Guide for Import Customers for Magento 2

Move customers from CRM systems, third-party sources, marketplaces and other stores into your Magento 2 instance. Configure Import Customers for Magento 2 extension to set flexible integrations and operate your customer base more effectively.

• Import customer data from the third-party platforms, marketplaces, Magento and non-Magento online stores
• Prevent database errors and losses with file validation
• Create multiple import profiles suitable for specific platforms
• Execute import profiles manually or automatically
• Import huge volumes of data (up to 100.000 users in 15 min)
• Solve various business challenges with the 2 extra Amasty Import interfaces

Amasty Import by now has 3 separate modules to carry out import tasks:

• Import Customers: a separate import interface to deal with customer entities on the regular basis
• Amasty One-time Import: suitable for a one-time import of any available entity
• Amasty Import Cron Jobs: a tab to create cron jobs concerning import activity

The more Amasty modules you have, the more entities you will be able to import in the simplified module and in the Cron Jobs version. Follow Import & Export solution updates to discover new possibilities.

Before building import profiles, configure the basic import performance options.

Go to Stores → Configuration → Amasty Extensions → Import Customers.

Import Batch Size - set number of customers that will be processed in an iteration.

Import History Auto-Cleaning - choose Yes to clean logs automatically. The records will be removed from Import History after the period specified below.

Auto-Cleaning Period (Days) - define the period after which import history will be cleaned.

Enable Multi-Process Import - enable this option to perform import in multiple threads and speed up the import process.

Number of Parallel Processes - if the previous option is enabled, specify the number of processes according to your server capabilities. The more parallel processes are set, the faster the import process goes, but the higher the load on the server is.

The extended customer import functionality allows you to create flexible profiles for import and execute it on regular basis. To view all the profiles, proceed to System → Import Customers → Profiles.

Here you can see all existing profiles, their IDs, names, file formats, execution types and the dates of the last run/update.

Let's consider the case of new profile creation. For example, we want to set automatic import of customers from Amazon.

First of all, hit the Add New Profile button.

To avoid mistakes and complete configuration faster, you can use sample files.

To download it, fill in the required fields for profile creation (such as Name, Import Source, etc.). If you have no fields added yet, the file will include all possible data. If you want to generate a specific sample file, proceed to the Fields Configuration first so that the generator could compose a relevant file including only those fields that you've added.

Profile Name - specify the name of the profile for internal usage. This name will be displayed in the grid.

Batch Size - set the number of customers that will be processed in an iteration. You may configure batch size for each profile separately or specify the value in general configuration and use this default value.

You can also automatically send welcome emails when the customers are imported.

Send Welcome Email - set to Yes to enable the option.

Welcome Email From - choose a store view to send emails from.

Now we need to choose the required file type and configure its settings.

The following formats are available:

• CSV
• XML
• JSON
• ODS
• XLSX

For CSV, ODS and XLSX formats you can:

Rows Merged into One - enable this option if the rows in the import files are merged.

Also, specify the Merged Rows Data Delimiter.

For a CSV file you can additionally set:

• Field Delimiter
• Field Enclosure Character

For a JSON file you can additionally set:

• Header
• Items Container Name
• Footer

For a XML file specify the path to the node in the Data XPath field, e.g. if you have <items><item>1</item><item>2</item></items>, the path will be items/item.

The extension includes an XSLT editor so that you could import XML files with any custom formatting. Using this functionality, you can create custom templates for XML documents and add, remove, rearrange or sort elements in the file.

Before importing a custom XML file, review the formatting and find out how the attributes provided in the document are named and structured in Magento. Then, create an Xsl Template to match the values.

We've chosen a CSV format.

Now choose a suitable import source.

Available sources:

• Local Directory
• File Upload
• FTP
• SFTP
• URL
• Google Sheets
• REST API Endpoint
• Dropbox
• Google Drive

For Local Directory specify a File Path relative to Magento installation (e.g. var/import/import.csv).

For File Upload select the file to import. Make sure your file isn't more than 2M and it is saved in UTF-8 encoding for proper import.

If you want to use FTP / SFTP for import, you will need to fill the following fields:

• Host
• User
• Password
• File Path
• File Name for FTP/SFTP.

For FTP you can also enable a Passive Mode.

For URL source, apart from the URL itself, provide Basic Authentication Username and Password.

For Google Sheets specify the required URL.

For REST API Endpoint provide the endpoint (e.g. https://magento.instance/rest/all/V1/some/endpoint) and choose the required authentication method (No Auth, Bearer, Basic).

To import using Dropbox, you will need to provide the access token. Follow the steps below to get the token.

1. Go to https://www.dropbox.com/developers and sign in.

2. Hit the Create Apps button.

3. Choose an API, a type of access you need and specify the title for your folder.

Agree with the terms & conditions and click Create App. You will be automatically redirected to the folder configuration.

4. Proceed to the Permissions tab.

Grant the permissions to write the files and click Submit.

5. Return to the Settings tab.

6. Find the OAuth 2 section and hit the Generate button below the Generated access token field.

7. Copy the token and paste it into the Generated Access Token field.

To set the integration with Google Drive, you need a specific API key. To get the key and configure this import source correctly, follow the steps below.

1. First of all, you need to install Google APIs Client Library on your Magento instance. Click here and install composer require google/apiclient:“^2.0”.

2. Go here and choose a project or create a new one if necessary.

3. When the required project is chosen, return to this page and enable Google Drive API.

4. If everything is correct, you will see the following status:

5. Click Manage and proceed to APIs & Services → Credentials. There click Create Credentials →Service account.

6. Provide Service account details. You can skip Step 2 and Step 3.

Click Done.

7. Navigate to the Service accounts tab and find the required service. Expand the Actions dropdown and hit the Manage keys option.

8. Expand the Add Key dropdown and select Create new key.

9. Choose JSON file format and hit the Create button.

The file will be automatically generated and downloaded.

10. Proceed to the Details tab and copy the email.

11. Go to My Drive. Create a folder from which the files will be imported to Magento. Specify the title.

12. Now click Share and insert the email that you've copied. Click Done.

13. Return to the admin panel. Upload a JSON file, provide the path to the created folder and file title.

The configuration is ready. Run import profile and check the result.

As we already have a CSV file to import, we've chosen the File Upload option.

In this tab, you can adjust import behavior.

Import Behavior - choose a suitable behavior for import:

• Add/Update - in this case, the extension compares customer IDs from the import file and the already existing ones in the Magento instance. If an ID is unique and doesn't exist in Magento, a new customer will be created. If a customer with the same ID exists, the extension just changes/adds the data specified in the import file.
• Only Add - the extension imports customers with new IDs and skips the already existing ones.
• Only Update - the extension updates the information of the existing customers and skips not existing ones.
• Delete - the extension deletes the customers specified in the import file from Magento.

Enable Autofill for Typical Use Cases - if enabled, Fields Configuration will be automatically filled in with the settings to perform the typical use cases for importing customers from third-party systems. The setting can be used only during new profile creation.

Customer Identifier - choose the way to identify customers: by ID or by email.

Validation Strategy - you can either stop the import process if any error appears (Stop On Error option) or skip invalid data and continue importing (Skip Error Entities option).

Allowed Errors Count - specify the number of errors to halt the import process.

In this tab, you need to choose the required entities and map fields. If you enabled the Autofill for Typical Use Cases option previously, the required fields will be automatically added and you can proceed to mapping. If the option was not enabled, you need to add the entities and fields manually.

The functionality has a tree structure. Thus, you can add any entity, any field within a particular entity, customize entity keys/field names/delimiters and so on to match the requirements of the import.

Below you can see all available for importing entities:

Apart from adding required entities and fields, you need to map all required fields and additional fields that you want to import from the file.

Let's see how to configure the mapping.

First of all, open your import file and check how it is configured. Pay attention to column names and delimiters.

As we see, in our file all columns have a custom entity key - amazon.

In this case, we need to provide the same entity key in the fields configuration.

Then we check the delimiters. In our file we have a slash as the delimiter in all root columns:

Thus, we need to specify the same delimiter in the configuration:

If ready, proceed to column names.

Since we've enabled the Autofill for Typical Use Cases and selected the Only Add behavior (as we are importing those customers for the first time), the root entity already has all obligatory fields added. Thus, we must map these ones and add any other optional fields if needed.

Now we check if we have the same columns in our import file.

Here we see that some columns are present. Email column has the same title after the custom key and delimiter, but the rest have a different column name, e.g. instead of firstname we have First-name. If the titles are identical (as we have for the email column), just leave the Import File Field empty. If they are different, we should match the other titles from the import file with the titles in Magento.

If you check all fields and see that some of the required ones are absent in the import file, set the Default Value. For example, Magento requires store_id column, but we don't have this one in our file as Amazon doesn't have this parameter. In this case, we can just provide the required ID in the Default Value field (e.g. 1).

This way, you need to check all fields and map the titles so that the extension could import customers properly. Add any entities and provide custom entity keys if needed.

To add the fields, click Map Fields and choose the necessary ones in the modal window. Use the search field to speed up configuration.

When the configuration is ready, upload the file in the Import Source tab. Click Save and Continue Edit.

Now you can Validate the file.

The extension will display validation progress and results in a popup window.

If the configuration was incorrect, you will see an error with the description.

In case of successful validation, you can start the import.

Now you can use modifiers to change the values specified in a file before importing. For example, you can change the date format, add any text and apply various mathematical actions to prices (e.g. rounding, multiplication, etc.).

Modifiers are added right during the fields configuration.

Hit the Add Modifier button and choose the required action in a dropdown.

Types of modifiers you can use:

• Text Modifiers: Adjust the text of the text values by appending, prepending, capitalizing, etc.
• Numeric Modifiers: Use for number modifications, e.g. rounding prices.
• Date Modifiers: Specify a suitable date format.
• Custom Modifiers: Replace the output of one field with the value of another.

Append - Adds the text after the value in the column. The text is specified in an additional field that appears when this modifier is selected.

Prepend - Adds text before the value in the column. The text is specified in an additional field that appears when this modifier is selected.

Trim - This modifier removes spaces from the beginning and the end of the string (there is already a trim).

Upper Case - After selecting this modifier, the entire word in a value field is capitalized.

Lower Case - After selecting this modifier, the whole word is written in lowercase.

Capitalize - After selecting this modifier, the value in the column is capitalized.

Capitalize Each Word - After selecting this modifier, each word starts with a capital letter.

Strip Html Tags - Modifier removes all HTML tags from the string (the modifier is useful when importing meta titles, descriptions, etc.).

Replace - After choosing this modifier, 2 fields appear: in the first one we indicate the word that needs to be replaced, and in the second one - the word to be replaced with.

Full Match Replace modifier functions similarly to the Replace modifier. However, it only replaces the value from the first field (From) with the value from the second field (To) when the value from the first field is fully matched.

For example, if you specifically need to replace only '2' with '3', it's better to choose the Full Match Replace modifier. This is because if you opt for the Replace modifier instead, specifying From: '2' and To: '3', it might result in '122' being replaced with '133' due to the presence of '2'.

Replace First - the same as Replace, but for the first case only.

Absolute Value - Modifier changes the negative value in the column to positive. Example: was -5 → now is 5.

Round To - When this modifier is selected, an additional field appears, in which we indicate the number of decimal places to which we round the number in the column. Example: 33.75 → enter 1 → get 33.8.

Plus - When this modifier is selected, indicate the number that is added to the number in the column.

Minus - Indicate the number that is subtracted from the number in the column.

Multiplied By - Specify the number that is multiplied by the number in the column.

Divided By - Provide the number by which the number in the column is divided.

Modulo - Indicate the number by which the number in the column is divided, and when division occurs, we get the remainder of the division in the export file. Example: we have 10, entered the number 3, received 1 in the file.

Truncate - Modifier removes decimal numbers without rounding. For example: 33.75 → Truncate → 33.

Ceil - Modifier allows you to round a number up to the nearest whole number.

Floor - Modifier allows you to round a number down to the nearest whole number.

Date Format - Specify the date format that is applied to the date in the file.

In most cases, custom modifiers replace the output of the value of one field with the value of another. For example, Option Label to Option Value: instead of label, the value will be imported. Or, for instance, Status Code for Status ID: instead of code, the id will be imported.

Additionally, you can use the Convert group_code to group_id modifier to import customers and assign them to a customer group using the customer group name.

Moreover, in some import cases (for some EAV attributes), you can use the Create New Attribute Value modifier. This modifier allows you to import specific attribute values, even if they are not currently present in the system, automatically generating them after import.

In this tab, you can filter all customers and import only required ones. For example, import only Active customers.

Filtering duplicates the field configuration structure, which means that you can filter data by any field you've added.

Additionally, you can use specific filters for the Date parameter, e.g. upload customers with accounts created in the last X days or weeks.

If you have configured the mapping and the customers were imported successfully, you can set the automatic import of future users.

Run Profile by Cron - if enabled, the import will be initiated automatically by cron according to the schedule specified.

Frequency - choose a suitable import schedule.

If you choose a custom one, provide the schedule manually.

Using this tab, you can enable email notifications about errors for a particular profile.

Enable Email Alert - set to Yes to notify the recipients about failed imports.

Email Sender - choose the contact that will send automatic emails.

Email Recipients - set to whom the emails will be sent.

Email Template - select the template for failure notifications.

For each profile a separate import history is available. Check the statuses, dates and logs.

If you import customers that belong to customer groups and segments that are not present in Magento, you need to import those data separately. Let's see how to do it step by step.

1. Create a separate profile.

2. Configure File Settings, Import Source and Import Settings as described in the previous section. Do not enable the Autofill for Typical Use Cases option.

3. Proceed to the Fields Configuration tab and expand the Customer Group section.

4. Enable the section and add all the fields.

5. Find these fields in your import file and check the naming.

6. Map entity key, delimiter and field titles as described in the fields configuration section.

7. Validate the file and import it. As the result, you will see the new groups in the Customer Groups section of Magento.

To import customer segments, create a new profile, enable the appropriate subentities and use the same algorithm as for the groups.

We've added all the fields and mapped them. As a result, new segments have appeared.

Now you can import customers with the relevant groups and segments.

You may also check the logs for all import profiles in one place. Navigate to System → Import Customers → History. See the statues and check details to get a full picture.

It is possible to run import and export profiles using the REST API and CLI.

REST API:

• “/V1/am_import_export/get_profile_runners/” method=“GET” - to get available profile runners
• “/V1/am_import_export/run_profile/” method=“POST” - to run a profile
• “/V1/am_import_export/check_profile_status/” method=“POST”- to check profile status

CLI:

• php bin/magento am-import-export:show-profile-runners-list
• php bin/magento am-import-export:run-profile product_import_profile 1
• php bin/magento am-import-export:check-profile-status product_import_profile %identity_from_run_command%

This extension is helpful to perform one-time operations as it has a simplified UI. If you have only the Import Customers extension, you will be able to import any customer entity, but if you will have other import extensions by Amasty, you will easily import any available entity in one place.

Go to System → Amasty Import → Import and select the entity to import.

As soon as you choose the entity, you will be able to configure import details, such as format, title, included fields, etc. Check each configuration detail for each tab in the Import Profile Configuration sections.

To configure the basic options for Amasty Import, navigate to Stores → Configuration → Amasty Extensions → Import.

Enable Multi-Process Import - set to Yes to speed up the import.

Number of Parallel Processes - specify the number of processes according to your server capabilities. The more parallel processes are set, the faster the import process goes, but the higher the server loads.

Enable Debug Mode - set to Yes to allow the system to detect errors and display detailed information about them in the popup (including server errors). Also, error information can be found in var/log/amasty_import_debug.log.

Process Status Check Mode - select the Statuses option if you are using a multi-node environment (this helps prevent possible errors). If you are not using a multi-node environment, please leave the System Process ID option selected.

Enable Import without Memory Limit - enable the setting if the import process terminates because the memory limit exceeds to allow using all available memory volume for the import process.

CLI PHP Path - using this option, you can check the Magento path which is used by our extension when running the commands directly during the processing of PHP requests. To change it, please run the following command:

bin/magento config:set amasty_base/system/cli_php_path %CLI_PHP_PATH%

Also, the extension includes Amasty Import Cron Jobs features: you can create regular cron jobs to import any available entity.

Go to System → Amasty Import → Cron Jobs.

The more installed Amasty Import extensions you have, the more entities you can import by cron.

Click New Import Job.

Choose the entity, specify the cron job title for internal use and set the schedule for importing. The file configuration algorithm is the same as described in the Import Profile section.

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