Import Items into the Equipment Tab

This topic explains how to import a list of items into the Equipment tab of one or more locations active in an election. For instructions on manually adding items rather than using the import program, see How to Add Items to the Equipment Tab.

The Equipment Import program reads items from a tab-delimited text (txt) file and adds them to the list on the Equipment tab for the specified location. The program expects the text file to be formatted into the following columns. In the columns marked Optional, entry of data in the columns is not required, but the columns must be present in the specified order so that the file can be read successfully.

Column Name	Description
Election Number	Required. The 3-digit number of the election in which the equipment will be used.
Location Type	Optional. The 1-character ID representing the place (location) type. Use one of the following: V—Precinct polling place E—Early voting site C—Election center
Location ID	Required. The place ID of the location, as assigned in the Places application.
Delivery Day	Required. The number of days before the election on which delivery is scheduled. Note This field is not copied into the Equipment tab but to the Delivery Date field on the Delivery tab, provided that there is a value in Delivery Route.
Delivery Route	Optional. A number indicating the route on which the delivery will be made. Note This field is not copied into the Equipment tab but to the Delivery Route field on the Delivery tab, provided that there is a value in Delivery Route.
Delivery Sequence	Optional. A number indicating the sequence in which the delivery will be made on the delivery day. Note This field is not copied into the Equipment tab but to the Delivery Sequence field on the Delivery tab, provided that there is a value in Delivery Route.
Driver Cell Phone	Optional. The number of the delivery driver's phone. Note This field is not copied into the Equipment tab but to the Driver Cell Phone field on the Delivery tab, provided that there is a value in Delivery Route.
Equipment Type	Required. The 1- to 4-character equipment code as defined on the Equipment Types Maintenance dialog. Entries in this column are case-sensitive. They must be entered exactly as they are shown on the Equipment Types Maintenance dialog.
Serial Number	Required. An alphanumeric string of up to 20 characters indicating the serial number of the item.
Remarks	Optional. Up to 100 characters of comments. This field is not copied into the Equipment tab.

You can create the file in Microsoft Excel and save it as a text (txt) file. The equipment items need not all be for the same location. You can specify in the Location ID field (of the text file) the place where each time is to be assigned. All items in the text file must be for the same election. Any items for locations that are not active in the election—such as a polling place whose precinct is not voting—will be ignored by the import program.

You should be aware that repeated imports of the same file will result in duplicate entries in the Equipment tab. The import program does not check to determine if an item has already been entered. Nor does it prevent entry of the same serial number on the Equipment tabs of multiple places in the same election.

To import a list of equipment for an election:

On the CallTrack dialog, verify that the correct election is selected in the upper-right corner. The currently select place in the Precinct/Location field does not affect the import, so you can leave this field alone.
On the menu bar, click Maintenance > Import Equipment List. The Import Equipment List dialog appears.
Click Import File and navigate to the text file containing your equipment list. Double-click the file name. The list will be displayed in the Import Equipment List dialog and you will see the message, Equipment List Import Completed. Click OK.

If something is wrong with data in the text file, the error-free items will be shown in the Import Equipment List, but you will see a message indicating the row number containing the error and a description of why the item could not be imported. Usually this is because you left data out of a required field or the equipment type is not cased properly. To resolve the error, click OK on the error message. Then click Cancel on the Import Equipment List dialog so that the items won't be entered into CallTrack. Fix the error in the text file and repeat the import procedure. Although the Import Equipment List appears to allow edits to the imported data, any edits cannot be saved. You must instead edit the text file and reimport it.

Note Values are required in the Equipment Type and Serial Number fields. However, if you leave either field blank, you will not see an error message. So be sure that these fields contain values before importing the text file into CallTrack.

On the Import Equipment List dialog, click Update List to enter the items into their respective Equipment tabs in CallTrack. You'll see a message indicating this has been done.
Click Close to dismiss the Import Equipment List dialog.
The newly imported items will appear on their Equipment tabs. If you don't see them for a location, click Next and then Prior to refresh the display.