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File Import Checklist

Dates, Timestamps, Supported Data format

Updated over 6 months ago

File Import Checklist


In this Article


Before an Import

Do You Have Consent?

Make sure you have consent for all Profiles in the file you import to Audience. After import, control so that import is completed before executing marketing activities.

File Import Checklist

✅Create a Subscription

For the very first file import make sure you have a Subscription to place the Profiles. Read more about how to create a Subscription.

✅ Cell Format & Simple Text Data

Use only simple text data. Remove any images, charts or decorative formatting (fonts, colors, etc.).

Review the format of the cells and make sure that there are no combined or split cells. It must look like a table, whenever formatted as columns.

Pay attention that the cells containing dates are set to have "text" as type.

✅ One Sheet

Make sure that your file contains only one sheet, or that the data that you need is in the first sheet of your file.

✅ No Formulas

The File Import Wizard does not support formulas. Remove any existing formulas or adjust the data in the cells to contain the result values.

✅ Phone Numbers

Make sure the phone numbers contain the country code and phone number in the same column, with no spaces or zeros at the start. The country code is mandatory. Follow the MSISDN format, for example: 46793699558

✅ Dates

For date-type Attributes, we accept all date formats listed here (Including Unix timestamps). However, we have limitations regarding time zones.

Date-type Attributes, like the Default Attribute Date of Birth will be converted. In example a date value like Tue, 07 Mar 1993 04:22:23 +0300 will be converted to 1993-03-07.

✅ Timestamps

We support importing and storing Unix timestamps for Timestamp-type Attributes. Any other format would be converted.

Timestamp-type Attributes, would be converted:
Custom Attribute "Member since" Values like Tue, 07 Mar 2017 04:22:23 +0300

will be converted to

1488844800 (07 Mar 2017 0:00:00 +0000)

Timestamps (1599116184) will me imported without milliseconds.

We support negative values for dates before 1970 (01-01-1970 is 0).

Note. Currently we ignore the given time zone, to avoid date shift. In case it is crucial, you must provide all timestamps in UTC only.


Supported Formats

We support CSV files up to 10MB and XLS/XLSX files up to 3MB.


If the file is CSV, convert it to a UTF-8 format before import, to ensure that the characters are correctly converted.

For CSV files, we support these delimiters: , \t | ;

We also support Both Chinese and Cyrillic characters.

When saving your Microsoft Excel file, or exporting data from another system, pay close attention that the file is encoded as one of the following supported formats:

UTF-8

Big5

UTF-16BE

EUC-JP

ISO-8859-1

windows-1250

UTF-16LE

EUC-KR

ISO-8859-2

windows-1251

UTF-32BE

KOI8-R

ISO-8859-5

windows-1252

UTF-32LE

IBM420

ISO-8859-6

windows-1253

ISO-2022-JP

IBM424

ISO-8859-7

windows-1254

ISO-2022-CN

GB18030

ISO-8859-8

windows-1255

ISO-2022-KR

Shift_JIS

ISO-8859-9

windows-1256


Email Addresses

The Email Attribute must be formatted as a correct email address, containing a valid domain (for example gmail) and a valid domain extension (.com):

Only public email addresses can be reached via email sendings.


Phone Numbers

The Mobile Attribute must have values in the MSISDN format, for example: 46793699558.


Attribute Data Types

Text

UTF-8 encoded text (string) value with a 1000-character limit. Chinese are Cyrillic characters are supported in APSIS One.

Numbers

The number Attribute type accepts only number values.

For Attributes that require decimals, pick the number with decimals Attribute type instead.

Boolean

The value for these Attributes or Event data can only be either true or false, in low caps.

Location

ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 format (SE, US, for example).

Dates

For date-type Attributes, we accept all date formats listed here. Timezones will be disregarded.

Format

Result in APSIS One

2013-02-08

08/02/2013

2013-02

01/02/2013

2013-W06-5

08/02/2013

2013-039

08/02/2013

20130208

21/08/1970

201303

03/01/1970

2013

01/01/1970

2013W065

08/02/2013

2013W06

04/02/2013

2013050

24/01/1970

2013-02-08T09

08/02/2013

2013-02-08 09

08/02/2013

2013-02-08 09:30

08/02/2013

2013-02-08 09:30:26

08/02/2013

2013-02-08 09:30:26.123

08/02/2013

2013-02-08 24:00:00.000

09/02/2013

20130208T080910,123

08/02/2013

20130208T080910.123

08/02/2013

20130208T080910

08/02/2013

20130208T0809

08/02/2013

20130208T08

08/02/2013

2013-02-08 09

08/02/2013

2013-W06-5 09

08/02/2013

2013-039 09

08/02/2013

2013-02-08 09+07:00

08/02/2013

2013-02-08 09-0100

08/02/2013

2013-02-08 09Z

08/02/2013

2013-02-08 09:30:26.123+07:00

08/02/2013

2013-02-08 09:30:26.123+07

08/02/2013

6 Mar 17 21:22 UT

06/03/2017

6 Mar 17 21:22:23 UT

06/03/2017

6 Mar 2017 21:22:23 GMT

06/03/2017

06 Mar 2017 21:22:23 Z

06/03/2017

Mon 06 Mar 2017 21:22:23 z

06/03/2017

Mon, 06 Mar 2017 21:22:23 +0000

06/03/2017

6 Mar 17 00:00 UT

06/03/2017

6 Mar 17 00:00:00 EST

06/03/2017

6 Mar 2017 00:00:00 CST

06/03/2017

06 Mar 2017 00:00:00 PST

06/03/2017

Mon 06 Mar 2017 00:00:00 z

06/03/2017

Mon, 06 Mar 2017 00:00:00 +9999

06/03/2017

When it comes to Date-type Attributes, like the Default Attribute Date of Birth:

a date value like Tue, 07 Mar 1993 04:22:23 +0300 will be converted to 1993-03-07.


Timestamps

We support importing and storing Unix timestamps for Timestamp-type Attributes. Any other format would be converted.

Timestamp-type Attributes, would be converted:
Custom Attribute "Member since" Values like Tue, 07 Mar 2017 04:22:23 +0300

will be converted to

1488844800 (07 Mar 2017 0:00:00 +0000)

Timestamps (1599116184) will me imported without milliseconds.

We support negative values for dates before 1970 (01-01-1970 is 0).

Note. Currently we ignore the given time zone, to avoid date shift. In case it is crucial, you must provide all timestamps in UTC only.


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