ACT! Technology Corner
Importing just got a little easier in Sage ACT! 2011
Sage ACT! 2011 introduces many new improvements to help you import data more easily and
quickly, so you can increase your productivity.
New file format support
Sage ACT! has always supported a few file types that allow you to get data into Sage ACT!,
including txt (text) and csv (comma separated variable) file types. Sage ACT! 2011 introduces
support for importing popular Excel® file formats as well as two new proprietary formats. Here is
a rundown of the new formats that can be imported into Sage ACT!:
• XLS, XLSM, XLSX – These are all file types for supported Microsoft® Excel
versions. If you currently use Excel to store contact or company data, this will allow
you to easily get data into Sage ACT! using our import feature. Note: These files are
most commonly imported from our main menu under “File->Import…”.
• AEX – This is a new Sage ACT! import file which is used by Sage Business Info
Services for Sage ACT!. What’s special about this file type is that Sage ACT! can be
launched with a file of Type AEX. This format also skips many of the normal import
steps as it denotes to Sage ACT! (by use of the unique AEX extension) that it’s a
contact import that accepts default options without the need for user intervention.
This file type enables the simple one-click import of contact data. A discussion of
how this can be leveraged appears later in this article.
• AEC – This is also a new Sage ACT! import file used by Sage Business Info
Services for ACT!. Everything described for the AEX format also applies to the AEC
files with one exception: It’s used for importing companies, not contacts.
Synonym Mapping
Sage ACT! 2010 simplified the process of mapping the names of fields/columns in your import
files to proper Sage ACT! field names. This is best illustrated with a simple example. Let’s say
you were previously using Excel and had a field called “Street”. There are many address fields
in Sage ACT!, but the most commonly used one is the “Address 1” field. With the addition of the
synonym map file there are now mappings of common user field names to Sage ACT! fields. In
our example, all of the following field names would automatically map to the field “Address 1” in
Sage ACT!: “ADDRESS”,
“ADD”,“ADDR1”,“STREET”,“STREET1”,“BUSINESSSTREET”,“BUSINESSSTREET1”,“MAILAD
DRESS”,“MAILADDRESS1”,“MAILINGADDRESS”,“MAILINGADDRESS1”,“MAILADDR”,“MAILA
DDR1”,“WORKADDRESS”,“WORKADDRESS1”,“STREETADDRESS”,“STREETADDRESS1”,“
BUSINESSADDRESS”,“BUSINESSADDRESS1”,“OFFICEADDRESS”,“OFFICEADDRESS1”,“P
HYSICALADDRESS”,“PHYSICALADDRESS1”.
As you can see, that covers a lot of the possibilities. These logical mappings are done for all of
the contact and company fields that exist for Sage ACT! 2011. With this improvement, we’re
doing our best to make mapping easier for you and help you save time.
You can also add additional synonyms to your Sage ACT! Installation, if needed. The files are
located in your Sage ACT! install directory. The synonym data files are named
ContactFieldSynonyms.xml and CompanyFieldSynonyms.xml for contact and company
synonyms respectively. The format for the file is best shown by example. Here is the part of the
contact synonym file:
<ADDRESS>Address 1</ADDRESS>
<ADDR>Address 1</ADDR>
<ADDR1>Address 1</ADDR1>
What this tells the Sage ACT! import routine is that any field found named “Address,” “ADDR,”
or “ADDR1” should be automatically mapped to the field “Address 1”.
Automatic creation of new fields
Prior to Sage ACT! 2011, if you had fields that had no logical mapping to Sage ACT! fields, you
would be forced to resolve each and every one of those fields by either manually picking a Sage
ACT! field to map the data to, or telling Sage ACT! to create a new custom field. To make it
easier for you, Sage ACT! has changed to using our synonym file for the automatic mapping of
Sage ACT! fields. Sage ACT! will also make the assumption that if it doesn’t find a mapping
then you must want it to automatically create a new field for that data to be imported into. In the
past, the assumption was simply that the data did not need to be imported into your ACT!
database. If you really don’t want a new field created during import, make sure to change that
option in the wizard for all of the fields you don’t want imported. (Note: There are dropdowns
boxes next to each field where you can override the creation of the new field prior to data
import.)
Take advantage of new import functionality
As previously described, Sage ACT! 2011 has two new special import file formats for importing
data from Sage Business Info Services for ACT!: *.AEX for contact data and *.AEC for company
data. Since there is no restriction on who can use these files, you can reuse the file types to
import your data. There are a few things that makes these file types unique. The most import
thing to know is that Sage ACT! automatically makes the following assumptions when importing
AEX and AEC files:
•
•
•
All the data contained within is for importing contacts/companies only.
All data will be mapped using the contact/company synonym files automatically. It
will skip past all the user interface panes in the import wizard where you can override
the mapping.
Any field that is not matched by synonym files will automatically generate a new field
for its data. Again, this will skip the wizard pane and proceed automatically.
These new file formats provide you with the ability to have an easy one-click import. To import a
file of this type, it’s easiest to simply launch Sage ACT! with the import file name (*.aex or *.aec)
as a command line parameter. The syntax for this is as follows:
ActSage.exe <filename>.aex
<Or>
ActSage.exe <filename>.aec
The format of the import file is simply a csv file where the first line in the file defines the name of
the fields to import and every other line is data (one record per line) that matches that field
definition.
Example file data:
Contact,Address1,CITY,HomeState,FIRSTNAME,ZIPCODE
Chris Huffman,13 East 54thSt.,New York,ny,Chris,10008
Brian Mowka,8800 N Gainey Center,Scottsdale,az,Brian,85258
Xavier Musy,8800 N Gainey Center,Scottsdale,az,Xavier,85258
With these enhancements, you will find it easier than ever to quickly import data into Sage ACT!
2011.
Brian Mowka
Development Manager
Sage