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Mass updating course description?

  • 28 April 2022
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ebarrett
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Is anyone aware of a way to mass update course descriptions? I need to add some language all our courses’ descriptions and it would be excellent to be able to do this via spreadsheet.

I have looked at the API browser, but to be honest I do not know how that works.

 

Thanks!
 

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Best answer by elliott.vickrey 26 July 2022, 19:28

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KMallette
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Hi, @ebarrett  You can use the Automation App to do this, but it does take a bit of effort.

  1. You need to have a secure FTP site available, with the appropriate credentials. My company uses Lancer, but it is a subscription service.
  2. Enable the Automation App
  3. Create a spreadsheet with the following columns (the data you see is just template information for my particular platform.) You can find more details on creating .csv spreadsheets in the KB
  4. The field that you want to use to update your descriptions would be used to add the additional text you want. You need to have everything that you want in the description in that field.
  5. I’d also recommend that you narrow your spreadsheet to just the fields that you want to actually change. And I’d also recommend that you do it in batches of 50-100 courses.
  6. When the file is ready, then upload it to your secure FTP site.
  7. Open the Automation app, and create a new rule. You’ll use the event for when an admin uploads to an FTP site.
    1. When you get to the Import Schema part you’ll match your spreadsheet columns to the field names, like this, but using only the columns from your sheet.

Take a look thru the KB for more information on how to use the Automation App.  I love this thing… you can really expand the use of .csv files when you get to know this app.

DM me if you get stuck… happy to help.

 

KM

KMallette/Viasat, Inc.
ebarrett
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This is extremely helpful, @KMallette ! Thanks so much!!

Bfarkas
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Just as an alternative, and for others who might read the thread, can do this via API too, The effort involved in both of these comes down to ongoing management of content. For instance keeping a database of sorts (excel list, SharePoint list, etc.) of courses and their info as they are created helps both methods. I keep one of these so that generating the above CSV for the upload is not as tedious.

elliott.vickrey
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Thank you so much @KMallette for providing that solution! I just wanted to update this thread as the automation app no longer works this way. Instead, it will try to create a new course, and it will send back errors as the course already exists. I’d like to provide an updated solution using our API endpoints.

 

You mentioned, @ebarrett, that you aren’t familiar with our API endpoints yet. There are some great resources on our Knowledge Base in the APIs section, and here are a couple articles that may help you get up and running:

Introduction to Docebo APIs

APIs Authentication

API General Information

 

(By the way, I use Postman for interacting with our API endpoints, as it allows me to easily switch out information without composing an entirely new call body. I highly recommend it!)

 

The endpoint I would suggest using is “Batch Course Update” (PUT /courses/v1/courses/batch). You can find this in the API browser by selecting the service course and looking under the Courses section. The only information you need for updating course descriptions is the course ID and the description you want to add. Here’s an example of a JSON call body that I used to successfully update the descriptions of two of my courses:

{
  "items": [
    {
      "id": 95,
      "description": "This is a new description."
    },
{
      "id": 96,
      "description": "This is also a new description."
    }
  ]
}

If you’re not sure where to find the course ID, you can find it in the URL when you access a course through Course Management (shown in the screenshot below).

 

I hope this helps!

Elliott V.

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