Qasper

Importing records

Import of your existing contact information records is carried out through Qasper's Import Manager, a desktop application that provides table loading, field cross-matching, import preview and modification and import or removal of imported records.

The import module provides import from your desktop Outlook Contacts folder or from a Microsoft Access or CSV database (to handle Goldmine, Act, etc.). CSV is a common output function of many contact managers. Some products output to text and permit designation of delimiters. Microsoft Access has several ways to import such text output.

There are 3 sections to this help page:

• I. Import from Outlook to Qasper
• II. Importing from other applications and alternate methods of importing
• III. Extended import instructions
• IV. Additional Outlook field names you can set up in Qasper.
• V. Example - importing from Excel spreadsheets to Access to Qasper

BEFORE YOU START IMPORTING:

ENSURE IMPORT KNOWS THE URL OF QASPER ONLINE

The desktop import program needs to know the URL of your Qasper Office online installation so that it can send the imported records to the database.

There are two ways to provide the information to Qasper Import:

1. Have Import locate it automatically.

Run Internet Explorer (no other browser will do the job in this case) and log in to your Home page at Qasper Office online. This writes a "cookie" to your computer that Qasper Import will read, with the URL information in it. Once you've done the log in to your Home page, you can log out of Qasper Office online.

Check that it's done by running Qasper Import and reading the URL:

If you subsequently delete your cookies, you will need to repeat the process using Internet Explorer.

If you've done the above using Internet Explorer and ensured the cookie is written, you can log in with any other browser.

2. You can set up the information manually:

If you have a current version of Qasper Import, it will have a Set up page like this:

 You can manually complete the information on this page and click [Save setup info]

I. Import from Outlook to Qasper:

1. Before importing into Qasper, we recommend you set up custom fields in Qasper for any fields from Outlook that are not automatically part of Qasper's import from Outlook. 

Qasper automatically handles the following Outlook fields, although nothing prevents you from setting up the same Outlook fields in Qasper using the Outlook field name (if that exact name hasn't already been used in Qasper). 

Click here to view some Outlook field names you might wish to add to Qasper.

2. Run Qasper Import. Ensure Outlook is running.

3. In Qasper Import, click [Get Contacts from Outlook]:

4. Qasper Import will access your Outlook contacts folder and assemble all the contacts, then display them under the tab:

5. Review the list, edit and make any changes you wish; delete any records you don't want imported, then click [Approved - OK to Post].

6. CAUTION: be very aware of where you are importing the records to. Qasper shows the target database at the bottom of the screen and will ask you for confirmation:

twice:

7. The import will complete and will display messages under the [View results] tab. 

8. In the event you wish to delete all the records just imported, return to [Step 4: Approve and post, select the Delete these records from the server - .. option and click [Approved - OK to Post] again.

II. Importing from other applications and alternate methods of importing:

Output your source data to the applicable format, then import it into a new database in Microsoft Access, since Access has various tools to manipulate your data records, in order to ensure the data you want to import is clean. 

Always convert from the applicable format to the Access format by creating an Access .mdb database and populating it using Access's File > Get External Data >  Import and selecting from the Files of type: drop down list:

If you have a large database to import (several thousand records), we also recommend you do the importing at off-hours, when the database is not being heavily accessed.

Example: Quick Export from Outlook into an Access database (we don't recommend exporting from Outlook into an Access database. Instead, use the [Get Contacts from Outlook] method under the tab [Step 1: Select data], and see above.

1. Open Outlook and move to the Contacts folder.

2. Select File > Import and Export and choose Export to a file, then click [Next].

3. Select the file type, Microsoft Access. Click [Next].

4. Select the Contacts folder to export from. Click [Next].

5. If there is a default file and location displayed and you don't want to use it, or if no default is displayed, click [Browse] to move to a location then enter a file name and save the exported file. Click [Next].

6. Acknowledge the action to be performed - click [Finish].

Quick Import from database into Qasper

1. On your desktop, select Start > Programs > Qasper > Qasper Import > Qasper Import to start the Qasper Import program.

2. Ensure the Access option is selected.

3. In the table drop down list, it should show Contacts. If not, select Contacts from the list.

4. Click [Load existing definition] and move to the Qasper installation folder. Typically, that's:

Program Files > Dalco > Qasper > Qasper Import or Users > Public > Program Files > Dalco > Qasper > Qasper Import

5. Open the file, Contacts.xml. This file is installed as part of the Qasper installation and should be located in the folder: 

C:\Program Files\Dalco\Qasper\Qasper Import or C:\Users\Public\Program Files\Dalco\Qasper\Qasper Import

This file contains all the cross-reference definitions to match Outlook contact fields to their equivalent in Qasper. If you cannot locate this file, try downloading it from www.Qasper.com/files/contacts.xml.

6. Qasper Import will load the definition file and display the [Step 2: Set fields] tab.

7. Review the Source Field/Destination Field columns under Destination fields to review the column matching. Add or remove as needed.

8. Click the tab [Step 3: Get source records]. Add any filters if needed (see the section below Step 3 for more information).

9. If the path and file name of the database is not correct, click [Get] to move to the folder where the Access database was saved (See Quick Export from Outlook - item 5 above) and select the database.

10. If the path and file name of the database was not correct and you moved to the correct database, click [Resave definition].

10. Click [Load records from source]. If an error occurs, ensure that the path and file name are correct, then click [Resave definition] followed by [Load records from source] again.

11. The tab [Step 4: Approve and post] will display the records that are going to be imported.

12. Review the list, delete any rows you don't want imported.

13. Decide whether to allow duplicates by selecting or deselecting the "Allow duplicates (but label accordingly) ..." checkbox.

14. Click [Approved - OK to Post] to import the records into Qasper.

15. Review the list after import and if everything is OK, close Qasper Import.

III. Extended import instructions

Display on startup:

Tables available for import:

Qasper supports import into the following tables:

Contacts Actions Addresses Connections Help Desk Order details Orders Products (Inventory)

Start a new import or get an existing definition:  

Step 1: Click the [Select data] tab. Select a data type (currently only Access is available). Click [Get this table >] or or [Load existing definition] to either fetch a database or a previously-saved definition. The display window will show progress and/or errors.

Step 2: Click [Step 2: Set fields]

Match fields: Click [Auto match] to cause Qasper to attempt to match as many fields from the Source field list to the Destination fields list. 

For unmatched fields, or to correct auto-match, drag/drop source fields onto the appropriate destination field, or use the [>>Add>>] button to move fields. 

Click on a row in the Destination fields list and click [<<Remove<<] to move the Source field back to the Source fields list. If there is an original ID in the source list, drop it onto the ImportID field on the Destination fields list:

ALWAYS: Click and save your work, so that you can recover it efficiently.

Tip: If you have previously exported your data to Microsoft Access, you can use Access's Query to clean up your data. For example, in the above, there are two fields that have no match to the Qasper database, since Qasper's base contact fields don't include a middle name or second line for street address.

Of course, you could add custom fields into Qasper to handle any fields, including those, but if you haven't, you can use Access's Query to build queries like this:

Concatenate fields:

and

Step 3: Click [Step 3: Get source records]

Enter any special filters you require.

Click [Get] to locate the source file.

Click [Resave definition] if you want to save the import definition file, then click [Load records from source] to read the source file and display the import records before finalization. The [Step 4: Approve and post] screen will display automatically.

Step 4:

[Result for approval]: The data will be assembled and displayed, ready for review, modification and approval (or rejection).

Click onto any row and modify any fields, if required. Click a row and press your Delete key to remove the row. Scroll to the bottom and add new rows.

Select the option "Update existing server records with values from these records" if you want to overwrite similar records on the target database.

Select the option "Delete these records from the server - CAUTION: irreversible" to delete existing records that match these records (applies only if the list of records has an import ID that can be matched on similar records on the target database). Note: we don't recommend this action unless it's absolutely necessary, and done close to the time the import took place.

Select the option "Allow duplications (but label accordingly ..." to permit duplicates to be stored on the target database. If this option is not selected, the display log will show which records have been rejected because a matching contact or productrecord was found on the target database. If this option is not selected, duplicate records will be clearly marked as "possible duplicates".

Click [Approved - OK to Post] to cause the import. During the import a log will display progress. Records are imported in blocks of 10.

Click [Rejected - clear the list] if you don't want to import the records.

IV. Additional Outlook field names you can set up in Qasper.

Qasper will sync fields with these exact names. All fields must be defined in Qasper as text with recommended length of at least 50 characters.

Anniversary
AssistantName
AssistantTelephoneNumber
BillingInformation
Birthday
Body (description)
BusinessAddressCity
BusinessAddressCountry
BusinessAddressPostalCode
BusinessAddressPostOfficeBox
BusinessAddressState
BusinessAddressStreet
BusinessFaxNumber
BusinessHomePage
BusinessTelephoneNumber
CallbackTelephoneNumber
CarTelephoneNumber
Categories
Children
Companies
CompanyMainTelephoneNumber
ComputerNetworkName
CustomerID
Department
FileAs
FTPSite
FullName
Gender
GovernmentIDNumber
Hobby
Home2TelephoneNumber
HomeAddressCity
HomeAddressCountry
HomeAddressPostalCode
HomeAddressPostOfficeBox
HomeAddressState
HomeAddressStreet
HomeFaxNumber
HomeTelephoneNumber
Importance
Initials
InternetFreeBusyAddress
ISDNNumber
JobTitle
Journal
Language
ManagerName
Mileage
MobileTelephoneNumber
NetMeetingServer
NoAging
OfficeLocation
OrganizationalIDNumber
OtherAddressCity
OtherAddressCountry
OtherAddressPostalCode
OtherAddressPostOfficeBox
OtherAddressState
OtherAddressStreet
OtherFaxNumber
OtherTelephoneNumber
PagerNumber
PersonalHomePage
PrimaryTelephoneNumber
Profession
RadioTelephoneNumber
SelectedMailingAddress
Sensitivity
Spouse
Subject
Suffix
TelexNumber
TTYTDDTelephoneNumber
UserCertificate

V. Example - importing from Excel spreadsheets to Access to Qasper

These instructions apply to Microsoft Excel 2003 and Microsoft Access 2002 but likely are similar for other versions. 

The Excel spreadsheet needs to be converted to a Microsoft Access database. To do that: 

1. Open Microsoft Access. 
2. Select File > New, then select "Blank Database". 
3. Give the database a File name, typically corresponding to the name of the spreadsheet you are going to import, but with the ".mdb" extension. 
4. Click [Create]. 
5. From Access, select File > Get External Data > Import. 
6. Select "Files of type:" Microsoft Excel (*.xls) and locate and open the Excel spreadsheet. 
7. From the wizard, if the spreadsheet has more than one worksheet or range, select the applicable one and click [Next]. 
8. If the wizard offers the checkbox, "First Row Contains Column Headings" and the first row does contain column headings, select that option and click [Next]. 
9. When the table information is offered, select "In a New Table" and click [Next]. 
10. Skip the Field Options by clicking [Next]. 
11. Select a primary key if there is one, otherwise let Access add the primary key, and click [Next]. 
12. At the "Import to Table" dialog, name the table "contacts" and click [Finish]. 
13. Clear any import errors. The best way to clear errors is to open the spreadsheet in Excel and make changes then re-do the import. 

After the database is complete, follow the import instructions at:

http://www.qasper.com/qasperhelp/qhelpmain.aspx > Importing > From other apps > section: II. Importing from other applications and alternate methods of importing 

or directly from this URL:

http://www.qasper.com/qasperhelp/qimport.htm