One of VueMinder's more advanced features is the ability to automate the import of external calendar data from Excel, CSV, tab-delimited text (TSV), and iCalendar (ICS) files. In the previous version, only the iCalendar file import was fully-automated. Automatic importing from Excel, CSV, or TSV files would still result in a wizard appearing, and the user would need to manually click the Next button in order to complete the import.
This has been improved in version 11.3. As long as the column headers in the CSV or Excel file match up with expected field names, VueMinder will be able to automatically import the file without requiring user input.
You can automatically command VueMinder to import events by creating a file named “FilesToImport.txt” in the VueMinder application data folder. The path to the data folder can be found in the Program Options.
The
FilesToImport.txt file simply contains the name of a file (including its full path) to be automatically imported. If multiple files are to be imported, put each file on a separate line. The files listed can be either iCalendar (ics), CSV, Excel, or tab-delimited text files. If using a non-iCalendar format, the column names need to match the supported field names for the import to be fully automated.
Advanced users could write a script to generate the FilesToImport.txt file whenever they have external data that needs to be automatically imported into VueMinder.
