Question: why would you need to export or import?

Answer: because by using Export, you can backup everything that way. Or by using Import, you can get subscribers into your lists that come from other programs or databases.

Export Subscribers:

This will export subscribers and all the fields associated with each subscriber. For example: name, email address, verification, and date added to the list.

All the subscribers will be downloaded to a TAB-delimited TXT file on your hard drive. This TXT file can then be used to Import Subscribers (perhaps on a different server.) Note the header line at the beginning of the output file. That tells the Import routine which field is in which column.

This TXT file can be easily opened with Microsoft Excel, if desired.

Export List Properties

Each list that you define has a set of properties. For example, the confirmation emails are part of the list properties. As is the checkbox which indicates whether the list owner gets notified when a subscriber joins the list.

All these properties will be downloaded to a TXT file on your hard drive. This TXT file can then be used to Import List Properties (perhaps on a different server.)

Import Subscribers

This routine will add subscribers to the list. It reads input from a TAB-delimited file on your computer. You select which file to use, by first Browsing for the file on your computer, and them using the Import Subscribers button. If you are importing subscribers from some other programming system, note that the first line MUST have TAB-delimited field names:

email       name        listname        verified           date_created

These names can be in any order. As they define the meaning of each column of data. (The 'verified' field is an 'n' if the user has NOT confirmed their email address.) Only the email field is essential -- the others are not specifically required. For example, a file of email addresses only with the first line reading "email" would be OK.

Duplicate email addresses (i.e., email addresses already in the list) are ignored.

Check the Test Mode? checkbox if you want to validate your input data, but NOT put anything in the Subscribers list yet. It will display up to 50 emails so that you can know for yourself, whether or not the data is right for importing.

It is HIGHLY recommended that you use the Export-Import button on the Subscribers Control Panel, and NOT the Export-Import button on the Lists Control Panel. (That one is there, so you can import a new list to get started.)

Since you would already be operating on a defined list when you are in a Subscribers Control Panel, then the system knows which list to import the subscribers into.

Import List Properties

This is the reverse of the Export List Properties routine. You choose a file which have the List Properties in it. This file would probably have come from the Export List Properties routine.

This then appends a list to the Lists Control Panel. (It does not replace one of the same name, if it already exists.) Also note that you should Import List Properties BEFORE importing any subscribers. (Or is that not obvious?)