Creating a notes file is the fastest way to upload your Career Services historical notes data in your Handshake system. This article will help you understand the available fields that can be uploaded to Handshake, and how the entries must be formatted. Notes can be attached to users, contacts, events, employers, or appointments. Please keep in mind that they can only be created through the Importer, they cannot be changed or deleted.
Before uploading this file, you should make sure that the following steps have already been completed:
- Student File has been uploaded
- Historical Events file has been uploaded
- Historical Appointments file has been uploaded
Essentially, we want to make sure that the objects you are attaching notes to currently exist in the system.
To start uploading your notes, download this sample file to use as a reference guide. You'll notice that each field has it's own column - make sure that the the headers match exactly! We recommend that you copy and paste from the example file into a blank excel sheet to ensure the formatting of your headers is correct.
Required Fields:
Every Notes file you upload must have these six fields:
identifiable_type: This field is sensitive and must be one of the following values. This is the object you'd like to attach the note to:
User
Contact
Event
Job
Employer
Appointment
UNIQUE IDENTIFIERS: You must include either an identifiable_id or an identifier within this file.
identifiable_id: This can be found in the URL of the event, employer, or appointment.
Do not include this header unless you're linking the note to an event, employer, or appointment.
This is most commonly used for uploading a list of users to an event or career fair. (CASE SENSITIVE)
Example 1:
-
- identifiable_type is Event
- identifiable_id is 00001
Example 2:
-
- identifiable_type is Employer
- identifiable_id is 1
identifier: This is a unique identifier you created yourself and attached to an Appointment or Event. If attaching notes to existing contacts, this value should be the contact email address.
user_type: If the identifiable_type is a user, then user_type must be specified. Potential user_type values below (CASE SENSITIVE):
Students
content: The actual text of the note.
privacy_preference: One of two values (listed below). Personal indicates a private note, viewable only to the creator. Institution indicates it can be seen by all staff. (CASE SENSITIVE)
personal
institution
Recommended Fields:
These fields are recommended, but not necessary. You can choose which ones to include, and the list below will give you some information about each one.
reminder date: If there should be a reminder associated with the note. The best format is yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss (example: 2016-11-01T12:00:00). If you're having problems formatting these dates and times, you can use this Help Center article as a formatting reference guide.
written_at: The date the note was written at. The best format for all dates is yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss (example: 2016-11-01T12:00:00). If left blank, this field defaults to the date you submit your Notes file.
created_by_email: E-mail address of the author of the note. This must correspond to an existing career services user in Handshake. Ensure you have uploaded your career services staff file prior to uploading notes with this field included. If left blank, this field defaults to your institution's Handshake point of contact.
Example CSV File:
How to Upload your Notes File:
- Once your file is prepared, select File > Save As > UTF-8 encoded CSV from Excel (or your preferred CSV file management tool).
- Use the Importer tool to upload/edit your institution's historical notes.
- You will need to select Job Type = Notes