The Data Importer allows you to import data from an external source into The Union Organizer! tables.
Typically, you would use the Data Importer immediately after
installing The Union Organizer in order to quickly begin making use of your existing data. However, the Data Importer adds far more versatility to The Union Organizer than this suggests. For example, many organizing campaigns may receive regular membershi
p updates from a central union, or some other source. With the Data Importer you can incorporate such data with relative ease (although you may need to use the Duplicate Search Utility often to keep your data clean).
Furthermore, used in conjunction with The Union Organizer's data exporting features, you can export data to a spreadsheet, or other application, modify that data, and re-import it again later. Suppose you have a laptop and would like to use it whil
e organizing rather than carrying paper membership lists - you would export a subset of the membership records as (perhaps) an Excel Spreadsheet onto a floppy disk, then edit that data on your laptop (using Excel) as you organize. Later you would use the
Data Importer to import the data from your modified spreadsheet - updating The Union Organizer data with your changes. NOTE: if you try this, take care not to have multiple people holding overlapping copies of the data at once. The Data Importer cannot di
stinguish good data from bad and will never question the validity of data being imported. Hence, if three people have copies of data, the last one to import that data will overwrite the data imported by the other two.
In general, to keep your data clean and accurate, you should use the Data Importer only when needed. Excessive use can result in duplicate records, and mysterious loss of data due to bad data being used to overwrite good data (no matter how confident y
ou are, this will happen). Be careful. Keeping more than one copy of the data floating about can be dangerous.
Limitations of the Data Importer
The process of converting data from one format to another is complex and messy and many things can go wrong. The Data Importer attempts to account for as many of these problems as possible, but unanticipated problems will sometimes occur. As suc
h, you may occasionally find that a file will refuse to be read even though it is in one of the formats listed. If this happens you should go back to the software that the file was created with, and try saving it in one of the other formats listed (see th
e screen shown below). If this fails, try opening the file with another software product (such as a spreadsheet, or database) and re-saving it with that product.
The Data Importer can import dBase, Fox, Paradox, and Excel files, as well as Delimited and SDF formatted text files. If you are importing from a text file and you choose the wrong text format you may find that the data imports, but appears to be j
umbled or mis-alligned. Trial and error may be necessary before you commit to the final import step (but you can always undo the most recent import).
Also note that the Data Importer cannot account for "mixed field data". In other words, if you have a spreadsheet and you have placed "Lastname, Firstname" in a single column, this system cannot separate the two names and can only import that colu
mn as one field. If you must import data formatted in this way, you will need to separate the distinct data into separate columns using some other software (presumably, the program used to create the file).
Using the Data Importer
Once installed, the Data Importer is started from the Windows Start Menu (Start - Programs -The Union Organizer - The Data Importer). The Union Organizer! must be shut down in order to start the Data Importer.
Using the Data Importer is straightforward, but it involves several steps, and you must participate. You must make several choices, as import data may be stored in a limitless variety of formats, and have any field structure. This information i
s arbitrary from the point of view of the Data Importer so you must provide it - but fear not - the Data Importer will help you.
When you start the Data Importer you will see the screen below:
When you click Ok, the following message will eventually appear. Click OK again.
