Importing data

Preparation

You can import your own data into all modules, for example, existing customer contacts into the File module. Suitable file formats include Excel, CSV, or text documents, which you can export from almost any application. Unfortunately, there are no fixed standards for how the corresponding content is structured; each developer uses their own system. What's called "Office Phone" in one application might be called "Extension" in another, and so on. However, this isn't a problem, as you can manually assign the differently named fields.

[!NOTE] Warning

Please always create a backup of alfons before importing, or test only small amounts of data first, as the import process cannot be undone. (You may need to manually delete any incorrectly imported records.)

Steps using the example of the card file

  • In the menu bar at the top, please open the Help menu.

  • Here, please select the desired destination from the Import/Export submenu.

  • In this example, we select Card File and are taken to the corresponding table view.

  • At the top of the window are three buttons; please select Import…

![[alfons_import1.png]]

  • In the following selection dialog, please select the desired file to be imported. In the Show: dropdown menu, please ensure that the appropriate file type or "all files" is selected. Otherwise, your file may be displayed in gray.

![[alfons_import2.png]]

  • The Specify Import Sequence window will now appear. On the left side, SOURCE, you will see all the data fields from your source file. On the right side, TARGET, you will find the data fields from the record (or the other module you selected previously).

![[alfons_import3.png]]

  • The blue arrow between SOURCE and TARGET lets you determine how alfons should handle the imported data: Add adds the imported records, while Update and Replace update or completely replace existing records. (In the latter case, you must use a matching field so that alfons can identify which records belong together. A typical matching field would be, for example, Index or Customer Number.) If in doubt, or during the first import, you should always choose Add.

  • If the fields on both sides do not have the same field name, alfons will not be able to identify which pairs belong together. On the right side, you can change the target fields by clicking TARGET. Either select the desired target field from the list or search for suitable fields.

![[alfons_import4.png]]
Selecting the correct target field

[!NOTE] Info
For technical reasons, the field names may appear somewhat cumbersome "behind the scenes." However, they follow a logic and have been grouped accordingly using nomenclature. (For example, File Name-Last Name and File Name-First Name, etc.)

  • You don't have to import all fields from the source. You can specify for each individual field whether it should be imported or not:

![[alfons_import5.png]]

  • For technical reasons, you will not be able to import some data fields. These include, for example, media containers (which can only hold media content), fields for automatically generated serial numbers, and formula fields. You can simply ignore these.

  • Once you have configured all settings and double-checked them for safety, you can start the actual import in the Specify Import Sequence window by clicking the Import button.

  • Depending on the amount of data, the import may take a moment.

  • Please exit the table view using the Back button.

![[alfons_import6.avif]]

  • Please navigate to the patient file (or the corresponding module you selected at the beginning) and check whether the import worked as expected.

Of course, there are some special cases:

We wanted to make alfons as simple as possible, yet powerful and flexible. Unfortunately, this is where things get a little technical: To allow a single contact to have any number of extensions and addresses, alfons uses two different databases that are linked together. As a user, you won't notice anything at first glance, but things get interesting during the import process.

Here, it's no longer about one destination, but two or more different ones. Attentive users may have already noticed the various entries in the Import/Export menu, such as File/Additional Fields. These are the corresponding "helper tables."

We have designed the import process to be as user-friendly as possible. For example, the fields with the prefix Import_ come into play in the file system. You can use these as targets during the import process, just as described above. The key feature: at the end of the import process, these field contents are automatically moved to the appropriate databases. The various extensions, addresses, and other information will then be available to you as usual.

Advanced users can, of course, also edit the different databases directly. However, please only use this feature if you know what you are doing! Even small changes might not immediately lead to data loss, but they can certainly cause significant problems. Please understand that we cannot provide support for these specific functions.