Advanced User Upload Usage

The user upload feature is not new, it has been in operation many years. We have recently looked at it's capabilities and decided to update what it can do in our dashboard.

Let's look at what it currently does.

You can upload a CSV file to create or update multiple accounts at once.

Your CSV file must contain the following headings: 

Email,User Name,First Name,Last Name,Password,Role

For example:

Email,User Name,First Name,Last Name,Password,Role

principal@example.edu.au,principal,School,Principal,pri2009,teacher

joeblogs@example.edu.au,joeblogs,joe,blogs,joe2009,teacher

a.student@example.edu.au,SN1234,Alfred,Student,as2010,student

 

The following email accounts will be created:

• Username: principal
  Password: pri2009
• Username: joeblogs
  Password: joe2009
• Username: SN1234
  Password: as2010

Valid roles must be chosen from the following list:

• Student
• Alum
• Teacher
• Parent

 
This has been pulled directly from the dashboard so no new information there.

All of these values are the same and remain required information.

The Let's look at the additional fields that we have added.

Recovery Phone

This is the phone number that is used in password reset. As with the other headings it must be put exactly as above. This field is not compulsory and may be left out if it is not required.

Recovery Email

 This is the email address that is used in the in password reset. As with the other headings it must be put exactly as above. This field is not compulsory and may be left out if it is not required.

Additional Attributes

This is where things can get a little more interesting. You can now add additional attributes to the import and will will import them into the Custom Attributes for the user. This can be useful when having to bring additional information for a user that needs to be sent to the service provider, but doesn't quite fit in the existing categories. For example StudentID, SynID etc

These are not compulsory and can be left blank for the users that do not have such a value.

If we look at what this might look like in a spreadsheet





This will create a record as normal with the below attibute
User Name: principal
Email: principal@example.edu.au
First Name: School
Last Name: Principal
Password: pri2009
Role: Teacher

With the new attributes this will also add

Password Reset Recovery Email: othermail@gmail.com
Password Reset Recovery Phone: 0412345678

Another attribute will be created:

SynID: 314159

Once the user logs in, all the normal attributes will be created and sent to the service provider, additionally this user will have SynID sent. NB Password reset information is NOT exposed to service providers.

So when the user is created all the information about the user is already there without need for further interaction.

Conclusion

Just to make things clear on these new attributes, they can be left blank for users that they do not apply, or just simply not included in the import.

Remember these imports can be run as scheduled imports through the sync profile interface.