Data Import and Export

If you've run an online business for any length of time, you'll know that manipulating CSV files like a pro is fundamental to success.

Here are the most immediate use cases:

• importing data from a legacy system when starting with Pakk from scratch

• exporting data, bulk manipulation in Excel, then re-import to Pakk

• exporting data for import into 3rd-party systems

• exporting data for backup

• exporting data for reporting and analysis

Here's the thing though - you'll also know that the CSV format can be unwieldy and the export/import process tedious, for lots of reasons:

• column headings misspelt

• column headings in the wrong order

• stray characters like " or , within your text can throw a spanner in the works

• differences in line ending and character encoding between systems

• complex and embedded structures like lists or composite fields don't map at all well to the CSV format

• referencing other records by their ID can be hard to get right

• empty lines at the bottom of your CSV

I've probably still missed quite a few!

The Pakk data export/import system is designed, as far as possible, to be your everyday companion in commerce data munging and to be as painless as possible in the face of the above difficulties.