Import Taxonomy Terms using the Term Store UI

This guide helps to explain how to use the Microsoft-supported Import functionality to bring in the terms you need to use in the Atlas term sets such as Activity or Subject. 

Importing terms into the Term Store can be achieved using PnP Powershell commands, or using the Import button in the Term Store UI, but due to the way Atlas is deployed the Import process will create new Term Sets. Therefore, you'll need to merge these into the Atlas term sets after import.

We recommend involving the Project team or Support team from ClearPeople's side so that we can assist you with building the CSV, importing the terms and merging correctly where required.

In this article:

• Prepare a CSV file
• Import the CSV
• Merge new term sets into the Atlas ones
• Example CSV file

Prepare a CSV file

Whichever method you choose for importing, you'll need to provide a correctly formatted CSV file. This should be grabbed from the Term Store itself to ensure you get the latest file, in case updates are made by Microsoft. We do provide an example at the end of this article but it is possible this could become outdated in future. If in doubt feel free to ask our support team to provide the latest file. 

To get the Microsoft template file yourself, go to your tenant's Term Store, click on the "Atlas" Term Group, then click on the Import term set button to the top right:

Once you click the button the panel has a link to the example CSV file:

We provide a modified template with the basic Atlas top level terms and some examples at the bottom of this article: Example CSV file - please be aware that this should only be used for reference.

Open the CSV file; opening in Excel is usually the easiest way to edit it. In the CSV you should see an example taxonomy. You need to replace and add to this with the terms you want to include.

• In cell A2 replace with the name of the Term Set, such as "Activity" or "Subject"
• In cell F2 replace with the name of the top level Term, so "*Activities*" for example
• Ensure that the structure is the same for each branch of the term set
• When you need to add more terms, add a new row for each term, copying the row above then making the addition or change needed.

If you need assistance building the CSV file you need please contact our support team.

Import the CSV

Once you have a formatted CSV with all the required terms and structure added, you can now import it using the button we clicked earlier to get the template CSV - click the button then click the Browse button in the panel to locate and upload your CSV.

Because you have the Atlas term set names in the CSV the import will create new term sets e.g. Activity1, Subject1, rather than automatically merge them. This is fine though - in the next step we will merge them into the intended term sets.

Merge new term sets into the Atlas ones

You will find that the terms are not automatically merged into the Term Set, which is annoying but expected. Unfortunately it is not possible to avoid merges since if you refer to an existing term the import will make a new version of it simply adding "1" to the end of the top level tag to make it unique. Inside the "duplicate" Term Set though the terms will all have the names expected.

So now you have two term sets with a "duplicate" name e.g. Activity and Activity1. We simply need to merge the two, but the order of the merge is very important. We need to merge such that the term set we keep is the one deployed by the Atlas deployment process as that has the GUIDs expected by Atlas features - so the original one without the "1" on the end.

To do this correctly, pick the top level term from the new copy of the term set e.g. Activity1, then click Merge from that term and merge into the top level term in Activity. You cannot merge at the Term Set level, you have to go down to the top level terms inside the set, which can increase the complexity of the process depending on your structure.

If you are merging into an already existing structure you may need to do multiple merges at lower levels of the hierarchy. Please contact us if you are unsure how to perform the merges.

Example CSV file

Download the Atlas example CSV file below: