Importing data into Artisan POS is an extremely powerful and useful tool for:
- Initial imports, such as converting data from another system.
- Adding new products from a file you created or received from your vendor.
- Updating existing products by leveraging powerful tools and formulas available in spreadsheets.
Artisan can import data from several different file formats.
| .CSV | Comma Seperated Values, a very common format that is often used to transport data between generic spreadsheets. This is often used by vendors to distribute their data to their customers. Quotation marks are required to surround any text that is ambiguous, such as a comma in a paragraph of text. |
| .TXT | Tab or Comma Delimited text files. Similar to .CSV files, but the tab key is often used to separate the fields, referred to as the delimiter. |
| .XLS | The older Excel format that stores data in a binary format. |
| .XLSX | The current Excel format is a text file formatted in XML. This is by far the most common and preferred format for most uses. If you don’t have Excel, however, one of the other formats will work just fine if you can’t export in this format. The key advantage over other formats is that delimiters such as a comma can also appear in the text itself, which requires quotation marks. This adds a complication to .CSV files and can sometimes cause issues. |
| .DBF | Data Base Format from Foxpro or Dbase. You must convert these to Foxpro 2.X format. Artisan POS 3.5 uses this format. |
| .TTX | Tagged Text File: This is the native CerTek formatted data. It can contain multiple data tables in the same file, such as Items, Vendors, Categories, and Customers. This format uses “Tags” to indicate the target table. This is a more complicated structure and has been primarily used by CerTek staff to transport large amounts of data between two Artisan databases. |
With each of these file formats, you must specify a field header. The order in which these are listed is not important. They are not case-sensitive. Here’s an example:
Here are some important key details about Field Headers:
- Many variations are supported for the column header names for most fields
- Field Headers can be the actual database column names (which can be seen in external tools like pgadmin)
- The more readable full names, as listed in the Configure Columns dialog on the corresponding record list screen or in the Database Fields lists in the Report Designer (shown here as “Field Names”)
- Field names can be spelled exactly as is or with spaces replaced by underscores. In general, they are not case-sensitive.
- Not all fields are available for import. Some fields are calculated and, therefore, cannot be imported. You won’t get an error; it just won’t work. Create Date is, unfortunately, one of those fields in the Item and Customer records of particular note.
Duplicate Checking
It’s critical to understand when Artisan will create a new record and when it will update an existing record. In Artisan, the Itemcode field is required to be unique. If you are trying to update existing records, it is best if you can use Itemcode. If you use Itemcode in your import data, then Artisan will match that field. If it finds that item, it will update that record, if it doesn’t it will make a new record.
However, this is dependent on the Import Mode. You can choose whether Artisan will create new records or replace existing ones.
But many times you don’t have Itemcode and you want Artisan to generate a code for you. If you are importing brand new data, you normally don’t have to worry about duplicates. Howerver if you accidentally left out a field and you wanted to redo the import
Import Mode
Right before you commit to an import, Artisan will prompt you for the Import Mode.
To import data into Artisan, click on “File” and “Import.” Here are the details on each target table:
- Pricing Schemes
- Category Records
- Vendor Records
- Item Records
- Item Alternate Codes
- Item Price Levels (Per Customer Type)
- Product Variants
- Site Quantities
- Purchase Orders
- PO Lines
- Customer Records
- Gift Card Records
- Loyalty Club Points & Dates
- Multiple Types in One File