I am having trouble importing names into the Personnel table. What do I need to know to import successfully?

Importing names into the Personnel Table is straightforward. But you must know what happens during the import. To understand the import process, there are two basic items: 1.) how Bar|Scan uses the Name Format specified in the Company Settings, and 2.) how the import procedure actually fills in the fields during the import.

1. How Bar|Scan uses the Name Format

Here is a sample Company Settings screen displaying the Personnel Name Format.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Name Format tells BarScan how you want to build the Full Name field from the component Personnel table name fields. There are four basic format letters that each corresponds to a field in the Personnel table. They are as follows:

Format Letter	Personnel Field Name            Example
==============	=====================           ==========
F               -‘First Name’                   John
M               -‘Middle Name(Initial)’         Quentin
L               -‘Last Name’                    Public
U               -‘Uniqueness Value’.            A0123456

Often, the full value in a field is not wanted, just the first initial. This is common for the middle name. In this case, use the ‘I’ (initial) Format letter appended to the basic format letter desired. For example, using the same source names above, you would get the following results in a full name.

Format Letter	Personnel Field Name            Example
==============	=====================           ==========
FI              -‘First Name’                   J
MI              -‘Middle Name(Initial)’         Q
I               -‘Last Name’                    P
UI              -‘Uniqueness Value’.            A

As you can see, ‘MI’ stands for ‘Middle Initial’, ‘FI’ stands for ‘First Initial’, etc.

Common Mistakes

1. Listing the ‘I’ format letter by itself. This happens when the user want to list the ‘Initials’ field in the full name field. Do not confuse the Personnel table’s ‘Initials’ field with the use of the ‘I’ format letter. It does not correspond with this field. The ‘I’ name format letter must always be paired with one of the other format letters. It is not used by itself.
2. Importing a person’s middle initial into the Personnel table’s ‘Initials’ field. DO NOT DO THIS. The middle initial of a name goes into the ‘Middle Name (Initial)’ field. Many data systems do not record the full middle name, but others do. Whether your data source records the entire middle name or just the first initial of the middle name, that data goes into the ‘Middle Name (initial)’ field.
3. Blanking the entire Name format field to prevent any formatting. Blanking this field does not prevent any formatting. A blank format forces BarScan to reverts to the default format, which is “L,F,MI,U”.

2. How the Import Procedure Works

Importing names takes two approaches, depending upon whether or not the source data has the individual parts of the personnel name already separated or not. If the imported data already has ‘First Name’, ‘Last Name’, and ‘Middle Name or Initial’ in separate fields, then it is recommended that these fields be imported directly into their corresponding Personnel table fields. There is no need to import any data into the ‘Full Name’ field. This field will be calculated from the Name Format and filled in for you. Even if you do add data into the ‘Full Name’ field during the import, it will be overwritten by the calculated ‘Full Name’ value. If you only have the full name field for import, then ONLY fill in the ‘Full Name’ field during the import. DO NOT enter any data into the component names. Following the Name Format rules, the ‘full Name’ will be parsed for its component names and then the component names will be filled in for you.

Common Mistakes

1. Filling in both the ‘Full Name’ field and one or more of the component name fields. If you fill in any of the component names during the import, all of the component names will be assembled to create a corresponding ‘Full Name’ value and you will lose the imported value of the ‘Full Name’ field. If all you have for an import is a field that basically corresponds to a full name, then import only that field. Be careful to make sure that the Name Format (specified in the Company Settings as show above) matches the format of the data being imported BEFORE the import is done, otherwise the name will be parsed incorrectly. Also, most imports of personnel reveal that the full name data being imported is actually not as consistent as hoped, so you must edit the various component fields after the import. Note that this will again in turn adjust the Full Name value so that it complies with the Name format.

2. Putting imported data into the wrong fields. This can happen with the Middle Name field. The ‘Middle Name (Initial)’ field is the personnel’s middle name or middle initial, not the ‘Initials’ field. The ‘Initials’ field corresponds to the User table’s ‘Initials’ field.

Examples

Here are some examples of the results of an import with the corresponding Name Format:

The Ask/Inform User Dialog Panel

During the Import Operation, you may see a Panel like the one below:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Normally you will select YES.  If you expect only a few changes, you may decide to select ‘CONFIRM EACH’.  It is especially useful if doing a selected range of items and you want to see the progress to make sure that you did not pick the wrong ones.

You can press the <ESC> key during the import process.  It will interrupt the import up to and until the dialog box ‘Committing Changes’ appears.  Once the import begins the final updating with the changes, the <ESC> key will no longer interrupt the process.