How do I import categories from a spreadsheet?
Overview
Categories are the folders your opportunities sit in, so they are usually the first thing you build when you set Vome up. If you already have that structure written down somewhere, the categories importer creates the whole batch from a single spreadsheet instead of you adding them one at a time.
One row becomes one category. You can import up to 500 categories in a single file.
Nothing is created until the last step. You can upload a file, work through the matching, change your mind and leave. No categories are created until you press Import on the review step.
1. Where do I find the categories importer?
Go to the Opportunities module, open Categories, then use the Create category button and choose Import categories.
The same menu holds Create category, which adds one category and its cover photo. Importing counts as creating, so any admin whose role lets them create an opportunity can also import categories.
2. What does my spreadsheet need to look like?
Upload a .xlsx or .csv file. The first row is your column titles, and every row after that is one category.
One column is required:
- Title
Everything else is optional:
- Description, what the category is for.
- Cover, the name of a cover photo from your theme library.
- Sites, the sites the category is linked to.
The upload step offers a template you can download, and starting from it is the easiest way to get the column titles right. You do not have to use it. Your own Excel or CSV file works just as well, because column titles are matched loosely, so small differences in wording are fine and French headings work too.
Where a row can hold several values, separate them with commas, semicolons or line breaks in one cell. That applies to Sites.
3. What happens to a row that is not complete?
It is skipped, and the rest of your file still imports.
A row is skipped when it has no title, or when the same title already appeared earlier in the file. Every skipped row is listed with its row number and the reason, so you can fix the file and upload again, or import the good rows now and add the rest by hand.
4. How does the "Match your file" step work?
Your spreadsheet contains names. Vome contains records. The matching step is where you say which is which. Vome collects every distinct value in your Cover and Sites columns, matches what it can, and asks you about the rest.
The two columns behave differently:
- Cover photos come from your theme library, so they are matched by name rather than created. You also pick a default cover photo, used for every category that has no cover of its own. If any category would end up with no cover at all, the import will not continue until you choose one. You can change the cover per category afterwards.
- Sites can be matched to an existing site or created. Creating one opens the full site setup so you can name it properly, and you can add its branding and settings afterwards. One Access for linked sites choice, View only or Can edit, is applied to every site link this import creates. It starts on View only.
A site you create here is saved straight away, not held until the import runs. If you open the create form and close it without saving, that value goes back to undecided rather than sitting on Create, so the step will keep waiting for you to make a real choice.
Sites need the Enterprise or Ultimate plan. On the Recruit and Pro plans the Sites column has nothing to match against, so leave it out of your file.
5. What are the "Settings for all"?
These apply to every category in the import, and you can change any of them per category afterwards. For categories there is one group of them, Communications: whether the category chatroom is on, and whether it is limited to announcements only. Both start switched off.
6. What is not imported?
An imported category starts empty. The importer creates the category itself and nothing inside it.
Opportunities are attached afterwards, either by importing your opportunities with a Category column filled in, or by moving opportunities you already have.
7. Do I have to import categories before I import opportunities?
No. Both orders work, and you decide which suits you.
The opportunities importer has a Category column of its own, and on its matching step every category name in that file gets one of three answers:
- Match it to a category that already exists in Vome.
- Create it, if it is not there yet. You pick one cover photo theme that every category created by that import will use.
- Skip it, in which case those opportunities fall back to the default category you choose for the batch.
So if your opportunity spreadsheet already names the categories you want, you can import the opportunities on their own and let that step build the structure as it goes. There is no need to run this importer first.
Import categories separately when you want them to carry more than a name. This importer takes a description, a cover photo per category and site links straight from your file, while a category created during an opportunity import starts with its name and the batch cover theme. It is also the better order when your structure is settled before the opportunities are, or when the same categories will be filled by several separate imports.
8. What if a title in my file already exists in Vome?
Vome warns you on the review step and lists the titles it recognised. It does not stop you.
The review step also gives you the counts: how many categories are about to be created, and how many rows are being skipped.
An import never updates an existing category. A repeated title is created as a second, separate category. Nothing existing is changed, merged or overwritten. So if you are re-running a file to fix a few rows, remove the rows that already imported first.
Summary
- Opportunities module, Categories, Create category, then Import categories.
- One row per category, up to 500 rows, .xlsx or .csv. Title is the only required column.
- Description, Cover and Sites are optional. Use the downloadable template, or your own file, since column titles are matched loosely.
- Separate multiple sites in one cell with commas, semicolons or line breaks.
- Cover photos are matched to your theme library and never created, so pick a default cover photo for anything unmatched.
- Sites can be matched or created, and need the Enterprise or Ultimate plan.
- The chatroom settings are set once and apply to the whole batch.
- You do not have to import categories first. The opportunities importer can match categories you already have, or create new ones as it goes, so use this importer when you want descriptions, per-category covers and site links as well.
- An imported category starts empty, and a repeated title creates a new category rather than updating the old one.