BOOST SOLUTIONS Excel Import App User Guide

: June 9, 2024
: BOOST SOLUTIONS

Table of Contents

BOOST SOLUTIONS Excel Import App
Introduction
How to Use Excel Import App
- Import a Spreadsheet
- Supported SharePoint Column Types
Appendix 1: Subscription Management
- Finding Site Collection URL
References
Read User Manual Online (PDF format)
Download This Manual (PDF format)

BOOST SOLUTIONS Excel Import App

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Copyright
Copyright © 2022 Boost Solutions Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
All materials contained in this publication are protected by Copyright and no part of this publication may be reproduced, modified, displayed, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written consent of Boost Solutions.
Our web site: http://www.boostsolutions.com

Introduction

SharePoint Excel Import App allows business users to import any Excel spreadsheet (.xlsx, .xls, or .csv file) into a SharePoint Online list and map data fields manually or automatically.
Using Excel Import App, users can import data to most built-in types of SharePoint columns, including Single Line of Text, Multiple Lines of Text, Choice, Number, Date and Time, Currency, People or Group, Lookup, Yes/No and Hyperlink or Pictures.
This user guide is used to instruct user on how to use this app.
For the latest copy of this and other guides, please visit:
http://www.boostsolutions.com/download-documentation.html

How to Use Excel Import App

Import a Spreadsheet

To import a Spreadsheet, you must have at least Add Items and Edit Items permissions in the list or be a member of the SharePoint Online group who has Add Items and Edit Items permissions in the list.

Enter the list that you want to import a spreadsheet into. (Enter the specific folder, you can import aspreadsheet to the folder.)
Click Import Excel in the top action bar. (Import Excel is unavailable in classic SharePoint experience.)
In the Excel Import dialog box, in Import from Spreadsheet section, drag the Excel file you intend to import to the dotted box area (or click Drag and drop or click here to select an Excel file to choose an Excel or CSV file).
Once the Excel file is uploaded, the sheets included will be loaded and available for import. In the Sheet section, select a sheet which you want to import.
Use the Option Skip header row in Excel to decide whether or not to import the first row. This option is enabled by default and can be manually disabled if you don’t have field titles in the first row or if you do not want to use the first row as field titles.
In the Column Mapping section, select the columns in Excel and map them to list columns.
By default, the columns with the same name will be automatically mapped whenever a sheet is loaded. Additionally, required columns will be marked with a red asterisk and selected automatically.
In the Filter section, select the data range and import the data you need. If you deselect this option, all rows in the Excel sheet will be imported. If you select the checkbox next to Import from [] to [] option, and specify the data range such as from row 2 to 8, then only the specified rows will be imported to the list.
In the Import Options section, specify if you want to update SharePoint list using an Excel file.
For first-time import, it is unnecessary to select this option.

But if you have already imported data before, you may need to decide what action should be taken if duplicates are found when importing Excel to SharePoint.
Before doing this, you need to enable the Check duplicate records when importing option.
Duplicate records can exist in both SharePoint list and Excel Sheet. In order to check duplicate records, a Key has to be specified to identify duplicate records.
A key column is one that uniquely identifies records between Excel and SharePoint list (like an ID column). You can specify more than one key columns.

Note
Only columns which have been selected in the Column Mapping section can be utilized as a key column.
These columns can be set as Key columns: Single line of text, Choice, Number, Date and Time, Currency and Yes/No.

Once the Check duplicate records when importing option is enabled, there are two actions that can be taken if any duplicates are found when importing Excel to list.

Skip duplicate records
Excel Import App compares values of key column in Excel and SharePoint Online list, if the values are same on both sides, the records will be identified as duplicate.
Data which has been identified as duplicate records in an Excel spreadsheet will be skipped when importing and only the unique records remaining will be imported.
Update duplicate records
Excel Import App compares values of Key column in Excel and SharePoint Online list, if the values are same on both sides, the records will be identified as duplicate.
For the duplicate records, Excel Import App will update information in the duplicate records in the SharePoint Online list with the corresponding information in the Excel spreadsheet. Then, the remaining data of spreadsheet will be regarded as new records and imported accordingly.
Note
If the key column is not unique in Excel or list, the duplicate records will be skipped.
For example, supposed you have set the Order ID column as key:
If there are multiple records in Excel with the same value of Order ID column, these records will be identified as duplicate and skipped.
If there are multiple records with the same value of Order ID column in list, the records in the list will be identified as duplicate and skipped.
And then click the Import button.
After the importing process finished, you can see the import results as following. Click the Close button to exit.
The in the list, you will find that all the records of Excel file have been imported into the list as following.

Supported SharePoint Column Types

Most popular SharePoint columns are supported by Excel Import App, including Single Line of Text, Multiple Lines of Text, Choice, Number, Date and Time, Currency, People or Group, Lookup, Yes/No and Hyperlink or Pictures. You can map Excel columns to these SharePoint columns when importing an Excel file.

However, for some column types, there are some tips you need to take care of:

Choice
Choice column is a built-in SharePoint Online column with predefined values, to import values into this column type, you need to check and make sure the value and case are same in Excel and list.

To import multiple values into a Choice column, the values should be separated by comma “,”.

For example, the values of Category column must be separated by “,” as following, then they can be imported successfully.

Lookup Column
To import value to a SharePoint Lookup column, it requires the value be a text or a number. It means selected column of In this column should be a Single line of text or Number column.

If you plan to import multiple values into a Choice column, the values should be separated by “;”.

For example, the values of Related Cases column must be separated by “;” as following, then they can be imported to a Lookup column successfully.

Person or Group Column
To import names to a SharePoint Person or Group column, the user’s name in Excel should be a login name, display name or email address; if you need to import multiple values to this column, the values should be separated by “;”.
For example, the display name or email address as shown in the figure below can be successfully imported into the Person or Group Column.

Appendix 1: Subscription Management

You can use Excel Import App trial subscription for a period of 30 days since the day you first use it.
If the trial subscription period ends, you will need to buy a subscription.
The subscription of Excel Import App is per site (previously called “site collection”) or tenant annually.
For site collection subscription, there are no end-user limitation. All users in site collection can access the app.
For tenant subscription, there are no sites or site collection limitation. All users can access the app in all sites or site collections within the same tenant.

Checking Subscription Status

When you open Excel Import dialog, the subscription status will be shown on the top of the dialog.
When the subscription is about to expire within 30 days, the notification message will always show the days left.
To update the subscription status, please put the mouse on the notification message and click it, then the new status will be loaded.
If the subscription status does not change, please clear the cache of browser and click again.
Once the subscription status turns to Your subscription is invalid as following, it means that your subscription has expired.
Please send us (sales@boostsolutions.com) the site URL to proceed a subscription or renewal.

Finding Site Collection URL

To get site (previously called site collection) URL, please go to the Active sites page of the new SharePoint admin center.
Click the site to open a window with site settings. In General tab, click Edit link and then you can get the site URL. If your site URL changes, please send us the new URL to update the subscription.

Finding Tenant ID

To get the tenant ID, please firstly go to the SharePoint admin center.
From the SharePoint admin center, click on the More features link from left navigation, and then click on the Open button under Apps.
In the Manage Apps page, click on the More features link from the left navigation.
And then click on the Open button under App permissions.
The App Permissions Page lists all apps, including the app display name and app identifiers. In the App Identifier column, the part after the @ symbol is your Tenant ID.
Please send us (sales@boostsolutions.com) the tenant ID to proceed a subscription or renewal.
Or you can find tenant ID through the Azure portal.
Sign in to the Azure portal.
Select Azure Active Directory.
Select Properties.
Then, scroll down to the Tenant ID field. You can find the tenant ID in the box.