bulk member data importer not importing access start date

[johnE]

I’m using your template to prepare data for import. Here is the data which is prepared in .csv format

user_name	first_name	last_name	address_street	address_city	address_state	address_zipcode	country	email	phone	subscription_starts	member_since	membership_level	account_state
test126	ZAdam	Buckham	123 malibu street	California	 	12333	 		12345678	30/03/2020	30/03/2020	2	active
test127	Zfred	Bloggs							12345678	21/08/2020	21/08/2020	2	active

When the data is imported the “access starts” shows 0000-00-00 and “member since” 1970-01-01

as a result when the member tries to log in they see “account expired”

[The Assurer]

An empty value for “member_since” is interpreted as 0 seconds from 1970-01-01. The spreadsheet snippet you are showing “doesn’t look right.” Please post the actual CSV file text you are using.

[johnE]

I found the answer; on our installation bulk member EXPORT shows the date in UK format;

example: 28/07/2020

HOWEVER bulk member IMPORT requires the date in ISO format https://www.w3.org/QA/Tips/iso-date

(formally YYYY-MM-DD, but bulk member import seems to accept YYYY/MM/DD )

when I put the date as 2020/08/18 the member list is imported correctly.

May I respectfully suggest this issue would likeley not have arisen if the template file included dates?

[The Assurer]

Developer shall be informed.

[admin]

Thank you. Openning the CSV file using excel will automatically re-format any date values in there to your computer’s date format. Then when the file is saved, it will have incorrectly formatted date value. So that can also cause an issue.

I have added instructions in the following page explaining that any date values need to be entered in the YYYY/MM/DD format. Example value: 2020/06/21
https://simple-membership-plugin.com/simple-membership-bulk-import-member-data-csv-file/

[WebmasterSO]

I checked “access_starts”,”member_since” dates in notepad as follows: “2024/07/01″,”2022/01/27”,

It’s not the format since “member_since” properly imports, whereas “access_starts” always comes in as today’s date when any date is provided.

Strong indication there is a bug with access_starts import.

[Author]

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