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Why? Occasionally, you may may want to provide access to restricted sections of your website to a large group of users. If those users need variable access to these restricted sections, it may be quickest and easiest to import all of the accounts at once. If you only wish to provide access to a single restricted area of your website, you could consider using a single user account. But if each user may have different access to different areas of the website, then assigning each user their own account is required.

First, it is important to understand that you can only import Self-Registered user accounts using this tool (see Understand User Account Types). Once imported, you may change the accounts to different types, but they must be imported as Self-Registered.

Second, if you wish to assign accounts to groups on import, those groups can only be Limited Groups (see Understand Group Types), because Self-Registered users can only be assigned to Limited Groups.

Finally, before you import accounts, you must prepare a CSV file with the account information. This CSV must have the field names in the first row. In addition, the following fields are required, named exactly as shown, and each of these must have a value to be imported:

• FirstName - The user's first name.
• LastName - The user's last name.
• Email - The user's email address. This must be unique. Duplicates will not be imported.
• Password - The initial password for the account. The user can change it later. This could be all the same password, or derived from other user data using a formula. Make sure that it is a password you can communicate clearly to the users and will be reasonably secure.

Optionally, additional columns may be added to assign accounts to groups after each account is added. The first row of a group column must contain the exact Group name from Group Manager. Any value (such as Y or X or yes) in a user's row will make that user a member of the group.

Columns that are not one of the four required and do not match a Limited Group name will be ignored. Email addresses that already have an account will not be added, but if an existing account is added to a new Group, that assignment will happen.

Once all that is understood and complete, here is how to import user accounts:

1. Log in with your Site Manager account.
2. Click My Profile. The Login window appears displaying the Site Manager System Tools.
3. Click User Manager. The User Manager window appears.
4. In the left column, click Import Self-Registered Accounts. The User Import window appears.
5. Click Upload CSV File. The File Upload window appears.
6. Click Choose File and select the CSV file you have prepared. When ready, click Submit. The File Upload window displays the File uploaded successfully message. Click Close This Window.
7. On the User Import window, review the results. The report should describe how many rows and columns were read, which fields were used or ignored, and how many accounts were added. In the Status table, at the end of each row, the user's Account ID and a status message will be shown. Review this information to determine which accounts were added or not.
8. In the left column, click Close This Window when done.