(C-2) Upload Base Data
The content in this knowledge base is based upon the standard FACULTY180 environment. Your institution may have made changes to configure the FACULTY180 environment to meet your institution's needs; therefore, the screens in your FACULTY180 environment may differ slightly from the knowledge base. For more information, please contact your FACULTY180 administrator.
Best Practice: If this is the first time loading a particular data set, or if there have been any recent changes to the file format, it's always a good idea to test out data uploads in the Development database, just to make sure everything loads smoothly.
In this Article
Table of Contents:
- Setup: Verify Column Structure
- How to Access Upload Data Page & Begin a New Data Upload
- How to Upload Base Datasets
- How to Upload Faculty Data
- Upload Types: Explanation of Upload Form Fields & Settings
- Adding and/or Modifying Additional Data Points After Configuring a Section & Uploading Base Data
- Far Error Message Glossary
1. Before performing an upload, make sure your column structure is set up in the system
From the Upload Form page you can configure and confirm the file structure of your data in the system.
Go to Administration > Setup and look for Upload Form under the Configuration section.

2. Data to Upload: Select the type of data upload you want to perform
Under Section A, click Data to Upload. You will see a list of available upload types.
Note: If you have added activity classifications for courses taught or faculty classifications for faculty data, those should appear in this list as well.

3. Check to make sure the correct Upload Fields are set to display or marked "Not Shown" for whatever type of upload you choose, and confirm the columns are set to display correctly
- You can set the order in which the Upload Fields will display (column 1, column 2, etc). by selecting the number.
- You can click Download Current Template to see a CSV sample of the output.
Note: Fields with an asterisk are required.
For more information on the fields available for each 'type' of load, click here to read more.

1. Click the link for "Administration" under the Administration section of the left hand navigation menu

2. Scroll down the page, and click "Upload Data" under the Bulk Data section of the Administration page

About the summary table on the Upload Data page of the Administration section:
Here you can see the results of previous data loads. The summary table displays a history of previous loads including the time generated, load type, semester, unit, number added, duplicates, and errors.
The options that appear in the box at the top of the Upload Data (Bulk Uploads) page allow you to filter all the results of previous uploads.
Note: In most instances, it is not necessary, but you may need to Select the unit for which the data is being uploaded. Most data is uploaded at the university level, even if it is for a subunit. The data will flow down to each unit as necessary.
Select the Type to filter the list by particular type of load. Click Enable Filter to select a particular semester to display.
By clicking the Edit icon, under the Actions column for particular load, you can get access to a summary of the individual upload to view the added entries, duplicates, errors etc.

Quick Summary of steps involved in uploading base datasets:
Scroll down for in-depth and illustrated explanations of the steps listed below.
- Click New Upload at the bottom of the Administration page
- Select Upload Type: In the Type list, select the type of data being uploaded.
- Select the academic term for which data is being uploaded.
- The Update Existing Records check box provides administrators with the option of choosing to upload duplicate/existing records (if the record already exists in FACULTY180, both records will be uploaded), or ignoring duplicate/existing records and only uploading new records. This option is not applicable to all data types.
- Confirm or select the unit for which data is being uploaded.
- Select the file to be uploaded in the Choose File section. If the file contains a header row, select the File Has Header Row so the data in the header row is not uploaded.
- Validate the file format by clicking Validate. The file format will be tested before the file is uploaded.
- After the file is validated, click Upload to start the upload process.
- After the upload process is complete, you can view the details for the uploaded file. Any duplicate files can also be viewed, if necessary.
Note: Either direct or indirect methods of data uploads can be used:
- Direct: automated data transfer to the FACULTY180 server
- Indirect: manual file upload via SFTP (manual file uploads are managed by the institutional software administrators)
Detailed Instructions:
To get started, click New Upload at the bottom of the Administration page and follow the directions below.

In the Type dropdown, select the type of data being uploaded.
Depending on the type of data being uploaded, the information in the Current Upload Fields section and other options in this screen will differ.

Semester: Select the academic term (semester and year) for which data is being uploaded from the dropdown list.
There are different functions for certain data types where the dropdown for the term is not used to associate a term to the provided data.
The various options in the Select Semester section (and all other sections on this page) depend on the upload being made. Data will be handed differently when particular options are chosen in the options selector.
For example, Display Terms in First Two Columns and Remove Existing Courses Taught appear in when Courses Taught is the selected data type, but
Update Existing Records: This check box provides administrators with the option of choosing to upload duplicate/existing records (if the record already exists in FACULTY180, both records will be uploaded), or ignoring duplicate/existing records and only uploading new records.
Note: This option is not applicable to all data types.

This setting indicates what unit the data is being loaded for. This defaults to "University."
To change the unit click Change.

Select the unit for which data is being uploaded.

Select the file to be uploaded in the Choose File section. If the file contains a header row, select File Has Header Row so the data in the header row is not uploaded.

Clicking Validate counts the number of columns in the file and compares it against the upload configuration as set up in administration > setup > upload form.

6. Click "Upload" to start the upload process
After the file is validated, click Upload to start the upload process. After the upload process is complete, you can view the details for the uploaded file and any duplicate files can also be viewed (if this applies).
When uploading faculty data, administrators can disable logon access to FACULTY180 for inactive faculty accounts that are not included in faculty uploads.
The instructions below explain how to disable logon access for inactive faculty accounts not included in faculty uploads:
Access the New Upload screen in the Bulk Data section of Administration
- Under the Admin section of the navigation menu, click Administration.
- Scroll down to the Bulk Data section, and click Upload Data. The Upload Data screen will display.
- Click New Upload. The New Upload screen will display.
1. In the "Select Upload Type" section, select "Faculty" from the drop down menu:

2. In the "Select Semester" section, select "Check To Inactivate Faculty Not In Upload":

2.1. Set options in the "Inactivate Faculty Not In Upload" dialog box, and submit:
- In the dialog box that opens, select the type of faculty accounts (based on employment status) that should be inactivated and not included in the faculty upload.
- Select Disable login status for the users selected above if you want to disable FACULTY180 access for the selected inactive users.
- Click Submit

If you are receiving validating errors, you must check the data to ensure that it is being uploaded properly with the selected Upload Form. Typically validation errors occur because the selected spreadsheet has either too many or too few columns. The other reason would be if they are trying to load a file that isn't .csv format.
If there are fields that you believe should be present, it may be that the Upload Form needs to be updated. You can update this form by going to Administration > Setup > Configuration > Upload Form.
On the New Upload screen, within the Bulk Data section, you are able to choose the type of upload you would like to perform in section 1- Select Upload Type, as displayed below.

Once you select an upload type, the page will update to display the fields and options necessary to capture information for the data type you have selected.
Below, you can expand each section to see an explanation of the fields and options for common upload types that require particular settings.
After selecting Courses Taught in the Type field, the page will update to display the upload form for that data type.
If there are fields that you believe should be present, it may be that the Upload Form needs to be updated. You can update this form by going to Administration > Setup > Configuration > Upload Form.

When Courses Taught is the selected data type in Section 1, the following fields can be configured in Section 2 - Select Semester:
-
Semester: Select the semester for the data you are uploading.
- These options only apply to courses taught that are being loaded that do not use the options below.
- Display Terms in First Two Columns (only if uploading Multiple Terms): This setting allows users to add two additional fields, "Semester" and "Calendar Year," in the first two columns of the file. This is useful for loading multiple terms. If this option is selected, the semester dropdown will only be used to populate the term in which the file is loaded. Your data must have these columns at the start of the data when checked. If enabled, than the semester field will not be available.
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Remove Existing Courses Taught for Selected Terms*:
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Yes, remove courses being taught not in upload: Removes any Courses Taught records in the selected terms that are not included in the upload. So if a course was taught last semester, and it is not included in this upload, than it will not be removed from the Courses Taught records for the selected term.
- Note: If you DID provide courses taught for multiple terms, both terms would have courses taught removed.
- Yes, remove courses being taught for users in the upload: Removes Courses Taught records for faculty who are present in the file within the term range. This option removes records of previous Courses Taught ONLY for users within this upload. So if a user is in this upload, and they are not indicated as teaching a course any longer, than it would be removed from their activity record for the selected term.
- No, just add new courses: This option will not remove Courses Taught that were added/existed in the selected term, but will add new records.
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Yes, remove courses being taught not in upload: Removes any Courses Taught records in the selected terms that are not included in the upload. So if a course was taught last semester, and it is not included in this upload, than it will not be removed from the Courses Taught records for the selected term.
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Update existing records*:
- No: If during the load, the system encounters records that are already in the system, it will skip that record in the file and leave what exists currently.
- Yes: If during the load, the system encounters a record that exists in the system already, it will update the values with provided ones.
(*) Indicates a required field.

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After selecting Faculty in the Type field, the page will update to display the upload form for that data type.
If there are fields that you believe should be present, it may be that the Upload Form needs to be updated. You can update this form by going to Administration > Setup > Configuration > Upload Form.

When Faculty is the selected data type in Section 1, the following fields can be configured in Section 2 - Select Semester:
-
Semester: Select the semester for the data you are uploading.
- Note that this information is generally used for populating the summary table discussed above, and depending on the data received, may also be used to update values for faculty classifications such as employment status.
- Note: See here for more information about how faculty classifications are populated during faculty data load
- Configuration of faculty classification values (expected behavior of faculty classifications during faculty base data load): When a record is first received and the faculty ID does not have existing records in the system, the faculty base data load will populate faculty classification data values based on data received during the load. If the faculty based data load contains "year started," classifications will be added starting with the year started. For example, if a faculty member was listed as Full time in 2001 in the "start year" field in the file, this will display as Fall of 2001 to ongoing.
- If a start year, date started is not provided, the system uses the selected semester in the upload form. In the base data load form, this is used to populate the begin date for faculty classifications in the file, providing this is a new file.
- Existing faculty accounts:
- If loading data for faculty accounts that already exist, then faculty classification values are not calculated, updated, or modified with the data load.
- Exisiting accounts have to be updated via a faculty classification data load.
- Note that this information is generally used for populating the summary table discussed above, and depending on the data received, may also be used to update values for faculty classifications such as employment status.
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Check to Inactivate Faculty Not in Upload - When checked, faculty members who are not listed in the data being uploaded, but do have an account, will be marked with an employment status of Inactive. When checked, the Inactivate Faculty Not in Upload window will appear with the following options:
- To inactivate faculty based on their employment status (FT, PT, Staff). These options are checked by default. Unchecking one means that employees with this status will not be effected by this option (not inactivated).
- To set what terms to inactive the selected faculty members. You have the option to inactivate for just the current term, or to inactivate them indefinitely. The first option is used when you want to set faculty to inactive for the designated term only, so for example, when faculty takes sabbatical and returns to full time at a later date.
- Whether or not to disable login status for the faculty members selected above.
- Update Existing Records* - If a record currently exists in the system for the data being uploaded, this will allow those records to be updated with the information that is within the uploaded file.
- Respect Locked Preferred Names* - If a user's preferred name has been 'locked' than by selecting 'Yes', their name will not be altered by this new upload.
(*) Indicates a required field.
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After selecting Faculty Classifications in the Type field, the page will update to display the upload form for that data type.
If there are fields that you believe should be present, it may be that the Upload Form needs to be updated. You can update this form by going to Administration > Setup > Configuration > Upload Form.

When Faculty Classifications is the selected data type in Section 1, the following fields can be configured in Section 2 - Select Semester:
- Start Semester & End Semester - Determines the starting and ending semesters for classifications being added.
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Display Terms in First Four Columns (only if uploading Multiple Terms) - If you are uploading multiple terms of data, select this option to add four additional fields in the first four columns; 'Semester' and 'Calendar Year', 'End Semester' and 'End Calendar Year'. When checked, the semester fields no longer apply, and your uploaded data must contain those four columns when this option is enabled.
- Note: The system overwrites the semester fields, and the system will expect to see the first four columns of the file starting with start term, start year, and then end term, end year. We recommend that users select this option and provide the first four columns to avoid having to update semester settings above.

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After selecting Current Positions in the Type field, the page will update to display the upload form for that data type.
If there are fields that you believe should be present, it may be that the Upload Form needs to be updated. You can update this form by going to Administration > Setup > Configuration > Upload Form.

When Current Positions is the selected data type in Section 1, the following fields can be configured in Section 2 - Select Semester:
-
Semester - Choose the semester for the data that you are uploading.
- Note: the Semester field does not apply to the date being provided, the information is purely for the summary table.
-
Remove Existing Position Titles* - Choose whether or not you would like to remove existing position titles.. You have the following options:
- Yes, remove all existing positions titles - Will remove all current positions from the institution. This option should only be used if the file being loaded contains all current positions for faculty at the insitution.
- Yes, remove all existing positions for user in upload - Removes all current positions for faculty in the file being loaded.
- No, update existing position titles- Updates all of the existing position titles, with information from the data load.
(*) Indicates a required field.

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After selecting Secondary Unit Assignments in the Type field, the page will update to display the upload form for that data type.
Note: If there are fields that you believe should be present, it may be that the upload form needs to be updated in the Upload Form page, within the Configuration section of the Setup page in the Administration tab.

When uploading Secondary Unit Assignments, you have the ability to configure the following fields in the 2- Select Semester section:
- Semester - Unit assignments are not term based, so this option just populates the summary table
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Remove Existing Secondary Assignments* - Choose whether not existing secondary assignments should be preserved, or removed.
- Yes remove all existing position titles: This will remove all secondary unit assignments at the insitution that were in the system prior to the load.
- Yes, remove existing existing secondary unit assingment for users in upload: This option removes all current positions for faculty in the file being loaded.
- Yes, remove existing existing secondary unit assingment for users not in upload: This option removes secondary assingments for faculty not in the file being loaded.
- No just add new assingments
(*) Indicates a required field.

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For the remaining data types in the Select Upload Type dropdown, the options in the upload form are similar. These are listed below under the fields for each type.
Note: As for the data types above, if there are fields that you believe should be present, it may be that the upload form needs to be updated in the Upload Form page, on the Configuration section of the Setup page in the Administration tab.
After selecting Courses in the Type field of Section 1, the page will update to display the upload form for that data type.

Courses Fields
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When uploading the Courses data type, you have the ability to configure the following fields in section 2- Select Semester section:
- Semester - Choose the relevant semester for the data that you are uploading.
- Update Existing Records* - If a record currently exists in the system for the data being uploaded, this will allow those records to be updated with the information that is within the uploaded file.
(*) Indicates a required field.
After selecting Course Prefixes in the Type field of Section 1, the page will update to display the upload form for that data type.

Course Prefixes Fields
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When uploading the Course Prefixes type, you have the ability to configure the following fields in the 2- Select Semester section:
- Semester - Choose the relevant semester for the data that you are uploading.
- Update Existing Records* - If a record currently exists in the system for the data being uploaded, this will allow those records to be updated with the information that is within the uploaded file.
(*) Indicates a required field.
After selecting Committees in the Type field of Section 1, the page will update to display the upload form for that data type.
If the current upload fields are not what you expected, you likely have to go modify the Upload Form in the Setup menu of the Admin tab.

Committees Fields
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When uploading the courses, you have the ability to configure the following fields in the 2- Select Semester section:
- Semester - Choose the relevant semester for the data that you are uploading.
- Update Existing Records* - If a record currently exists in the system for the data being uploaded, this will allow those records to be updated with the information that is within the uploaded file.
(*) Indicates a required field.
After selecting Units in the Type field, the page will update to display the upload form for that data type. If the current upload fields are not what you expected, you likely have to go modify the Upload Form in the Setup menu of the Admin tab.

Unit Fields
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When uploading the Units data type, you have the ability to configure the following fields in the 2- Select Semester section:
- Semester - Choose the relevant semester for the data that you are uploading.
- Update Existing Records* - If a record currently exists in the system for the data being uploaded, this will allow those records to be updated with the information that is within the uploaded file.
(*) Indicates a required field.
After selecting Scholarly Outlet Metrics in the Type field of Section 1, the page will update to display the upload form for that data type.
If the current upload fields are not what you expected, you likely have to go modify the Upload Form in the Setup menu of the Admin tab.

Scholarly Outlet Metrics Fields
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When uploading the Scholarly Outlet Metrics data type, you have the ability to configure the following fields in the 2- Select Semester section:
- Semester - Choose the relevant semester for the data that you are uploading.
- Update Existing Records* - If a record currently exists in the system for the data being uploaded, this will allow those records to be updated with the information that is within the uploaded file.
(*) Indicates a required field.
After selecting Scholarly Outlets in the Type field of Section 1, the page will update to display the upload form for that data type.
If the current upload fields are not what you expected, you likely have to go modify the Upload Form in the Setup menu of the Admin tab.

Scholarly Outlets Fields
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When uploading the Scholarly Outlets data type, you have the ability to configure the following fields in the 2- Select Semester section:
- Semester - Choose the relevant semester for the data that you are uploading.
- Update Existing Records* - If a record currently exists in the system for the data being uploaded, this will allow those records to be updated with the information that is within the uploaded file.
(*) Indicates a required field.
After selecting Support Accounts in the Type field of Section 1, the page will update to display the upload form for that data type.
If the current upload fields are not what you expected, you likely have to go modify the Upload Form in the Setup menu of the Admin tab.

Support Accounts Fields
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Support Accounts Upload Options
When uploading the Support Accounts data type, you have the ability to configure the following fields in the 2- Select Semester section:
- Semester - Choose the relevant semester for the data that you are uploading.
- Update Existing Records* - You can choose whether or not you would like to update any existing records. If you select no, new information will not be applied to data that already exists in the system.
(*) Indicates a required field.
See here for more information on Adding and/or Modifying Additional Data Points After Configuring a Section.
Note: It is important that all required fields remain; this allows us to identify the existing record that any new data should be tied to.
When you navigate to Administration > Setup > Upload Form, you can view the configuration of the last base data load made to the system. Here, you can modify that configuration by marking certain items listed as Not Shown to display, or adding items you want to display.
When creating a new upload with your new configuration, select the options in the upload form to indicate whether or not to ignore or update existing records.
You will need to select Yes, update existing when adding new data points.
Yes means that based on the new configuration, the system will match required fields to existing the record and will load values to new data points that have been added and will update the data uploaded previously if those fields are still in the file.
No means that when the system encounters required fields, the program will determine if that record exists in the system, and if it does, the system will skip that record in the upload file and move to the next one. The system will not process any part of the record.
Caveat: If the previous configuration had the field marked to show, for example: "billing address," if configured to have that in first load, and that field is removed for the second load, the system will NOT overwrite. The system will maintain the previously loaded field even though it is not in the current file.
If you want to delete one of the field values that was loaded previously, you will need to make sure that the field is in the configuration for the new upload, and will need to leave the field blank

FAR UI and Autoloads
Below is a list of possible error messages returned when using the FAR Upload data tool, or within an autoload notification email. The most likely explanation and fix for each error is provided.
Error Message |
Explanation of Message |
Fix |
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Invalid unit |
File contains a Unit that does not exist in the Faculty180 unit hierarchy. |
Check the Faculty180 unit hierarchy, and add any missing Units, or modify the invalid Unit(s) in the file. |
No parent unit found |
A parent Unit is missing in Faculty180 for the unit in the file. |
Check Faculty180 unit hierarchy, and add missing parent unit. |
Current user email does not match records on file |
The user’s email address in Faculty180 does not match their Interfolio account primary email. |
Contact Interfolio support to remediate. |
Email associated with another user |
This can occur when trying to update a faculty email with an email address that is already in use by a different Interfolio account, |
Contact Interfolio support to remediate. |
Missing Classification Level: <classification field name> |
This can occur when trying to load or update using a value that is not available in the configured list of values. |
Modify the file so that it contains valid classification values, or add the new value to the Faculty180 classification drop-down list. |
Missing Faculty Member |
The facultyID could not be found in Faculty180. |
Check that the facultyID is listed correctly. If new, add the new faculty member. |
No prefix matches |
The course prefix cannot be found in Faculty180. |
Check that the prefix is listed correctly. If new, add the new prefix to Faculty180. |
No course matches |
The course prefix and number combination cannot be found in Faculty180. |
Check that the prefix and course number is listed correctly. If new, add the new course to Faculty180. |
No term matches |
The term cannot be found in Faculty180 |
Check that the term is listed correctly. If new, add the new term to Faculty180. |
Account exists as a Support Account |
Occurs when trying to update a Support Account using a Faculty file. |
Support accounts can be updated using the Support Account file type, or manually using the UI, |
Duplicate Record |
Duplicate records are skipped. |
Check the file for any duplicates, and remove if needed, |
User does not have a PID |
The user does not have an associated Interfolio account. |
Contact Interfolio support to remediate, |
Email not defined in upload |
Check that the failed record has a valid email address. |
Fix the failing email address, |
Failed to copy file |
This can occur when the file is removed during the load process, or it can signify a system error. |
Contact Interfolio support to remediate, |
Technical Services Load Logs
Below is a list of possible error messages contained in the error logs returned by Technical Services. The most likely explanation and fix, for each error, is provided.
Error Message |
Explanation of Message |
Fix |
---|---|---|
ERROR: “Missing Faculty” |
File load process is unable to find the facultyID in Faculty180. |
Check that the facultyID exists in Faculty180. Add faculty member if needed. |
ERROR,"Could not Find Course” |
File load process is unable to find the course prefix, course number, and section ID combination provided. |
Check that the course data exists in Faculty180 (Faculty ID, Course Prefix, Course Number and Section ID). |
ERROR,"Invalid File Name" |
File attachment file name is not valid. |
Check that the file type is supported by Faculty180. |
ERROR, “Unable to find Faculty Member” |
File load process is unable to find the facultyID in Faculty180. |
Check that the facultyID exists in Faculty180. Add faculty member if needed. |