Importing Data
From TrueERP wiki
Overview
ERP allows the import of data from a comma seperated values text file with the file extention "csv". The necessary format of a csv file is easiest seen by expoting the file for the data in question. See Export Data It is essential to remember that any change of the format of the file is likely to stop the data from being imported
How To Import Data
- Format your data in a csv file as shown in Export Data
- Save the .pdi file and if editing in Excel close Excel (this is necessary to release the file
- In ERP Software select FILE in the top left corner of the screen
- Select Import
- Select Data
- Select the Folder Icon from the Import Data screen - this will open a Windows Explorer screen
- Browse to the file to be imported and select Open
- Select Import - If the data is correctly formatted you will see a progress bar as the file is read and again as it is
imported
ERP Software data files are to be opened using the following steps. The theory behind this procedure is Excel default settings when opening a document. The following can and will occur if you do not follow the below steps - control characters such as a comma (,) apostrophe (‘) and quotation marks (“) tell excel to perform specific functions such as move all information after the comma 1 cell to the left and add information after a quotation mark is to be attached to the information in this cell. This will cause incorrect information to be entered into the wrong fields when you import the file into ERP. Also, Excel by default changes long numbers such as barcodes into scientific notation. Excel will also drop leading zeros in a number making phone numbers incorrect and your barcodes unusable. Please always use the following steps to open ERP data files.
Opening an ERP data File
(Open Excel/Open Office first.
- In Excel go to File-Open and find the folder you have saved the ERP data file to
- Change the file type to all files (this is required because ERP has it’s own file extension, ‘*.pdi’)
- Double click on the ERP data file.
- This opens in Excel the Text Import Wizard.
- In Open Office click on the diminished screen button
Select Next All Columns within the Data Preview need to be highlighted. The process to do this is move the scroll bar all the way to the right, hold down the shift key then with the mouse, left click in the last column. When all columns within the data preview have been selected, select “Text” from the ‘Column Data Format’. Select Finish.
Do be aware that to generate a data file to import into ERP requires specific field to be populated. If the generation of these files are required, please contact a ERP representative or your ERP support personnel.
