Importing allows you to insert many records into the database in one go. This would save you manually adding new entries into the database one by one. The file to be imported needs to be in a certain format, referred to as a tab-delimited file.

Note IconExhaustive validation of data to be imported is not carried out by the program. It assumes that you, as the user, have ensured the data to be imported is valid and that it is indeed appropriate to do so. You import data entirely at your own risk and I accept no responsibility for any loss of data caused.

When you press the Import button, it displays a window for you to select the data file to import. You are informed if the file could not be opened for whatever reason.

You are then asked if you want to delete the current table contents. Please be aware of any other tables which might refer to this current table. If you delete such entries, you are effectively removing this relationship. It won't actually delete the table until it has established that it is safe to add the import data. If you choose not to delete the table, or the program can't delete the table for some reason, it will append the data instead (if the data being imported is valid to append).

As each entry is read in from the file, it checks to see if the talk number is valid. If it isn't, the import process will be terminated. If it was unable to read in the entry information from the file, you will again be informed and importing will stop. When importing home talk data, it will not allow duplicate dates. As for away talks, there must be a valid home talk date to match (either in the database or the import data), otherwise an error message will be displayed.

It proceeds to import the records into the database once the import data has been successfully validated.

You need a special line of text to separate the two tables in the text file. Home Talk entries must be listed first. If you only want to import Away Talk entries, then this line of text must still precede the list of away talk entries in the file. This is the line of text:

***** END OF HOME TALKS *****

As mentioned at the top of this help topic, the import file must be tab-delimited, which means that each line of text in the file represents an entry to add into the database. The information on each line is separated using TAB characters. The order of the information on each line must match the following template:

Home Talk entries:

Talk Number [TAB] Chairman [TAB] Interpreter [TAB] Reader [TAB] Conductor [TAB] Hospitality [TAB] Host [TAB] Co-host [TAB} Congregation [TAB] Speaker [TAB] Date [TAB] Miscellaneous #1 [TAB] Miscellaneous #2[TAB] Miscellaneous #3[CR]

Away Talk entries:

Talk Number [TAB] Brother [TAB] Congregation [TAB] Date [CR]

  • [TAB] represents the tab character
  • [CR] represents a carriage return

Each item of information must be entered correctly. Here is a breakdown:

Talk Number

This should be an integer number (the public talk with this number should already exist in the database).

Interpreter

This is a standard text string.

Chairman

This is a standard text string.

Brother

This is a standard text string.

Reader

This is a standard text string.

Conductor

This is a standard text string.

Hospitality

This is a standard text string.

Host

This is a standard text string.

Co-host

This is a standard text string.

Congregation

This is a standard text string.

Speaker

This is a standard text string.

Date

This should follow the following format: YYYY-MM-DD

Miscellaneous #1
Miscellaneous #2
Miscellaneous #3

This is a standard text string.

If the above items are kept in mind when importing, you should have no problems.

Note IconAll lines of text starting with a semi-colon ; are treated as comments and are ignored.