As a country manager, your access includes complete control over any locations in the MetaLocator account that match the country access you have been provided by an administrator.
To login, visit https://admin.metalocator.com and enter the access information provided by your administrator.
The features available to a Country Managers are limited to managing data in the countries for which you have access.
As a country manager you can:
Import data in bulk
Edit data one by one
Export data
Geocode data
Perform bulk operations on data like publish, un-publish, delete, modify and so forth.
Country Managers have complete administrative access to any locations in countries to which they have access, regardless of which user contributed the data. This means that a Country Manager could alter records previously uploaded by another Country Manager or an administrator.
This guide will focus on importing data in bulk which is the most common use case for Country Managers.
Your account manager may have placed specific documentation regarding your account setup under "My Documents" as shown here. Be sure to read those instructions before proceeding as shown below:
Importing Data in Bulk
Country Managers are commonly provided access after an account has been established and location data for a given country has already been imported.
If no locations have been imported for the countries you have access to, no records will be shown under Data > All Records.
To import a list of locations in bulk, first prepare a spreadsheet with all columns according to the template provided by your administrator. Each row represents a location.
The file should be saved in CSV format with UTF-8 encoding as shown below in Excel. Most spreadsheet software contains a similar option. Google Sheets also allows for a UTF-8 CSV format if your computer doesn't have a spreadsheet program available.
For more information on preparing a file for import see MetaLocator's support articles.
Pay special attention to the TLD column in your spreadsheet. Each row must contain the ISO standard two-letter country code that corresponds to your country access.
Records that don't include a TLD matching your country access will be discarded during the import. Records that don't include a TLD will also be discarded.
An example import file is shown below, your file may differ based on your account configuration.
Bulk Import Use Cases
When importing data in bulk, the following use cases are supported:
The incoming data is a complete replacement for the data already in MetaLocator for the country or countries to which the current user has access. This operation is called Replace.
The incoming data should be added to the existing data already in MetaLocator. This operation can create duplicates. This operation is called Add. This is the default.
The incoming data should be synchronized with the existing data already in MetaLocator, with optional deletion of records from MetaLocator not found in the incoming data. This operation is called Update Existing and Insert New.
Each use case will be explored below. Identify the use case before proceeding to ensure the operation proceeds as expected.
Importing Use Case Example: Replace
In this example, our Country Manager has access to France (FR) and Germany (DE). The MetaLocator account has about 50 records in all countries including France and Germany. The Country Manager logs in an sees only the FR and DE records as shown below:
The Country Manager would like to replace the data in the account with the spreadsheet shown below. Notice that our example Country Manager has accidentally included a US location. Also notice that Sample Location 5 has been removed from the incoming spreadsheet.
To import the data, we follow this procedure:
Click Data, then Import
Choose Upload a CSV
Choose the import file from your computer
Review and column mapping choices and click Next.
Choose Replace and click Finish.
The various options at each step above are described in detail in our documentation.
The resulting data shows that Sample Location 5 has been removed as expected and the US location was not added as the user does not have access to the US.
Importing Use Case Example: Add
This is a relatively simple use case which supports duplicates. Add is also the safest option as it never deletes or alters existing data. In this example, the Country Manager's objective is to add a list of retailers previously not in MetaLocator.
The data appears as follows in the spreadsheet
Notice we have two problem rows. 1 includes a missing TLD and the other includes a TLD to which our user does not have access.
To import the data, we follow this procedure:
Click Data, then Import
Choose Upload a CSV
Choose the import file from your computer
Review and column mapping choices and click Next.
Choose Add and click Finish.
In this example, all records are added, except rows missing a TLD and rows with TLD values that don't match the access of the Country Manager.
Importing Use Case Example: Updated Existing & Insert New
This verbose option synchronizes data with the incoming spreadsheet an optionally deletes records that are in MetaLocator, but not in the incoming spreadsheet. This delete option is sometimes called a two-way synchronization. This import mode is also discussed in our documentation.
In this example, we will import data with an External Key present called Store Number. External keys are highly recommended when working with large data sets that need regular updating.
In this example our import and account appear as follows:
To import the data, we follow this procedure:
Click Data, then Import
Choose Upload a CSV
Choose the import file from your computer
Review and column mapping choices and click Next.
Choose Update Existing and Insert New
Review the options as shown below:
Notice that when choosing Update Existing and Insert New the Advanced options appear. These two options enable the two-way synchronization. Without selecting either of these options, the Update Existing and Insert New operation will not delete any records.
Delete Unmatched Records: Choosing this option will delete location records in MetaLocator that are not in the import provided. This requires an External Key field to function. This will not remove records that do not have an External Key populated.
Delete Unmatched Categories: Choosing this option will delete category associations from records in MetaLocator before the data import. This also requires an External Key field.
Exporting Data
Country Managers can only export data available to them. This article covers the export process in detail.
Requesting a Restore
Mistakes happen and MetaLocator takes a backup of your account every day. To have an import reverted, contact the helpdesk to request a restore.
Summary
Managing data as a Country Manager gives you full control over the data in your countries. This article summarizes the features from that perspective but a general understanding of MetaLocator's operations, including account-specific procedures should support and complete a reliable Country Manager program.