Defining Import Forms

An Import Form tells the system how to identify and process emails that were submitted from a Web form on your company's Internet or intranet site. For information on how and why to use Web forms for email, see Import Forms Overview.

To access the Import Form definition screen:

In Administration, select Company Setup > Workflow / Process Automation > Import Form Processing > Import Forms.

New forms are added and deleted in much the same way as standard category codes. For more information, see Adding and Deleting Codes.

There are two ways to create a new form. From the banner click one of the following:

New Form - allows you to create a new blank form.
Duplicate Form - allows you to create a copy of an existing form with a new name. This duplicated form is very similar to an existing form, so it allows you to quickly create the copy which you can then modify.

Form Header Fields

The form header allows for the definition of how each Import Form is processed based on the form key.

Description of Fields

Field	Description
Import Form ID	This is the ID that was assigned to the form when it was created. It cannot be changed.
Active	Determines whether this form is active. The system does not use inactive forms when trying to determine a form to be applied to an inbound email.
Import Type	Select the type of import. Your selection will determine which fields display on this page. Currently, Import Type is not used anywhere else in the system. This field is required. Choose from: Case Import shows all fields except the following: Form Type (defaults to Column) Tag Separator Form Key (defaults to "Case Import Form") Form Key is On/Before Line Email Import shows all fields on the page. Survey Import shows all fields on the page.
Description	This is a description for the Import Form. It is for reference purposes only.
Form Type	This option indicates the layout of the form tags in relation to the data within the email. Depending on the Import Form Type you select, some of these options may not display. Standard Tags: The tags and field values are on the same line, one set per line. This is the most common method, and the most reliable, if it is available. Example: Name: John Smith Email: j.smith@gmail.com City: Columbus State: OH Topic: Product Question Product: XVC Mega Widget Tags on Prior Line: Each tag is displayed by itself on one line, and the associated data is displayed on the next line. Example: Name: John Smith Email: j.smith@gmail.com City: Columbus State: OH Topic: Product Question When using the Standard Tags option or Tags on Prior Line option, both the Carriage Return and Line Feed are required for Emplifi Agent to parse the data. Column Delimited: Specifies that the entire message text is on a single line of data, and each column is separated by the specified Tag Delimiter. When setting up the tags, each tag name should be a column number (1, 2, 3, etc.). Example: John Smith : j.smith@gmail.com : Columbus : OH : Product Question Tag is XML Element Name: Tags are parsed as simple XML element-style tags to standard Prep Tag logic. URL Encoded: Tags can be defined as Email=[email address]&Name=[first name]&Phone=[phone number]. For example, Email=tim.smith@xyz.com&Name=Tim&Phone=7401234567. Custom: Indicates that tag rules are not to be used, and custom processing logic is used instead. You need to work with Emplifi to provide the custom logic.
Tag Delimiter	This is the character that is used to separate tag names from the actual data. Select from one of the available values in the list.
Tag Separator	If there is another character between the tag delimiter and the actual field value, enter it here. In most cases, you should select the Blank option. In all cases, blank spaces are automatically removed from both the front and end of the field value.
Ignore Lines 1 to	If the top part of the email message contains standard headers or other information that should be ignored by the Import Form processing logic, enter the number of lines to skip here. The check for tags begins on the line after the one that is indicated. Entering a value of zero effectively disables this option.
Form Key	It is not uncommon to have different Import Forms for different departments or different types of contacts. The Form Key is used to uniquely identify a specific Import Form when multiple forms are in use within an organization. The Form Key can be any text that displays in the email. If the key is not the only item on a line of text, you can use an asterisk wildcard. Examples: FormKey (this text must appear as the only text on a line) FormKey* (this text must appear at the start of a line) *FormKey* (this text can appear anywhere on a line) In Emplifi Agent, if a leading asterisk () is present, the trailing asterisk is optional. The value is treated the same either way. Emplifi Agent does not support wildcards in the middle of the value. When you are designing the actual Web forms, make sure that each form inserts this unique value somewhere into the email, and make sure not to use values that are likely to be entered into a comment field by a customer. The search for the form key takes place after the line number indicated in the Ignore Lines 1 To* field, and is discontinued after the line number indicated in the Form Key is On/Before Line field. If you do not specify a Form Key, this form is used as a default for inbound emails if no other form matches. You should have no more than one Import Form with a blank form key. The default form should be named last alphabetically, because the system uses it as soon as it is found.
Form Key is On/Before Line	Indicates the last possible line in the email on which the form key might be located. If the form key is not located on or before this line, it is not identified as this type of Import Form.
Clean Up Type	Prior to processing tags, the raw (unaltered) email message is located in a Case Text entry (for more information about Case Text, see Texts), usually the first one on the case. This option allows you to "clean up" the email message by removing unnecessary information after processing form tags. The remaining information from the email is placed in a separate text entry on the case. The following options are available: No Clean Up: This disables the Clean Up option. The raw email is left unaltered in the original Case Text entry. When imported, the case text is linked to Issue 1 of the case. Clean up to New Text: The raw email is left in the original Case Text entry on the case. A new Case Text entry is created that contains the cleaned version. Clean up 1, original to New Text: The cleaned version is placed back in the original Case Text entry, and the unaltered raw email is placed into a new case text entry. Clean up 1, discard original: The original case text entry is replaced with the cleaned version, and the raw version is discarded. This option is typically not recommended because the original full email message is lost (unless it is saved somewhere else, such as in the email system). With any of the cleanup options, the lines that are retained in the cleaned version are determined by the Clean Type setting for each tag rule. In typical practice, only the Comment Tag and other tags that cannot be moved into normal case categories are kept, and all other information is removed.

Form Tags

In this section you define each of the tags that appear on the Import Form, and you determine what to do with the data associated with each tag.

You can create new tags using the Create tags from file button or the New Tag button on the banner.

If you select Create tags from file, the Create Tags window will open. You can select an existing file from the Transfer folder or upload a file to the Transfer folder.

To select an existing file from the Transfer folder:

Enter the Transfer folder path where the file is located. You can browse for a sub-folder by clicking the arrow button to the right of the field.

To upload a file to the Transfer folder:

Select the Upload button. The Select File to Upload window will display.
Click the Select File button to browse and select a file to upload from your machine.
In the Upload to Folder field, select the folder that will hold the file. Then, click OK.

After selecting the file, all the columns are listed. If there is an empty column in the header row, then "No Header Label" will display in the list. You can select the columns to add to the import form. If you select the Include Blank Tags check box, all unselected columns are included. The unselected columns will have a Tag Type of "Inactive Tag".

The Include Blank Tags option is used if you want to run the Case Import Utility without "Match Headers" in the sequence as defined in the Import Form.

When you click the Create button, a confirmation message will display and indicate that extra tags on the existing import form will be deleted. The new tags will be added and saved.

If a tag already exists the import form, the same tag is used. You do not need to define all properties on the tag again.

You also have the option to add tags from an existing survey automatically by clicking the Append Survey button. Typically, you add standard tags to log the general information of the person taking the survey (such as, name and address) before appending an existing survey. The Append Survey button provides an automated way to create the Import Form in a lot less time than manually creating the form. For additional information on manually setting up an Import Form to be used by the Case Import Utility with a Survey, see the Import Forms, Surveys, and the Case Import Utility section on page Additional Information.

Once the form tags are added, click the Email Body button (available only for Form Types of "Standard Tags") to view the layout of the email that is set up to return the data to the system. This allows you to easily send the necessary layout to individuals who are administering the survey so that the survey data can easily be uploaded to the system.

Description of Fields

Field	Description
Drag to reorder tags	The tags are ordered in processing sequence. Use the Drag to reorder tags button to reorder the sequence. This is important to ensure proper validation for certain types of information. Some examples: Address fields should be processed in this order: Country, State (must follow country to ensure proper mapping and validation), City, Address1, Address2, Postal Code (triggers address cleaning and validation rules) If the phone number and extension are in separate fields, the phone number should be processed first. For details about phone numbers, see the Phone Numbers on Import Forms section on page Additional Information. If a driver and dependent code are entered, the driver should be processed first. The sequence order will be ignored, and the tag order will be used when "Match Headers" is selected and a header row is added to the file on the Case Import Utility.
Tag Name	Enter the actual text of the tag name as it displays in the email. The name is not case-sensitive. If the Form Type is set to "Column Delimited," this is a number indicating the column in which the data displays. Tag names can be omitted if the Tag Type is "Set Fixed Code" or "Inactive Tag."
To Category	Select the name of the category to which the data associated with this tag applies.
CID	The is the category ID of the selected category. It is filled in automatically when you select a category name in the previous column.
Tag Type	Determines how the tag is processed. See the separate topic on Tag Types for detailed information on each of the options.
Map Type	When the values in the email message do not match the codes defined in Emplifi Agent for the selected To Category, each of the values must be "mapped" to the correct code. The following options are available: No Map: Indicates no mapping is required. Map Group: Indicates that the tag value is to be converted to a valid code based on the Map Group specified in the Map Group column. Country Map: Indicates that the tag value is a country name that can be converted into a country code, based on values in the Country table in the Emplifi Agent database. State Map: Indicates that the tag value is a state name that can be converted into a state code based on values in the State table in the Emplifi Agent database. The Country must be set first (by giving that tag an earlier sequence number) to ensure the correct set of states/provinces are being looked up. For Country and State values, if names used on the Web form do not match those in the Emplifi Agent tables, the Map Group option must be used instead.
Map Group	If the Map Type is set to the "Map Group" option, specify the name of the Map Group here. For information on defining map groups, see Import Forms: Code Maps.
Capitalize	Use this option to manipulate the capitalization of the tag value prior to moving it to the indicated field (or performing a data map). The following options are available: None: The value is not altered. Upper: The value is converted to all upper case. Lower: The value is converted to all lower case. Force Mixed: The first letter of each word will be capitalized. Remaining letters will be set to lower case. Optional Mixed: If the tag value is all upper case, it is converted to all lower case. If the value is in mixed case, it is assumed to be correct and no conversion is performed. In all cases, the normal capitalization rules specified in the category definition are still applied afterthe above rules are applied. Thus, these settings are only of value if the category is defined as "None," "Force Mixed," or "Optional Mixed." For more information about capitalization rules, see the Data Entry Settings section in Category Definition.
Set To Code	Use this setting in conjunction with the Tag Types of "Set Fixed Code." Specify the fixed code value to be set on the case.
To Row	This field allows you to handle Web forms that create multiple instances of a particular item on a case, including Phone Numbers, Issues, Texts, and Enclosures. The value indicates which instance of an item the tag is related to. For details about Phone Numbers, see the Phone Numbers on Import Forms section on page Additional Information. For instructions on when and how to use this field with text entries, see the Setting Text Type Codes for Email Message Text section on page Additional Information. For information on setting up an Import Form to be used by the Case Import Utility with a Survey, see the Import Forms, Surveys, and the Case Import Utility section on page Additional Information.
Phone Type	This setting is only used when the To Category is Phone (I02). This value specifies what phone type is assigned to the phone number. You must also use the To Row column if you are supporting multiple phone numbers on the form.
Missing Value	Some Web forms insert a special value, such as "N/A," to indicate a missing value when a field is not filled in by the user. In this example, you would enter "N/A" in the Missing Value field. The Import Form processing skips processing of this tag if it contains this value. The value in this field is case sensitive. It is compared with the tag value prior to applying any capitalization rules specified in the Capitalize field. This field also has special meaning if the Tag Type is "Year Part." For information, see the Month, Day, and Year Parts section on page Tag Types.
Clean Type	This option only applies when Clean Up Type for the form is set to a value other than "No Clean Up." It determines how this tag and value are treated when the message text is being cleaned. Never Copy: Indicates that the field should not be included in the new message text after cleaning. This is the default option. Always Copy: Indicates that the field should always be included in the new message text after cleaning. If the tag is present, it is included even if the value is a blank. When Entered: If the tag is present and it has a value, it is included in the cleaned text. If the tag or its associated value is missing, it is removed from the cleaned text. If there is a tag contained in the email message for which you do not create a rule on the Import Form definition, that tag is treated as if it were set to "Never Copy" and removed from the cleaned text.
Inc. Tag	This option is related to the previous field. It determines whether to include the tag in the cleaned text along with the value. It only applies if the previous field is set to "Always Copy" or "When Entered." If this option is selected, the cleaned text includes the line just as it displayed in the email message, including the tag, tag delimiter, tag separator, and any embedded blanks. If this option is not selected, the cleaned text includes just the trimmed value without the tag. This is often used when the cleaned text is only going to include a comment field, and it is not desirable to also include the tag with the comment.