Editing Contribute: Plugins/ImportPluginsCSV (section)

= Testing Your Plugin =

After restarting your webserver go to the Import Items screen from the Manage Deposits screen. If you can't find this, make sure you're logged in.

Type this into the "Cut and Paste Records" box:

<pre>
title,abstract
This is a test title,This is a test abstract
This is another test title,This is another test abstract
</pre>

Select "CSV" from the Select import format drop down menu and click "Test Run + Import". You should end up at the Manage Deposits screen with the following message being displayed "Import completed: 2 item(s) imported.".

== Embedding commas ==
If you want to include commas in your imports, which is very likely you must enclose the field in double quotations. For example:
<pre>
title,abstract
An interesting article,"Damn it Jim, I'm a Doctor, not a Perl hacker."
</pre>

When doing this make sure not to leave any whitespace between a quotation mark and a comma or the import will fail.

== Multiple fields ==
Multiple field types are handled by separating each individual value by a semi-colon, a simple example of this would be the subjects field.

Go back to the import items and proceed as before, but typing this into the "Cut and Paste Records" box:

<pre>
abstract,title,subjects
Testing,Testing,AI;C;M;F;P
Testing,Testing,AC;DC
</pre>

After the records have been imported examine each one on the View Item screen. You will find that a list of subjects are given, and that a more descriptive name is given than the code we imported.

== Compound fields ==

Compound fields are fields that have subfields within them, each with their own name. You don't compound fields in one go, but set the components individually. Subfields have names of the form  mainfieldname_subfieldname.

One of the most commonly used compound fields is the "Creators" field. It has a names subfield "creators_name" and an ID subfield "creators_id" which is most often used for email addresses.

Here is an example of setting the creators field:
<pre>
title,creators_name,creators_id
Setting compound fields.,"Bloggs, Joe;Doe, John","joe@bloggs.com;john@doe.com"
</pre>

If you import this record and then examine the view items screen you will find that the "Creators" field has been setup with the values displayed in a table.