Customer experience | Sales, Customer Insights,...

Problems importing Communication Preferences against a Contact

(0) Share

Report

Posted on by JonClay

Hello everyone

I'm trying to import a bunch of Communication Preferences against a Contact, but I can't find how to do this using the Import Data wizard. The Communication Preferences themselves already exist in CRM, so that isn't the problem.

My import .csv file contains data as per the image below:

4478.commsprefs1.PNG

I then go to the Import Data wizard and select Communication Preferences in the Record Types box:

6201.commsprefs2.PNG

When I click Next I'm then unable to map the Contact field (this field is the unique SerialID for the person). If I pull down the arrow next to Not Mapped

3386.pastedimage1613566512804v1.png

I'm relatively familiar with importing data into Dynamics 365 Online, but this one has really stumped me!

Any help would be much appreciated.

Many thanks,
Jon

I have the same question (0)

All responses (7)

Answers (0)

Suggested answer

LuHao 40,892 on at

Like (1)

Report

Hi Jon,

The relationship between Communication Preferences and Contact should be N:1, that is, Communication Preferences has a lookup field of Contact.

So we can select the Contact lookup field for the Contact (Not Mapped) during the import process.

Then click the icon to change the lookup mapping. Deselect all fields, then select only SerialID.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
JonClay on at

Like (0)

Report

Hi Hao

Many thanks for your reply, much appreciated.

Unfortunately I don't seem to have the same fields as you on the import screen. Do you know what I could be doing wrong?

Best wishes,
Jon

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Suggested answer

LuHao 40,892 on at

Like (0)

Report

Hi Jon,

Can you check if Communication Preferences entity has a lookup field of Contact?

In the N:1 relationships of Communication Preferences, there should be one that Primary Entity is Contact, the Field Name is the lookup field's name.

If there is no lookup field of Contact in the Communication Preferences, then you cannot import Contact data in the Communication Preferences Excel.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
JonClay on at

Like (0)

Report

Hi Hao

Many thanks once again for your reply.

I've taken a look and I don't see Contacts in the list as shown below:

I'm sure this is why I can't import the Communication Preferences against the Contacts!

However, we have around 250,000 contacts already in our CRM who have Contact Preferences against them, so someone must have migrated these over at some point in time.

Is there another way that we can get these into the CRM against Contacts rather than inputting them manually (there's around 40,000 and it would take forever doing it manually!)?

Many thanks
Jon

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
LuHao 40,892 on at

Like (1)

Report

Hi Jon,

In addition to the N:1 relationship, you can also check the 1:N and N:N relationships of Communication Preferences, check whether there is Contact.

If not, another way to link Contact Preferences and Contacts is Connection.

To check if it is due to Connection, open a Contact form that the Contact has Communication Preferences, Related > Connections, and check if there are Communication Preferences.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
JonClay on at

Like (0)

Report

Hi Hao

I can see Contact in the N:N relationships of Communication Preferences. Is this a good sign, and if so, how would I then go about importing the data?

Many thanks

Jon

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Suggested answer

LuHao 40,892 on at

Like (0)

Report

Hi Jon,

In this case, we will first import Communication Preferences without Contact, then import the link of both entity records through NN Relationship manager of XrmToolBox.

Before importing, we need to understand how the N:N relationship works.

Please refer to https://carldesouza.com/understanding-intersect-entities-and-nn-relationships-in-dynamics-365/ (You only need to read the <Native Intersect Entity>, the <Manual Intersect Entity> is not needed for now.)

Step 1. Import Communication Preferences without Contact.

Edit your original CSV, delete the Contact column, and only keep the Communication Preferences columns.

Then import CSV into D365.

Step 2. Download XrmToolBox. Open XrmToolBox and connect to your D365.

Install "NN Relationship manager" and open it.

First select Contact, then select the N:N relationship, then Export.

Open the downloaded csv, we can see there are two column, the first is GUID of Contact, the second is GUID of Communication Preference.

Then we need to enter the data into these two columns to link Contact and Communication Preference. We can open the record in D365 and copy the GUID from the URL.

GUID is the part after communicationpreference&id= or contact&id=.

So we get the GUID of both entity records, and enter these GUID into the downloaded csv. Each line is a mapping between Contact and Communication Preference.

Then import it into NN Relationship manager of XrmToolBox.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No