Importing Jobs into Dispatch: Customers have many options with doForms for dispatching jobs to users. One of these option is to import job data into doForms using the import option in the dispatch portal.

Assign the dispatches

Upon selecting a file to import, the user will be presented with the import wizard screen.
The first step determines who to send each job to. There are three options:

From the file: If your file contains a column that contains either the users Mobile ID or the Users Nickname, you can point to that column telling the import wizard to automatically dispatch the job in that row to the that specific user.

From the list of users in the system: If all the jobs in the file are to be dispatched to the same user, the system will let you select a user from your licensed user pool.

Imported but not assigned: In this case the import wizard will create the jobs but not dispatch them. They will be given a status of pending and the dispatcher will then edit each record after the fact to assign a user.

When to add a new dispatch

The second step allows a user to import jobs based on the type of job. There are two options:

For every row in the import file: If all of the information for your job is contained in one row, then doForms will create a new dispatch for each row in your import file.

When a column value changes: Certain jobs can contain tasks. Tasks such as items to be delivered or services to be performed can be facilitated by creating a file that has a row for each task.

In the example above 2 Jobs would be created. One for Stop 1 and one for Stop 2. As long as the last three fields are mapped to fields in your form that are contained in a single table, the import wizard will create the Job and load the table for Stop 1 with two rows of data based on the last three columns of data in your imported file. Simply tell the import wizard which field to use to determine when a new job starts. In this case each time the Stop # changes a new job is created.

Map fields

The last step in the process allows you to map the fields in your import file into the fields in your form. If the column names in your file are the same as the data names in your form then doForms will automatically map the fields correctly for you. If they are different, then simply open the field mapper and tell the import wizard which fields in your file map to which fields in your form.

Once you are done, simply hit the import button. Even if you assigned a user you can still choose to import only. This will place the Jobs in pending status even though they are assigned. This will require a dispatcher to request when each job is sent to the user.

Note: An imported dispatch will skip some of the automatic events that happen when a dispatcher sends a dispatch manually. For example, default values may not be populated. Default values may need to be included in the import.