Importing Signups

You can create the import file directly. You could also create a spreadsheet and then export it. For example, if you create it using Excel: do Excel's Save As... command — setting Save As Type to Text (Tab Delimited).

You could also create it via Current Event menu's down arrow->Export Signups. This is a common approach when doing update actions.

Format of an Import File

Two text file layouts are supported:

Tab delimited. Each line contains: value TAB value TAB value ...
Comma/quote delimited. Each line contains: value, value, value ...
If a value contains a comma, the whole value must be enclosed in quotes. A quoted area may not itself contain a quote. If this situation would apply, the TAB layout must be used.

The first line of the file names its columns. The remaining lines each identify one signup. However blank lines and lines starting with a ; are ignored.

Format of Line 1

Each column in the first line of a file must be one of:

The name of a known column.
A signup-form field name.
Signup-form field name=value establishes a default value for the field. That is, if a signup line contains a blank value for this field, it is as though value was entered on that line rather than a blank.

Formats of the Columns PRESTO Knows About

This table describes the recognized column names and the rules that values in such columns must conform to. The Person, Activity, and Date columns are required.

Name	Formatting Rules
Person	Normally the first and last name of a person, but it can also be one of the formats described in the Advanced Features section. (If it is blank, the last-specified value is used).
Base Name	The base name of the schedule item's activity. If a line contains neither a base name nor a location, the last-specified pair is used. To import a break period or booking, prepend identifier@ to the sliceable activity's base name (here or in the 1-column format). The Identifier must be a break's "for what" (e.g. Lunch) if the import line contains an End column value. Otherwise it must be a service name (and End Time is computed from the Start column and the service's duration). Notes: The target event must already contain the specified sliceable activity (and service if applicable). The line's when-info must be within the time span of an existing sliceable schedule item. The Person field for a break period just documents that the import line is for a break. That is, set it to Break (or the like).
Location	The location of the schedule item's activity, possibly blank. It is combined with the line's base name to identify the overall name of the schedule item's activity.
Activity	An activity name, all in one column (i.e. a value in the column is of the form *base name[, location*]). If a line contains a blank activity, the last-specified activity name is used. You may not use both the 2-column and 1-column formats in the same import file.
Date	The schedule item's date or a list of dates separated by +'s. All the usual PRESTO date formats are allowed. Also: If the year is omitted, it is defaulted with respect to the event's start date. After the 1st +, a date can be a single number. If so, its month and year are set from the preceding date on the line (e.g. 4/23+24 is short for 4/23+4/24). For a rolling event, a date can be beyond the current end of the event. Such schedule items show an Availability of Imported. When you roll new days into the event, any such items in the roll-in period are automatically updated to show their normal Availability.
Start	The start time of the activity. It is required for main on-site tasks, defaults to 0:1 for background on-site tasks (i.e. an All day item), and must be blank for planning activities.
End	The end time of the activity. It is required for main on-site tasks and optional for background tasks. It must be blank for planning activities.
Schedule	The schedule item's schedule. This column is not specified in most import files because most events have just one actual schedule. But when importing into an event with multiple actual schedules, this column is required. If a line contains a blank schedule, the last-specified (or only) schedule name is used.
Id	The database ID of the signup. You have no way to enter this directly, but it is created by an Export Signups command.
Status	The signup's Status field. This can be any signup status value you can set in the UI.

Format of Signup-Form Fields

You may have 0 or more form field columns. The name specified in the 1st line of such a column must identify a field name created using the Make Signup Form page. Note that the Import Results table grays out each form-field cell that does not apply to the current line's activity. Also columns are name-based not form-based. That is, if you are importing two signup forms that both contain the same field name, you would create one column in the import file, not two.

As the Import and Export file format is line-oriented, special provision is made for multi-line field values. To import a line break (the LINEFEED character), you must replace it with exactly \LF\ — that is, backslash capital-L capital-F backslash. Conversely this is what an Export will generate when it encounters a multi-line field containing a LINEFEED.

Processing Signup Lines

A line in an Import file identifies an existing signup if:

It has an Id-column value (i.e. from Export).
Its status column is set to Delete.
The identified person is not a sponsor, and she and the identified schedule item exactly match an existing signup.

If a line identifies an existing signup: no change, an update, a move/reassign, or a delete is possible. Otherwise the line's purpose is to create a signup. (So any later lines that identify the same signup will get an error message for regular people and create another signup for sponsors).

The Import Result page color codes the background of the signup's person according to the above actions (even if its line reports an error). The existing-signup colors are respectively: no color, pale yellow, yellow, and gray. The color for a Create is green.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Signup actions done by Import Signups do not trigger confirmation messages.

Creation Actions

When a single name is in the Person column, a signup will be created (see below for your other options). Additionally, the identified schedule item will be created (and its # of spots set to 1) if it does not yet exist. Similarly its activity will be created if it does not yet exist.

When creating a schedule item whose activity does not yet exist, the time-info you enter controls the type that the new activity is given.

Entering both times sets Type to Main Task, and only a start-time sets it to Background Task.
Entering no times sets Type to Planning Action.

Actions on Existing Signups

To delete a signup, have a Status column and put Delete in it. (You can also delete all signups in an Import file by selecting the Un-import File radio button).

To update a signup's form fields or status, simply enter a new value. To move or reassign a signup, have a signup Id column and identify a different schedule item (i.e. change the line's activity, date, or time). A line can both update a signup's info and do a move/reassign. Conversely if you do neither, the line is not counted in the Update stat displayed by Import.

Field Values

The supplied (or inherited from line 1) value for each field on a line is error-checked (e.g. required fields must be non-blank), and placed into the new or updated database record. However if an import file lacks a column for some field, that field's non-blank values are left unchanged and not rechecked.

If no value is given for a field — and the line is a Create or the field's current value is blank, then the field's default value is used. The default of a menu field is its form-defined default menu item if any. All other fields default to blank.

Note that the value you supply or inherit can be the admin enter-later value ???.

Advanced Features

Multi-Action Lines

If you enter multiple people and/or multiple dates on a line, #-of-people * #-of-dates signup actions will be done. This behaves exactly as if you had entered each pairing on a separate line — except that any signup form fields you enter on the line will be applied only to the 1st pairing.

This feature is the Import Signups analogue of Add Multiple Items and Signups.

Shared Signups

A signup is always owned by one person, and that is the person indicated on signup pages and reports. What sharing means is that:

Each sharer can see the signup on her Self-Signup Home and in schedules, and can cancel or edit it.
When a signup is used to derive recipients (e.g. a confirmation message), the message goes to the sharers as well.
When an email message contains Person's->Signups (et al), each recipient sees both her owned and shared signups.

Doing 2 signups for a schedule item is different than 2 people sharing a signup. The latter is only for when the "thing being signed up for" is what is shared. For example, whether you are practicing alone or have an opponent, the thing being signed up for is the 1 tennis court.

Advanced Formats of Person column

If only a number is entered, no signups are created. In other words, you can build a schedule with Import, as well as with Make Signup Schedule and Manage Activities.

Your normal options are:

To make a signup line identify multiple signups, enter names separated by +'s.
If this list does not end with a number, the # of spots in a new schedule item is set to the number of names entered.
If this list ends with an number (or is only a number), this number sets the # of spots in a new schedule item, Enter a 0 to allow unlimited signups.
To identify a shared signup, enter names separated by &'s. The 1st name is made the owner.
(Note: sharer names are ignored for bookings and existing signups).

You can combine these formats. If you entered Bill&Bob + Ann + 3:

This would identify 2 signups.
If their schedule item needed to be created, its # of spots would be set to 3.
The 1st of the 2 signups would be shared by Bill and Bob.