Importing Data into Skills Base

This feature is available with the following licenses: Teams, Enterprise and Ultimate.

 

The Skills Base platform provides an easy to use and intuitive Data Importer that allows you to import data in bulk. Records are imported via CSV files. These files can be opened with Microsoft's Excel software and other spreadsheet programs capable of working with ".CSV" file types. 

 

The Data Importer provides a preview of your import to allow you to validate the outcome prior to actually executing the import and committing the data.


Each CSV file can contain up to 2500 records of the chosen record type. The following record types can be imported:


  • Courses
  • Course Mappings
  • Locations
  • People
  • Qualifications
  • Qualification Assignments
  • Ratings: Self
  • Ratings: Supervisor
  • Roles
  • Skills 
  • Skill Assignments
  • Targets
  • Teams

 

To begin, select Data Importer from the navigation pane. When selected, the type of import can be specified:

 

 

 

 

Once an import type selection is made, the selection will be highlighted. 

 

In the example below, we have selected People to be imported. The file to be used is selected using the Browse facility which will access all drives and folders that are available to you.

 

There are two option available:

Create records - This option will result in new records being created.

Update record - This option will result in existing records being modified.

 

Select Next to continue with the import process. 


Once selected, the mapping screen will be presented.  The mapping screen allows you to identify and map the fields from the import file to both standard and custom fields previously created within Skills Base. In our example, we are mapping some of the fields in the import file to fields within Skills Base. The import file field names do not have to match the Skills Base fields names which provides flexibility and ease of use. 


Custom fields must first be defined in Skills Base prior to mapping the fields to be imported. 

For additional information regarding custom fields please refer to the article:

           Custom fields - Skills Base Support (skills-base.com)

 

 

 

Records require identification to be specified. In our example we have selected Email as the identifier. 

At this stage, you can either choose to go Back to the prior screen or Preview the import to ensure the data import will produce the desired outcome. When Preview is selected, the import progress bar will be displayed.

Once the preview preparation process completes, the potential import results will be presented along with information regarding the total records processed, the number of records that will be created, and any records that were skipped or failed. If this were an Update, the number of records to be updated would be shown. 

The fields and action that will be taken are displayed. In our example, we have 17 records to be created in Skills Base.

At this stage, you can proceed with the import, return to the previous screen or download the log file which contains a comprehensive summary of everything that the import tool has pre-processed. You also have the option of bypassing any rows that contained an error because you are choosing to proceed regardless of the errors in the identified rows. 


If you select Import to proceed, you will be prompted to respond to the confirmation notice.

 

If the preview results are aligned with the desired outcomes, you can select Confirm to process the import and commit the data to Skills Base. The outcome of the import will be presented.  The final counts of records created or updated as well as any records skipped or that failed to be created will be shown.

 

Data Field References

All imports provide a Reference Guide which details the Fields, Data Types and Descriptions of each field to provide clarity regarding how the fields will be processed. 

To display the reference guide, click on the link:

The following details the template fields, field data types, field rules and useful notes regarding the data each template supports.

 

Courses


 📃 Example course import template file 

 

Field

Max Character Length

Notes

Example

Course name
 

255 characters - text

Cannot be blank if mapped.

Must be provided when creating new records

Intro to Java Programming

URL

1,000 characters - text

Cannot be blank if mapped.

Must be provided when creating new records

https://test.course.com

Status

text

Cannot be blank if mapped.

Valid values:  offered

offered


 

Course Mappings

 

📃 Example Course Mapping import template file

 

 

Field

Max Character Length

Notes

Example

Course Name

255 characters - text

Cannot be blank if mapped.

Intro to Java Programming

Skill name 

80 character - text

Cannot be blank if mapped

Java Programming

Skill level

number

Cannot be blank if mapped
 
Must be provided when creating new records

3

 

 

Locations

 

📃 Example Locations import template file

 

Field

Max Character Length

Duplicates Allowed

Example

Location name

45

No

London Vic St.

Longitude

 

Yes

-0.13147

Latitude

 

Yes

51.499097

 

 

 

People

 

📃 Example People import template file

 

Field

Options

Max Character Length

Duplicates Allowed

Notes

Example

First Name

 

25

Yes


 

Frank

Surname

 

25

Yes


 

Smith

Team

 

45

Yes

Team must exist in Skills Base prior to People import being ran

Sr. Manager

Role

 

45

Yes

Role must exist in Skills Base prior to People import being ran
 

Accounting

Location

 

45

Yes

Location must exist in Skills Base prior to People import being ran
 

Boise

Skill set

"role", "team", "all", "custom"

 

Yes

The Skill Set will determine where People take their skills from for assessments (as per the Skill Assignment done manually or through the import routine)


 

Role

Security group*

Administrator, Supervisor, General staff

 

Yes


 

Supervisor

Email

 

 

No


 

frank.smith@example.com

Custom field (employee ID) 


45

No


12345

Custom field (Tenure) 


45 

No


2 Years

 

 

Qualifications

 

📃 Example Qualification import template file

 

Field

Max Character Length

Notes

Example

Qualification name 

255 characters - text

Cannot be blank if mapped
Must be provided when creating new records

Certified Project Manager

Description URL 

1,000 characters - text 

Cannot be blank if mapped

https://www.skills-base.com

 

 

Qualification Assignments

 

📃 Example Qualification Assignment import template file

 

 

Field

Options

Duplicates Allowed

Notes

Example

Email

 Any email address of a staff member

Yes


 

frank.smith@test.com

Qualification name

 

No

Qualifications do not need to exist when creating the assignment


 

PMP

Start date

 yyyy-mm-dd

No

Date need to match the format set in the settings.

2018-05-01

End date

 yyyy-mm-dd

 


 

2020-03-03

Status

completed, completing, nominated

 


 

Completed

 

 

Ratings: Self

 

📃 Example Self Ratings import template file

 

Field

Max Character Length

Notes

Example

Skill name 


Cannot be blank if mapped

Java

Parent category name
 (Multi Value)


The parent Skill Category name. You can specify this column multiple times in a file to represent a hierarchy from left (parent) to right (child). Note that each column in the file needs to have a unique name.

 

Example:   Leadership skills

Programming Languages

Person email


Cannot be blank if mapped

frank.smith@example.com

Person full name


Cannot be blank if mapped

Frank Smith

Skill level 


Cannot be blank if mapped
Must be provided when creating new records

4

Interest level 


Cannot be blank if mapped

5

 

 

Ratings: Supervisor

 

📃 Example Supervisor Ratings import template file

 

Field

Max Character Length

Notes

Example

Skill name 


Cannot be blank if mapped

Java

Parent category name
 (Multi Value)


The parent Skill Category name. You can specify this column multiple times in a file to represent a hierarchy from left (parent) to right (child). Note that each column in the file needs to have a unique name.
 
Example:   Leadership skills

Programming Languages

Person email


Cannot be blank if mapped

frank.smith@example.com

Person full name


Cannot be blank if mapped

Frank Smith

Skill level 


Cannot be blank if mapped
 
Must be provided when creating new records

4

Interest level 


Cannot be blank if mapped

5

 

Roles

 

📃 Example Role import template file

 

 

Field

Max Character Length

Duplicates Allowed

Example

Role name

45

No

People Manager

 

Skills

 

📃 Example Skill import template file

 

 

Field

Max Character Length

Duplicates Allowed

Notes

Example

Parent category (1)

60

Yes

A skill requires at least the highest parent category to be assigned, i.e. Parent category 1
 

Technical Skills

Parent category (2)

60

Yes

If additional category levels are not required, Parent category 2 and Parent category (n) can be deleted.
 

AWS

Parent category (n)

60

Yes


 


Name

80

No

Avoid duplicate skill names as they can cause confusion when completing assessments and running report
 

AWS Skills

Description

1000

Yes


 

This is the AWS Skill Description

Custom field name (1)

 

Yes

Hyperlink Custom Field type – must include “https://”
 
 

Text Custom Field Type – 1000 maximum character length
 
 

List Custom Field Type – options must already be included in the custom field list
 
 

Attachment Custom Field Type – cannot be imported


Custom field name (n)

 

Yes


 


 

 

Skill Assignments

 

📃 Example Skill Assignment import template file

 

 

Field

Data Type

Notes

Example

Entity type 

text

Cannot be blank if mapped
 
Must be provided when creating new records
 
Valid values: role, team, person
 

Role

Name

text

Cannot be blank if mapped
 
Maximum length varies depending upon entity type
 

 

Project Manager

 

text

Cannot be blank if mapped

Must be provided when creating new records

Valid values: skill, category
 

Skill

Parent category (1) 

(Multi Value) 

 text - 60 characters

The parent Skill Category name. You can specify this column multiple times in a file to represent a hierarchy from left (parent) to right (child). Note that each column in the file needs to have a unique name.
 

Example:   Leadership skills

Leadership Skills

Assignment name 

text

Cannot be blank if mapped
 
Maximum length varies depending upon entity type
 
Skill or category name 

Leadership

 

Targets


 
📃 Example Target import template file

 

Field

Options

Example

Entity Type

Team, Role, Person

Role

Entity name/Entity ID

 

Senior Developer

Skill name

 

CSS

Target skill level

 

4

 

 

Teams

 

📃 Example Team import template file

 

Field

Max Character Length

Duplicates Allowed

Example

Team name

45

Yes, but not recommended

Acme. Inc

Parent team

45

Yes

Accounting