Importing cardholders and credentials - Security Center 5.12

To accelerate the setup of your system, you can import cardholders and credentials from a CSV file instead of creating them manually in Security Center.

1. Do one of the following:
   • To import cardholders or credentials manually, from the Config Tool homepage, click Tools > Import tool.
   • To import cardholders or credentials using a scheduled task, from the Config Tool homepage, open the Automation task, click the Scheduled tasks view, and then configure a new scheduled task as follows:

     Status

     Set to Active.

     Recurrence

     Select how often you want the task to run.

     Action

     Select Import from file.

     Recipient

     Select a user.

     File name

     Click to open the Import tool.

2. On the Welcome page of the Import tool, enter the file path to the CSV file you want to import, and click Next.
   The Settings page opens.

   
3. On the Settings page, configure the import settings:

   Encoding

   Select the character encoding type.

   Column delimiter

   Set the CSV field delimiter for columns.

   Decimal delimiter

   Set the CSV field delimiter for decimals.

   Thousand separator

   Set the CSV field delimiter for thousand separators.

   Start at line

   (Optional) Enter a value of 2 or greater to reserve lines for column headings or comment lines.

   Maximum picture file size

   (Optional) Set the maximum picture file size to minimize storage usage. The default value is taken from your access control system settings. Changing its value in the Import tool also changes your system settings.

   Add credential to cardholder key

   Select this option if the CSV file contains both cardholder and credential information.

   NOTE: This option is only applicable when cardholders and credentials are imported from the same CSV file. When this solution is not applicable, other cardholder information can be used to strengthen the cardholder identification.

   Card format

   Select the default card format to use when a card format is not specified in the CSV file.

   Credential operation

   Select one of the following options:

   Add

   This is the default option. All credentials read from the CSV file are added as entities to your system. If a credential already exists in your database, it will be updated.

   Replace

   With this option, you can replace old credentials with new ones. On the Bindings page, you will find additional options to specify old (previous) and new credential values.

   Cardholder group operation

   Select one of the following options:

   Add

   This is the default option. All cardholder groups from the CSV file are added to your system as entities. If a cardholder group already exists, the cardholder will be added to the group.

   Replace

   With this option, you can change a pre-existing cardholder's group membership. To reassign a cardholder to a new group, change their group value in the CSV file, then set the cardholder group column to Cardholder group on the Bindings page.

   Transparency color

   (Optional) If the cardholder pictures you are importing were taken in front of a chroma key screen, you can make the picture background transparent. This is helpful if you created a badge template with a background image. To set the background transparency of imported cardholder pictures, turn the option on, select the color of the chroma key screen the cardholder pictures were taken in front of (usually green or blue), and then set the transparency percentage.

4. Click Next.
   The Bindings page opens.

   
5. On the Bindings page, for each sample value, select a corresponding database field in the Binding column.
   If you need to skip a column in your CSV file, leave the Binding column blank.

   NOTE: For entities like cardholders and credentials, a minimum amount of information is required to complete the import.
6. (Optional) Add more fields to the cardholder key.
   If you need to differentiate cardholders, you can add additional information by selecting the Key check box beside each field you want to add to the cardholder key. The check box is disabled for ineligible fields.

   Tip: The other method to strengthen the cardholder identification is to add the credential data to the cardholder key.
7. Click Next.
   The Import tool imports the contents of your CSV file into the database. A summary window opens, confirming the number of entities imported and the number of errors encountered.
8. Click to copy and paste the contents of the report.
9. Click Close.