Skip to content
  • There are no suggestions because the search field is empty.

Importing User data

Add or update users in bulk from a tab-delimited file, including enrollments, grades, and archive flags.

You can add user accounts, and optionally update existing user details, by importing user information from a specially formatted text file. After you create the file, you can run an error check to verify that the file is properly formatted.

The file can be in LDAP Data Interchange Format or a comma-delimited file. For further instruction on using LDAP, see Working with LDAP and SSO.

You can process user details in bulk in several ways: importing and exporting, archiving and restoring, bulk-unenrolling, and bulk-deleting. You can also schedule batch processing as a scheduled task. For details, see Managing scheduled tasks.

Note: You can download user data to a text file (.txt) that you can edit for importing bulk changes. The data is displayed in a browser window. Save the page and open it as a tab-delimited file in a spreadsheet application. When you are finished making changes, upload the changes using the import steps below. For details about downloading user data to a text file, see Exporting user data.

Note: Once users are added, you can also update existing users using the same import approach. Based on the fields that are available to import, you can also do the following: bulk enroll students in a course, curriculum, or session; bulk grade a set of students with a score or completion status; inactivate a mass number of users; and load history of course completions.

Note: You can import historical student completion records from another LMS. For details, see Importing historical student completion records.

Prepare the import file

The tab-separated file must conform to the following specifications:

  • Use the Tab character (Hex 0x09) to separate data items.
  • Each row represents one user.
  • Each row must end with a carriage return/line feed.
  • The first row must contain field names used to locate the corresponding columns within the data. Order is not important.
  • If a header field name in the import file does not match one of the first four CourseMill column names, you will get an error. If it does not match any of the other field names, you will not get an error message and the field will not be updated.
  • Unrecognized columns of data are discarded. If a data column from the host system does not contain a value for each user, insert -None- to avoid blank or null data columns.
  • For Excel, if you have leading zeros (0), Excel will truncate the zeros, leading to a failed data load. Save the field as a text field to retain the zeros.

Column names

Include the following column names. OrgID, ID, LastName, and FirstName are required.

  • OrgID – The user's organization. This field is required.
  • ID – The user's user ID. This field is required.
  • LastName – The user's last name. This field is required.
  • FirstName – The user's first name. This field is required.
  • Password – The user's password. If you do not supply this field, the default password is inserted as the user's password. The default password is controlled using the ImportDefaultPassword managed property.

Note: When resetting current users' passwords, use a password other than the default password. Otherwise, the password will not be modified.

Note: On export, CourseMill provides a field for the password but does not insert it in that field.

  • PasswordResetType – Specifies what type of password changing restrictions are allowed. Options:
    • N = Password never expires.
    • X = User cannot change password.
    • T = Password expires every xx days, where xx is the number specified in the property DefaultPasswordExpiration.
    • M = User must change password at next log in.

    Note: The user setting will then switch to either N or T depending on the value specified in DefaultPasswordExpiration. If DefaultPasswordExpiration is zero (0), it will switch to N; if the value is greater than 0, it will switch to T.

  • EmailID – The user's email address. This field is optional but it is recommended that you specify the email address.

    Note: For organizations with External Org Email enabled, if email addresses are not supplied, the users are loaded with no error on the email address. Email addresses are required when manually adding and updating users. For details, see Adding a user and Editing user details.

  • MiddleInitial – The user's middle initial.
  • Address – The user's address.
  • City – The user's city.
  • State – The user's state.
  • Zip – The user's zip or postal code.
  • Country – The user's country.
  • Phone – The user's phone number.
  • HireDate – The user's date of hire. The format must be YYYY-MM-DD.
  • LangPref – The language preferred by the user. Options:
    • USA – English
    • BRA – Brazilian Portuguese
    • DEU – German
    • ESP – Spanish
    • FRA – French
    • HUN – Hungarian
    • POL – Polish
    • ZHS – Simplified Chinese
  • SubOrg 0-15 – Values for the custom fields that were defined when the organization was added. This field is optional but it is recommended that you specify SubOrg data. For detailed information about defining SubOrg fields, see Adding an organization.

    Note: If the AddSubOrgValuesOnImport property is set to yes, then any value in this column is added to the drop-down list of values for that corresponding SubOrg. If the organization is set up to use SubOrgs but they are not specified in the import file, the SubOrgs will be blank.

  • InstructorFlag, ReporterFlag, and ActiveFlag – Values for True or False representing the user's privileges. This field is optional but it is recommended that you specify these flags when appropriate. Use y, yes, or 1 for True. Use n, no, or 0 for False.

    Note: If the ReporterFlag is set to Yes, the check box for CC Student Emails is automatically checked.

  • TermsOfUseAccept – The date when the user accepted the Terms of Use policy. Depending on the database you are using, the time might also be exported.
  • Personal Info 0-15 – Values for the custom personal information fields that were defined when the organization was added. For detailed information about defining personal information fields, see Adding an organization.
  • CurrPermissions – Values representing the user's curriculum permissions. This field is optional but it is recommended that you specify the curriculum permissions. If allowing more than one value, separate each with commas. Values:
    • Cre = Add curriculum
    • Mod = Modify curriculum
    • Dup = Duplicate curriculum
    • Del = Delete curriculum
    • Reg = Register curriculum
  • CoursePermissions – Values representing the user's course permissions. If allowing more than one value, separate each with commas. Values:
    • Cre = Add course
    • Ses = Add session
    • Mod = Modify course
    • Dup = Duplicate course
    • Del = Delete course
    • Reg = Register in course
    • Imp = Import course content
    • Gbk = Grade book
  • UserPermissions – Values representing the user's permissions. This field is optional but it is recommended that you specify the user's permissions. If allowing more than one value, separate each with commas. Values:
    • Cre = Add user
    • Mod = Modify user
    • Del = Delete user
    • Reg = Register a student
    • Imp = Import user data
    • Gbk = Grade book
    • Pwd = Change password
  • ReportsTo – Reporters to be assigned to this student.
  • UserNotes – Notes to be associated with the user.
  • CurrID – Curriculum ID of the curriculum into which the student should be enrolled.
  • CourseID – Course ID of the course into which the user should be enrolled.

    Note: It is recommended that the course has at least one content item.

  • SessionID – Session ID of the session into which the user should be enrolled.
  • EnrollDate – Enrollment date for the course or curriculum. The format must be YYYY-MM-DD.
  • PassDate – Date on which the CourseStatus change is applied. The format must be YYYY-MM-DD.
  • DueDate – Date on which the course will be due for the user. The format must be YYYY-MM-DD. This date can only be changed if the course is set up to use a Due Date.
  • ExpirationDate – Date after which the course will be expired for the user. The format must be YYYY-MM-DD. This date can only be changed if the course is set up to use an Expiration Date.
  • CourseStatus – The user's status in the course. This can be any valid SCORM course status (including blank), such as:
    • Not Attempted
    • Incomplete
    • Completed
    • Passed
    • Exempted
    • Failed
    • Browsed
  • Score – The user's score for the course or session.
  • Comment – The comment you would like to make in the grade book as to why you changed the grade.
  • MergeOldID – Old ID that should be merged into the student ID.
  • MergeEmailNotify – Email address of the person to notify of success or failure of the merge.
  • RecordDate – Date on which the CourseStatus change is applied. The format must be YYYY-MM-DD.
  • ScoreComment – A gradebook comment regarding the score or status for a session.
  • WCAG – Enables the WCAG/Section 508 features. Specify Y or 1 to enable the feature or N or 0 to disable the feature. For details about CourseMill's WCAG/Section 508 features, see Enabling WCAG/Section 508 compliance.
  • ArchiveFlag – Any record in the import file with an ArchiveFlag value equal to 1 is archived along with any historical data related to that student account.

Note: For the Accepted Terms of Use date, the system can force students to re-accept the Terms of Use policy at any time by resetting this value with the student's profile (based on the setting of the system property RecordTermsOfUseDateForExistingUsers).

Process the import file

  1. Open the Users side-tab and click Manage Users.
  2. Use the fields in the search window above the results table to filter the list of users (see Search fields below).
  3. Click Batch User Data.
  4. On the Batch User Data window, specify the org ID, select Import User Data in the Batch Operation field, and click Browse to navigate to and select the file. To run an error check on the tab-delimited file before processing it, select Error Check Data in the Process Data field. To process the file, select Process Data in the Process Data field.
  5. Click Process.

If user records already exist, the information is updated according to the information in the file. Passwords are not changed.

Search fields

  • Org ID – The Org ID with which an organization was added.
  • User ID – Enter any combination of letters and numbers to search for users that contain that combination in the user ID.
  • First Name – Enter any combination of letters and numbers to search for users that contain that combination in the first name.
  • Last Name – Enter any combination of letters and numbers to search for users that contain that combination in the last name.
  • Include Inactive – Enable this check box to include inactive users in the results.
  • Email – Enter any combination of letters and numbers to search for users that contain that combination in the email address.
  • More Options – Click this to display more search criteria items if SubOrg settings have been defined, such as Region, Department, Location, and Job Title.

Related articles