Data sources

Introduction

The easiest way to get a lot of worker data into Broadstripes quickly is through the import of one or more spreadsheets. This article covers the data you’ll be bringing into Broadstripes AKA your data sources.

What kinds of data can be imported?

Broadstripes can import Excel (XLS, XLSX) or comma-separated value (CSV) files. Data from other spreadsheet apps (e.g. Google Sheets) can usually be exported or converted to one of those formats.

1. Locate your data

Any organizing data you have (e.g. an excelsior list, BU list, an informal Google Sheet kept by the organizing team, or an existing organizing database) will likely be useful in Broadstripes. The trick is to get that data into spreadsheet form for import.

Spreadsheets with data on multiple tabs

If your spreadsheet contains multiple tabs, Broadstripes will only look at the first. If you need to import data from multiple tabs, you’ll want to create separate files containing the data for each tab as the first tab in each file.

Importing contacts from the cloud

Do you have organizers or supporters with a lot of worker info in their phone’s contacts app or on a computer or the cloud? That data can often be exported to spreadsheet, and then imported to Broadstripes. Just be sure to get the data into one of the accepted formats (XLS, XLSX or CSV).

With Broadstripes, you can import as many spreadsheets as you want. If you have multiple spreadsheets, in most cases you should import them one-at-a-time rather than trying to merge them prior to import.

It’s been our experience that taking the time to merge spreadsheets isn’t worth the effort. This is true even with lists containing information about the same people. It’s usually easier to “clean up” a single sheet, import it, and then do additional imports using Broadstripes powerful “matching” feature – which allows you to match on a unique identifier, or on a combination of fields like name, work location, phone, or email address.

2. Review and “clean up” your data

Once you’ve identified your different sources of organizing data and gotten them into spreadsheet form, you’re going to want to review and “clean up” that data to make sure it is formatted the way you want it and contains only the data you’ll be using in Broadstripes.

Tips and tricks

These articles might help you with some of your data clean-up tasks:

• Splitting names into separate columns for import
• Converting custom fields to external systems

3. Name your spreadsheet columns

The first row of your import spreadsheet is the “header row” (selected below). The text in the header row tells the import process where to put the data in that column for all the following rows.

The process of deciding where to put the data in each column is called “mapping.” Broadstripes will automatically map a column whose header it “recognizes,” and it will recognize both built-in and custom field names. The import process is faster and easier if the column headers are recognized and mapped automatically, so we suggest that you name your spreadsheet columns with this in mind before uploading it.

Learn about Broadstripes’ built-in data and how to name headers

To understand what data fields are built-in to Broadstripes, and how to name your headers to be recognized as such, please refer to the Broadstripes data import fields list: Data import fields list and built-in data overview: Broadstripes built-in data. Custom fields will also be recognized by Broadstripes as long as they’re created in Broadstripes prior to import. This is covered in the next step.

When your spreadsheet(s) are ready, you can start your import.

Next steps

Go to: Import a spreadsheet