Step 2

• When creating Resource records for Users and Contacts, you will need to enter the Salesforce ID for that User/Contact in the spreadsheet. These can be found by exporting the User and Contact objects in the same way listed above, making sure to export the file with the “ID” and “Name” (First and Last) fields, then use the name field as a reference for the ID, and put the ID against the “preempt_user__c” or “preempt_contact__c” depending on which you are importing.
  • It is very useful during this process to understand how to use the VLOOKUP (or XLOOKUP) function, an explanation of which can be found here: VLOOKUP
  • It’s also worth noting that Contact and User resources can be imported at the same time.
  • This also applies when to “Resource Role”, “Account” and “Supervisor” [“Supervisor” is a “User” lookup].
• For checkbox (boolean) fields, you can use the values “TRUE” and “FALSE”

As you can see the ID’s have been entered where required against their respective fields, and these can be filled by using a VLOOKUP on the “Resource Name” field and subbing in the ID field to the relevant column from the other exported sheets.

Step 3

1. Open the data loader (if it isn’t already open)
2. Click on “Insert”
3. Select “Resource” from the list
4. In the box below the list click “Browse”
5. Select your prepared CSV file                                                    
6. Click 'Next'

1. Click on “Create or Edit Map” (if you already have the saved mappings click “Choose an Existing Mapping” and select the mapping file). At this point you can click “Auto-Match Fields” and if the name of the heading matches the name in the system it will automatically map them to the correct value
2. For the fields that don’t automatically map you can drag and drop from the top list (Salesforce fields) to the bottom list (your spreadsheet fields)
   For importing, you don’t want to create an ID or a Name as they are generated by Salesforce on import
   Note: It is worthwhile clicking “Save Mapping” as well, this will save the mappings you’ve created to a file for the next import, or if there are any errors, so you don’t have to do this process again.
3. Once complete click “Ok”, then “Next”
4. Choose a directory where the success and error files will be exported, these can be used to verify the import as well as diagnose any import errors
5. Click “Finish” 

At this point you should get a popup with the output of your import.  It will tell you how many successes and errors there were out of your total import.  We won’t go into diagnosing import errors as it is outside the scope of this article, but there are plenty of resources on Google to assist with this.  There is quite a lot of scope for errors as there is a human factor in data entry, but if you persevere this process will become second nature.

How to Update Resource Using Data Loader

Firstly, you will need to export the list of resources that you want to update using the data loader “Export” function. You can find the steps below:

1. Open the Data Loader
2. Click “Export”
3. Log in to either your Production or Sandbox Org
4. From the list of objects, select “Resource”
5. Below the list, click on “Browse” and select where you want to save the export, as well as giving it a relevant name, making sure to keep the .csv file extension
   Note: It is advisable to save this file locally, as saving it to shared drives can expose sensitive data to wider audiences, and can cause issues in the data loader
6. Select the fields you want to export form the list of available fields.  In this case there are 2 recommended fields on every export which are “ID” and “preempt_resourceName__c” in addition to the fields you want to update.
   Note: The ID field will be used as a unique identifier to update the record and the resource name will let you know who you are updating

Here you may want to put in some filter criteria if there are a large number of records to restrict the export to records you know you will update.  In this case create a filter using the field, operation and value boxes.  Make sure to click “Add Condition” before you proceed to the next step otherwise the filter won’t apply. See an example below:



7. Next click “Finish”
 
You should now see the file you exported. To update these values, you can now follow the steps below:

1. Open up your exported CSV in your spreadsheet program
   Note: In the spreadsheet you should see the fields you exported as column headers
2. Edit the values in the column required
3. Save the document as a new file
4. Now back to the data loader, click “Insert”
5. Select the object “Resource”
6. Below that, select the CSV file you just saved 

7. Click "Next"
8. Now click “Create or Edit Map”
9. Because this is a direct export you should be able to click “Auto-Match Fields to Columns” and the mappings will be done automatically. Note: if there aren't, you can drag values from the top against headers on the bottom. 



10. Click "Ok" 
11. Then “Next” and “Finish”

The update operation will then run, and should be reflected on the records in your Org.

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