Sometimes you may need location imports, exports or updates to your existing Metro Publisher directories. We offer these services as part of our Custom Support Services.
This document describes the current available options in Metro Publisher for imports and exports.
1. Location Exports
Time: 3-4 working days (depending on work load)
Cost: 1-3 billable hours per export
Please see our Custom Support Services document for our pricing tiers.
Options:
- All locations (draft locations can be excluded)
- Locations that are tagged with a specific tag (also exclude by specific tags)
- Locations under a specific location search
NOTE: You can also create an export in the admin location center yourself via Editor > Locations > Export. You can select the format and the fields similarly to the event exporter.
2. Location Imports
We also perform location imports on request. However, due to the wide variability of fields (which may vary for each client), for location imports we require a sample of your data (.csv file) in order to evaluate and provide an estimate.
Time: 1-2 weeks (depending on work load)
Cost: 3-5 billable hours per import/update (estimated)
Please see our Custom Support Services document for our pricing tiers.
NOTE: Many clients do not include geographical information (ex. location coordinates, postal code). We try to infer the location based on the address, city name, etc. but in some cases it may be necessary to manually check those, in particular the map placement (ex. locations that have no postal code/ state information have different matches in different US states).
3. Updates to Existing Locations
Updating existing locations is trickier than simply importing new ones. That is because we need to unequivocally match each location to make sure we're modifying the right one. Every entry has a specific unique identifier (UUID) in the Metro Publisher database which needs to be matched. If not, there may be errors due to, for example, naming conflicts.
Time: 1-2 weeks (depending on work load)
Cost: 3-5 billable hours per import/update (estimated)
Please see our Custom Support Services document for our pricing tiers.
Update projects must follow a specific procedure:
- Via the support site, submit a request to update a batch of locations.
- Metro Publisher will then provide a location export. You can also create the export yourself from the admin location center.
NOTE: The table must include the UUID which will allow matching to existing entries. - Using the exported file, you would then update all your locations and return the file to us for re-importing.
NOTE: By default we would export all location fields. If you already know which fields you will modify, we can export only the required ones and simplify the file. You should not remove the header or any table columns from the provided export.
NOTE: When we run a location update, we override any other changes that have been done in the admin (ex. images or content that may have been added to a location). As a result, if you want to periodically update the directories, make your request for an update in advance of any large scale changes to your lists in order to avoid having to duplicate your work.
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