The best and easiest way to import Accounts and Contacts is probably to use the import wizard in the Account module. Centric CRM understands csv files.

-Tom

The difficulty here (and one I have faced) is that during the import wizard process addresses are aligned with contacts and not accounts.

It looks as though I will have to export the centric account-id with the Account name and then merge that with my old data (by Account name) and then run an insert query to get the account addresses in.

It's messy but can be made to work.

There is something I don't understand in the import wizard...
If I import contacts, I can map fields from my csv file with the contact fields.
I guess the Account number is to link with the account which is good for me.
But when I try to import accounts, I can't map fields with account details, the drop down to map fields which comes up is the same as when I import contacts.

Is there something I didn't understood ?
(I use the version 4.0.2 (2006-06-28))

We have added new code to the Account importer which allows Accounts to be imported without Contacts and several other enhancements. It should be available from the latest code snapshot in svn now.

-Tom

Does that mean that I can't import accounts in the version 4.0 ?

Also I just checked out the last 4.1 to try on this version, and when I try to save the file to import (/AccountContactsImports.do?command=Save), I get this error:

Please report the following error to your system administrator.
Apache Tomcat has not been configured to render graphics on this system. The following line needs to be added to Apache Tomcat's bin/catalina.sh:
CATALINA_OPTS=-Djava.awt.headless=true

But Tomcat is already running with this option, I can see it with a 'ps' command, I have set up that a while ago...

So... I'm still stuck with the import of accounts...

Any help please ?

Nicolas,

>>I guess the Account number is to link with the account which is good for me.

Account Number DOES NOT uniquely identify an Account. It just lets you add any value for this field and later you can perform an account search on "Account Number" to look up the account that has a matching account number. I can have 2 Account 'A' and 'B' and have the same 'ABC' for account number. If i search for 'ABC' under Account Search for Account Number, then both 'A' and 'B' are shown. Its up to the user how he wants to use the Account Number field.

>> Does that mean that I can't import accounts in the version 4.0 ?

I'd like to clarify some points about the Importer available in the Accounts module in v4.0. The Importer available in the Accounts module is an "Account Contacts Importer" meaning, the importer will import Contacts with company information and the company name provided during import is to be treated as an Account.

If I imported say 4 records, in my csv file as shown below

NAME | ORGANIZATION NAME

During import i mapped NAME to "Full Name" & ORGANIZATION NAME to "Company". Then the system after import will have 3 Accounts (Verizon Wireless, Samuel Jackson, General Electric) and 4 Contacts (John Doe, Rakesh Malhotra, Samuel Jackson and Brian Lara). Samuel Jackson is treates as an Account with a Primary Contact Samuel Jackson.

>>Also I just checked out the last 4.1 to try on this version, and when I try to save the file >>to import (/AccountContactsImports.do?command=Save), I get this error:

>>Please report the following error to your system administrator.
>>Apache Tomcat has not been configured to render graphics on this system. The following >>line needs to be added to Apache Tomcat's bin/catalina.sh:
>>CATALINA_OPTS=-Djava.awt.headless=true

>>But Tomcat is already running with this option, I can see it with a 'ps' command, I have >>set up that a while ago...

I tried duplicating this, but I don't get this error. I tried with svn /webapp/branches/branch-41 @r16734

Under Admin > Usage I have the following:
Application Version: Centric CRM 4.1 Beta 9 (2006-10-06)

What does yours say?

- Ananth

> Account Number DOES NOT uniquely identify an Account. [...]

Yes I noticed that after playing around with the importer...
Is there a difference between the importer in Account and the one in Contacts ? the one in Account seems much slower... is it because it associates the contact with the account ?
Another question, if during the import I have 2 lines with the same company name, is it going to attach both contacts to the same account or create 2 accounts with the same company name ?

Also, I have noticed something strange, is it normal that after I have processed an import, NOT approved it, and then deleted the import, the database is not purged of the previously inserted rows ? (even if the records don't appear, they stay in the db)

>> Also I just checked out the last 4.1 to try on this version,
>> and when I try to save the file to import
>> (/AccountContactsImports.do?command=Save), I get this error:
>> [add this line -Djava.awt.headless=true error...]

> I tried duplicating this, but I don't get this error. I tried with svn
> /webapp/branches/branch-41 @r16734
> Under Admin > Usage I have the following:
> Application Version: Centric CRM 4.1 Beta 9 (2006-10-06)

I had this error with branch-41 @ r16719 (Centric CRM 4.1 Beta 9 (2006-10-06))
I just updated to the last release 16802, and I now get another error
The actual error is:

org.postgresql.util.PSQLException: No value specified for parameter 4.
at org.postgresql.core.v3.SimpleParameterList.checkAllParametersSet(SimpleParameterList.java:134)
at org.postgresql.core.v3.QueryExecutorImpl.execute(QueryExecutorImpl.java:179)
at org.postgresql.jdbc2.AbstractJdbc2Statement.execute(AbstractJdbc2Statement.java:437)
at org.postgresql.jdbc2.AbstractJdbc2Statement.executeWithFlags(AbstractJdbc2Statement.java:353)
at org.postgresql.jdbc2.AbstractJdbc2Statement.executeQuery(AbstractJdbc2Statement.java:257)
at org.aspcfs.modules.base.ImportList.buildList(Unknown Source)
at org.aspcfs.modules.accounts.actions.AccountContactsImports.executeCommandView(Unknown Source)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Unknown Source)
at com.darkhorseventures.framework.servlets.ControllerServlet.service(Unknown Source)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:802)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:252)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:173)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:213)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:178)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:126)
at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:105)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:107)
at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:148)
at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.process(Http11Processor.java:869)
at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11BaseProtocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.processConnection(Http11BaseProtocol.java:664)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.PoolTcpEndpoint.processSocket(PoolTcpEndpoint.java:527)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.LeaderFollowerWorkerThread.runIt(LeaderFollowerWorkerThread.java:80)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.ThreadPool$ControlRunnable.run(ThreadPool.java:684)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

Cheers