Import File/Import Database

The import file needs to meet the following requirements:

  • The file must be stored in a supported format, see File Format.
  • The lengths of the individual import fields can be fixed or variable.

    If you are using fixed field lengths, you need to define the exact length of each field in the import format in Aurea CRM.

    If the field lengths are variable, you need to specify the separator character in the import format (e.g. comma, semicolon) or delimiters (e.g. all field contents in quotation marks).

  • Records of variable length must be distinguished using a separator (e.g. line break). For records of fixed length a separator between records is optional.
  • If a field is empty, a field separator must be included (in this case a semicolon). Example: Smith & Co;;London
  • The contents of fields in the import file do not need to correspond to the usual content in Aurea CRM. Text data can be transformed during the import process.
  • If the import file contains fields whose content are not required in Aurea CRM, you can suppress these fields in Aurea CRM by replacing the contents with placeholders during the import process.
  • Aurea advises against importing more than 300 fields at once.
  • Imported records can only be added if data is available for all mandatory fields defined in the data model; e.g. the Currency field in the Offer info area.
  • Additional mandatory fields can be defined for individual reps in their access rights. These mandatory fields are also tested for content during the import process.
  • You can define default values that are used if mandatory fields are empty.
  • In order to match up (and merge) imported data with existing data in Aurea CRM, the import file must contain unique key fields used to compare internal and external records, see Match-up Logic for other Info Areas. This is not always necessary for the Company, Person, Person in Company and Property info areas, see Company Match-up, Person Match-up and Property Match-up (BTB only).

The import database (external database) must meet the following conditions:

  • The external database and Aurea CRM database must be of the same database type (MS SQL or Oracle).
  • For Oracle databases, the same character set (NLS_CHARACTERSET) must be used as in the Aurea CRM database. The character set used by the Aurea CRM database is specified in the mmdb.ini file using MM_NLS_CHARSET.
  • MS SQL databases can use a different character set from the Aurea CRM database. In this case, enable the Perform translation for character data option in the ODBC connection. Aurea recommends that you exhaustively test the transformations applied to the character data.