Import tool - creating/updating events - additional fields (including all custom fields)
Gauging Interest
I setup thousands of events for each calendar year, and this process is incredibly manual as the import tool is lacking in crucial functionality.
The import tool does not allow you to populate custom fields, so I have to manually populate several custom fields for each individual event after setup.
We rely on custom fields to house information such as mock exam deadlines, which are then communicated through communication templates and triggers. We use other fields for API purposes, such as reference codes which provide access to separate resources in our LMS automatically.
Some non-custom fields are not available within the tool, such as the 'Price'. This affects us as we increase our prices in the second half of the year each year, so when I'm setting-up a full year of events, I currently have to set the price at the course template level for the first half, set those up first, then change the price in the course templates to that of the second half of the year, before creating a new upload file.
Events imported are also automatically set to 'published' rather than draft, potentially making events available immediately, despite important API fields/pricing being incorrect.
Using the Import tool to create 88 events yesterday took only a couple of minutes, but getting them registration ready still took me a number of hours as I had to open each individual event and manually add information separately.
Suggestions:
* Allow all event fields, custom or otherwise, to be available within the import tool
* Allow users to set events as draft or published in-bulk using the tool
* Create an 'update' import tool, which allows users to add additional information later to existing events, using the event ID as a unique identifyer, should any information change later (eg mock deadlines)
This will allow us to operate at scale far better, saving time and resources. I am due to upload more events later this week and have two full days allocated to complete this task at the expense of all my other usual responsibilities.
I have been asking for improvements to these tools for years and it unfortunately has not been on the road map. I consider this an urgent requirement, given the time passed from when I first suggested these improvements.
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Official comment
Hi Matt,
Thanks for the suggestion. We are currently working behind the scenes on an import tool that will primarily be used during onboarding. We will then be looking to extend this into a new customer-facing tool that would incorporate all the suggestions you have made above.
In the meantime, most, if not all of the things you have requested are available to do through the API - is this something we could assist with in terms of giving you/your dev team the mutations and a quick how-to?
Many thanks
Comment actions -
Thanks Gilles - we don't have an in-house dev team for this purpose but I'm happy to try and learn! I did use GraphQL back in the day for creating custom fields, before a user-friendly tool was added to the control panel, but my knowledge didn't extend as far as importing data into fields.
Great news on the plans to make the import tool more comprehensive too :) is there a timeline for each of the phases? -
Hey Matt,
No problem. I'd say the learning curve to doing imports of data using GraphQL if you aren't familiar with it, might be a bit steep. WRT timelines, we don't have those just yet. We will be eating our own dog-food so to speak over the next few months to work out the kinks of the new import tool. Keep an eye out on the Product Recap Videos to see when it makes its way back on the roadmap.
Many thanks
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