Import Forms, Entries, and Views

Knowledge Base → Importing & Exporting → Import Forms, Entries, and Views

Learn how to easily import forms, entries, and Views on the Formidable → Import/Export page. If an imported form, entry, or View matches the key and creation date of an existing form, entry, or View, the existing item will be updated.

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Import forms and data via XML

Follow the instructions below to import forms, entries, and/or Views as an XML file. If your imported form/entry/View/Style key and creation date match an item on your site, that item will be updated. You cannot undo this action.

Go to your Formidable → Import/Export page.
In the Import section, select an XML file to upload.
Click Upload File and Import. Your form, entries, View and/or Style will be imported or updated.

Import entries via CSV

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Follow the instructions below to import entries into a Formidable form as a CSV file.

Create your own CSV file or export entries from another site.

Tip: An easy way to create your own CSV import file is to create a form, fill it out and export it as CSV. With this setup, the headers are included at the top of the CSV file for each field, and you can easily add entries.
If you create your own CSV, you must include headers for each field at the top of your CSV file in order to properly link up each column with a field in your form. The CSV file needs to look something like this:
```
"First name", "Last name", "Address", "Phone number"
"John", "Doe", "123 Main St.", "123-123-1234"
"Jane", "Smith", "789 Center", "321-123-1234"
```
Note: If you are a Mac user, you will need to save your file as Windows Comma Separated (.csv).
Go to Formidable → Import/Export and select a CSV file to upload.
Select your delimiter (often a comma) and the form where you would like to import the entries.
Click Upload File and Import.
In the Map Fields section, you will see a column for the headers in your CSV, one for sample data from your CSV, and one for selecting which fields the CSV columns will go into.

Map each column to the corresponding field. If you would like to update existing entries instead of importing new entries, you must map the Entry ID field to an Entry ID column in your CSV. If the entry ID in the CSV matches an entry ID in the form, the entry will be updated. Otherwise, a new entry will be created.
Click the Import button, and watch the number of entries to be imported count down.

If you have trouble importing your CSV, please go through the import troubleshooting steps.

Link imported entry to user

To assign an imported entry to a specific user, include a column in the CSV to match up with the user id field. This column will link users by the assigned WordPress user ID, non-numeric login, or email address. A numeric login will not link to the correct user, since this number is assumed to be the user ID.

If the user does not yet exist on your site, learn more about how to import users.

Bulk update entries

When you import a CSV of entries, include a column that holds the entry id. Then when importing, map this column to the ID near the bottom of the page. Now, the matching entries will be updated with the details included in the CSV.

Import styles

If you want to export a Style from one site to another, just export the Style then import the XML file onto the desired site. When you import this XML file onto another site, the form and attached Style will be imported. The imported style will be added to your Formidable → Styles.

Import files

If you would like to import files from entries on one site into entries on another site, follow the instructions below. Please note, you cannot import files that are protected. For more information about File Protection, click here.

Go to your Formidable → Import/Export page.
In the Import section, select an XML or CSV file to upload.
Select the Import files checkbox to include files in the import.
Click Upload files and import button. Your form, entries, View, style and/or files will be imported or updated.

Import into checkboxes

When importing from a CSV, two different formats can be used to insert multiple values into a single field.

One column with comma-separated values. To import values into a checkbox or multi-select field, you may use a value like "red, blue, green" to import each of those three values as selected options in a field.
Multiple columns with a single value.. If the field you are importing into has options with commas, this option will give you a more accurate result. You may include several columns in the CSV that are all linked to the same field. For example, you could have a CSV format like this:
```
"Checkbox","Checkbox","Checkbox"
"red","green","blue" 
```
On step 2 of the import for this file, select the same checkbox field for each of these three options.

Import repeaters

Repeaters work a bit differently from most field types, as the database views them as a separate form. If you would like to import your data into a repeater, follow the instructions below.

Export entries from a form with a repeater.
If you are creating the CSV or importing from another service, each value should be in a separate column. The format works best when the columns repeat in the same order as the form fields. For example, if your repeater includes 'Location' and 'Date', the columns in your CSV would be 'Location, Date, Location, Date, Location, Date'...
When importing, each column from the CSV needs to be mapped to a field in your form. With repeaters, multiple columns will be mapped to the same field in your form.
Once your fields are all mapped, click the Import button.

Import legacy format

Before Formidable v4.08, values from a field in a repeater were included in a comma-separated list in a single row (ie "red, blue, green"). This format can still be imported. If you have a CSV file to import using this older format, add '-legacy' in the filename before importing. For example, if the filename is '2021-01-01.csv', change it to something like '2021-01-01-legacy.csv'. The filename will tell Formidable to handle the import differently.

Import addresses

When importing an address from a CSV, you must have a column with the address in a single line. If it is unavailable, create a new column called Address. Each value must be comma-separated and have a following space. The correct format in the CSV should be as follows:

line 1, line 2, city, state/province, postal, country

Once you have a correctly formatted address field column in the CSV, you can map it to an address field in your form for import.

Import dates

To import a date field, the date format must be the same for both WordPress and Formidable form settings.

In your WordPress Dashboard, go to Settings → General and set the Date Format option to the same format as your date column in the CSV file.
Go to Formidable → Global Settings → General Settings, and set the Date Format option to the same format as your date column in the CSV file.
Once you have configured the date format in your site settings, you can start importing and mapping the date fields in your form.

Save CSV in UTF-8 format

You can use several methods to convert a CSV file into UTF-8 format. If you do not have a CSV file for this step, learn how to export forms, entries, and Views.

Convert in Google Sheet

Get started by accessing your Google Drive account. You can find the New button in your screen's top left corner. Click the New button and then select the Upload files option.
Locate the CSV file to which you would like to apply the UTF-8 format. Select it to begin uploading.
Open the uploaded CSV file using Google Sheets.
Navigate to File → Download As, and select the Comma-Separated Values (.csv) option.
The downloaded file will be saved in UTF-8 format by default and can then be imported into Formidable Forms.

Convert in Microsoft Excel

Open the designated CSV file with a Microsoft Excel sheet.
After the file is open, navigate to the File menu option and click Save As. The window appears as illustrated below.
Click the Browse folder icon to select where the file should be saved.
Enter the name of the file if necessary.
Select (Comma delimited) (*.csv) from the Save as type dropdown option.
Click the Tools drop-down box and click Web Options. A new window for web options appears, as shown below.
Select the Encoding tab and choose Unicode (UTF-8) in the Save this document as drop-down list. Once you have selected it, click Ok and save your file.
Import the CSV file into a Formidable form.

Convert in TextEdit

Open the file designated CSV file with TextEdit.
Navigate to Format → Make Plain Text.
Navigate to File, then press and hold the OPTION key on the keyboard to display the Save As option.
From the Plain Text Encoding drop-down list, select the Unicode(UTF-8) option.
Click Save to save the file in the new UTF-8 format.
Import the CSV file into a Formidable form.

Convert in Notepad

Open the designated CSV file with Notepad.
Navigate to the File → Save As option as illustrated below.
Select the preferred save location for the file, and a Save As window should appear.
Specify the file name with the .csv extension.
Select the UTF-8 option from the Encoding drop-down list.
Click the Ok button and then Save to save the file in the new UTF-8 format.
Import the CSV file into a Formidable form.

Troubleshooting

SimpleXML_parse_error

When importing an XML file, you may see a message that includes 'SimpleXML_parse_error' and 'XML declaration allowed only at the start of the document.' This means there is white space at the start of your XML file. This space is added by your theme or another plugin. You have two options:

Disable everything else (plugins and theme) on the site you are exporting from and export again.
Open the XML in a text editor and remove the extra space manually.

Once you have a correctly formatted XML file, you can import it again.

CSV import is incomplete

Please see the related FAQ:
Why won't a CSV file import correctly?

Duplicate entry when importing users

When creating new users or updating existing users with a CSV import, check the User ID column to prevent duplicates. Duplicates are often created because the requirements are not being met to update an entry.

To avoid duplicate entries, make sure that you map the User ID column in your CSV to the User ID field in your form. If this requirement is not met, it will always create a new entry when importing users.

Your server does not have XML enabled

This error message is shown when DOMDocument is not installed on the server. Contact your web host on how to install the DOM extension.

Importing non-English characters

When importing an XML file with non-English characters, you may need to convert your file to UTF-8 with BOM using the frm_csv_headers hook.