• Activate your FTP account
• Create a CSV Import file
• Upload the corresponding CSV Import file into your RescueGroups.org FTP account

Activate your FTP Account

You need a RescueGroups.org FTP account in order to upload the data file. We provide a free FTP account to every organization that requests one. It's easy; you just activate it like this:

1. From the home page of your RescueGroups.org account, go to Services > FTP Account.
   
   

Create your CSV Import File

You will need to create a file of the CSV file format. CSV(Comma-separated values) is a text file format that uses commas to separate values, and newlines to separate records. A CSV file stores tabular data in plain text, where each line of the file typically represents one data record.

Your CSV import file will consist of one header row and data rows that contain your animal data. Each data row of your CSV file will correspond to one animal record.

The data rows must contain only supported values, that is, standard values we use for the RescueGroups.org data, such as animal breed, colors, and so forth. You can see these fields by visiting the Supported Animal Import fields article in this guide.

Add an Animal Record to your Import File

When you want to add an animal record to your import file, make sure your import file has a new row for the animal record. Then, on that new row, include the field details for your animal that match your existing header row fields. The CSV format requires that each field is separated by commas, and you should place each value in plain text quotes. Here's a brief example of a file that is adding two animals. 

"externalID", "status", "name", "type",  "priBreed", "secBreed", "mix", "sex", "age", "altered", "size", "uptodate", "color", "courtesy", "dsc", "photo1"
"12345", "Available", "Gulliver", "Dog", "Chihuahua", "", "No", "Male", "Young", "Yes", "Small", "Yes", "", "No", "Gulliver is looking for a home!", "https://example.com/Gulliver1.png"
"12356", "Available", "Tiny", "Dog", "Labrador Retriever", "Boxer", "Yes", "Male", "", "Yes", "", "Yes", "Brindle", "No", "Tiny needs a home!", "https://example.com/Tiny1.png"

Edit an animal record previously added through an Import Account

When you upload an import file again, all the data in that file will be reloaded to your RescueGroups.org account. You'll want to make sure that it contains all the updates needed. To update an animal's data, the externalID value provided in your import file must be unique for each animal and match the existing externalID you used to load the animal record initially. This field is used to match up the animals in your data file with those that have already been imported through that particular Import Account. If you want to update an animal record previously uploaded, you'll need to use the same unique externalID to do so. Below, we've edited the example in our Add section to update the descriptions, and add more detail. We also included a new header item because we have more photos!  

"externalID","status","name","type","priBreed","secBreed","mix","sex","age","altered","size","uptodate","color","courtesy","dsc","photo1","photo2"
"12345","Available","Gulliver","Dog","Chihuahua","","No","Male","Young","Yes","Small","Yes","Tan","No","Gulliver is looking for a home! He is really great with other animals, and likes to cuddle with cats cats.","https://example.com/Gulliver1.png"
"12356","Available","Tiny","Dog","Labrador Retriever","Boxer","Yes","Male","Senior","Yes","X-Large","Yes","Brindle","No","Tiny needs a home! He loves peanut butter and cuddling with friends.","https://example.com/Tiny1.png","https://example.com/Tiny2.png"

Delete an animal record previously added through an Import Account

Once an animal record is added through an import file in an Import Account to your RescueGroups.org account, it can be deleted by simply not including that animal row in future data files. The animal will automatically be deleted. This is done by tracking each animal's externalID, which must be unique for each animal. The one exception to this rule is if you are removing all imported animals. Our system has encountered many situations where uploaded files had zero rows of readable data by accident. In these cases, our system does not delete all imported animals as this was often done in error. Instead of uploading a file with zero rows of data, be sure to include at least one animal row with the status of 'deleted'. To continue using our examples above, let's say you want to delete Gulliver's animal record. You would just upload a new import file without his row included:

"externalID", "status", "name", "type",  "priBreed", "secBreed", "mix", "sex", "age", "altered", "size", "uptodate", "color", "courtesy", "dsc", "photo1", "photo2"
"12356", "Available", "Tiny", "Dog", "Labrador Retriever", "Boxer", "Yes", "Male", "Senior", "Yes", "X-Large", "Yes", "Brindle", "No", "Tiny needs a home!", "https://example.com/Tiny1.png", "https://example.com/Tiny2.png"

Include pictures in your CSV import file

Pictures can be included in one of two ways, either:

• Upload the image files to our FTP server at the import/pictures directory. Then, specify just the image name in your CSV import file. Remember, the image file name in your import file must match the image file exactly, including case and file extension.
  
  
  
• Provide an Internet address (URL) where our system can download the picture. Then, specify the full image URL in the picture fields in your CSV import file. In the examples above, we used this method to add animals with image URLs.

Important details about your CSV import file

• Each data row must have an externalID. The externalID should be a unique value that is used every time that specific unique pet is uploaded to us. The externalID is used by our import system to match up the animals in your data file to the animals that have already been uploaded to our system. We recommend that you develop your own unique ID methods, such as 17050301 for the year, month, day, and the consecutive number of animals in intake. For example, 01 for the first animal of the day, or F1939 for the 1939th feline in your org. If you want to update an animal record previously uploaded, you'll need to use the same unique externalID to do so.
• Please be sure to remove all line breaks (\n, \r\n, etc) from the animal descriptions. Although line breaks are officially supported by the CSV standard, we do not support them in our data files. Either remove them entirely or replace them with HTML <br> tags.

Upload your Import file

 When your Import file is ready, upload it to the import directory of your RescueGroups.org FTP account. See the Uploading data to your FTP account section of this guide for more information.

Other Tips about Importing animals

Here are a few other items to be aware of:

• Animals added through an Import Account will not have a user name listed in the Created By field in the RescueGroups.org animal record.
• If you upload an animal record multiple times through an Import Account, the new data in the import file will always overwrite the existing data for that record. Only the fields you share in the import file will be affected, so for example, if your import file includes photo information and you manually add photos to an imported animal record in your RescueGroups.org account, those photos would be overwritten on the next import.