FAQs

Q: How do I set the dateAdded field to a date in the past?

A: Modifying the dateAdded field is a feature that will only work if the user that is attempting to set the dateAdded field has the Action Entitlement: SI DataLoader Administration. This was added as a safeguard to ensure that only the DataLoader System Integrator User Type has the ability to modify the dateAdded field, since it only makes sense on an initial data import. This action entitlement also enables fast query by externalID only in order to support referencing entities before indexing is complete. Note: You will not want to have this action entitlement turned on for any regular users, only for the user being used for Data Loader. There are known issues with Pay and Bill actions not working correctly if the action entitlement is enabled.

Q: How do I set the address.countryName field?

A: To set the address.countryName field in DataLoader, use the full name of the country. DataLoader will handle converting from the country name to the CRM internal address.countryID. To see the full list of acceptable values for the country name, use the rest call: <RESTURL>/options/Country?count=300. You can also use the address.countryID field if you want to specify the Bullhorn Country ID for the country, which can be obtained through the rest call.

Q: How do I reference Lookup-only Entities such as Skill, Category, BusinessSector, etc. that do not currently exist in the CRM?

A: Reference only supporting entities MUST exist in the system before they can be referenced. They are read-only via REST and are not able to be inserted/updated by DataLoader. These values must be populated via Bullhorn Admin.

Q: When I process multiple files in a folder, why are the start times all the same?

A: Currently in DataLoader, there is one start time that is shared for the entire session. When processing multiple files, the logfile and all results files will have matching timestamps, and when the start time is output on the command line, it will also be the same for all files, even though the actual start time for an individual file may be different.

Q: How do I delete a ClientCorporation using DataLoader?

A: ClientCorporations are not Hard or Soft Deletable in Bullhorn so they cannot be used with the delete operation. They can be archived in Bullhorn (like every other entity with a status), but that is an update operation, changing the Status field to Archive.

Q: Does DataLoader support special characters?

A: Yes. There are test files that show all possible special characters that DataLoader supports in search and query calls, which are used for looking up non-id association fields or an exist field. For search calls, see the Candidate example file: https://github.com/bullhorn/dataloader/blob/master/src/test/resources/integrationTest/specialCharacters/Candidate.csv. For query calls, see the Appointment example file: https://github.com/bullhorn/dataloader/blob/master/src/test/resources/integrationTest/specialCharacters/Appointment.csv. Most entities are search entities, and most entity string fields are pre-parsed, where special characters are converted to spaces before processing. When using a pre-parsed string field like customText1 as an association or exist field, those string values should not contain special characters, as they will be pre-parsed by Lucene and will not be able to perform an exact comparison. ExternalID and non-string fields are non-parsed fields, and will perform an exact comparison.

Q: On a Mac, > dataloader on the command line results in: -bash: dataloader: command not found?

A: The terminal needs to know to look in the current directory for the dataloader script. Use > ./dataloader or add the following to your .bash_profile file:

# Add the current directory to the path to allow executing scripts without the './'
export PATH=$PATH:.

Q: I received the following exception: java.lang.NumberFormatException: For input string: "..."

A: This is most likely due to the attempt to parse integer values from a field in the CSV file that has multiple values, such as: "1,2,3,4". Check your dataloader.properties file: listDelimiter property. This property should match whatever delimiter is used in your CSV file.

Q: Does DataLoader support Dual Byte characters?

A: Yes. Dual Byte characters such as 高 or š can be used with DataLoader. However the user database that is targeted by DataLoader has to have an International schema type which will be able handle Dual Byte characters.

Q: Does DataLoader support UTF-8 encoding with BOM?

A: No. While DataLoader does support UTF-8 encoding, use of a BOM is not necessary to get Dual Byte characters to work with DataLoader and will fail to run if the CSV file is UTF-8 encoded with BOM.

Q: How do you clear out a Date field?

A: Right now there is no way to do this in the Data Loader. It has to do with the serialization in SDK-REST. Dates need to be null in the payload in order for them to be cleared out, and that's not possible in the SDK since nulls are always ignored - causes other issues if they are not.