,234.56 is not.

CSV Fields Used to import Custom Lists

Column Name	Type	Description
Type	Text	The Type that is being imported. Must be one of the following: List Item The items in the list must come immediately after the definition of the list. *Required*
Name	Text (41 chars)	The Name of the Custom List or Custom List Item. *Required*
Description	Text (256 chars)	A description to be associated with the Custom List or Custom List Item. *Required*

Creating a CSV file

In order to import your data, you must first export it to a comma separated values (CSV) text file. All major spreadsheet programs can export data in this format. If you do not know how to export your data to a CSV file, please refer to the documentation of your spreadsheet program.

When exporting to CSV format, make sure to verify the following:

The data is formatted properly (see the first section)
The file must contain column names in the first row, using the column names in the table above.
Each bill of material item to be added or updated is on its own line
Commas are used to separate fields
Text values are surrounded by double quotes