phpList/phplist3

Explain exact format for uploads

Opened this issue · 1 comments

I couldn't figure out how to upload a CSV file with all the attributes. But there is a trick. Maybe this trick can be documented like this.

I have successfully used this approach below and was able to import addresses to our list with all attributes. Thanks!

STEP 1, on the export page, add an option for "none", which gives you a blank template file.

Screenshot 2024-07-12 at 12 12 41

STEP 2, on the import page, direct people to the export/none option so that they will have a blank file to start their import.

Screenshot 2024-07-12 at 12 12 45

I guess suggestion 2 is valid. Suggestion 1 would be the same as exporting a set of users and then removing the users.

However, the import is much more powerful than that. Try uploading a CSV file with attributes that do not yet exist. It will give you various options what to do with them:

  • skip
  • map to a different existing attribute
  • map to a system value (eg email address)
  • create a new attribute

For example, if you have an existing attribute "Last Name" and you upload a CSV with "Surname", it allows you to map the value to the Last Name attribute.

So, starting from the export, which will only give you the structure of attributes that already exist in phpList will be more limiting than what the import can do.