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Unable to bulk import member data

Simple Membership Plugin › Forums › Simple Membership Plugin › Unable to bulk import member data

Tagged: csv, database, import, members

  • This topic has 16 replies, 2 voices, and was last updated 8 years, 8 months ago by mbrsolution.
Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 17 total)
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  • Author
    Posts
  • June 21, 2017 at 6:50 am #11269
    aawvweb
    Participant

    I have been trying to import member data using the WP CSV/DB plugin but cannot for the life of me get it to work. I have followed the instructions here (https://simple-membership-plugin.com/simple-membership-bulk-import-member-data-csv-file/) and here (https://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/wp-csv-to-database-plugin-import-excel-file-content-into-wordpress-database-2116) to no avail. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

    After downloading the csv template file (https://simple-membership-plugin.com/wp-content/uploads/downloadables/members.csv), I manually edited the headers according to the text file (https://simple-membership-plugin.com/wp-content/uploads/downloadables/swpm_column_names.txt), saved the file, but then when I uploaded it using the WP CSV/DB plugin, the number of resulting columns comes in at 91 instead of the 31 that it should be for the member table (wp_ma5ww47jrh_swpm_members_tbl) that I’m attempting to populate. The starting row I’ve selected is 2, I’ve tried checking “disable ‘auto_increment’ column” and “update database rows” but neither makes a difference. When I click “import to DB” I get the following error message: Starting Row value exceeds the number of entries being updated to the database from the .csv file. I cannot figure out where I’m going wrong with this and why I can’t get the number of columns to match. I’d really prefer to figure this out so I don’t have to manually enter 300+ members!

    June 21, 2017 at 10:13 pm #11275
    mbrsolution
    Moderator

    Hi, what columns are included in the csv file you are uploading? Do these columns differ from the columns that already exist in your members database table?

    June 22, 2017 at 1:02 am #11277
    aawvweb
    Participant

    The columns I input in the csv are:

    member_id, user_name, first_name, last_name, password, member_since, membership_level, more_membership_levels, account_state, last_accessed, last_accessed_from_ip, email, phone, address_street, address_city, address_state, address_zipcode, home_page, country, gender, referrer, extra_info, reg_code, subscription_starts, initial_membership_level, txn_id, subscr_id, company_name, notes, flags, profile_image

    These columns exactly match the columns in table preview. There are 31 in total. I only populated my csv with two members for now, but I did get the following message when I saved the Excel spreadsheet as a csv: This workbook contains features that will not work or may be removed if you save it in the selected file format. From what I could find out, that’s just occurring because csv is an old Excel file format and that shouldn’t have any effect. Perhaps, I’m wrong…

    June 22, 2017 at 1:28 am #11278
    mbrsolution
    Moderator

    Hi, just for testing purpose try the following. Only add 3 fields. Make sure these fields are populated. Then carry out the importing again.

    user_name, first_name, last_name

    Let me know what happens.

    June 22, 2017 at 1:49 am #11279
    aawvweb
    Participant

    Only using those three fields yields the following:

    Number of .csv file Columns: 7

    I also get the same error when I try to import (Starting Row value exceeds the number of entries being updated to the database from the .csv file.).

    Just for kicks, I tried populating those three fields and still get seven columns.

    June 22, 2017 at 2:21 am #11280
    mbrsolution
    Moderator

    Hi, the plugin developers will investigate further your issue.

    Thank you

    June 22, 2017 at 2:22 am #11281
    aawvweb
    Participant

    Thanks for looking into it, I really appreciate the help. Hopefully they’ll get to the bottom of it!

    July 9, 2017 at 10:57 pm #11427
    aawvweb
    Participant

    Is there any update on this issue? If not, I’m going to have to start importing all the members manually.

    July 9, 2017 at 11:52 pm #11428
    mbrsolution
    Moderator

    Hi, I have carried out a test because someone else had a similar issue. My test worked for me in my testing environment. You might want to carry out the same test.

    Download the text file mentioned in the documentation above. Then simply change the extension from txt to csv. Then add one member using 3 fields and import the csv file. You can read more about it in the following thread.

    Let me know how you go with the test.

    Kind regards

    July 10, 2017 at 6:14 pm #11432
    aawvweb
    Participant

    I downloaded the text file with the column names (swpm_column_names.txt), changed the extension to csv (swpm_column_names.csv), then opened the file in Excel. As you mentioned in the other thread, it has only 30 columns (the one missing is the “member_id” column) and I only added one name to the file. For the sake of consistency, I used exactly the same information that you’d used in the other thread: user_name = testing1, first_name = bobbb, last_name = booooo. I then saved the csv file, uploaded the file to my Media Library, then tried to import the member data but it failed. Here are a few screenshots:
    screenshot1
    screenshot2
    screenshot3
    Does this match exactly what you did? Should I delete the plugin and try reinstalling it? Any other ideas? Thanks for the assistance!

    July 10, 2017 at 9:53 pm #11436
    mbrsolution
    Moderator

    Hi, no that is not what happened in my test. In your case when you added the csv file is saying that your file has 59 columns. That is incorrect because the file only has 30 fields “30 columns”. Something in your excel software is adding the extra columns. You can try reinstalling Simple Membership and the addon, see if that fixes your issue. If it doesn’t then check your excel software. Find out why it is adding the extra columns to the csv file.

    Let me know how you go.

    Regards

    July 11, 2017 at 3:09 am #11460
    aawvweb
    Participant

    You were right! I tried using Open Office and Google Sheets and it worked for both CSV files created using that software. Who knows what was going on with Excel but what a relief! Thanks again for saving me from having to enter all members manually…

    July 11, 2017 at 3:15 am #11462
    mbrsolution
    Moderator

    I am happy to hear that you have resolved your issue 🙂 Well done.

    Enjoy the plugin.

    July 17, 2017 at 11:17 pm #11511
    aawvweb
    Participant

    While I’ve been able to get the members uploaded via the bulk import to the Simple Membership Members database, the Users database wasn’t populated at all (the standard WordPress one). However, when I add members manually through the Simple Membership plugin, they do populate the User database. Is there anyway I can transfer the membership records from the Simple Membership database to the User database so everything is identical across both platforms?

    July 18, 2017 at 4:55 am #11513
    mbrsolution
    Moderator

    Hi, can you try the following documentation. Let me know if this helps you.

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