Import Formatting Guide for Importing Questions & Answers (System Administration Content Management)

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Platform Benefits
- Ecommerce
- Ecommerce
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Platform Benefits
- Ecommerce
- Ecommerce
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Ecommerce Integrations
- Bigcommerce
- Bigcommerce
- Shopify
- Shopify
- Volusion
- Volusion
- Woocommerce
- Woocommerce
Ecommerce Integrations
- Bigcommerce
- Bigcommerce
- Shopify
- Shopify
- Volusion
- Volusion
- Woocommerce
- Woocommerce
Sales Support
Sales Support
Feature Requests
Feature Requests
Public Q&A System
- Answering Questions
- Answering Questions
- Asking Questions
- Asking Questions
- Keyword Searches
- Keyword Searches
- Point System and Structure
- Point System and Structure
- Registration and Login
- Registration and Login
- Other
- Other
Public Q&A System
- Answering Questions
- Answering Questions
- Asking Questions
- Asking Questions
- Keyword Searches
- Keyword Searches
- Point System and Structure
- Point System and Structure
- Registration and Login
- Registration and Login
- Other
- Other
System Administration
- Category Management
- Category Management
- Content Management
- Content Management
- Customization
- Customization
- Integrating Your Site
- Integrating Your Site
- Moderation
- Moderation
- Reports
- Reports
- Third Party Login
- Third Party Login
- User Management
- User Management
- Other
- Other
System Administration
- Category Management
- Category Management
- Content Management
- Content Management
- Customization
- Customization
- Integrating Your Site
- Integrating Your Site
- Moderation
- Moderation
- Reports
- Reports
- Third Party Login
- Third Party Login
- User Management
- User Management
- Other
- Other
Billing and Payments
Billing and Payments
Report a Bug
Report a Bug
Frequently Used
Frequently Used
Other
Other

Column	Data	Data Type	Required	Character Limit	Special Instructions
Column 1	Category	Plain Text	No	100	Product Categories (for ecommerce sites): If you're an ecommerce site and want to associate this question with a product category, you MUST make sure that your product categorization structure is reflected under "System Settings > Ecommerce Module > Categorization" and then you can populate this field with the "External ID" for the product category you'd like each question associated with. The External ID can be seen when you're looking at your ecommerce product categorization as mentioned above, and should be consistent with your ecommerce platform's unique ID for the product category. IMPORTANT NOTE: For this usage, only populate this row and leave all of the Subcategory rows blank in the import document. Other Category Taxononomy (not an ecommerce site): If product categories are not relevant for your use case you can also identify the category taxonomy recognized in your administration site under "Categories". If you have categories saved already, you can identify the root level category name that matches a category that you’ve already saved into the system. If you don't have categories created yet, what you identify here will be automatically created and populate the category structure you define within your CSV import.
Column 2	Subcategory Level 1	Plain Text	No	100	Provide the second level subcategory name in your hierarchy for the question that either matches a category that you’ve already saved into the system or you also have the ability to have the system create and populate the category structure defined in your CSV during the import. If you don’t have a category structure with 2 levels, this can be left blank. If you do define this field, it will be created or identified as a subcategory of the root category defined in Field 1.
Column 3	Subcategory Level 2	Plain Text	No	1000	Provide the third level subcategory name in your hierarchy for the question that either matches a category that you’ve already saved into the system or you also have the ability to have the system create and populate the category structure defined in your CSV during the import. If you don’t have a category structure with 3 levels, this can be left blank. If you do define this field, it will be created or identified as a subcategory of the level 2 subcategory defined in Field 2.
Column 4	Subcategory Level 3	Plan Text	No	100	Provide the third level subcategory name in your hierarchy for the question that either matches a category that you’ve already saved into the system or you also have the ability to have the system create and populate the category structure defined in your CSV during the import. If you don’t have a category structure with 3 levels, this can be left blank. If you do define this field, it will be created or identified as a subcategory of the level 3 subcategory defined in Field 3.
Column 5	Product ID	Plain Text	No	150	IMPORTANT: You need to make sure that your product information is already synced with Answerbase for the import to make this connection, so ensure that is done before you import your content. Read more here. If your site is using the Ecommerce module you can import content associated to your products by adding one or more product ids here, separated by “&&”. Example: “PRODUCTID1&&PRODUCTID2” This will accept either the “External ID” or the “Product SKU” for your products that have been saved into Answerbase, the external ID will be searched for and matched as a priority and then if there is no match it will look to match via the Produce SKU value. If the question is associated with all products, please put the word “ALL” in the field.
Column 6	Question Time	Plain Text	Yes	20	Date format: YYYY/MM/DD HH:MM
Column 7	Question Title	Plain Text	Yes	115	This question title should be SEO friendly, as this question title will be the text displayed on all questions lists throughout the system as well as determine the page title and page URL of the question details page on the public site. The question title should be plain text and not include any HTML tags or other code.
Column 8	Question Details	Plain Text	No	1000	This question detail should give more background information, if necessary, needed to effectively answer the question. The text can include plain text and simple HTML formatting (links, bold, italics, underline, numbered lists, bulleted lists).
Column 9	Question User	Plain Text	Yes	50	This field will represent on the system as the user who asks the seed question. The field should be populated with a username of an existing user OR a user you have made up. If the user already exists in the system, the question will be associated with his/her account. If the user doesn’t exist, the system will automatically spawn a new seed user. If you want to associate this with existing users, you'll need to Manage a User Import first and there you will define the users username, email address, etc...so you'll manage that first and afterwards manage the content import and ensure that the usernames are consistent.
Column 10	Answer 1 Time	Plain Text	Yes	20	Date format: YYYY/MM/DD HH:MM
Column 11	Answer 1	Plain Text	No	2500	The Answer 1 text should represent what you’d like the first answer to be for the question. The text can include plain text and simple HTML formatting (links, bold, italics, underline, numbered lists, bulleted lists).
Column 12	Answer 1 User	Plain Text	No This field is only required if the field “Answer 1” is provided	50	This field will represent on the system as the user who submitted Answer 1. The field should be populated with a username of an existing user OR a user you have made up. If the user already exists in the system, the question will be associated with his/her account. If the user doesn’t exist, the system will automatically spawn a new seed user.
Column 13	Answer 2 Time	Plain Text	Yes	20	Date format: YYYY/MM/DD HH:MM
Column 14	Answer 2	Plain Text	No	2500	The Answer 1 text should represent what you’d like the first answer to be for the question. The text can include plain text and simple HTML formatting (links, bold, italics, underline, numbered lists, bulleted lists).
Column 15	Answer 2 User	Plain Text	No This field is only required if the field “Answer 1” is provided	50	This field will represent on the system as the user who submitted Answer 2. The field should be populated with a username of an existing user OR a user you have made up. If the user already exists in the system, the question will be associated with his/her account. If the user doesn’t exist, the system will automatically spawn a new seed user.
Column 16	Answer 3 Time	Plain Text	Yes	20	Date format: YYYY/MM/DD HH:MM
Column 17	Answer 3	Plain Text	No	2500	The Answer 3 text should represent what you’d like the first answer to be for the question. The text can include plain text and simple HTML formatting (links, bold, italics, underline, numbered lists, bulleted lists).
Column 18	Answer 3 User	Plain Text	No This field is only required if the field “Answer 1” is provided	50	This field will represent on the system as the user who submitted Answer 3. The field should be populated with a username of an existing user OR a user you have made up. If the user already exists in the system, the question will be associated with his/her account. If the user doesn’t exist, the system will automatically spawn a new seed user.
Column 19	Answer 4 Time	Plain Text	Yes	20	Date format: YYYY/MM/DD HH:MM
Column 20	Answer 4	Plain Text	No	2500	The Answer 4 text should represent what you’d like the first answer to be for the question. The text can include plain text and simple HTML formatting (links, bold, italics, underline, numbered lists, bulleted lists).
Column 21	Answer 4 User	Plain Text	No This field is only required if the field “Answer 1” is provided	50	This field will represent on the system as the user who submitted Answer 4. The field should be populated with a username of an existing user OR a user you have made up. If the user already exists in the system, the question will be associated with his/her account. If the user doesn’t exist, the system will automatically spawn a new seed user.
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Column 305	Answer 100 Time	Plain Text	Yes	20	Date format: YYYY/MM/DD HH:MM
Column 306	Answer 100	Plain Text	No	2500	The Answer 100 text should represent what you’d like the first answer to be for the question. The text can include plain text and simple HTML formatting (links, bold, italics, underline, numbered lists, bulleted lists).
Column 307	Answer 100 User	Plain Text	No This field is only required if the field “Answer 1” is provided	50	This field will represent on the system as the user who submitted Answer 100. The field should be populated with a username of an existing user OR a user you have made up. If the user already exists in the system, the question will be associated with his/her account. If the user doesn’t exist, the system will automatically spawn a new seed user.

Column	Data	Data Type	Required	Character Limit	Special Instructions
Column 1	Tag 1	Plain Text	No	100	Provide the tag name that you’d like the question tagged with for use in search and browsing questions. If the tag does not already exist, you have the option to automatically create the tag when you import your content.
Column 2	Tag 2	Plain Text	No	100	Provide the tag name that you’d like the question tagged with for use in search and browsing questions. If the tag does not already exist, you have the option to automatically create the tag when you import your content.
Column 3	Tag 3	Plain Text	No	1000	Provide the tag name that you’d like the question tagged with for use in search and browsing questions. If the tag does not already exist, you have the option to automatically create the tag when you import your content.
Column 4	Tag 4	Plan Text	No	100	Provide the tag name that you’d like the question tagged with for use in search and browsing questions. If the tag does not already exist, you have the option to automatically create the tag when you import your content.
Column 5	Product ID	Plain Text	No	150	If your site is using the Ecommerce module you can import content associated to your products by adding one or more product ids here, separated by “&&”. Example: “CHI-SHI-RED-SMA&&CHI-SHI-BLA-MED&&TSH-MED-WHI-COT” This will accept either the “External ID” or the “Product SKU” for your products that have been saved into Answerbase, the external ID will be searched for and matched as a priority and then if there is no match it will look to match via the Produce SKU value. If the question is associated with all products, please put the word “ALL” in the field.
Column 6	Question Time	Plain Text	Yes	20	Date format: YYYY/MM/DD HH:MM
Column 7	Question Title	Plain Text	Yes	115	This question title should be SEO friendly, as this question title will be the text displayed on all questions lists throughout the system as well as determine the page title and page URL of the question details page on the public site. The question title should be plain text and not include any HTML tags or other code.
Column 8	Question Details	Plain Text	No	1000	This question detail should give more background information, if necessary, needed to effectively answer the question. The text can include plain text and simple HTML formatting (links, bold, italics, underline, numbered lists, bulleted lists).
Column 9	Question User	Plain Text	Yes	50	This field will represent on the system as the user who asks the seed question. The field should be populated with a username of an existing user OR a user you have made up. If the user already exists in the system, the question will be associated with his/her account. If the user doesn’t exist, the system will automatically spawn a new seed user.
Column 10	Answer 1 Time	Plain Text	Yes	20	Date format: YYYY/MM/DD HH:MM
Column 11	Answer 1	Plain Text	No	2500	The Answer 1 text should represent what you’d like the first answer to be for the question. The text can include plain text and simple HTML formatting (links, bold, italics, underline, numbered lists, bulleted lists).
Column 12	Answer 1 User	Plain Text	No This field is only required if the field “Answer 1” is provided	50	This field will represent on the system as the user who submitted Answer 1. The field should be populated with a username of an existing user OR a user you have made up. If the user already exists in the system, the question will be associated with his/her account. If the user doesn’t exist, the system will automatically spawn a new seed user.
Column 13	Answer 2 Time	Plain Text	Yes	20	Date format: YYYY/MM/DD HH:MM
Column 14	Answer 2	Plain Text	No	2500	The Answer 1 text should represent what you’d like the first answer to be for the question. The text can include plain text and simple HTML formatting (links, bold, italics, underline, numbered lists, bulleted lists).
Column 15	Answer 2 User	Plain Text	No This field is only required if the field “Answer 1” is provided	50	This field will represent on the system as the user who submitted Answer 2. The field should be populated with a username of an existing user OR a user you have made up. If the user already exists in the system, the question will be associated with his/her account. If the user doesn’t exist, the system will automatically spawn a new seed user.
Column 16	Answer 3 Time	Plain Text	Yes	20	Date format: YYYY/MM/DD HH:MM
Column 17	Answer 3	Plain Text	No	2500	The Answer 3 text should represent what you’d like the first answer to be for the question. The text can include plain text and simple HTML formatting (links, bold, italics, underline, numbered lists, bulleted lists).
Column 18	Answer 3 User	Plain Text	No This field is only required if the field “Answer 1” is provided	50	This field will represent on the system as the user who submitted Answer 3. The field should be populated with a username of an existing user OR a user you have made up. If the user already exists in the system, the question will be associated with his/her account. If the user doesn’t exist, the system will automatically spawn a new seed user.
Column 19	Answer 4 Time	Plain Text	Yes	20	Date format: YYYY/MM/DD HH:MM
Column 20	Answer 4	Plain Text	No	2500	The Answer 4 text should represent what you’d like the first answer to be for the question. The text can include plain text and simple HTML formatting (links, bold, italics, underline, numbered lists, bulleted lists).
Column 21	Answer 4 User	Plain Text	No This field is only required if the field “Answer 1” is provided	50	This field will represent on the system as the user who submitted Answer 4. The field should be populated with a username of an existing user OR a user you have made up. If the user already exists in the system, the question will be associated with his/her account. If the user doesn’t exist, the system will automatically spawn a new seed user.
...	...	...	...	...	...
Column 305	Answer 100 Time	Plain Text	Yes	20	Date format: YYYY/MM/DD HH:MM
Column 306	Answer 100	Plain Text	No	2500	The Answer 100 text should represent what you’d like the first answer to be for the question. The text can include plain text and simple HTML formatting (links, bold, italics, underline, numbered lists, bulleted lists).
Column 307	Answer 100 User	Plain Text	No This field is only required if the field “Answer 1” is provided	50	This field will represent on the system as the user who submitted Answer 100. The field should be populated with a username of an existing user OR a user you have made up. If the user already exists in the system, the question will be associated with his/her account. If the user doesn’t exist, the system will automatically spawn a new seed user.