Import automation: Critical scenarios

Situation

An attribute exists in the import file but does not (yet) exist in Inxmail.

Consequence

The attribute is ignored during import. The other attributes will be imported.

Situation

An email address appears multiple times in the import file.

Consequence

In Inxmail, the email address plays a central role and can exist only once because it uniquely identifies your recipients.

Inxmail processes your CSV file from top to bottom during import. If an email address appears more than once, Inxmail handles its other attributes according to your import settings for existing recipients.

Example

You have defined the following handling of existing recipients in your import settings:

• Do not make any changes: If the email address does not yet exist in Inxmail, the first entry from your import file will be used. All subsequent entries will be ignored.

• Overwrite completely: Each entry with the same email address overwrites the previous one. In the end, the attributes from the last entry determine the final data.

No error message will appear.

Situation

The start time of an import falls within another import that has not yet finished.

Consequence

Imports cannot run at the same time. Inxmail will start the second import as soon as the first import has finished.

Situation

An import contains multiple import files. One import file is faulty.

Consequence

The valid import files will be imported. The faulty file will fail according to the specific error.

Situation

The SFTP server fails during import.

Consequence

System behavior depends on the time of the failure.

Background: Inxmail will first create an internal list of the import files located on the SFTP server.

• If the SFTP server fails after the list has been created, Inxmail starts importing the known files. The import will fail only for files that have not yet been imported when the SFTP server fails.

• If the SFTP server fails before the list of import files has been created, the entire import will fail.

Situation

The target list was deleted before the import.

Consequence

As soon as you delete a list, Inxmail will deactivate all import automations that use this list as the import target.

Situation

The target list is deleted during the import.

Consequence

The import will stop. All recipients that have already been imported will remain globally available, meaning outside the deleted list.

Situation

A running import is deactivated

Consequence

The running import will still be completed.

Situation

The import starts before the import file has been fully uploaded to the SFTP server.

Consequence

Inxmail will import only the data that is fully available on the SFTP server at the start of the import. If an import file has not yet been fully written, only the part of the file that already exists on the SFTP server will be imported.

You have two options to prevent a partial import of a file:

1. Allow sufficient time between writing the import file to the SFTP server and the start time of the import. This ensures that the import files are fully available on the SFTP server. Also ensure that the files are rewritten only after the previous import has finished.
2. Ensure that import files do not end with .csv or .csv.gz during the writing process. Files that do not with .csv or .csv.gz are ignored during import. Rename the files to .csv or .csv.gz only after the writing process has finished.