Account Update by Import

The import feature allows you to upload Excel or CSV files in order to update student accounts. Only administrators can add, edit, delete or move accounts. They can do so with a single file in just one operation.

General Procedure

  1. Export the list of accounts that you want to update.
  2. Edit the information in the exported file. Refer to the tables showing the information that can or cannot be edited for students, teachers or school administrators.
  3. Import the updated file from the Import tab or by selecting the Import… option from the More button´s menu in the Students, Teachers or Schools tab.
  4. Validate the operations that will be carried out in the File preview window, then click Process data and wait for the confirmation window.

Assigning a Teacher to Several Groups

Assign a teacher to several groups by entering the names of the groups, separated by commas (,), in the corresponding cell in the Groups column.

Note — If the name of the group contains a comma (,), add a backslash (\) before the comma.

Deleting Accounts

To delete accounts when updating by import, enter yes or 1 in cells of the Delete? column.

To not delete an account, leave the cells empty.

Note — To not delete an account, you can also enter no or 0 in the cells of the Delete? column.

Warning — Deleting an account permanently removes all personal information and any results associated with that account. This operation cannot be undone.

Editable and Non-editable Information

When using the import feature to update accounts, you can only edit certain types of information. Refer to the following table to know which column headings can and cannot be edited.

Student Accounts

Editable Non-editable
Student ID (optional) School
Student’s first name Teacher’s first name
Student’s last name Teacher’s last name
Username Completed activities
New password Last login
Email address Edited
Group Typing Pal student ID (optional)
Custom subdomain
Delete?

Teacher Accounts

Editable Non-editable
Teacher’s first name School
Teacher’s last name Number of groups
Username Number of students
New password Last login
Email address Edited
Groups Typing Pal teacher ID
Custom subdomain
Delete?

School Administrator Accounts

Editable Non-editable
School name Number of groups
Custom subdomain Number of teachers
Signup code Number of students
Administrator's first and last name Edited
Username Typing Pal school ID
New password
Email address
Phone number
Delete?

Note — The number and nature of the information columns will vary depending on the list from which you are exporting. For example, if you are exporting a list of student accounts from a group’s Students tab, the Group and the Custom subdomain columns will not be included.

Editing From an External List

You can use a list of student accounts from your own database to update or delete Typing Pal accounts if you bypass the default account identification system, which uses the Typing Pal student ID or the Student ID.

Warning — If you do not use Student IDs or Typing Pal student IDs, make sure no two student accounts have the same username. Student IDs and Typing Pal Student IDs are both unique identifiers specifically meant to prevent another student account from being updated as a result of importing a new student account with the same username.

After making sure every student account has a unique username, perform the following steps:

  1. Tick the Allow existing accounts to be updated or deleted by username option in the Import section of the My settings tab.
  2. Delete the Typing Pal student ID column from the import file to force the system to identify accounts by Student ID or Username, in that respective order.
  3. Import your file to update the accounts.

Unsupported Elements

  • The Excel file must not contain functions. If you were planning on creating passwords using an Excel formula to generate random numbers, we suggest doing so in another Excel file instead. You can then copy the cell value and paste it in the file you want to export by selecting Edit> Paste Special... and choosing the option to paste Values.

  • The columns in a CSV file cannot be separated by a tab character. The only delimiters supported in a CSV file are commas and semicolons.

  • You cannot use the import feature to move a student account to another school. Moving a student account to a group belonging to another school can only be done from the admin interface, not by using the Update by Import feature.