[wiki:Haiti]
== Spreadsheet Importer ==
We have access to a lot of relatively unstructured data in Spreadsheets which we need to import into Sahana. Currently this is done via a laborious Data Entry process.

We really need to be able to do Bulk Imports.

Example Data sources:
 * http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Aq_3OYelM4ZUdHJyc0lUekZLUmEwa3ZSU2dJS3YyWWc&hl=en_GB (Data Entry tab)
  * The OCHA contacts list is a task we need to do regularly, so need to be able to handle duplicates effectively. We can influence them to standardise their format to make it easier.

Options:
 * CSV Import
{{{
cd /path/to/web2py
python web2py.py -S sahana -M -N
db.import_from_csv_file(open('db.csv','rb'))
db.or_organisation.import_from_csv_file(open('orgs.csv','rb'))
db.commit()
Ctrl+D
}}}
  * Limited access through Web at: /admin/import_data (& doesn't seem to work at all?)
  * Problems with the file format (e.g. MS Excel chews, OpenOffice 3.1 ok)
  * Hard work to get reference fields lined up
   * Need to export a dataset first
 * [http://code.google.com/apis/spreadsheets/ Google Spreadsheets API]
 * [http://pypi.python.org/pypi/xlrd xlrd]
  * [SpreadsheetImporterExample Example Code] - not the cleanest
 * [http://www.resolversystems.com/products/resolver-one Resolver One]

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[wiki:Haiti]