Import event data from Excel sheet

This article describes the steps to take when you want to import your event data from an Excel sheet.

For a detailed introduction to our Excel Template, please watch this video:

To import from an Excel, first a template needs to be created with the right column headers. This template can be created from the configurator at any time. For each category (program items, posters, institutions, persons, classifiers and places) a different template is exported, thus a different sheet. 

As objects might be related to each other, such as a program item containing speakers and a location, it's best to start with the categories that have the least dependencies. This will allow you to refer to it in other objects later on. In practice, this means to work from right to left: start by adding the places and end with the program items.

For each of the categories, the following steps should be taken:

Step 1: Add one object of every type

To create the Excel template, an export of the existing data is made. In order to make sure the template contains all columns you need, so you can fill in all the data you have, at least one object of every type needs to be added manually. This can either be a real or a dummy object, as long as you enter data for all fields and sections you want to fill in later.

If you have multiple types for a category, such as presentations and sessions or booths and rooms, create at least one object of each type.

Step 2: Export to template file

After adding the objects, click the Export button top right to create the template. This exports one file per category. Open the file in Excel or a similar program.

Step 3: Add your data

In the template, add the data or copy it from another sheet. Per category and per type, different columns are available, based on the information that can be added and the sections that are defined. After adding all the data, save your file and make sure to remember the location where it's saved, so you can easily select it in the following step.

In the list below, the general columns that are available for objects of all categories are explained.

• id: this is the id of the object. This id is used to identify the object, so it should be unique in this configurato. Make sure that when importing from different spreadsheets, there are no overlapping ids in them. The id is also used to link to this object from other objects, for example to a person in a program item.
  Best practice is to use the name of the object with a prefix of the type name, so that you can easily recognise it or refer to it from another object. Some examples: room_A, booth_12, person_janedoe, session_PG01, classifier_oralabstract. Please note that the id should not contain spaces.
• configuratorType: this is the type under which an object is imported. If you've added an example of each type before making the export, you will have the right type names. These can be copied to other objects of the same type. Some examples: person:person, timeslot:presentation, place:booth.
• parent: for program items, you need to add the id of the item under which this one is nested. Please note this is a required field: if you don't add the parent, it is not possible to create a release.
• name: the full name of the person, place, program item, etc. To make sure they are not truncated, we recommended them to be less than 50 characters for program items (two lines) and less than 25 for all other data types (one line).
• orderingName: the name or number to use when ordering items in a list. For persons, this is for example the the last name, for presentations it can be a number.
• date, startTime, endTime: enter the date and time in the same format as the exported example.
• subNameList: the subtitle in lists. Recommended to be less than 25 characters to not be truncated.
• subNameDetail: the subtitle on detail pages
• info: depending on the category and type, this can contain the biography, session info, abstract, company description, etc. You can either add unformatted text, which will be added as basic text, or HTML.

The other columns in the sheet depend on the sections you have added. Each of these column names contain the category and a postfix with a number, e.g. classifierId_1. If you want to add more speakers, chairs, topics, etc. but the template only has one column, copy this column and increase the postfix. An example: copy roleId_role:speaker_1 and change the name to roleId_role:speaker_2. Possible options are:

• placeId: this is used mainly for institutions and program items. Add the id of the location here.
• classifierId: here you can add the id of the classifiers you want to assign to this object.
• roleId_role:speaker, roleId_role:chair, etc: here, the persons ids of the people with that role should be added.
• link: the different parts of the link should be added with the following structure: [name of link]|[configuratorType]|[URL]|[link type].
  • [name of link] is the link name that appears in the app itself.

• • [configuratorType] is the id of the Link type which can be found in the Data Structures.

  • [URL] is the URL of the link.

  • [link type] will define two things. First, how the link is handled, ensuring that links to PDFs are opened correctly on all devices. Second, what icon appears before the link, if Display media icons has been checked in the Link type in the Data Structures. The available link types can be found in this article link types are available, each corresponding to one media type:

    • undefined: no media type – this option displays no icon in the app regardless of whether “Display media icons” is on or off.

• • • application/pdf: "PDF" media type – this option ensures PDFs open correctly on all devices.

    • text/html: "Webpage" media type.

    • ask_speaker/custom: "Ask" media type.

    • evaluation/custom: "Evaluation" media type.

    • like_abstract/custom: "Like" media type.

    • interactive/custom: "Interactive" media type.

    • send_email_to_speaker/custom: "Mail" media type.

    • eposter/custom: "ePoster" media type.

    • eposter/pdf: "ePoster (PDF)" media type – this option ensures PDFs open correctly on all devices.

    • voting/custom : "Vote" media type.

Some link examples:

• ePoster (PDF)|link:eposter|http://www.society.com/eposter.pdf|eposter/pdf
• Webpage|link:website:http://www.conference-compass.com|undefined

• Abstract|link:abstract|http://www.conference.com/abstract.pdf||application/pdf

Step 4: Import the file

Go to the category of the data you are going to import and click the Import button on the toolbar. Select the just uploaded file and click Import. When the import is ready, its logs are displayed below the dropdown. These are especially helpful when there are errors in your data, such as ids or columns that don't exist, or formatting that's incorrect.

Please note that if you use the Excel import to make changes to objects that are imported from a channel, this channel data will be overwritten and your changes will be locked.

Step 5: Add additional data in the CMS

Some data cannot be set in the Excel file. This can be added after the import. Click the Edit button in the table for the object you want to edit. 

• Program items: sponsor logo's, session banners, virtual room settings.

• Institutions: a company logo, custom background image, banner or slideshow images, exhibitor booth contact information.

• Persons: profile pictures.

• Classifiers: a colour or an icon, for example for certain session types.

• Places: the position on the floor plan.