Streamlining new student data import process

Lena Payne
Lena Payne
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in Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT®: General Discussions

Hello,

I'm currently in the process of adding new students to our database, including their bio details, education records, and an education attribute (specifically a registration number from another database we collaborate with).

I’ve set up an import template and populated it with most of the necessary information. However, I’ve encountered an issue: I’m unable to add the education attribute without an education import ID, which isn’t generated until after the education record is created.

Here’s the process I’ve been following so far:

  1. Import new constituent data along with their education details.
  2. Export the constituent IDs and their associated education import IDs.
  3. Import the education attributes in a separate file.

Is there a way to streamline this process so that everything can be done in one step, rather than having to split it across multiple imports?

Thank you for your help!

Comments

  • JoAnn Strommen
    JoAnn Strommen Community All-Star
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    @Lena Payne It's been a while since I did this but I believe you can add a field for Education import ID with your import data. We used a format for any IDs we added of date/initials/running #. Check the import guide:

    It's a text field of up to 20 characters.

  • Christine Robertson
    Christine Robertson
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    @JoAnn Strommen You are spot on.

  • Christine Robertson
    Christine Robertson
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    @Lena Payne The only way you can do it all in one import is to use a third-party tool such as Importacular or Importomatic.

  • Dan Snyder
    Dan Snyder Community All-Star
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    @Lena Payne

    @Christine Robertson #askanallstar is spot on about using one of those 3rd party tools for a single import. I'll just add that you could do this with Power Automate as well, but again that is a 3rd party tool with a good bit of setup, but in short you could pass the newly created education id to an action to add an education custom field/attribute.

  • Bernard Nemis
    Bernard Nemis
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    @Lena Payne
    Hello, Lena.

    Christine and Dan bring up a great point in using a third party tool. In my experience, when you import new information without the third party tool, you will need to do multiple import passes so you can first establish the data you need for the second pass.

    This happens to me when I establish Parent-Student relationships.

  • Lena Payne
    Lena Payne
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    Thank you all for your replies. We have the older version of Importomatic but tend to use BB import as it is quite simple to set up in most case. Until it isn't of course, like the one I described above.

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