To import an ASCII Comma Delimited or Fix Length ASCII file into Inscomm Mass Mailing or Client Information:
1. You must be able to open your ASCII file and read it with windows notepad or wordpad unless it is a very large file. The file name must have .TXT as the file extention. If your file has an different extension, such as .CSV or .DAT your must rename it first. The best place to store your import files is the Inscomm Mass Mailing folder (c:\inscomm\massmail).
2. If you did not receive instructions that define the contents of your import file then you must open it and view the contents and determine what order the data is in. Open your file and write down what information is there ex: LastName, FirstName, Middle Inital etc.. Make sure you write down what order the information is in and also take note of any empty fields.
Once you have step 1 and 2 done, you are ready to make a Schema and Mapping file to import the data
3. Open Inscomm and select File | Mass Mailing
4. On the Inscomm window menu, at the top, click on Mass Mail Menu | Import Utility
5. Click the Schema file button to start a new one:
In the Path box enter c:\inscomm\MassMail
In the File Name box enter the Import File Name
Click on Save and you're ready to start entering in the field descriptions that describe the contents of your Import File to Inscomm's import utility.
6. Click tab2 Fields, this is where you will add the Field descriptions for each piece of information from your import file.
7. Click on Append, if the first field description in your import file is LastName, then in the field name box enter LastName, since a name is a string of characters select CHAR as the data type. In the length/size box enter the estimated or actual number of characters, for example, 30 for a persons last name would be a safe estimate.
Click Append again and repeat until each field description from your import file has been entered, and check to make sure they are in the correct order.
You must account for each empty field you see in your import file. If you know the field description value will be empty, or blank, you must still append a proper field description for it or your import will be "off by a field".
8. When you have finished entering all of the field descriptions, click on the first tab and save your work. After you have saved click on the Test tab. If your import schema file matches the contents of your import file then you should see a grid showing each row of data from your import file. If you don't see any data in columnar format you must go back to your import file, check the data against your Schema file for accuracy.
Close out the Schema editor window. Click on Mapping Files, select the Schema file you just created and click on open.
A Mapping File tells the import utility where the data fields from your import file go in the Inscomm Mass Mailing or Client file. It maps your import file to our database table. The Right hand side is the list of field descriptions you created in your Schema File to describe the data in your import file. The fields to the left are the field descriptions for an Inscomm Mass Mailing or Client file.
9. On the import Fields to the right, select your first field description then select the appropriate Inscomm import field on the left to "copy" to.
For example: LastName goes to LastName, FirstName to FirstName etc...... Do nothing with the empty ones. You only have to create a mapping entry for the fields you want to copy into Inscomm. When you are finished click on SAVE, then click Close.
NOTE: You have the option of editing your mapping entries after you have created them. This allows you to customize the copy procedure. For example. Lets say you have a phone number in your import file formatted like this (923) 999-9999. Inscomm wants you to format the phone numbers like this 888-999-8899. To accomplish this you modify the mapping entry like this:
HomePhone=Phone1,X999X-999-9999
The , is used to indicate a formatting command follows. The X's will delete the character in that position so the left and right parentheses will be removed. the 9's make the import utility on copy numeric values 0-9. The dashes will be interpreted as required so they will be inserted whereever you specify them. If a dash already exists in that position it will be left alone. There are many more formatting commands available. For more help consult our technical support line for assistance.
You can also concatenate one or more import fields into one field within Inscomm. For example you could do this:
LastName=LastName+', '+Suffix
When you have data fields in your Import file which have no matching mapping field in Inscomm you can copy this data to a notes field by using the comment field map entry for each field you want to copy. i.e.
Comment=SpouseName
Comment=SpouseDOB
Each data field value from your import file will be copied into one note each field on a separate line.
10. Close the Import Utility.
11. From your Mass Mailing window create a new, empty Mass Mailing table. Do this by clicking the new icon at the top left on the Mass Mailing window. Give your new table a name and click OK.
12. From the Inscomm main window menu select Mass Mail Menu | Import, hightlite the file you want to import and click open, in the next screen click on OK. Your import file will be imported into Inscomm.