Import Holidays

Use this program to:

Add new records for holidays when locations are closed from data entered on an Excel spreadsheet.
Add new records for holiday hours of operation from data entered on an Excel spreadsheet.

Note: This program has undergone extensive changes in the recent months. The following material describes the current functionality of this program in the latest release of CARS+. What is presented below will not be true of earlier releases. To use this program you must be on a current release of CARS+.

I. CREATING THE SPREADSHEET

A. Create the spreadsheet on a PC or computer that is also used to access CARS+.

Click here to download a template file with the header row already completed.

B. Entering data in the spreadsheet
Although the link above provides a template, the columns for the spreadsheet do not need to be in any particular order, and all columns need not be present. For your own purposes, the spreadsheet can contain additional columns unknown to CARS+. What is required is that the columns that contain data to be merged MUST have the column header specified in the chart shown at the end of this chapter.

Create a row for each Holiday record that should be imported or updated.

Enter the data to be added or changed in the appropriate column(s). (See the "User Tip" below regarding the date format.)

User tip: Date format can be either:

YYYYMMDD (Example: 20150927 for September 27, 2015)

The local date format of either: MM-DD-YY or DD-MM-YY (This is specified in Edit Misc Control Record.)

C. Naming the spreadsheet file.

When saving the spreadsheet, the name assigned to it should follow Unix file name conventions which are:

Maximum of 30 characters

No spaces or slashes in the name

D. Saving the spreadsheet.

First save it in your spreadsheet program's native format (for example if using Microsoft's Excel program, save it as .xls).

Re-save a copy in .csv format.

If an error in the data is discovered by the merge program, go back to the file in the native format and easily make any corrections. Then re-save it again as a comma delimited file (.csv format).

It is the copy saved in .csv format that will be used for the import. The first row of column headers must be included.

II. UPLOADING THE FILE FROM THE PC TO CARS+

Create the spreadsheet on a PC or computer that is also used to access CARS+. Once the spreadsheet is saved in the csv format, sign into CARS+ using the same computer.

To access the Import Holidays program, type IMPHOL (RET) at any menu "OPTION:" field or the appropriate line number on the Import Data sub-menu of the System Management menu

With the cursor at the "OPTION" field, press F4 to upload the file.
A browser window will appear. Select the csv file from your PC and click "Send".

III. RUNNING THE IMPORT PROGRAM

The screen will then display:

OPTION: __ IMPORT HOLIDAYS

1. Filename

NOTE: DATE FORMATS HAVE CHANGED. ACCEPTABLE FORMATS ARE:
MM-DD-YY
YYYYMMDD

1DO IMPORT2 3ERASE 4UPLOAD 5BACKUP 6 7HELP 8

Enter data as follows:

1. FILENAME

The file can be loaded for processing by either:

a. typing the file name in this field - or

b. searching for it. To search, press F6 from this field. A search window will appear on the lower half of the screen. An example is shown below. Select the appropriate file by typing the row number.

OPTION: __ IMPORT HOLIDAYS

1. Filename

Option: _ HOLIDAY FILE SEARCH
F2=NEXT 8 F4=PREV 8
File Name Create Date
1 holidays-1011.csv Oct 11 12:00
2 holidays-1003.csv Oct 3 14:20

** No More Records **

Select the appropriate file by typing the row number.
After loading the name of the file to be processed, place cursor back in the "OPTION" field.

Press F1 to begin the import process.

.

SPREEDSHEET NOTES

The following table lists the required column headers of the data in the spreadsheet is shown below.

The date format shown below is: YYYYMMDD
Also acceptable is the local date format of either: MM-DD-YY or DD-MM-YY (This is specified in Edit Misc Control Record.)

Column Headers

Header Code
Date	Dates must be entered in the format YYYYMMDD or the local format.
Name	Enter the name of the holiday (example: New Years). This field is optional.
Loc	Enter a single location code or leave blank to apply to all locations. Note: Group Codes are not acceptable.
Open_hr	Enter the time the location will open (note: in the header for this column the underscore between Open and hr is required) If closed for the day, leave this field blank.
Close_hr	Enter the time the location will close (note: in the header for this column the underscore between Close and hr is required) If closed for the day, leave this field blank.
Open_hr2	If the location is open for a second time on the same day, enter the second time the location will open.
Close_hr2	If the location is open for a second time on the same day, enter the second time the location will close.
Message	Enter a message that will display if the date is used. (maximum of 50 characters)
Message_override