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Importing Q&A using the Okendo Import Template
Importing Q&A using the Okendo Import Template

Best practices and tips for importing Q&As using the Okendo Q&A import template.

Norma Cooper avatar
Written by Norma Cooper
Updated over a week ago

Template Introduction

To get started, download the Okendo Q&A Import Template CSV at the bottom of this help article. Within this document, each row represents a single question-and-answer pair. To fill out the template, simply enter the relevant details under the correct header for each row. Our example import file shows how a single question with two different answers could be imported using the template.

Important: Do not modify the header columns in the template file as this could prevent Okendo from recognising the import. For Q&As that do not require certain fields, leave them blank.

Once completed, save the document and export it as a CSV file making sure the text encoding is UTF-8. To avoid formatting issues, we recommended that you use Google Sheets and save with File > Download > Comma Separated Values (.csv).

If you choose to use Microsoft Excel, ensure you select the appropriate Save As option:

The exported file is then ready to be uploaded to your store in the Okendo admin (Settings > Import/Export).

Understanding the Template Fields

Each row represents a single question-and-answer pair. You may import a question without an answer, but each answer must have an associated question. If you want to import multiple answers for the same question, you must duplicate the question fields for each answer. See the example import file for details.

Required Fields

  • questionBody: The question being asked.

  • questionerEmail: The email address of the question asker.

  • questionCreatedAt: The date and time at which the question was created, see ‘Formatting Dates’ below for more details.

  • productId: The Shopify product ID for which the Q&A was written. This can be found at the end of the URL when viewing a product in the Shopify admin area. This is the recommended way to match Q&As to products. (At least one of either productHandle , productId or productSku is required).

  • productHandle: The Shopify handle of the product for which the Q&A was written. This can be found at the end of the URL when viewing a product page on your public site. (At least one of either productHandle , productId or productSku is required).

  • productSku: The SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) of the product for which the Q&A was written. (At least one of either productHandle , productId or productSku is required).

Required Fields for an Answer

You don’t have to include any answer fields if you are only importing a question, but you must include all the below fields (as well as the above required fields) to import an answer successfully.

  • answerBody: The answer to the question.

  • answererEmail: The email address of the answerer

  • answererName: The name of the answerer. Note: unlike the questionerName field, this is required and does not have a fallback.

  • answerCreatedAt: The date and time at which the answer was created, see ‘Formatting Dates’ below for more details.

Additional Fields

  • questionerName: The name of the question asker. If not provided this will fallback to ‘anonymous’.

  • answerIsPublished: Whether the answer is published and publicly viewable across your Okendo widgets. Must be either “true” or “false”, but will fallback to “false” if no value is provided.

Formatting Dates

The importer works best when dates are formatted using the following:

  • Dates should by yyyy-MM-dd where yyyy represents the year, MM the two digit month and dd the two digit day. For example, 8th June 2018 would be represented as 2018-06-08.

  • Times should be HH:mm:ss where HH represents the hours in 24 hour time, mm the two-digit minutes and ss the two digit seconds. For example, 48 seconds past 4:25pm would be represented as 16:25:48.

Both the date and time for each Q&A should be joined together using a space or a 'T' character and be contained within a single field of the template. A joined date-time field could look like this: 2018-06-08 16:25:48

Import Report

After you have successfully submitted your import, our system will process the file and send the account owner an email with a short summary of the import (see screenshot below):

You will also be able to download a detailed version of your import report as a CSV by clicking the "Downloading Import Report" button.

An alternative way to download the import report is to go to Settings > Import/Export > clicking on the download button beside the import:

The last two columns of the CSV (okendoQuestionImportStatus and okendoAnswerImportStatus) show the import status of the corresponding questions and answers. Here, ‘Processed’ indicates that a question or answer passed our validation checks and has been accepted by the system. Otherwise, it will have details of why the import failed. For example:

Any issues, please contact support@okendo.io.

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