Avaya Job Aid Bulk Import Tool User Manual

Job Aid:
Avaya Bulk Import Tool

Issue 1

June 2005

Purpose

This job aid provides instructions for using the Avaya Bulk Import Tool (ABIT).

Audience

This document provides information for network administrators and engineers who are responsible
for managing the Avaya Communication Manager server. Using ABIT requires knowledge of
telephony and Avaya Communication Manager.

Overview

The Avaya Bulk Import Tool is an Excel Spreadsheet that uses macros to prepare a formatted text
file consisting of station administration data. The Integrated Management tools, Avaya Site
Administration (ASA) and MultiSite Administration (MSA), are used to import the data in the
ABIT output file.

ABIT can be used to prepare an import file with Name (Name1), Native Name (Name2) or both
names for import by MSA 3.0. ASA 3.0 supports Name but it does not support importing Native
Name so this column must be left blank when preparing an import file for ASA 3.0.

Usage

ABIT is an Excel Spreadsheet so you will need to have Microsoft Excel installed on your computer.
You must enable macros to use ABIT. You have the option of manually entering data, using Excel
provided functions (such as drag-down, copy, etc.) for generating data, doing a copy and paste or
you may input prepared data from a file. Rows without an extension value and blank rows will not
be saved to the output file! Column(s) with the field title blank will not be saved to the output file!
ABIT will automatically save all changes in the Excel spreadsheet when you close ABIT.

The detailed steps in preparing an import file for ASA and MSA are:
Step 1: Open abit.xls with Microsoft Office Excel
Step 2: Enable Macros
Step 3: Enter data starting in A11
Step 4: After entering all data, click the Check button

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Step 5: Correct any errors found in previous step
Step 6: Click the Output button
Step 7: Select filename and location to save the file
Step 8: Click the Save button

You can now use the saved file as an import file for ASA 3.0 and MSA 3.0. See the ASA 3.0 and
MSA 3.0 sections for more details.

Fields

The pre-defined fields used in ABIT are:

Extension: A 1 to 10 digit number by which calls are routed through a communications system or
with a Uniform Dial Plan (UDP) through a private network.

Set Type: For each station that you want to add to your system, you must specify the type of station
in this Set Type field. This is how you distinguish between the many different types of stations. For
more details on valid types refer to the Type table under Station in the Administrator’s Guide for
Avaya Communication Manager.

Port: Enter 7 characters to specify a port, or an x.

Name: Enter a name for the person associated with this station. The system uses the Name field to

create the system Directory. You may directly enter a name using Katakana, European, Russian and
Ukrainian characters as long as these characters are supported in Avaya Communication Manager.
For a list of supported characters, refer to Mapping enhanced display characters in the Feature
Description and Implementation for Avaya Communication Manager.

Native Name: Communication Manager supports Unicode for the “Name” associated with a
station. The Native Name (also referred to as Unicode Name and Name2) field is not displayed on
the System Access Terminal (SAT) station form that is associated with the name field you
administer, but is displayed and administrable with ASA and MSA.

Script Tag: The Script Tag defines the writing scripts used in a Native Name value. The script tag
does not use a column in the spread sheet but it will be a value in the formatted text file when a
Native Name is used. The script tag is the value following the Native Name value in the output file.
The script tag can also be seen in the status window (see the ABIT Screen Shot section for detail).

Additional Fields: You may use additional fields of your choice starting in Column F. However,
ABIT does not do any validity checking of additional fields.

Note: If you don’t want the column data for a field to be imported (or generated in the
formatted output file), including the pre-defined fields, select or leave the field title BLANK.

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