Importing Existing Contacts

[tgrossner]

I know that the interface allows you to import contacts, however I am having some trouble with it. The fields are not right when i import, some are blank, others are just wrong.

What is the order of fields in a typical .csv file used for importing contacts into Zimbra?

Thanks,

Tim

[KevinH]

Originally Posted by tgrossner

I know that the interface allows you to import contacts, however I am having some trouble with it. The fields are not right when i import, some are blank, others are just wrong.

What is the order of fields in a typical .csv file used for importing contacts into Zimbra?

Thanks,

Tim

Best way to get the order is to export a contact. There are some import issues with the current release. We hope to have these fixed for the next release.

[tgrossner]

OK, yeah I tried that trick. Didnt work so hot, as I got 0 successful that time :-) I am sure you will keep us posted on this.

Thanks!

Tim G.

[mattdono]

Originally Posted by KevinH

Best way to get the order is to export a contact. There are some import issues with the current release. We hope to have these fixed for the next release.

Kevin...I'm specifically looking for some details about importing/exporting.

I have been trying to import my contact list from TB (I have files in every format that TB allows: .csv, .tab, and .ldap), but nothing seems to work. I searched the forum and this thread seemed to be the closest, but still not quite what I'm looking for.

Do I have to have the file configured/re-configured a certain way to allow it to import?

Any suggestions, links, or smacks up side the head are appreciated.

[KevinH]

I put up this post that has an example file.

Importing contacts - Example Format

Just make sure your import file follows this example.

[mrt]

Does anyone know the format for the fileAs Field?

You can see an example of it by exporting some of your contacts in zimbra csv.

The Field is required to populated the "File As" description, otherwise all of my imports have this set blank, which places them out of order at the beginning of my contact list. (makes it difficult to compare them with duplicates w/ similar names)

From what I can see from my export example, this field can be set to 1, 3, or a string beginning with '8:' (beginning with the characters inside the single quotes) The string continues (with no space after the 8 displaying the string which is set as the display as in the web interface.
Fields which are set to 1 or 3 have no extra string or info, just the number.

Where is the documentation on this?
Are people really importing without setting this field? Are your contacts organized or out of order from missing this field?

EDIT: Here are some clues from subversion: More info still needed...
http://www.zimbra.com/forums/adminis...ort-print.html

dkarp 08-30-2006 08:31 PM
You may have to look at the server source files in Subversion to find the relevant info, I'm afraid.

For the record, here are the 8 supported numerical values for the "fileAs" field:
Code:
52 /** "File as" setting: &nbsp;<code>Last, First</code> */
53 private static final int FA_LAST_C_FIRST = 1;
54 /** "File as" setting: &nbsp;<code>First Last</code> */
55 private static final int FA_FIRST_LAST = 2;
56 /** "File as" setting: &nbsp;<code>Company</code> */
57 private static final int FA_COMPANY = 3;
58 /** "File as" setting: &nbsp;<code>Last, First (Company)</code> */
59 private static final int FA_LAST_C_FIRST_COMPANY = 4;
60 /** "File as" setting: &nbsp;<code>First Last (Company)</code> */
61 private static final int FA_FIRST_LAST_COMPANY = 5;
62 /** "File as" setting: &nbsp;<code>Company (Last, First)</code> */
63 private static final int FA_COMPANY_LAST_C_FIRST = 6;
64 /** "File as" setting: &nbsp;<code>Company (First Last)</code> */
65 private static final int FA_COMPANY_FIRST_LAST = 7;
66 /** "File as" setting: <i>[explicitly specified "file as" string]</i> */
67 private static final int FA_EXPLICIT = 8;
So to switch a contact to "First Last (Company)", just set its "fileAs" value to 5 and the server will recalculate the rest.

(Note that the web client may not support value FA_EXPLICIT yet; this type of "fileAs" is not completely numeric but instead looks like "8:foo bar baz".)

[mrt]

Excel formula to populate fileAs column with another column (remove outside ' ')
'="8:"&A2' (remove outside ' ' ) and fill down, finished!

The zimbra server will not populate the fileAs field using any of the normal codes 1-7 using data from the fullName field, so I had to do this manually for my data source which did not include first, last data. I used the 8th data type '8:John Doe' (remove outside ' ' these were to keep the forum smileys from replacing the 8: )