Advanced Use - Import and Export

You call the import with the button Import at the toolbar in the sub-menu Subscribers of BwPostman. The button is not visible at test recipients.

First you have to select the format, XML or CSV. Only then the button Browse... will be enabled, with that you can select the file to import. When you import a CSV file, then you have to enter the CSV delimiter as field separator and the CSV text separator and whether the file contains the field names in the headline.

For field separator there are available comma, semicolon, tabulator and space. For text separation you can select no separation, apostrophe and double quote. Text separators are normally not used. For best practise at CSV files you will find a detailed guidance below.

XML files don't need this information naturally.

With the button Further you go to the next view. Here you allocate the data from the file to import (in the right list) to the fields of BwPostman (in the left list). Important here is to match the same order at the left and right. The order of the import fields will be adjusted in the right column. To do so highlight the the name of the data field and click to the button up or down under the select list.

Also data fields, that only exists at one of the select lists, have to be removed. This will be done by selecting the appropriate data field on the list of data fields, multiple selection is possible, and clicking the button Remove below the corresponding select list.

Then you select the mailing lists, to which the subscribers shall be added. Here, too, the mailing lists are divided into three: At the left the mailing lists that are public, in the middle the mailing lists that only can be subscribed by special user groups and in the right the mailing lists that only can be assigned in back-end by the webmaster or a person with appropriate permissions.

Since the versions 4.1.2 and 3.2.2 of BwPostman You may also import the subscribers without selecting a mailing list.

Below you set the default email format that will be allocated to the subscriber in case there is no entry in the committed data. Finally you set, whether the subscriber gets an email to confirm the registration (check box not marked) or to confirm the subscriber while importing.

This setting only takes effect, if the data to import contain nothing else. If you exported the subscribers of BwPostman with their state before and now you import these data, this setting takes no effect, the imported state is used.

Since version 3.0.0 of BwPostman there exists a possibility to verify the email addresses. More to find at Configuration → Registration → Verify email address.

The import will be processed by clicking the button Import data.

Surest strategy to import CSV files

Open your CSV file with OpenOffice. There is a portable version of this program, that only has to be unpacked and called. OpenOffice is a sure candidate for functional CSV files.

Apache OpenOffice (other versions of OpenOffice eventually have different labels) shows a dialogue while opening a CSV file, where you can select character set, with which the file is written, field separator and text separator and more. But OpenOffice recognizes really well, which conditions are set. If you take changes here, then you can examine these changes in the section below. A click to OK opens the file.

Because BwPostman only uses first name, last name, email address, email format and state, you should remove the columns BwPostman don't need. That eases following work. If email format is given, but as text – e.g. HTML/text – then you can enter the values 0 for text and 1 for HTML by Edit → Find & Replace.

Following save the file by Save As as CSV file with UTF-8, field separator (best is semicolon) and text separator double quote. These settings you reach by checking Edit filter settings. OpenOffice asks, whether you want to keep current format – that is CSV – or ODF format. It is imperative to click to Keep Current Format.

Next dialogue is preset with the selections while opening the file. But that settings not always are the best, take care. Ensure the checkbox Quote all text cells is selected.

Now the CSV data are treated in a manner, BwPostman may import.

So far the settings UTF-8, ; and “ did work properly, whilst the data did not come from Excel, because Excel makes a BOM, absolutely unusual, unwanted and hardly to exorcise.

A text separator particularly is important, if spaces and special characters occurs at first name or last name. These characters bring trouble upon import (empty or broken data sets).

It is indeed recommended to use double quote as text separator, because the chance to occur in a name is really little, while a single quote may occur in name affix. Think of names like D'Angelo…

You call the export with the button Export in the sub-menu Subscribers of BwPostman.

Since version 2.2.0 of BwPostman it is possible only to export subscribers of a specific mailing list. To do so You filter the subscribers by the desired mailing list before export by opening the Search Tools and selecting the desired mailing list at Select mailing list. Now You click to Export.

First you select to export in XML or CSV format. While exporting to CSV you have to enter the delimiter, that separates the fields and which text separator shall be used.

For field separator there are available comma, semicolon, tabulator and space. For text separation you can select no separation, apostrophe and double quote. If you want to import the data to BwPostman later, it is recommended to use double quote. I have explained detailed at Import, why to do so.

At XML files these fields are not displayed.

Next you have to select, whether confirmed and/or unconfirmed subscribers and/or test recipients will be exported. You also have to determine to export only not archived, only archived or all subscribers.

Finally you select the fields to export.

With click to Export data the export file will be created and saved locally.