8. Student Data Import |
  
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8. Student Data Import |
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SportsTrak will import student details from a text file (comma or tab delimited) or Excel file.
As it imports, SportsTrak will determine students’ age groups. If students have no student code or duplicate code, then a new code is determined automatically.
Prior to Import make sure that Houses and the Age Group Reference date have been set
We recommend the Excel Import because
➢It incorporates stringent error checks
➢It is easier for you to work with than text files
Jump to Excel Import Guide
From Text File
The text file of student data can have any name. For simplicity, this manual refers to it as STUDENT.TXT because this describes the content and format succinctly.
Each student's details are to be on separate lines, with items (fields) separated by either COMMA or TAB characters. If an item is missing (e.g. Initial) this must be indicated by 2 commas (or tabs) in a row.
Therefore each line requires 7 separators and a maximum of 8 data items.
The file must have no headings or page breaks.
Text File Structure (and also Excel File)
Each line is structured with these data columns:
1. Student Code |
12 characters maximum, typically 7. e.g. SMI0012 |
Required (if omitted SportsTrak creates one) |
2. Surname |
15 characters maximum |
Required |
3. Given Name |
13 character maximum |
Required |
4. Initial |
1 character |
Optional |
5. Date of Birth |
8 characters in one of these formats: dd/mm/yy e.g. 01/09/01 dd/mm/yyyy e.g. 01/09/2001 yyyymmdd e.g. 20010901 |
Required for age based carnivals Optional but recommended for year carnivals |
6. Gender |
1 character M or F |
Required |
7. House or Team |
15 characters maximum Either full team name or team code |
Required except for form based carnivals |
8. Year Level |
3 characters e.g. 07A, l1B, 12C You may omit form group e.g. 07 or 12 |
Required for year and form based carnivals Optional but recommended for age based carnivals |
The order of the fields is not absolutely critical, but the order shown is the default expectation at the import stage.
If the field order is different from that displayed above, you will have to rearrange the column headings at the import stage.
Text File Examples
Consider two students:
John K Smith, born 21 Oct 1998, Male, Henry House, Year 11C
Phillipa L Jones, born 2 Jan 2001, Female, Gordon House, Year 8A
In Comma Delimited Format the two records will appear like this when Student.txt is viewed in Notepad:
SMI0012, SMITH, John, K, 21/10/1998, M, Henry, 11C
JON0025, JONES, Phillipa, L, 01/02/2001, F, Gordon, 08A
In Tab Delimited format:
SMI0012 SMITH John K 21/10/1998 M Henry 11C
JON0025 JONES Phillipa L 01/02/2001 F Gordon 08A
If some data is omitted then two commas (or tabs) together indicate it:
SM10013,SMITH,Shaun,,13/10/2001,M,Henry,07A
is correct for an omitted initial.
Typical records from a Student.Txt file:
AIT0012, AITCHISON, Brett, , 1/04/1995, M, HEDD, 09A
ALE0001, ALEXANDER, Robert, , 30/10/1998, M, DUTT, 07B
AND0021, ANDERSON, Robert, , 2/10/2001, M, MITC, 07C
BEL0032, BELL, Shane, , 18/11/2002, M, NELS, 10D
Quotes
Many export systems will place quotes around the data. This enables commas to be part of the data, rather than being interpreted as a separator.
It makes no difference to SportsTrak whether the data has quotes or not.
“BEL0032”, ”BELL”, ”Shane”,””, ”18/11/2002”, ”M”, ”NELS”, ”10D” is OK.
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