importing accounts (id generation?)

[tellusmore]

Hello Sugar Forum,

This is more a general question.
I'm planning on importing multiple "account"(s)
When looking at the DB i see a very long complex set of characters in the id
Seems that sugar itself creates / assigns the id field.
I also assume that any importing of data would cause problems unless imported directly through the sugar interface?

Is this even possible?

I've looked within sugar and there is no import (csv) when dealing with accounts.
Seems i may be able to add the import "module"??? to that area?

Thanks forum!

[Angel]

It is possible to import via the interface.

Are you logged on as an admin user? If not, this may be the reason why you cannot see the import option on the Accounts module as security roles can keep a regular user from accessing the feature.

Doing it via the interface would be the preferred method, followed by the SOAP API, although it is possible to import the data directly (but generally not recommended).

[Gyro.Gearless]

Hello Sugar Forum,

This is more a general question.
I'm planning on importing multiple "account"(s)
When looking at the DB i see a very long complex set of characters in the id
Seems that sugar itself creates / assigns the id field.
I also assume that any importing of data would cause problems unless imported directly through the sugar interface?

Is this even possible?

I've looked within sugar and there is no import (csv) when dealing with accounts.
Seems i may be able to add the import "module"??? to that area?

Thanks forum!

As said, the CSV import is the "official" way of getting Accounts imported; another approach i am frequently using is creating records via SOAP - this is perhaps more useful for things like syncing Sugar with external systems.

But two side notes if you absolutely want to get your hands dirty (directly accessing DB):

* According to the developer docs, every unique ID is fine for the 'id' field. There is no obligation to make 'em look like Sugar Ids.

* MySQL provides a nifty UUID() function to generate Sugar style UUIDS....

Just my 2 cts....

Gyro