Importing/Exporting Locations/Location Groups

Formatting the Data

This update allows you the opportunity to do a mass import of locations and/or location groups. If the location groups you specify in the file don't exist, this import will create them as well as the Locations. This will associate every user with every location group that this import creates. This document also describes the format for how data is exported. You must create a CSV file formatted in a way that Fishbowl knows what to do with the data. This is easiest to do with a spreadsheet program.

All fields will be one of two types:

Text - A textual value. May contain any character, but if it contains a line break, comma or double quote, it must be wrapped with double quotes on both ends. If a field is wrapped, all text must be inside the double quotes. Double quotes in the text value must be doubled to import properly
Numeric - A decimal number greater than or equal to zero with up to four digits after the decimal point. The number must not have thousands' separators in it - 1234.56 is a valid number, while 1,234.56 is not.

CSV Fields Used to import Locations/LocationGroups

Column Name	Type	Description
Location	Text (30 chars)	The name of the Location to be created. If it already exists this line will be skipped. *Required*
Description	Text (90 chars)	A description to be associated with the Location. *Required*
Type	Text	The type of Location to be created. It must be one of the following strings: Stock Shipping Receiving Vendor Inspection Locked Store Front Manufacturing Picking In Transit Consignment *Required*
LocationGroup	Text (30 chars)	The name of the location group to be used for the Location. If the location group specified is not an existing location group, a new location group will be created with this name. *Required*
LocationNum	Numeric	The location number associated with this Location. If this is not provided a new location number will be auto-generated for it. *Optional*
CustomerName	Text	The Default Customer assigned to this location. *Optional*
Active	Text	Whether or not the Location is active. Valid values are "TRUE" and "FALSE". If left blank, import will assume FALSE. *Required*
Available	Text	Whether or not the inventory in that Location is available. Valid values are "TRUE" and "FALSE". If left blank, import will assume FALSE. *Required*
Pickable	Text	Whether or not the inventory in that Location is pickable for orders. Valid values are "TRUE" and "FALSE". If left blank, import will assume FALSE. *Required*
Receivable	Text	Whether or not the inventory can be received to this Location. Valid values are "TRUE" and "FALSE". If left blank, import will assume FALSE. *Required*
SortOrder	Numeric	Specify the order to sort the location within the location group. *Optional*
CF-	Text (30 chars)	The location's custom field value. The name of this column is CF- followed by the name of the custom field. There is one custom field column for each of the location's custom fields.

Creating a CSV file

In order to import your data, you must first export it to a comma separated values (CSV) text file. All major spreadsheet programs can export data in this format. If you do not know how to export your data to a CSV file, please refer to the documentation of your spreadsheet program.

When exporting to CSV format, make sure to verify the following:

The data is formatted properly (see the first section)
The file must contain column names in the first row, using the column names in the table above.
Each bill of material item to be added or updated is on its own line
Commas are used to separate fields
Text values are surrounded by double quotes