Member Import Error - Unable to parse XML

Question

I am trying to import 55 members into a new site. I am using the following format:

<members>
 <member>
  <username>myuser</username>
  <screen_name>First Last</screen_name>
  <password type="text">Password</password>
  <email>myname@email.com</email>
 </member>
</members>

for the file location I have uploaded the .xml file to the root of the site and listed the name of the file without the server path.

Unfortunately the EE documentation on this topic is woefully thin.

Any suggestions as to what might be missing here?

Answer 1

EE's built in Member Importer can be a bit fickle from time to time and the error reporting is.... well it is anything but useful. So I have a list of things that you can try

• Upload the file to the root of your server and try both ../member-import.xml or member-import.xml I have had various results depending on the server environment.
• EE requires username, email, and screen_name to all be unique. This is not only for the members you are importing but existing members in your DB.
• Usernames need to be at least 6 characters (unless you are forcing longer in your config) and can not start with a number.
• If you have any custom member fields setup in your install either make sure that they are all not required or alternatively make sure the required fields are included in your .xml file and that they contain content. For example if other_app_id is a required field you need to include <other_app_id>Something here</other_app_id> in every record you are importing.
• If your original data was created in Excel and you exported it as CSV file it often creates a funky breaking space that looks like a normal space in most text editors but if you open it in Terminal (Mac) or Notepad Plain Text (Windows) you will see it actually creating a new line. Exporting the original excel file in OpenOffice (Windows) or the latest version of Numbers (Mac) should fix the issue.
• Make sure that your data has been sanitized to remove any special characters that are not valid in XML. From the top of my head I believe they are &, <, >, ", and '. These characters will have to be converted into XML entities.