8 Replies Latest reply: Feb 16, 2014 8:12 PM by Christopher L Rogers RSS

    Enhancing CRM Import to enable deletion of Contacts

    Greg.Tomkins Community Member
    Greg.Tomkins Apr 18, 2013 4:26 PM

      Apart from the number of requests to have a CRM export option that exports all the data in the same format as the import template which is kind of a pretty basic requirement long overdue, a constant issue I face is the fact that unlike the Products import function, there is no ability to actually import a list of CRM records you wish to DELETE.

       

      In view of the fact that you may have thousands of unwanted spam entries in yru CRM, cleaning up the CRM is a nightmare for any decent sized client.

       

      We don't seem to hear any news on what enhancements are being considered or when they can be expected on the CRM and the lack of functionality around the export and import features must be an issue for so many.

       

      Are there any plans around such updates?

        • 1. Re: Enhancing CRM Import to enable deletion of Contacts
          DandyDahlia Community Member
          DandyDahlia May 24, 2013 9:59 PM (in response to Greg.Tomkins)

          I know ... It's absolutely unbelievable that we still can't easily export (to fix) then reimport contacts (like we do with products).

           

          We've been with BC for almost 2 years and I have seen it on the wishlist since day 1.. 

          • 2. Re: Enhancing CRM Import to enable deletion of Contacts
            Greg.Tomkins Community Member
            Greg.Tomkins Jun 30, 2013 11:10 PM (in response to Greg.Tomkins)

            Is anyone at BC paying any attention to the CRM with questions like this? A response of some kind even if it is to tell me that I am dreaming and will not see this sort of functionality would be appreciated.

             

            I have a client with 3600+ members and now need to manually update most but not all of these records with new expiry date on a secure zone. Trouble is some were imported with their own ID and some were not and BC provide ABSOLUTELY NO WAY of seeing what this value is if it exists - there is no screen, data field or report that enables you to see this. Therefore importing records will possibly lead to duplicates on the same email address and thus the imort will fail - one line at a time.

             

            I would delete the whole CRM and rebuild the records (at the loss of other information) IF THERE WAS A WAY but there is no way to delete all 3600+ records except to manually do so 1 screen of 50 records at a time - that is over 72 screens I have to do this!

             

            Sorry guys but I love this system and sing its praises loudly but this one is more than just annoying.

             

            Can someone please advise us when we might expect the equivalent management of CRM that we get with products and that we can see a consistent approach to export and import of items across products, CRM and Web Apps?

            • 3. Re: Enhancing CRM Import to enable deletion of Contacts
              DandyDahlia Community Member
              DandyDahlia Jul 2, 2013 12:40 AM (in response to Greg.Tomkins)

              Hi Greg

               

              I hear you!

               

              But maybe we are the only ones that have issues like this?

              That's what I've been told by BC in the past - unless there is demand for a change then it's not worth them doing.

               

              (and unfortunately the wishlist that we were able to vote on in the past to show demand - got miraculously removed..)

               

               

              • 4. Re: Enhancing CRM Import to enable deletion of Contacts
                Brendan J Byrne Community Member
                Brendan J Byrne Jul 29, 2013 6:59 PM (in response to DandyDahlia)

                You can delete records from your CRM.  I did it today using these steps

                 

                Using the 'Undo import'

                yoursite.com/Utilities/ImportDataHistory.aspx

                 

                Despite this thread saying it does not work any more; http://forums.adobe.com/message/4976287

                 

                Steps:  (see the warning below)

                If the bad records were orriginally imported, you could skip to step 4

                Step 1

                Export the records you want to delete.

                (it is usually a good idea to export all the fields you must import: http://forums.adobe.com/docs/DOC-1773#main_Contact_Import_-_Advanced)

                but not so important in this case, just get Email, First Name, Last name.

                 

                Step 2

                Format ready for the current CRM import (basic or advanced)

                 

                Step 3

                Import all the crappy records you want to delete.

                 

                Step 4

                Log in to your admin area.

                visit  yoursite.com/Utilities/ImportDataHistory.aspx (change 'Yoursite.com')

                 

                Step 5

                select the import you just did, and click 'Delete Import'

                 

                Done.

                 

                **WARNING**

                • This CANNOT BE UNDONE. You will loose these CRM records, and all the associated data (like cases and cart history)
                • If the records do not have an email address, you can't 'import' them again, this will create a second record with the same name. You will only be able to use this method if you imported them in the first place.Manually created records, without email address will have to be deleted manually  (as far as I can tell)
                • Adobe do not pulish this link in their help files, I assume because it is too easy to loose lots of data.
                • use at your own risk.
                • this may or may not continue to work as Adobe develop this system.
                • 5. Re: Enhancing CRM Import to enable deletion of Contacts
                  psolovyov Community Member
                  psolovyov Oct 1, 2013 4:04 PM (in response to Greg.Tomkins)

                  Yes this is a MAJOR headache. I have to delete and import and re-initialize users that already registered!!!

                   

                  This is a serious problem especially when you have created a Customer manually, thus their External ID was generated by the System, thus there is no way to Import update them if they dont have an email address in their account.

                   

                  Not only this, but you cannot update an email address of a user that doesnt have email address in the system with an import!!!!!

                   

                   

                   

                  PS: already submitted that bug, but CRM really needs an ovehaul.

                  • 6. Re: Enhancing CRM Import to enable deletion of Contacts
                    KidzKorner Community Member
                    KidzKorner Oct 7, 2013 7:35 PM (in response to Greg.Tomkins)

                    Have you considered using the API? It's been a while since I used it but I believe there is a solution there.

                    • 7. Re: Enhancing CRM Import to enable deletion of Contacts
                      Forklifts R Us Community Member
                      Forklifts R Us Nov 29, 2013 12:21 AM (in response to Brendan J Byrne)

                      i discovered this issue myself i found a post on here somewhere where you need to type this in after the .com

                       

                      /Utilities/ImportDataHistory.aspx

                       

                      part of the url in order to mass delete, careful though if you have imported in one instance it will delete the WHOLE lot.  BC should offer an easy solution to achieve this.

                      • 8. Re: Enhancing CRM Import to enable deletion of Contacts
                        Christopher L Rogers Community Member
                        Christopher L Rogers Feb 16, 2014 8:12 PM (in response to Greg.Tomkins)

                        While we'd like to have direct access to our databases such as developing a project with MySQL, MS SQL, Oracle or such it appears this is not completely possible though I have come up with an idea that I will be testing soon across 5,000 recrods.

                         

                        First I will create a report with every data field through the "Custom Reports" to make sure I have all of the original records and have a back-up of all the data.

                         

                        Next Export this report as a CSV (Comma Separated) file and import it into MS Excel so I can clean up the records and remove the spam or other garbage.

                         

                        Then I will import this file back in using the Advanced Import Session and select Add/Update all records. This should replace all the current data with my new file.

                         

                        The only thing I'm not sure of is if it will delete all the records that are now missing from my new CSV file. In the old User Interface I believe there was an option to Add, Update and/or Delete but not knowing what the CRUD file looks like I can't be sure how the SQL will actually be processed.

                         

                        If everything goes well this should Update all existing records and hopefully delete all records that are no longer in the file I'm importing though I only have a 50/50 level of confidence on this since the new UI was implemented.

                         

                        Here's a pretty good explanation of the process by the folks at BC Gurus...

                         

                        http://www.bcgurus.com/tutorials/import-customer-records-in-business-catalyst

                         

                        Cheers,

                        Christopher "Chris" L. Rogers

                        Quantum Leap Online Business Solutions LLC.