How to import/export data in TalentLMS

You can easily import and export data to and from your TalentLMS portal from the Account & Settings page of your Administrator dashboard.

A. Import

1. Sign in to your TalentLMS account as an Administrator and go to Account & Settings > Import - Export (1). 

2. Browse your files to locate and select the import file, or drag and drop the file into the upload area (2). Supported file types are: XLS, XLSX, and CSV. Maximum file size is 1MB. Optionally, download the sample Excel file (3) to base your import on.

3. Once you’ve selected your file, its data will be imported instantly, and a drawer will open on the right-hand side of your screen, showing you the results (4).

Note: There’s no maximum number of lines for your import file, but it’s recommended to divide large imports into batches of up to 250 lines to facilitate troubleshooting in case of an error.

B. Export

1. Sign in to your TalentLMS account as an Administrator and go to Account & Settings > Import - Export (1).

2. Under the Export section, select whether you wish to export your portal’s data in CSV or Excel (XLSX) format from the Export type (2) drop-down menu. 

3. Click the Export (3) button to download your portal’s data onto your device. The exported file will include separate tabs for different sets of data. 

How to import different types of data successfully

Importing data into TalentLMS requires precise formatting for different types of data. Here, you’ll find a detailed breakdown of the different import types to help you complete the process quickly and accurately. 

Note: The fields mentioned below correspond to the names of the columns in your Excel/CSV file.

Import Users

The available user columns are: Login, Firstname, Lastname, Email, Password, User-type, Bio, Active, Deactivation-date, Exclude-from-emails, Language, and any custom user fields you might have active.

• The mandatory columns are:
  Login, Firstname, Lastname, and Email. 
• The Login column corresponds to the Username. From a system perspective, the login serves as the primary identifier for users on the platform, so if a user with the same login exists, their information will be updated. Make sure that the login is the first column in your import file. 
• If a new user is imported without a Password column, a random strong password is generated. 
• The Active column can be assigned a value of YES or NO, with the default being YES. 
• The Exclude-from-emails column can also be assigned a value of YES or NO, but the default is NO.
• Custom field names should be prefixed with “custom_field:”, such as custom_field: middle name. 
• For custom fields of the checkbox type, they can be set to on or off.
• You can include additional columns for Course, Group, and Branch to assign imported users to courses, groups, and/or branches. If you wish to assign more than one course/group/branch, add multiple course/group/branch columns to your import file. 
• Languages need to be imported with their abbreviations, which you can find in the attached pdf at the bottom of this article.

Note: To update existing user profiles, simplify the import format by using Login as the first column for the username and add any of the above columns populated with the new value. Keep in mind that the username cannot be updated via import.

Import Courses

The available columns are: Course, Code, Description, Category, Duration, Price, Active, Catalog, Start-date, Expiration-date, and any custom course fields you might have active.

• The mandatory column is: Course. This column corresponds to the course title.
• The Active and Catalog fields can both be assigned a value of YES or NO, with the default being YES for both.
  Custom field names should be prefixed with “custom_field:”, such as custom_field: Course Type. 
• For custom fields of the checkbox type, they can be set to on or off.

Import Branches

The available columns are: Branch, Description

• The mandatory column is: Branch. 
• Branch names are also used as part of the URLs for your branches, so your branch name should follow a proper URL syntax: branch names should not contain white spaces and should be all lowercase.

Import Groups

The available columns are: Group, Description, and Key.

• The mandatory column is: Group

Import Categories

The available column is: Category

• You may describe a category as Category A > Category B. This will add Category B as a child of Category A. All needed categories will be created along the path if they don’t already exist on your portal. 
• For example: 

Category
Cat level 1 > Cat level 2 > Cat level 3

Additional Import scenarios

There are more import scenarios utilizing the simplified formats that follow below. You can import existing users directly to courses, groups, and/or branches. In addition, you can import courses to groups and/or branches.

Add users to courses

The required columns of the import file are: usertocourses, course

• usertocourses corresponds to your users’ login (username)
• course corresponds to the course title

Note: You can also use this scenario to import historical course completion data for your users, as explained in this article.

Add users to groups

The required columns of the import file are: usertogroups, group

• usertogroups corresponds to your users’ login (username)
• group corresponds to the group name

Note: When you add users to a group via import, they are immediately enrolled in the group courses.

Add courses to groups

The required columns of the import file are: coursetogroups, group

• coursetogroups corresponds to the course title
• group corresponds to the group name

Note: Adding a course to a group via import will not assign it to its users. To assign the courses to all group members at once, please head to the specific group in the groups section. In the group, click the Mass actions button and choose Enroll users in group courses. Read here for more information.

Add courses to branches

The required columns of the import file are: coursetobranches, branch

• coursetobranches corresponds to the course title.
• branch corresponds to the branch name

Examples

## IMPORT A USER

Login, Firstname, Lastname, Email

dummy_login, dummy_firstname, dummy_lastname, [e-mail]

## IMPORT A COURSE

Course, Code, Description

European History, HIST01, An introductory course to European history

## IMPORT A GROUP

Group, Description, Key

New employees, All new employees should be members of this group, xyzhna

## IMPORT A BRANCH

Branch, Description

sales, All sales people belong to this branch

## IMPORT A CATEGORY

Category

Cat level 1 > Cat level 2 > Cat level 3

## ENROLL A USER TO A COURSE

Usertocourses, course

dummy_login, European History (HIST01)

## ADD A USER TO A GROUP

Usertogroups, group

dummy_login, New employees

## ADD A USER TO A BRANCH

Usertobranches, branch

dummy_login, sales

## ADD A COURSE TO A GROUP

Coursetogroups, group

European History (HIST01), New employees

## ADD A COURSE TO A BRANCH

Coursetobranches, branch

European History (HIST01), sales