Data import with spreadsheets (.xls) or comma / tab separated values (CSV / TSV files)

Navigate to the target folder where the data should be imported. In the menu at the top of the page click "Im-/Export" and choose "Simple Groupware Import". The import GUI comes up. Here you can choose one or more spreadsheet files to import new datasets. Uploaded files can be validated with the "Validate" button or imported with the "Import" button.

Inside the spreadsheet file, each line represents one dataset. The first line should contain the names of the fields (e.g. Subject, Begin, etc.). An example spreadsheet containing the right field names for the current folder can be downloaded by clicking "Download example file (.xls)".

Note: CSV or TSV files (.csv, .tsv) can be opened in OpenOffice and saved to .xls (Microsoft Excel 97/2000/XP).

Note: Assets can be imported into multiple folders by adding the "Folder" column to the first line and the corresponding folder IDs to the following lines.

Note: Assets can be overwritten by adding the "Id" column to the first line and the corresponding IDs to the following lines.

Direct access with a mountpoint

Simple Groupware can get data form several data sources. Among those are IMAP, SMTP, POP3, iCalendar, RSS, vCard, XML, CSV, LDIF, CIFS, etc.
To read data that is stored outside the database, you need to create a new folder and set a mountpoint to the data source.

In order to import data, you can upload files to the "<sgs-dir>/import/" folder and set a mountpoint to that file. For a user-defined import, upload files to "<sgs-dir>/simple_store/home/<username>/". The mountpoint to this folder is automatically available under "/Workspace/Personal folders/<username>/Files/Import/".

With a mountpoint, external data sources easily get integrated into the Simple Groupware folder tree (similar to the Linux file system). Inside a folder, you can use copy / paste to copy data from external data sources to the Simple Groupware database. In the Simple Groupware database, all data is indexed and can be searched quickly for all users. With the right folder permissions, you can automatically share external data sources with other users. That way, you can create public mail folders, share the latest news, integrate several file servers, etc.

Note: To use the credentials of the current user for a mountpoint, you can specify "%username%" and "%password%" as username/password.

Note: Using mountpoints to servers like IMAP, POP3, CIFS, etc. all data remains on these servers, only the caching goes to "<sgs-dir>/simple_cache".

Mountpoint syntax for IMAP (e-mail client)

Type: IMAP, Username, Password, Port, Security, Hostname, Path

(folder, port and tls are optional)

To use the credentials of the current user, you can specify "%username%" and "%password%" as username/password.

Limitation: In the current version, when you create a new mail in an IMAP folder, the mail gets sent immediately (if the folder is not named "Drafts"). Proxy servers for IMAP are currently not supported.

Note: When deleting a mail, the mail gets copied to the folder "INBOX/Trash" or "Trash" before deleting it. If the folder does not exist, it will be created automatically. In older versions (before 0.407), you might need to create it with a separate mail client.

Note: When sending a mail from an IMAP folder, the mail gets saved to the current folder (not to a predefined "sent" folder).

Note: If you use UW-IMAP as server and see folders that belong to the file system, you may need to specify "subscribed=true" in the options field in order to show only the folders that are subscribed.

Note: (only applies to 0.298, 0.297) If you use an IMAP server that does not support server-based sorting, you need to specify "getall=true" in the options field in order to list mails in a folder. This method will be slower in big folders.

Mountpoint syntax for POP3 (e-mail client)

Type: POP3, Username, Password, Port, Security, Hostname

(folder, port and tls are optional)

Warning: POP3 doesn't support server based structure summaries. Every e-mail has to be downloaded and completely parsed by the webserver. This takes a lot of memory and cpu resources and is very slow. Therefore you should use IMAP whenever possible.

Limitation: Proxy servers for POP3 are currently not supported.

Mountpoint syntax for SMTP (e-mail client)

Type: SMTP, Username, Password, Port, Security, Hostname

(port, tls, username and password are optional)

Note: In the current version, mails are sent as a blind carbon copy (bcc) to the sender. If the sender mail address is not given in the options field, it gets determined by username@hostname.

Note: A SMTP mountpoint will only be used under the directory it is created. When sending mails from an email folder or an IMAP/POP3 mountpoint, the default SMTP connection specified for the user will be used, see Administrate Users.

Note: Beginning with version 0.311, you can define a name which is included in the from header of the mails being sent out. This name is defined next to the mail address in the options field, separated with a "|".

Mountpoint syntax for PmWiki page stores

Type: PmWiki, Path: path/ (e.g. a wiki.d/ directory)

Note: To include uploaded files from PmWiki, you can create a directory named "uploads" in the mountpoint path (e.g. pmwiki_cms/uploads/). Also make sure that there is no ".htaccess" file inside the path that forbids accessing the upload directory.

Mountpoint syntax for Outlook CSV contacts / Google mail contacts

Type: CSV_Contacts, Path: path/filename.csv

An example file is included in "<sgs-dir>/import/example_contacts.csv".

Note: If your csv file is not encoded in UTF-8, make sure that the filename contains "iso", so it gets converted to unicode (e.g. contacts_iso.csv).

Note: The first line of the csv file should look like this: "Title","First Name","Last Name","Company","E-mail Address","...

Mountpoint syntax for LDIF contacts (LDAP Data Interchange Format)

Type: LDIF_Contacts, Path: path/filename.ldif

An example file is included in "<sgs-dir>/import/example.ldif".

Mountpoint syntax for LDAP (contacts)

Type: LDAP, Username, Password, Port, Security, Options (base DN), Hostname, Path

(folder, port, tls and base DN are optional)

Note: Simple Groupware tries to detect the base DN automatically using namingContexts. If the detection fails, you can specify the base DN manually inside the options field.

Mountpoint syntax for XML contacts

Type: XML, Path: path/filename.xml

An example file is included in "<sgs-dir>/import/example.xml".

Note: See "<sgs-dir>/import/example.xml" for an example of a valid XML structure for contacts.

Mountpoint syntax for vCard (contacts)

Type: vCard, Path: path/filename.vcf

An example file is included in "<sgs-dir>/import/example_contacts.vcf".

Mountpoint syntax for iCalendar (appointments)

Type: iCalendar, Path: path/filename.ics

An example file is included in "<sgs-dir>/import/example_icalendar.ics".

Limitation: In the current version, special recurrences are not supported. Those are recurrences that are not in a regular repeating order. E.g. the recurrence "last Monday of the month". Others are events repeated on more than one day of the week (only the first will be chosen).

Mountpoint syntax for Outlook CSV appointments

Type: CSV_Calendar, Path: path/filename.csv

An example file is included in "<sgs-dir>/import/example_calendar.csv".

Note: If your csv file is not encoded in UTF-8, make sure that the filename contains "iso", so it gets converted to unicode (e.g. contacts_iso.csv).

Note: The first line of the csv file should look like this: "Subject","Start Date","Start Time","End Date","End Time","All day event","...

Mountpoint syntax for RSS (news feeds, e.g. from Twitter)

Type: RSS, Path: http://hostname/path/filename.xml

Note: To get a feed URL from a web page, simply click the rss icon in your browser and copy-paste the URL.

Mountpoint syntax for CIFS (file server, e.g. Samba, Windows, NetApp)

Type: CIFS, Username, Password, Hostname, Path

(path is optional)

Note: This extension uses the PHP/Java Bridge. For more information about installing the Java Bridge, see Installation. In order to achieve the best performance, please use the DNS name or the IP address of the server (not "localhost").

Note: Since version 0.294, Simple Groupware can also store metadata for every file on a CIFS server (e.g. approval status, description, history). For a file named "myfile.txt", the metadata will be stored in a separate file called "myfile.txt.meta". So when you rename, remove or delete "myfile.txt" outside Simple Groupware, please make sure to do the same with "myfile.txt.meta".

Mountpoint syntax for Google Docs (online file service from Google Inc.)

Type: Google Docs, Username, Password, Path

(path is optional)

Note: The mountpoint handler uses the Google Docs API. When making changes in the web interface of Google Docs (e.g. deleting many folders), it can take a few minutes until you can see the changes within Simple Groupware.

Note: Collections which are assigned to several parent collections will only appear on the collection which was assigned last.

Mountpoint syntax for local files

Type: files, Path: ../import/

Note: Normal users are only allowed to access "sgs/import/" and their individual user directory "sgs/simple_store/home/username/".

Note: Simple Groupware can also store metadata for every file in a local directory (e.g. approval status, description, history). For a file named "myfile.txt", the metadata will be stored in a separate file called "myfile.txt.meta". So when you rename, remove or delete "myfile.txt" outside Simple Groupware, please make sure to do the same with "myfile.txt.meta".

Note: To access NFS, you can mount an exported directory locally in the operating system and mount the local directory in Simple Groupware.

Note: The Files handler can be used to copy/paste files from the local file system to the gallery module (mass import).

Mountpoint syntax for Firefox bookmarks

Type: bookmarks, Path: path/bookmarks.html

An example file is included in "<sgs-dir>/import/bookmarks.html".