Importing prospect records

You can import prospect records from a tab-delimited file into iMIS. The prospect import file must contain data matching the following columns. Column values can be blank. However, if the FirstName, LastName, and Organization columns are all blank, the record is deleted during the import process.

■    Prefix

■    FirstName

■    MiddleName

■    LastName

■    Suffix

■    FullName

■    Title

■    Organization

■    Address1

■    Address2

■    Address3

■    City

■    State/Province

■    PostalCode

■    Country

■    HomePhone

■    WorkPhone

■    Fax

■    E-mail

Note: The Prospect table cannot be truncated with the iMIS DB Maintenance utility. You must manually truncate the Prospect table.

Note: The column names in the iMIS Prospect table are mixed case. Column names in standard iMIS tables are uppercase.

SQL Server Tools required to import prospect records

When importing a prospect file, iMIS uses the SQL Server utilities osql and bcp. These utilities require that your computer have access to the SQL Server Tools.  It is not common for every iMIS client computer to have the SQL Server Tools installed, so to perform this procedure successfully, you might need your system administrator to ensure the following conditions in your environment:

■    A computer with SQL Server Tools has the folder with osql.exe (or sqlcmd.exe) and bcp.exe set for file sharing (this is typically the BINN folder, such as C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\Binn).

■    An entry that points to that shared folder containing osql.exe (or sqlcmd.exe) and bcp.exe is added to your client computer's PATH variable.

For example, assume your organization has one computer with SQL Server Tools installed in the default location.  Your system administrator would need to share the BINN folder on that computer and would need to add a UNC entry similar to the following to your client computer's PATH variable:

\\computerName\sharedPathToSqlServerTools;

Where computerName is the name of a computer in your organization that has the SQL Server Tools installed, and sharedPathToSqlServerTools is the shared file path to the folder that contains the osql.exe (or sqlcmd.exe) and bcp.exe files.

To import a prospect file

1.  Select Utilities > Reports and Queries.

2.  Select Data Import from the Report Types list.

3.  Select Import data into the Prospect table from the Available Reports list.

4.  Click Run. A confirmation message displays.

5.  Click Yes. The Select import file window displays.

6.  Select the prospect import file.

7.  Click Open. The Prospect Import - Set Values window opens.

8.  (required) Enter the Prefix for Imported IDs. This value must be 1-5 alpha characters. For example, PROSP. (This value displays as part of the ID field in Customers > Manage customers.)

9.  (required) Enter the Imported List Code. (This value displays in the Member Type field in Customers > Manage customers.)

10. Click Save. A DOS window displays a confirmation message.

11. Press any key to continue. The file is imported.

12. Press any key again when the file has imported successfully.