CMS Made Simple Forums

Hi there,

I use FrontEndUsers 1.18.1: Exported all my users and then, for the sake of a test, deleted all lines but one in the resulting CSV file (using notepad++ on windows), changed one of the text elements in said line and tried to re-import the csv file. But then I get an:

Import Error (line 2): Email address already used

So I emptied the e-mail address between the double quotes. Now I get:

Could not find a column to match the required field email for line 2

The same if I remove the email column...

So what is the proper way to export FE Users, edit the exported information and re-import it?

Regards
Stef

Update: I also tried with 1.11.6 “Merchena”, and I seem to be missing something basic here:

Exporting a list to CSV and re-importing the same file (on a Windows 7 machine with IE 8 ) results only in "Import Error (line 2): Email address already used" messages...

I searched the net, the forum and read the help over again, but I still don't understand the basic concept of exporting and re-importing FEU users...

I would try it using a different browser, not so sure CMSMS is optimized for IE10...

Have you tried importing them into a blank/empty/fresh install of FEU..?

Sounds like you have "Allow duplicate emails" set to no. Which is good if your system needs email as the username when people login. Email effectively becomes the key to your table, hence the import is going to fail if you try to have 2 rows with the same email address.

Users & Groups -> Frontend User Management -> Settings -> Builtin Authentication tab -> Allow duplicate emails.

Thanks a lot for your input!

I also tried with Firefox on Mac OS with the same result...

And yes, email is used as username and "allow duplicate emails" is set to no. I understand that with this the import fails.

But what do I have to do to make an update possible? Regarding the userid field I see the following remark in the help for the module: "A value in this field will indicate you are doing an update." So I guess an export, changing the resulting CSV file and then re-importing same file (my understanding of "update") should be possible somehow...?

So I'm still puzzled...

stefhoesli wrote:Regarding the userid field I see the following remark in the help for the module: "A value in this field will indicate you are doing an update." So I guess an export, changing the resulting CSV file and then re-importing same file (my understanding of "update") should be possible somehow...?

Not that I have ever done this, but it seems to me that the logic is this:

• userid field is auto-generated when a user is registered for the 1st time and is an unique number. By checking the existence of values on this field, the module not only knows that it is an update, but also knows which users to update.

That means that the module compares userid from CSV to the one from the DB and updates the db accordingly. Tampering with this value may not be advisable.
My 2 cents...

Thanks for the confirmation. This is exactly my understanding! And actually I didn't tamper with that value at all. I tried to re-import the CSV without changing it at all. But even there I fail... So obviously I seem to be missing a step here. Something that I need to to with the exported CSV before I can re-import it again?

Anyone...?

I also asked Calguy1000 for paid support. But so far he didn't get back to me...

Another desperate try to move this topic up again in order for it to get more attention...

Just tell me of this is not a polite thing to do!

Or even better: Tell me what I could do to get this solved...

Thanks s lot!
Stef

What editor are you using for the CSV..?

stefhoesli wrote:So what is the proper way to export FE Users, edit the exported information and re-import it?

I don't think that is the purpose of the export/import possibilities of FEU.

Dr.CSS wrote:Have you tried importing them into a blank/empty/fresh install of FEU..?

You never answered this question. This should be possible, if not there may be something wrong with your installation, your settings or the host environment.
*PS: and what DrCss said....

Hi there,

Thanks for your suggestions!

I tried to edit the exported files with vi on Linux and also with Notepad++ on Windows.

And I still think it should be possible to export all users, do a change and then re-import, because of this statement in the Admin tab of the FEU Module:

"The userid Field - The userid for the user. A value in this field will indicate you are doing an update."

So far it seemed to be a little excessive trying to do the import on a fresh install, but since this is open for quite some time now, I think I'll try to do this on a fresh install of the latest version of CMS MS...

Will keep you posted!

Thanks
Stef

So, I updated my staging instance to CMS MS 1.11.7 (including FEU module 1.21.18):

I can now export to feusers.csv, edit that list and re-import the updated list without errors. However, my first test change did not get picked up: I changed the date in the "expires" field from

2040-09-20 23:59:00
to
2038-09-20 23:59:00

But this will not be picked up on import...

However, if I fiddle around with the group membership, then this is indeed being picked with the import! => Heureka, this will most likely solve my issue!

So it seems that this was simply a bug in the older version of the FEU module...

Thanks a lot for your help and suggestions!
Stef