The SurveyMonkey Apply team offers a service that allows you to import your historical data into your Apply site. Once your programs and sites have been set up, we'll provide you with a template to populate with your historical data. When your data is ready, we'll review your requirements, validate your data, and then import it.
Below you’ll find details outlining the requirements and options for populating the template we provide if you wish to import your historical data.
If you have any questions about importing your data or are interested in requesting this service, reach out to your Account Executive or submit a request to be contacted.
Import template
Primary Columns
| Template Column |
Description |
| E-Mail (required) |
Refers to the email address of the application owner. |
| First Name (required) |
First name of the application owner |
| Last Name (required) |
Last name of the application owner |
| Organization Name (required) |
If the application is associated with an organization, the name of the organization must be provided here. |
|
Organization ID (required) |
If the application is associated with an organization that already exists on your SurveyMonkey Apply site, the organization ID must be provided so that we can uniquely identify which organization to assign the application to. If the organization does not exist on your site and you wish to add the organization as part of your import, include the text ‘New’ in this column to create the organization and assign the application to it. |
| Multiple Applications ID |
This is a string of numbers and/or letters that will uniquely identify the application within your program. You can specify the ID during the import or the system will automatically assign one if none are provided. If you intend to update the data of existing applications for your program, the unique ID of the application must be specified otherwise a new application will be created for the applicant. |
| Application State (required) |
This defines how the system should handle the application once imported. The options include:
Deleted: The application will reside in the “Trash” where it can either be deleted permanently or restored as an active application. |
| <Form Response> |
A column for each form question response will be included in the import from your program applications. Include the appropriate response in each column. |
Additional Columns
| Template Column |
Description |
| Application Title |
A title can be assigned to each application |
| Application Stage* |
Once your program is built, you can define which stage within the program workflow the application should be assigned to. If no stage is specified, the import will default to the first application stage. |
| Application Status* |
These are custom statuses you can use to communicate to your applicants where their applications are at within your workflow. Your program must have statuses configured in order to include them with your import. Applications can only have one status at a time. |
| Application Labels |
Labels allow you to tag applications for internal purposes. Applications can have multiple labels at any given time. |
| <Custom Fields> | If your site includes custom fields attributed to the application, you will have the option to include the data you’d like to populate with your import. |
| <File Attachments> |
A column for each file you’d like to attach to an “Attach File” task within your program workflow can be included with the import. Within the column, you’ll be required to provide the path to the file from the ZIP file you will provide the SurveyMonkey team along with your template file. More details on file attachments below. |
NOTE: For the purposes of the import, the ID for the given element within your program must be used in place of the name you have assigned it. For example, the first stage in your program is labelled “Application Stage” but the ID “112279” is what must be included in the import file. All IDs will be provided with your template file.
File Attachments
In addition to text data, you have the opportunity to include attachments with any of the applications you would like to import. Within your program workflow, they can be attached to any existing “Attach File” application tasks.
All files must be provided in a single ZIP file and the paths to each file must be represented in the appropriate column in your import template. Files can be included within any number of folders or subfolders inside the .zip file. For example:
- testfile.png
- firstfolder/testfile.png
- firstfolder/subfolder/testfile.png
Warnings
This section will describe the various warnings you might encounter during the validation of a data import file.
We try to get all the warnings in one go but some types of error make it impractical for us to continue validating a file, these are known as Fatal Errors.
Fatal Errors
These are the warnings that will prevent the rest of the file being validated:
| Message | Caused By |
Possible Solutions |
| Invalid csv file or encoding detected. Please check the csv that was uploaded and make sure it is not an xls. |
|
Our supported encoding's are: "Latin-1", "UTF-8", "UTF-16", "CP-1252". This cover's every encoding we've ever been supplied in the past. Use a tool like Excel or Google Sheets to export to a supported encoding |
| This row is of a different length than the header row. | There's an issue with the CSV's format. We found a row longer or shorter than the header row. We use the most common configurations of `,` as separators and `"` as delimiters. |
The file will need to be fixed. If it's being exported from Excel and seems fine in Excel then check the export formats and make sure it's using commas and double quotes. |
|
If this import has files you must also supply the .zip! |
This import has file columns but a zip was not provided | Provide the zip when validating |
|
Uploaded data csv's columns do not match those from the template. |
There were modifications to the headers values on our identifiers. Anything at the end in (). | Correct the changed headers and then re-validate. |
Sometimes we're provided with very large zip files. There's no size limit, however, there is an upload time limit of 10 minutes. If the zip takes longer than 10 minutes to upload then it will not allow for validation to continue as we can't get the zip. In these cases please contact Engineering directly to assist in getting the files validated.
Other Warnings
These are the warnings that should report out altogether. If you run into a case where one of these causes the rest of validation to stop please create a bug ticket with all necessary reproduction files and steps. Warnings will include the row number they are for.
"%(SomeName)s" indicate a placeholder that will change depending on the actual values that were part of the validation warning
| Message | Caused By |
Possible Solutions |
| Found a blank value in required column 'Multiple Applications ID (usid:frcid)'. | When the 'Multiple Applications ID' column is present it is a required field and it must contain a non-blank unique value. |
Enter a unique value into the cell |
| Found a duplicate value in the Multiple Applications ID column. The duplicate value was: %(Duplicate Value)s | A non-unique value was entered into the 'Multiple Applications ID' column. This means a prior row already had that value in the column |
Enter a unique value into the cell |
|
There are multiple entries for user: %(User Email)s |
For imports that do not allow for multiple applications per applicant this warning will appear if there are multiple rows for the same e-mail. |
The solutions depend on the case. If the import is meant to allow for multiple applications per applicant and the option was not chosen when the template was created, you can generate a new template with the appropriate options and transfer the data. Otherwise, solutions in the past have been fake unique e-mail or something like if the e-mail was 'jane@some-email.com' to make them unique by add something like 'jane+2@some-email.com'. |
|
There are multiple entries for user with email: %(User Email)s |
See above | See above |
|
Invalid status '%(Cell Value)s' in 'Application Status' column. |
An invalid value in the data for the Application Status column |
Verify the data is correct for this column. |
| Value '%(Cell Value)s' is not a valid date format. | An invalid date format in the data for a date type column. (Typically a form response to a date question) |
Make sure there's a valid date in the cell. Be wary of excel performing strange operations on date cells. If it looks like it's a valid date and still will not parse open up the csv in something like Notepad and verify that the tool creating the csv isn't modifying the value behind the scenes. |
|
Question: %(Question Name)s for form %(Form Name)s is not a multiple choice question. |
When the template was generated the question referenced was a multiple choice question, but it is no longer. | Form and site modifications should be avoided from the time a template is generated to when the data is in the system. Regenerate a new template. |
|
Response '%(Cell Value)s' is not a valid choice for the question '%(Question Name)s' in the form '%(Form Name)s' |
The value in the cell does not match up to an actual choice for the question it is for. (Single choice/Multi choice) |
We require a 1 to 1 value match. i.e. `ON` is not equal to `Ontario` if it says `Ontario` in the form it must be `Ontario` in the csv |
|
Question: %(Question Name)s for form %(Form Name)s is not a single choice question. |
When the template was generated the question referenced was a single choice question, but it is no longer. | Form and site modifications should be avoided from the time a template is generated to when the data is in the system. Regenerate a new template. |
|
Missing value for column 'State' |
The State column is a required column. |
Add a proper value for State. |
|
Invalid State '%(Cell Value)s' in 'State' column |
A State was provided but not a valid one. | Correct the value so it matches a proper State |
|
Missing user information in one of 'E-mail', 'First Name' or 'Last Name' columns at row %(Row Number)s |
The columns E-mail, First Name and Last Name are required columns. | Add values to the cells |
|
Missing submission title |
The Title column is also a required column | Add a value to the Title column |
|
Missing organization name |
When including organizations the name is a required column if the Organization ID column is set to 'new'. |
Add a value to the Organization Name column |
|
Invalid organization ID '%(Cell Value)s' |
When including organizations the Organization ID column must either be 'new' and used in conjunction with Organization Name or must be a valid ID. |
Set the value accordingly. |
|
The file '%(Cell Value)s' does not exist in the zip archive provided. |
The file path specified in the cell cannot be found in the provided Zip |
Check that the file exists in the ZIP. If it does then verify that the value in the cell doesn't contain typos. |