CSV Contact Import

[jonnyRo]

Is there a particular format that the CSV Import depends on?

One of my users has contacts that look like this,

Full Name, e-mail
,e-mail


When importing a Zimbra error message pops up. This is the text of the error:

msg - system failure: java.lang.NullPointerException
com.zimbra.cs.service.ServiceException: system failure: java.lang.NullPointerException
at com.zimbra.cs.service.ServiceException.FAILURE(Ser viceException.java:131)
at com.zimbra.soap.SoapEngine.dispatchRequest(SoapEng ine.java:263)
at com.zimbra.soap.SoapEngine.dispatch(SoapEngine.jav a:163)
at com.zimbra.soap.SoapEngine.dispatch(SoapEngine.jav a:84)
at com.zimbra.soap.SoapServlet.doPost(SoapServlet.jav a:228)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet .java:709)
at com.zimbra.cs.servlet.ZimbraServlet.service(Zimbra Servlet.java:154)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet .java:802)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.in ternalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:252)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.do Filter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:173)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invo ke(StandardWrapperValve.java:214)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invo ke(StandardContextValve.java:178)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke( StandardHostValve.java:126)
at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke (ErrorReportValve.java:105)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invok e(StandardEngineValve.java:107)
at org.apache.catalina.valves.AccessLogValve.invoke(A ccessLogValve.java:526)
at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.servic e(CoyoteAdapter.java:148)
at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.process(H ttp11Processor.java:825)
at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol$Http11Conn ectionHandler.processConnection(Http11Protocol.jav a:738)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.PoolTcpEndpoint.process Socket(PoolTcpEndpoint.java:526)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.LeaderFollowerWorkerThr ead.runIt(LeaderFollowerWorkerThread.java:80)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.ThreadPool$ControlR unnable.run(ThreadPool.java:684)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:595)
Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
at com.zimbra.cs.mailbox.ContactCSV.initFields(Contac tCSV.java:440)
at com.zimbra.cs.mailbox.ContactCSV.getContactsIntern al(ContactCSV.java:546)
at com.zimbra.cs.mailbox.ContactCSV.getContacts(Conta ctCSV.java:571)
at com.zimbra.cs.service.mail.ImportContacts.handle(I mportContacts.java:73)
at com.zimbra.soap.SoapEngine.dispatchRequest(SoapEng ine.java:252)
... 21 more

code - service.FAILURE
method - ZmCsfeCommand.prototype.invoke
detail - soap:Receiver

[phoenix]

You could export a test contact name and compare the layout with the one you're trying to import.

I knew it was on the forum. Here's an example that KevinH did a while back.

[jonnyRo]

Awesome, that was the component that I was missing, no header line.

Steps.
1. Export current empty contact list to file, call this headers.csv
2. Export contact list from thunderbird as CSV file, call this contacts.csv
3. Open up headers.csv in Openoffice 2.x
4. Open up contacts.csv in another OpenOffice 2.x window
5. Cut and paste all of contacts.csv under the first row of headers.csv
6. Now you have a visible way to align the columns with the proper header. The easiest thing I found was to click on the column letter, then CTRL+Click on just the top row to select everything but the header name, then cut that whole column (minus the header) and move it over to the proper column.
7. After ensuring that everything lines up, just "Save As" the headers.csv file as contacts_processed.csv
8. Open up gedit to confirm that things look right.
9. Open up user account from master account list using View Mail function
10. Click on user preferences
11. Click on Contacts tab
12. Browse for your file and click import.

It worked beautifully. 500 contacts imported no problem. The only thing that came up was that firefox kept thinking the script was running too long and asked me to stop it. Avoid stopping the script, it will take a long time with a long list of items to import.

If you want to ditch those script timeouts, I posted some instructions on my blog Describing how to change the timeout duration