Overview

This article describes the Pre-Import Check process that is mandatory for importing Contribution or Voter (or Donor or Contact – hereafter referred to collectively as Voter) data from a CSV file into Trail Blazer.

When the Pre-Import Check process completes, it gives you a window showing the number of errors and warnings.  Two examples of this window follow.

Good going!

You’ve got some work to do before importing the data

Then it asks where you want the Errors and Warnings report saved.  That report contains the details of errors and items to be warned about. Use that report to work through the issues.

You are not allowed to import a file that contains errors that the Pre-Import Check process finds.

Why this Process?

The new Pre-Import Check process on the Voter data from CSV originates from the many experiences that Trail Blazer Customers have had performing imports. 

The staff at Trail Blazer decided to create a process that users would run before importing their data.  This process would look at the file that the user wants to import and see if any of the data in there is problematic.  A report comes out of this process to direct the user what items need to be changed in their data before they can import the file.

Required?

Yes, before doing a voter import of a CSV file.  The file must be free of Errors to import it.

Finalized List of Errors and Warnings?

The list of Errors and Warnings likely are not the final list.  As with Trail Blazer itself, this process will likely grow to do more checks, making more errors and warnings possible.  This article should be updated as additional checks are inserted.

Categories and Sub-Categories of Checks

There are two categories of checks:  Column Header and Data. 

The Column Header category focuses on the column titles in your import file and the mapped to Trail Blazer columns.  These are shown to you after you click the “Match Columns” of the window below ­­and it populates with the names of columns from your file and what Trail Blazer detects as mapped-to columns.  At that time, you also manually select what Trail Blazer Columns that your data maps to. 

Quick Look at a Sample Error and Warnings Report

Let’s take a look at part of a sample error and warnings report.  Below is a picture of a sample errors and warnings report.

The numbered items above are explained below.

1. The top portion of the report always lists column header errors and warnings (blue box).

2. The bottom portion of the report always lists data error and warnings (blue box).

3. Item #3 is the report title. A blank row follows the report title.

4. This is the title for the column header warnings and errors.

5. The box labeled #5 is the list of warnings and errors with the column headers.

6. This is the title for the section of the report that deals with data warnings and errors. It is always preceded by a blank row.

7. This is the listing of column headers from your file.

Numbers 8, 9, and 10 repeat as needed.  They are grouped together to reflect issues about one line of data from your file.

8. Line of data from the file.

9. List of warnings and errors associated with that line.

10. Blank line inserted to visually separate the current line of data and issues with it from the next line of data and that line’s data issues.

Messages and Their Meanings

Column Header Errors

· ERROR: Column #<Number> missing column header. Mapped to: <Trail Blazer Column>.

What this means:  You are missing a column title in your data.

Action you should take:  Supply a title in the column.

· ERROR: Column #<Number1> (named <Col.Name1> - mapped to: <Trail-Blazer-Col.1>) has duplicate column title in the source data as Column #<Number2> (named <Col.Name2>  - mapped to: <Trail-Blazer-Col.2>)

What this means: You have 2 columns in your file with the same name.  For Trail Blazer imports to work properly, every column in your file needs to have unique names.

Action you should take: In the file, rename one of the columns.

· ERROR: Column #<Number1>  (named <Col.Name> - mapped to: <Trail-Blazer-Col.1>) is mapped to the same Trail Blazer column as Column #<Number2> (named <Col.Name2> - mapped to: <Trail-Blazer-Col.2>)

What this means: In the Trail Blazer Column there is a name that is repeated twice.  However, a limited number of Trail Blazer Columns are allowed to be repeated.  These columns are:

o Attribute Builder / Attribute Folder Name

o Attribute Builder / Attribute Name

o Attribute Builder / Date

o Attribute Builder / Value

o Do Not Import

o Log_Array

Action you should take: The error message gives hints as to what the columns in questions are. Look in the list to remap one of the columns to something else. 

· ERROR: Addr1 block contains a city and zip code but no state - add a state column

OR

ERROR: Addr1 block contains a city and zip code but no state - add a state column

What this means: The first or second address block is missing a state, yet has city and zip.

Action you should take: Add a state column to your data for the appropriate address block.

· ERROR: <Addr1 or Addr2> Address block contains both builder and full address line columns. Use either builder or address line columns (address or address2 or address3) - but not both.

What this means: You have violated a sacred rule of Trail Blazer importing.  That sacred law is “do not intermingle address builder columns (housenum, street, apt) with the address lines (street, street2, street3) for the listed address block.  Within a particular address block, use either builder columns or use address lines.”

Action you should take: Review the data.  If you have both address builders and street lines for the same address block (for example: Addr1), try copying the data from the street lines into the streetbuilder columns where the street builder columns are blank.  Then do not import the full street lines.

· ERROR: <Col. Name1> and <Col. Name2> has been mapped - only one can be mapped in an import.

What this means: You mapped 2 columns to 2 different Trail Blazer columns that both cannot be used in the same import. 

Action you should take: Review the data.  Adjust the data so that you map to either <Col. Name1> or <Col Name2>, but not both in the same import.

ERROR: <Col. Name1> has been mapped - yet there is no column mapped to either <Col. Name2> or <Col. Name3>.

What this means: You mapped to <Col Name1>.   Importing data to that coumn requires a different column be mapped to either <Col. Name2> or <Col. Name3>.

Action you should take: Review the data. Adjust the data so that you map to either <Col. Name2> or <Col Name3>, but not both in the same import. 

For Non-Profit customers only: If you are mapping to an Allocation Fund and want all of the contribution to go to the fund, either create a duplicate of the contribution amount collumn and call it allocation amount.

· ERROR: Column #<Number> missing column header. Mapped to: <Trail Blazer Column>.

What this means:  You are missing a column title in your data.

Action you should take:  Supply a title in the column.

Data Errors

· Error - more lines to skip than exist in the file. Recheck number of lines to skip

What this means: You have entered more records to skip on the “Source Tab” than there are in the file.

Action to take: Verify the number you entered into the “Records to Skip” on the “Source” tab is actually the number you want to enter.

· Error - more columns in line <Number> than the mapped number of fields

What this means: On line <Number> in your file, it has more columns than your header line has.

Action to take: Investigate why this happened and take steps to make the number of columns in the header line to be the maximum number of columns of any line in the file.

· ERROR: line <Number> column <Col.Name> (col. #<Col.Number>) mapped to <Home or Cell or Alt or alt2 or Fax or Business or Business fax> phone number is too long. Try splitting or moving to ext col.

What this means: Ignoring formatting characters and any blank spaces, the phone number in question is too long (maximum of 12). 

Action to take: Look at data.  Take extension or notes out of phone column and put into a corresponding Trail Blazer phone ext column (like homephoneext or altphoneext).

· ERROR: line <Number> column <Col.Name> (col. #<Col.Number>) mapped to Party does not match an existing party code. You must use an FEC party codes or set to OTHER

What this means: Based on the party name to code mapping Trail Blazer has, there is no party code found for this party.  Trail Blazer stores only the party code then shows you the party’s name that matches that code.  Sneaky of us, eh?  More than 97% of the party name to party codes mappings in Trail Blazer are based on the list of parties that the FEC recognizes.

Action to take: Review the offending party name.  Fix any misspellings or invalid abbreviations. Or if a minor party, change to OTHER.

· ERROR: line <Number> column <Col.Name> (col. #<Col.Number>) mapped to occupation is too long. Maximum size is 50 including spaces

OR

ERROR: line <Number> column <Col.Name> (col. #<Col.Number>) mapped to employer is too long. Maximum size is 50 including spaces

OR

ERROR: line <Number> column <Col.Name> (col. #<Col.Number>) mapped to job title is too long. Maximum size is 50 including spaces

What this means: The data for the referenced column is too big.

Action to take: Use commonly used abbreviations (like VP for Vice President or use & in place of and) and remove unnecessary words to shrink the data to less than 50 characters.

· Error - fewer fields in line <Number> than the number of mapped columns. Check data to remove any embedded return characters

What this means: This line in the file less than the number of columns listed on the header line.

Action to take: The most likely cause is that there is a return (or enter) character embedded in the data of the line above the specified line.  This is not good because return characters start a new line – which instructs the import process that a new voter is being processed. Because of this, return characters are not allowed within the data – only at the end of the line of data (when the data for that particular voter is complete).  Take out the return characters and replace with a space or two spaces.

· ERROR: line #<Number> in the import file has no data to import

What this means: You have one of the following situations:

o The entire line is empty

o The entire line is just commas (that is – no data to import)

o All of the columns in the line that are NOT mapped to DO NOT IMPORT are blank.

Action you should take: Remove that line from the data.

· ERROR: line #<Number> column <Col.Name> (col. #<Col.Number>)  mapped to <Mapped to Col.> has a value that is not a whole number.

What this means:  The particular piece of data in the referenced line and column needs to be a whole number and is not.  A whole number is a number without any fractions or decimal components. 

Action you should take: Fix this data to make it a whole number or remove this data item.

· ERROR: line <Number> column <Col.Name> (col. #<Col.Number>) mapped to <Trail Blazer Column> is too long. Maximum size is <size>.

What this means: The referenced data in the given row and column exceeds the predefined maximum number of letters for that Trail Blazer column.  The maxim number of letters that can hold is <size>

Action to take: Fix data - remove unnecessary letters.  Abbreviate if needed.

Data Warnings

· WARNING: line <Number> column <Col.Name> (col. #<Col.Number>) has an character that is not importable at position <LetterPosition> in the column

What this means: There is a non-English character (letter) at the position indicated within the data for the given line and column.  Common examples are accented characters from non-English languages.

Action to take:  Change the data to replace accented or non-English character with a suitable English equivalent.

· WARNING: line <Number> column <Col.Name> (col. #<Col.Number>) mapped to <Trail-Blazer-email-col.> is not a valid email address

What this means: The particular email address is missing either the at symbol (@) or a period (.).

Action to take: The data will be imported as-is.  Be aware though that no emails will be sent by Trail Blazer to this “email address”.  You may want to verify the data is correct.  By the way, there is a separate import field for websites.

· WARNING: line <number> column <Col.Name> (col. #<Col.Number>) mapped to <Addr1 or Addr2> Nation - <data> is not a recognized country name spelling by the International Standards Organization (ISO). Country Name will be stored as is - just not searchable

What this means: The data is neither an ISO approved 2 letter nation codes nor matches the ISO spelling of a nation stored in Trail Blazer.

Action to take: The data will be stored.  However, the nation will not be searchable. If you want to search with this nation, change the data so it maps to a nation code.

Resources

Knowledge Base – “Start Import”

Knowledge Base – “Field/Column Mapping When Importing Voter/Donor Data”

Knowledge Base – “Import Information – Definitions and Column Data Type”

Knowledge Base – “Upload Data Files to Trail Blazer”

YouTube Channel – “Importing 101 What to Avoid”

YouTube Channel – “Importing Contributions”

YouTube Channel – “Attributes – Import with Date and Value”

YouTube Channel – “Importing 102 Importing your First List”

Have Questions?  Please call our support line: 1 (866) 909-8700