How To: Import Sessional Course Templates

Owned by Ellen Greyling (Deactivated)
Last updated: 29 Oct, 2021 by Farah Barakat
5 min read

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Warning: We highly recommend and always suggest that you run an Import Job on your test platform first, before you upload the data on live.

To learn how to complete an Import Job, click here.

Creating the Import Profiles

First, you need to create the Import Profiles to use for the upload. Click here for more information on how to do this.

Importing Sessional Course Templates requires several imports under a number of different destinations. 

The first import you will need to complete will be a Course Template Import. The following field will need to be a Key Field for the Course Template Import Profile:

  • CourseID - this is the unique identifying code for the Course Template. This will be stored within the Attributes tab of the Course Template.

OR

  • ExternalID - if you want the platform to populate the Course Template ID, you'll need to provide each of your templates with a unique External ID.

The following fields are also mandatory for the import:

  • Label - this is the name of the Course Template.

  • CompanyName - this is the name of the Training Provider you want this Template to be assigned to. 

  • Type - this is the type of Course Template that you're importing. The Importer recognises the following values for this field:

    • Class

    • Elearning

    • Document

    • Web

  • DurationType - this field designates the duration type for the Course Template. You can choose from the following values for this field:

    • Day

    • Hour

    • Minute

  • Duration - here, you should enter a numerical value that specifies how many days, hours, or minutes courses with this Template last for.

  • CurrencyCode - leave this value blank for GBP.

  • CostType - this field designates the cost type for the Course Template. You can choose from the following values for this field:

    • 1 = Candidate/Delegate

    • 2= Session

    • 4 = Hour

    • 8 = Day

    • 16 = Delegate Day

  • Places - here, enter a numerical value for the maximum number of places this Template can accommodate. Leave this blank for E Learning or Document courses.

  • Level - this value needs to be set at 4.

  • Advertise - here, enter a 1 if you'd like the Template to be set to advertise. Leave this column blank or enter a 0 if you want this box unticked.

  • DefaultSessional - Either Y or N is accepted. Please note for the first two imports this must be N.

 

The second import will need to be a Course Company import. You can use the same import file for this, and simply IGNORE most of the columns. 

The following will need to be Key Fields for this import:

  • CourseID  - this is the unique identifying code for the Course Template. This will be stored within the Attributes tab of the Course Template.

  • CompanyID - this is the Account ID for the Training Provider you want to link this Course Template to.

The third import needs to be a Session Plan Item import. 

For this Import Profile, the following fields need to be Key Fields:

  • CourseID - this needs to be the Course Template ID for the course that will be the head session.

  • MappedID - this will be the Course Template ID for the head session's corresponding subsession.

If you are trying to add the same child Course Template to the same head Course Template multiple times (e.g. each child session has the same template), you will also need to select another field as a Key Column (e.g. Offset Unit) so that this is unique.

 

In addition to these fields, there are also a number of mandatory fields:

  • Training Provider ID 

  • Start Time - this is the time that the session generally starts. This must be in a dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm format. Please note that the dd/mm/yyyy must be 01/01/1900 and this cannot be changed (this will not show on the platform). The time needs to be in a 24 hour format.

  • End Time - this is the time that the session generally ends. The format needs to be the same as the Start Time above.

  • Offset - the number that corresponds to the offset type regarding how far apart each session is. This must be a number. (i.e Two Days = 2, Three Months = 3).

  • Offset Type - this field denotes how far apart the sessions are. You can choose from the following values for this field:

    • Days

    • Weeks

    • Months

    • Years

  • Duration - this illustrates the length of the session. This must be a number. Any session that is a day or less must be 1.

  • Mandatory - this field is used to determine whether this is a mandatory session to attend. This must be Y (Yes) or N (No).

  • Mapped ID Type - this will be the ID of the type of object to map to. This is a constant and must always be 8.

 

The fourth and final import needs to be a Course Company import. This import needs to contain only the head sessions.

The following will need to be Key Fields for this import:

  • CourseID  

  • CompanyID 

The following fields are also mandatory for this import:

  • DefaultSessional - for this final import, a Y needs to be in the field for all of the head session courses.

  • DefaultSessionalCostType - this defines the Sessional Cost Type for the head session. This must be included, even if the course is free. You can choose from the following values for this field:

    • 1 = Sum of Sessions

    • 2 = Course Cost

    • 4 = Course Cost plus Optional Sessions

    • 8 = Course cost Plus Sessions

  • Minimum Sessions - this is the minimum number of sessions that the Delegates must attend.

  • Maximum Sessions - this is the maximum number of sessions that the Delegates must attend.

Filling in the Import File

Then, you need to create your import file that you will use to upload the data. Below are Sample Files as a template, with the second row being a description of the field and the third being sample data that will need to be replaced.

Course Template and Course Company Sessional Import

Sessional Plan Import Template

Sessional Import Head Session Template

All imports should be uploaded in a CSV format, as they lack formatting that would otherwise be included within the file.