Best practice forum (Archived)

Totara Sync - Add new field to user source (or other sources)

Hello

I have a question regarding adding additional fields to the Totara Sync user source. I'm on the latest Totara : Version 2.2.14 (Build: 20130207.00)

How can we add the user's position start date to the Totara sync user source?
And a follow on question, how can we add other fields to those sources if there are others that are needed?

Regards

Bodo

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Hi Bodo,

This can be achieved simply, and its easy enough to add fields.

Fields can be added via the "User profile fields" feature.

Settings>Site administration>Accounts>User profile fields

Then to add a field via Sync:

Site adminstration>Totara sync>Sources>User>CSV

The fields to import & add can be specified here.

Hope this is useful - if you have any other quieries please dont hesitate to get in touch.

regards,

George.

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Thank you Geroge, How about the existing Position Start Date field that already exists as part of the Position data on a user profile. Can one use Totara Sync to update that?

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Hi Bodo,

Sync will update existing fields, one thing to watch out for though is duplicate ID numbers - this can happen if you are working with user data from different sources.

cheers,

George,

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Hi George

I believe there is a misunderstanding about which field I am refering to. I am refering to the Position start date field that is found on the users profile > Positions > Primary Position > (See screanshot)

At the moment in the documentation for Totara Sync only tells me that I can update the postitle and posidnumber field, and I would like to also update the Position Start Date. Is this possible through Totara Sync?

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Hi Bodo,

I see what you mean! Thanks for brining this to our attention. Ive reported this as a bug, its a relavitvely simple fix and our developers have made this a priority. In the meantime I think for reporting & sync purposes a custom field can be used. Any queries please get back.

regards,

George.

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A patch to add position start and end dates to totara_sync was included in today's release of Totara 2.2.15

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Great news, thank you George and Ciaran

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Hi Ciaran, what format is Totata Sync expecting the Position start date and end date to be in. We are testing a number of formats but we cant find one that works.

Regards

Bodo

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Hi Bodo,

All the totara_sync date fields use the date format specified in Site Administration -> Location -> Location Settings in the setting "CSV Import date format". It defaults to d/m/Y which is e.g. 26/02/2013. Make sure your dates include leading zeroes where appropriate e.g. a date in February should have '02' for the month, not just '2'.

Sync should also accept dates as a unix timestamp.

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Hi Ciaran,

Great to see we can use a range of date formats.

Out of interest, do you know when this feature became available? The help still states that it needs to be a unix timestamp.

One thing though: in Totara Sync, position start and end dates don't update unless you also include the "posidnumber" field in the file. The sync runs fine (there are no errors in the sync log), but the fields aren't updated.

Thanks,

Ryan

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I think the CSV date format setting was added in 2.2.11.

There is a side-project ongoing at the moment to greatly expand and tidy up help and technical documentation so that should improve over the coming months.

We're also looking at improving the sync logging and error reporting, so I'll add your observations about the position dates not updating silently to that enhancement report.

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