It is possible to import a number of email addresses into their associated participants record from a csv-file. This can be useful if a large number of participants need to be migrated to Castor, if surveys are sent in bulk, or if you want to send survey invitations automatically to a large number of participants using the Automation Engine.

The email address is stored encrypted for each participant and can only be accessed by a user with Email rights after providing their password. PLEASE NOTE: This method allows for a maximum of 600 email addresses to be imported at the same time.

Preparation to import

Before importing the email address data, please ensure that:

• You have Import rights in the study. This is required to be able to import email addresses.
• To update ('overwrite') existing email addresses that have been already entered, it is necessary to have Email rights. Without the Email rights, an error message will appear that it is not possible to update an existing email address for a participant.
• Make sure that the import file contains at least one datapoint. It is not possible to import email addresses alone and at least one data point should be provided when importing email addresses. Trying to import only email addresses without any data will result in a warning message: Your import cannot be completed with success! Importing data can only occur into records and fields that exist in your study and have variable names assigned. The variable names in your import file must be the same as defined in your study. Your import file cannot be empty, at least one valid data point (value) is required.

There are two possible scenarios when importing email addresses:

• New participants need to be created with an email address
• An email address should be added to the existing participant

Creating new participants with an email address

1. Prepare a csv file containing columns with participant ID, site abbreviation and email address:
   
   
2. Click on the Import button under actions in the Participants tab
3. Select the file you want to import
4. Select the column of the participant ID as it is in your file. In the example, the participant ID is in column A
5. Select the option to create participants that do not exist
6. Select the column of the site abbreviation as it is in your file. In the example, the site abbreviation is in column B
7. Select the option to import email addresses
8. Provide the correct password
9. Indicate the column in the csv document where the email address is stored
10. If the study already contains survey invitations, then you can decide if you want to update the email addresses in the existing survey invites with the ones you're importing.

Importing an email address to existing participant

In case you would like to import email addresses for the already existing participants, the csv file should only contain a participant ID and an email address:

Repeat the steps 2-10, but de-select the option 'Create participants that do not exist'