Hi, Maureen,
I use a text editor called EMACS from GNU. It’s freeware, but far from intuitive for folks who are used to typical WYSIWG editors, since it’s aimed primarily at programmers.
opening any prepared file for import is just a bad idea
Fair point. However, if there are errors, sometimes that’s the only way to resolve them. It sounds like there was some problem with the format of the input file, so @MaureenMellett tried to resolve the problem.
Personally, I wish that third party vendors could actually directly push the file directly to the database (minus a Leader Approval) so unit leaders aren’t left holding the bag when the upload doesn’t work as advertised.
While I’m wishing, I want a pony, and some land to ride it on, and… 
As Charley pointed out, sometimes it is the only way to resolve errors. I was getting no feedback on the reason for the errors (I sent in the file 3 times with the same “please fix and send in again” message), and no one has responded to my help tickets. In the big scheme of things changing the Awarded to Approved was actually the easiest part of this whole process. Only 6 of my 24 scouts had their MB’s imported and none of them had their rank advancements imported. So I’d say there’s a much bigger problem (and no one is answering those questions in my forum questions either). So I am hand inputting 2600 records when this was supposed to be an easy import process and there’s no way to reach anyone to ask why it’s not working.
Maureen,
This is a fundamental problem with trying to import a file that was not created to meet the import spec. Your file has columns that Scoutbook does not expect (unit) and is missing the BSA#. This tells me there is a good chance the Advancement column is not being recognized by Scoutbook either.
To save significant time, I would start by entering the award completions first and not entering any of the underlying requirements for these. The only awards which I would enter underlying requirements for are those that are partials (not yet earned). Scoutbook does not require the underlying requirements to be entered. in order to mark an award complete.
I did see that as one of the issues and tried addressing it. I opened the file in Excel (apparently a no no) and deleted the Unit info and input all the BSA ID #'s and save as a comma delimited file. Apparently this caused confusion for the Awarded/Approved column. That is actually the least of my problems at this point as I went through and changed those today (only about 6 scout had their MB imported so it was pretty easy to track down).
I am also in the process of entering the MB’s as you have suggested. It does bring it down from a total of 2600 records, but there is still significant data entry. I held off on doing this when I heard there was a file (and our CC with the file was on vacation, so I didn’t bother her). I then held off on the data entry when I had the problems and put in help tickets because I did not want to mess up the records and have the input not recognize that some records had already input. Now I am 2-3 weeks behind and the COH is in 2 weeks. I am on scout 11 of 24 and have been working on this all day (I had to input the rank advancements still for the original 6 scouts whose MB’s imported correctly). It’s a hassle I was hoping to do without.
One way to simplify your data entry tasks is to group the MBs, rank advancements, etc together based on completions, then enter using the Quick Entry dialog under My Dashboard → My Units → Quick Entry.
The groups I’m talking about would look like
Fishing MB - Scout 1, Scout 2, Scout 3, …
Canoeing MB - Scout 1, Scout 6, Scout 9, …
Second Class Reqs 3, 7, 8 - Scout 2, Scout 4, Scout 5, …
First Class Reqs 2-7 - Scout 4, Scout 5, Scout 13, …
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Thank you. I had thought of doing this and then honestly forgotten when I started going through and trying to figure out which scout had what imported. I will go back now that I’m between records and look at the rest and see if I can quickly figure out how to do that (this is all still kind of new…).
One thing I wish there was was a Quick Date Entry for Rank Advancement as there is for Merit Badges. That would be a HUGE help.
There is. I have the Feature Assistant Extension installed, but I believe all of the highlighted ones are default features in Scoutbook.
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Bless you I will try it. Thank you for your concrete suggestions.
No worries. Glad we could all help.
The folks from SUAC like @edavignon, @DonovanMcNeil, @JenniferOlinger and others are right, though. The root of the problem is with the vendor providing y’all with purportedly Scoutbook-compatible files which are not, in fact, compatible. Identifying exactly what’s wrong with the input file and remedying it is really the responsibility of the entity creating the file, not the support folks at Scoutbook.
OK, but if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck – why isn’t it a duck?
Meaning, it all LOOKS exactly like it’s supposed to.
An excellent question. That’s what everyone was tying to get at from the Excel vs text editor perspective.
I used to deal a lot with experimental testing and data acquisition systems which were very fussy about input files. As a result, I got very used to using plain text editors to create conforming data files, or “fix” non-conforming files so they would import. Programs like Excel interpret and format the .csv files in ways that are often not transparent on the user level. A plain text editor, in contrast, generally will not interpret what it’s seeing.
Generally, Excel expects a .csv file to work a certain way, and if it finds a “buggy” one, reformats it to fit what Excel expects, with the assumption that the user will correct the “imported” data later (e.g. in Excel) if it looks wrong. This is generally done, among other reasons, to prevent a million emails an hour to Microsoft about .csv files not importing/exporting. Therefore, what looks right in Excel could very well be a sketchy file for some obscure reason (e.g. extra spaces in a column).
It’s not an easy process to make the files conform – or even to figure out why they are nonconforming – which is why it really should be on the software provider doing export to make sure their file conforms. It’s one of the reasons that data interchange format standards are such a huge issue in so many different fields.
ETA: If an input file doesn’t import, I would reach out to the source of the input file to find out what software it came from. If it seemed worth the time, I would then reach out to the software vendor and say “Your file that claims to be Scoutbook compatible is being rejected. My camp says it was generated from version X of your software Y. Please correct the file format so that it can be properly imported to Scoutbook.” I would also make sure I copied the staff person with whom I had contact at the camp, since their council is the software vendor’s client. I anticipate the response would be pretty much nil, but there’s always the chance that they will fix your input file, fix the software so future import files work, or both.
There’s not really a good way for the average user to make the file compliant, especially given that the BSA is not publishing (except to cooperating software vendors) the exact specs of the import/export file.
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and Excel obfuscates alot of CSV files when opened - you might not see it but it is there
Fair enough (I note about not opening and editing a file in Excel on the “import” page would be most helpful in that regard).
Last question then: For future reference, how am I to tell whose fault an error is? I can’t reach out to Goshen (I don’t “think”, although I will be trying to do so so this doesn’t happen next year), but I had to assume when it didn’t upload that the error was on the end of scoutbooks. That’s where the error messages occured and the file appeared to match the criteria it was asked to match. It was a .csv file in the order it was asked to be in…
I did reach out to scoutbook about the errors with no response, and frankly still don’t have an answer why some of my data imported correctly and some didn’t import at all (I’m finding halfway through my document that more MB’s imported than I realized – it skipped a bunch in the middle and started up again). And the rank advancements never did. Again, I understand Goshen may be to “blame” for this. But part of it worked so I’m unclear why the rest wouldn’t. But maybe that’s the nature of the .csv beast.
Hi, @MaureenMellett, I saw your edit to the previous post and tacked on some comments re responsibility for resolving the error. Truthfully, it’s never an easy day when you’ve got incompatibility between two different pieces of software from two different vendors. It’s always the other guy’s fault, no matter which one you’re talking to. 
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I would say it is the camps fault for providing a not complete file. There is a standard format that is needed for data transfer, Goshen probably has a vendor for that and their vendor might have dropped the ball. Who knows.
So apparently Goshen registration is run through BlackPug. That being the case the Feature Assistant is the way to handle files from there in the future. There are however times when the data you get is not really good. I would look through the documentation on the Chrome feature assistant for the blackpug import.
If it’s coming from black pug, give the feature assistant extension a try asap
Yeah my camp uses Blackpug and extension handles it no issue
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