The CSV should contain the column names in the first row.
The data should be sent via a http POST request
The parameters and the file should be encoded in multi-part/form-data format.(The format used by html forms that contain file type fields used for uploading files)

Sample

URL

http://reports.zoho.com/api/demouser/EmployeeDB/EmployeeDetails?ZOHO_ACTION=IMPORT
&ZOHO_OUTPUT_FORMAT=XML&ZOHO_ERROR_FORMAT=XML
&ZOHO_API_KEY=adss&ticket=ssfs&ZOHO_API_VERSION=1.0

Data Sent as POST parameters.

The additional control parameters and the file should be encoded in multi-part/form-data format (The format used by html forms that contain file type fields used for uploading files).

Following code snippet helps to import data into Zoho Reports with POST parameters along with additional control parameters submitted from the HTML form.

<html>
<body>
<form name="ZohoDBImportForm" ENCTYPE="multipart/form-data" method="post" action="http://reports.zoho.com/api/demouser/EmployeeDB/EmployeeDetails?ZOHO_ACTION=IMPORT
&ZOHO_API_KEY=adss&ZOHO_API_VERSION=1.0&ticket=ssfs
&ZOHO_OUTPUT_FORMAT=XML">
<input type="file" name="ZOHO_FILE" value="Browse"><br>
ZOHO IMPORT TYPE : <input type="text" name="ZOHO_IMPORT_TYPE" value="APPEND"><br>
ZOHO AUTO IDENTIFY : <input type="text" name="ZOHO_AUTO_IDENTIFY" value="true"><br>
ZOHO CREATE_TABLE : <input type="text" name="ZOHO_CREATE_TABLE" value="false"><br>
ON IMPORT ERROR : <input type="text" name="ZOHO_ON_IMPORT_ERROR" value="ABORT"><br>
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="Upload">
</body>
</html>

Specifying the action

In the query string of the url , the ZOHO_ACTION parameter should be "IMPORT". For other mandatory query string parameters such as ZOHO_OUTPUT_FORMAT, refer this link.

Note: Value of ZOHO_ACTION parameter should be in the same case(UPPER CASE) as given in this document.

Parameters for specifying the Import Options

These parameters are used to specify the various options when importing. Some of these parameters are mandatory and are highlighted and marked with star " * " .

Parameter	Possible Values	Description
ZOHO_FILE*	The file to import
ZOHO_IMPORT_TYPE*	APPEND TRUNCATEADD UPDATEADD	APPEND - Appends the csv file rows with the existing rows in the table TRUNCATEADD - Deletes all the rows of the table and adds the csv file rows as a new entry UPDATEADD - Updates the row if the mentioned column values are matched, else a new entry will be added
ZOHO_MATCHING_COLUMNS**	List of comma separated column names. E.g.,: "Name,Department"	Should be passed only when the ZOHO_IMPORT_TYPE is UPDATEADD. The values in the columns to be matched will be used for comparision to check whether data row(s) being imported matches with an existing row(s) in the table. The existing rows in the table that match will be updated with values from data imported. The remaining rows are appended to the table as new rows.
ZOHO_CREATE_TABLE	true/false.	Optional. Default is false. In case it is true, then the table is created if the table referred in the URL doesn't exist in the specified database. In case its false, no table is created even if the table refered in the URL does not exist in the database.
ZOHO_ON_IMPORT_ERROR*	ABORT SKIPROW SETCOLUMNEMPTY	This parameter controls the action to be taken incase there is an error during import. ABORT - Incase of any error, abort the whole import. SKIPROW - In case of any error, skip that specific row(s) which has the problem and continue importing the rest. SETCOLUMNEMPTY - In case of any error, set the value of the errored column for the row to empty and continue importing.
ZOHO_AUTO_IDENTIFY*	true/false	Used to specify whether to auto identify the CSV format.
ZOHO_SELECTED_COLUMNS	List of comma separated column names. E.g.: "Name,Department"	Optional. The columns that need to be imported from the CSV file provided. If not provided. then all the columns in the CSV are imported.
ZOHO_SKIPTOP	<number>	Optional Number of rows that are to be skipped from the top in the CSV file being imported.
ZOHO_DATE_FORMAT	Format of the date. E.g., dd-MMM-YYYY	Optional The format of date value. Specify this incase any date field is being imported and its format cannot be auto recognized by Zoho Reports.

CSV Format Details

These parameters need to be specified if the ZOHO_AUTO_IDENTIFY is set to false.

Parameter	Possible Values	Description
ZOHO_COMMENTCHAR	<character>	Comment Character. If the character mentioned is found at the beginning of the row, the csv row will be skipped.
ZOHO_DELIMITER	0 / 1 / 2 / 3	Delimiter which separates the values in the file. 0 - if the delimiter is COMMA 1 - if the delimiter is TAB 2 - if the delimiter is SEMICOLON 3 - if the delimiter is SPACE
ZOHO_QUOTED	0 / 1 / 2	The Text Qualifier. 0 - None 1 - SINGLE QUOTE 2 - DOUBLE QUOTE

Sample Success Response

XML

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<response uri="/api/demouser/EmployeeDB/EmployeeDetails" action="IMPORT">
<result>
<importSummary>
<totalColumnCount>3</totalColumnCount>
<selectedColumnCount>3</selectedColumnCount>
<totalRowCount>50</totalRowCount>
<successRowCount>48</successRowCount>
<warnings>0</warnings>
<importOperation>created</importOperation>
<importType>APPEND</importType>
</importSummary>

<columnDetails>
<column datatype="Plain Text">Name</column>
<column datatype="Date">Date Of Birth</column>
<column datatype="Number">Salary</column>
</columnDetails>


<importErrors>
[Line: 5 Field: 3] a1213 -WARNING: Invalid Number value
</importErrors>

</result>
</response>

JSON

{

"response":
{
"uri": "/api/demouser/EmployeeDB/EmployeeDetails",
"action": "IMPORT",
"result":
{
importSummary:
{
totalColumnCount:3,
selectedColumnCount:3,
totalRowCount:50,
successRowCount:48,
warnings:0,
importOperation: "created",
importType: "APPEND"
},
columnDetails:
{
"Name": "Plain Text",
"Date Of Birth": "Date",
"Salary": "Number"
},
importErrors: "[Line: 5 Field: 3] a1213 -WARNING: Invalid Number value"
}
}
}

1 Comments Show recent to old

Karl (Guest), 250 - days ago

Is it possible to build a CSV string in VB.Net and bulk upload that way via POST methods? Saves an windows application builder creating a separate process of saving a file to the computer.