# Item Import Wizard

Menu path: Tools > Item Import Wizard
The item import wizard allows you to import items from an external file. The items are directly imported into the database. Before the wizard is started you will have to select the module into which you would like to import the items.

## Formats

Select the type of import you would like to perform. For XML files select the XML Import. For text files select the CSV import. A valid CSV contains one item per line. The values of each of the items are separated by a specific character.

## Configuration

Depending on the format you have chosen some of the configuration options might not be available.

- | Character Set. Select the character set or encoding. In most cases UTF-8 will be sufficient. In case you end up with items containing strange characters or lots of questions marks you most likely selected the incorrect character set. Data Crow cannot guess the encoding of the import file. To find out which character set you should use I refer you to the documentation of the application which created the export file. Note that the XML exports of Data Crow are always performed in UTF-8.
- | Value separator. For CSV imports you need to indicate which character was used to separate the values of the items. Set value separator to "TAB" in case tabs were used.
- | Try and match imported items. If selected, Data Crow will try and check whether the item already exists in the database. If so, it will merge the information of the two items.

## Source field mappings

In case you are importing a CSV file you will be asked to map the source fields to the actual Data Crow fields. This is a crucial step in the import. In case you only see one field make sure you have selected the correct value separator in the previous step. Select for each of the fields of the source the correct target name in the table. The target name can be selected from a drop down.

## Limitations

The CSV import will always skip the first line as it expects the field names to be located on this position.