How to format your .csv files

Overview

Flare was built for Zendesk Sunshine and connects it to your external systems. To ensure that this connection works smoothly, the .csv files you're importing must comply with certain requirements before uploading them - be it via the Flare Bridge, an API call, or your SFTP folder. 

This document outlines these data requirements and was written for everybody involved in preparing, uploading, and maintaining data for Flare. 

 

Proper Formatting

Before reviewing the structure of the actual .csv file, make sure your file meets these requirements:

• .csv format - Do not use MS_DOS or CSV Macintosh

• UTF-8 encoded - This ensures that special characters are processed properly.

• Comma-separated - Your .csv shouldn't be separated by tab, pipe or other delimiters.
• Consistent Naming - The names of the processed files should have a common pattern so we can know how to process them, i.e. 20210315_Order.csv.
• Consistent date format - Date and time formats in the files should remain consistent and not change between files.

• Only use strings - All fields must be strings (field type)

• No duplicate headers - All column headers in the first row must be unique

The first file of each kind you load to Sunshine will likely contain all initial records in your system. After that, each successive file of the same kind you upload should contain only new and modified records since the last file you provided. These successive files providing updates to the original file is what we refer to as delta files.

All .csv files you plan on uploading to Flare must follow this structure:

1. The first row is the header where you write all the Zendesk Object properties; they all have to be lowercase and with no space between words.
2. The first column (id) has to be a unique identifier for each row (1, 2, 3, 4…….) for as many items as there are in the table. The unique identifier can't exceed 32 characters. 
3. The second column (external_id) has to be the Zendesk organization identifier (in Zendesk support) or contact/company identifier (in Zendesk Sell). 
4. The third column and onwards equal the Zendesk Object properties which will be mapped later.