Perfion's Import Wizard makes it easier than ever to import product data from Excel and other file formats — even if your files aren’t in the standard Perfion format. The wizard guides you through a step-by-step process to configure, map, validate, and import your data. The Import Wizard was introduced in Perfion 2025-R1.

To open the Import Wizard, click the Tools button in the menu bar and choose Import Wizard.

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The following overlay will open.

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Overlay of the Import Process

The Import Wizard consists of four simple steps:

1. Select File – Upload your file

2. Configuration – Choose how the data should be handled

3. Mapping – Match columns in your file to Perfion features

4. Validate – Perfion checks your data for errors

Select File

There are two types of files you can upload:

1. Data File - .csv, .xls, xlsx, xlf, .xliff, .xml and .txt are supported

2. Asset File - .zip (zipped folder) with image files

Files can be drag and dropped into the upload areas or click on the Browse button to open your file explorer.

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Configuration

Before importing, please configure the necessary settings to ensure the data is loaded correctly and matches the intended configuration.

For the Data File (Excel only), the Import Wizard suggests automatically the Header row and First data row. In the rare case that this is incorrect, you can overwrite this by choosing another Header row and/or First data row in the corresponding pull-downs.

For the Asset File no settings have to be configured.

The next step is to tell the Import Wizard into which configuration this data should be imported. At Import to the base feature of that configuration can be chosen. In general this is the Product feature (100).

To continue to the next step there are two options:

1. The Skip mapping button, where you go directly to Validation (all file types)

2. The Next button, where you proceed to Mapping (Excel only)

If you column names differ from the feature names in Perfion, you need to go to Mapping. If they are the same, your can skip the mapping and proceed to Validation.

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Mapping

In the Mapping step the Import Wizard checks for each column if there is a feature in Perfion where it can map to and in which language. If no feature can be found by the Wizard, you can choose the feature from the Feature pull-down. If it is a localizable feature, you also need to select the language in the Language pull-down.

You can also uncheck the Import checkbox for features you don’t want to import.

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Options

In the “Options” fold-out menu, you can further specify import options on how data should be treated during the import. Please note the following:

• The settings you make in this section are saved together with the mappings.
  This ensures that every import runs exactly as it did the last time.

• User roles remain respected.
  If a user loads a mapping that includes settings they do not have permission to use, the Validation step in the Import Wizard will display a warning.

Key Column Name

With the Import Wizard it is not necessary anymore to have the Key Feature in the first column. You can choose it in the Key Column Name the drop-down, that lists all possible key column headers of the Excel file.

Key Feature Requirements:

• String or Number Key feature must be one of these data types

• Explicit Key feature must be explicit (not selectable, see exception below)

• Non-inheritable Key feature must be non-inheritable (not inheritable)

• Single value Key feature must be single value (not allow multiple)

Base feature exception:

The base feature (= the feature to import to) can naturally also be used as key feature. This feature will always be selectable as it holds the items you want to update. The base feature can also be inheritable and allow multiple, and it data types Image, File and Date are also supported.

Feature validation

The Import Wizard makes it possible to respect Feature validations. With the ‘old’ Importer, these were ignored and not allowed values would be imported. With the Import Wizard there are now three options, using the Feature validation drop-down:

1. Stop Import - Import will stop and throw an error if Excel file contains values that violate feature validation rules (default)

2. Create Values - During import all values will be created, even values that violate feature validation rules (like the ‘old’ Importer)

3. Ignore Values - If there are violations of feature validations, then the import will ignore these values and not import them (existing values will be kept), only values without validation violations will be imported.

Unknown selectable values

Selectable feature validation is also possible with the Import Wizard. It works a bit differently then the one in the ‘old’ importer. There are now three options available in the Unknown selectable values drop-down:

1. Stop Import - Import will stop and throw an error if Excel file contains unknown selectable values (default)

2. Create Values - Unknown selectable values are created as selectable items

3. Ignore Values - Unknown selectable values are ignored - no selectable items are created and no values are assigned to main items.

Multivalue features

Here multivalue handling can be specified. There are two options in the Multivalue features drop-down:

1. Merge - New values will be merged with existing values (default)

   • If feature is sortable, new values will be placed after existing values

2. Replace - Existing values in Perfion will be replaced by new values.

   • If feature is sortable, new values will be sorted according to order in the input data source.

Empty cells

How to cope with empty cells can be specified in the Empty cells drop-down, there are two options:

1. Keep existing values - Empty cells are ignored, existing values in Perfion are left untouched (default)

2. Delete existing values - Empty cells are respected, existing values in Perfion are deleted.

New items

In this setting it is possible to specify how new items should be handled. In the New items drop-down there are 3 options:

1. Create Items - New items are created (default)

2. Ignore Items - New items are ignored, updates to existing items are imported

3. Stop Import - Import will stop and throw an error if Excel file contains new items.

Date format in data file

By default, the importer will accept and understand dates from Excel without specifying a specific format. If dates in Excel sheet are not correctly formatted as dates (but rather as strings) or if dates are imported to multivalue date features , you must specify a date format. In the “Date format in data file” drop-down there are the following eight formats available:

1. dd/mm/yy - Example values: 24-12-96 or 24/12/96

2. dd/mm/yyyy - Example values: 24-12-1996 or 24/12/1996

3. mm/dd/yy - Example values: 12-24-96 or 12/24/96

4. mm/dd/yyyy - Example values: 12-24-1996 or 12/24/1996

5. yy/dd/mm - Example values: 96-12-24 or 96/12/24

6. yy/mm/dd - Example values: 96-12-24 or 96/12/24

7. yyyy/dd/mm - Example values: 1996-24-12 or 1996/24/12

8. yyyy/mm/dd - Example values: 1996-12-24 or 1996/12/24.

Number format in data file

By default, the importer will accept and understand numbers from Excel without specifying a decimal separator. If numbers are imported to multivalue number features, you must specify the decimal separator found in the Excel file.

There are two possible formats:

1. 1234,15

2. 1234.15

When done with the settings in the “Options” area and the mapping, click on Next to proceed to the Validation step.

Load Mapping

Clicking Load Mapping opens the Select Mapping dialog, where you can:

• Select and load a mapping into your current configuration.

• Delete existing mappings.

• Filter mappings by base feature.

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Important:
The list only shows mappings relevant to the chosen base feature.

Handling Inconsistencies

When applying a loaded mapping, some mismatches may occur:

• Field exists in import file but not in mapping → No issue, no report.

• Field mapped but missing in import file → Warning reported.

• Mapping includes localization but feature is no longer localizable → Warning; mapping loads without localization.

• Mapping includes localization language but feature is not localizable → Warning; mapping loads without localization.

Mappings do not store feature type, selectability, or validation details.

Save Mapping

Save Mapping behaves differently depending on the context:

• No mapping loaded → Opens Save Mapping dialog to name the mapping.
  
  

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  Mapping loaded → Prompts to update existing mapping or save as new. The Save button is disabled → When no changes have been made.
  
  

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  • If you choose Save New, the dialog opens for naming the mapping.

• If changes are made after loading and you click Next, you’ll be asked whether to update the mapping. The Save button is disabled → When no changes have been made.

Sharing Mappings

On the load screen, the creator can choose to share the mapping with other users.

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AI-Powered Auto Mapping

When importing files into Perfion, users often encounter spreadsheets with a large number of columns - sometimes over 100. Mapping these columns manually to existing features in Perfion can be time-consuming, especially when column names do not exactly match Perfion’s feature names. For example, a column labeled "Colour" in Excel should ideally map to "Color" in Perfion, and "UoM" is a common abbreviation for "Unit of Measure".

To streamline this process, we’ve introduced an AI-powered Auto Mapping feature in the Import Wizard.

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A button on the mapping page allows users to trigger automatic mapping. When clicked, the system sends the column headers to an AI model. The model analyzes the headers and compares them to existing features in Perfion, returning the best possible matches. It also ensures that the mapped features are aligned with the correct language settings in Perfion.

This enhancement significantly reduces manual effort and improves accuracy when importing large datasets.

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Validation

If there is a violation of a validation, an error message is displayed and the Import button is locked.

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Import Wizard doesn’t allow importing Read Only features

If all settings were correct, a corresponding message will appear and you can start the import:

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If you click on Import, the import will start on the Application server in the background. At the Completed Jobs menu you can see if the import succeeded.

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Import succeeded