Managing your templates

Templates are the backbone of CSV Improved. They hold all the information that is needed to do an export or an import. It is important to be able to make a backup of your templates, this will be explained here. The templates will be stored in XML as this supports both international characters and has no issues with delimiters.

Exporting the template XML files

Creating the template export template.

1. Click on Templates
2. Click on New
3. Select Export on the first tab (Choose your template)
4. Click on the Settings tab
5. Select template type to be Template export
6. Set export type to XML
7. Set website to CSV Improved
8. Check the box Include column headers
9. Click on the General settings tab
10. Fill in a name at Name
11. Click on Save

The basic template has been created now, we now need to add the fields to the template we want to export.

1. Select the newly created Template export template from the list
2. Click on Fields
3. Here add all the fields to the template by selecting the fieldname from the dropdown list and click on the green checkmark
   You cannot use the following fields:
   
   • template_id
4. After all the fields have been added, click on Templates
5. The template is now ready

Besides exporting the templates, it is also important to export the fields belonging to the templates. One more template needs to be created, the Template fields export template.

1. Click on Templates
2. Click on New
3. Select Export on the first tab (Choose your template)
4. Click on the Settings tab
5. Select template type to be Template fields export
6. Set export type to XML
7. Set website to CSV Improved
8. Check the box Include column headers
9. Click on the General settings tab
10. Fill in a name at Name
11. Click on Save

This template also needs to know what needs to be exported so here we will also add the fields to the template.

1. Select the newly created Template fields export template from the list
2. Click on Fields
3. Here add all the fields to the template by selecting the fieldname from the dropdown list and click on the green checkmark
   You cannot use the following fields:
   
   • field_template_id
   • id
     
4. After all the fields have been added, click on Templates
5. The template is now ready

Now that both templates are ready, it is time to export the templates. Do the following steps for both Template export and template fields export templates:

1. Click on Export
2. Select the template export
3. Click on the Export button
4. Save the file to your computer

You now have a backup of your templates and template fields on your computer in XML format.

Importing the template XML files

At some point in time it might be needed to restore the templates to your system. It is important to know that we first have to restore the Template export first and after that the template fields.

First we need to create the import templates. Creating the Template import:

1. Click on Templates
2. Click on New
3. Select Import on the first tab (Choose your template)
4. Click on the Settings tab
5. Select template type to be Template import
6. Click on the General settings tab
7. Fill in a name at Name
8. Click on Save

Creating the Template fields import:

1. Click on Templates
2. Click on New
3. Select Import on the first tab (Choose your template)
4. Click on the Settings tab
5. Select template type to be Template fields import
6. Click on the General settings tab
7. Fill in a name at Name
8. Click on Save

With the templates created, it is time to import the files, starting with the templates import

1. Click on Import
2. Select the Template import template
3. Select the file to upload from your computer
4. Click on Import
5. The templates are now imported

1. Click on Import
2. Select the Template fields import template
3. Select the file to upload from your computer
4. Click on Import
5. The template fields are now imported

With both files imported, the templates are now complete and can be used.

This tutorial speaks of backing up your templates, of course this procedure can also be used to exchange templates between different installations.