Import and export a glossary

You can move glossaries in and out of Kenseme as files. Export to back a glossary up, share it with another organization, or edit it in a spreadsheet. Import to load an existing glossary or add terms in bulk.

In the app: Business Context › Glossaries › Import / Export All

Before you start¶

• Import and export are blocked while your organization is in read-only mode. See Account states and read-only mode.
• Import files must be .json or .csv and no larger than 10 MB.

Choose a format¶

	JSON	CSV
Best for	Full backups and moving glossaries between organizations.	Bulk-editing terms in a spreadsheet.
Terms, definitions, status, parent	Yes	Yes
Owners and experts	Yes, with titles.	Email addresses only.
Acronyms	Yes	Yes
Links	Yes	Yes
Synonyms and related terms	Yes	No
Related entities (schema links)	Yes	No
Custom attribute values	Yes, when you include them.	Yes, when you include them.

Export¶

1. Choose what to export:
   • Everything: on the Glossaries page, click Export All.
   • One glossary: open it and click Export.
2. Pick a Format: JSON or CSV.
3. Optionally tick Include custom attributes to add each term’s attribute values.
4. Click Export.

The file downloads to your computer.

The CSV layout¶

A CSV export has one row per term and these columns, in this order:

Column	Contents
glossary	The glossary title.
id	The term’s identifier. Keep it when you re-import.
term	The term name.
description	The definition.
status	Draft, In Review, Certified, Contested, or Deprecated.
parent	The parent term’s name, if any.
owners	Owner email addresses, separated by commas.
experts	Expert email addresses, separated by commas.
acronyms	Acronyms, separated by commas.
resources	Links as Title;URL pairs, separated by commas.
Group.Attribute	One extra column per custom attribute, named after its group and attribute, when you include attributes.

This layout is why glossary, term, acronym, and link names can’t contain commas, and why link titles can’t contain semicolons.

Import¶

1. On the Glossaries page, click Import.
2. Click the drop area to choose a file, or drag one onto it.
3. Click Validate. Nothing is written yet.
4. Work through the prompts that apply to your file:
   • New glossaries will be created. The file names glossaries that don’t exist yet. Review the list, then click Proceed to create them along with their terms.
   • Duplicate terms found. Some terms already exist in your organization (in DB) or appear twice in the file (in payload). Click Import non-duplicates to skip them and continue.
5. On Review and proceed, read the issue summary. Issues are grouped by type, with a few examples each. Click View all … more to see every issue of one type.
6. Click Proceed with import.

A message confirms how many terms and new glossaries were created, plus the term links, related entities, and attribute values written.

[screenshot]

Warnings and rejects¶

Each issue group has a badge:

• Warning items don’t stop the import. The affected detail is skipped. Examples: an owner email that doesn’t match a team member, an unrecognized status, an invalid link URL, a custom attribute that doesn’t exist, or a related entity that can’t be found in your schemas.
• Reject items stop the import. Proceed with import doesn’t appear until you fix the file and validate it again. Examples: an empty glossary or term name, a parent term that’s missing or in a different glossary, or a parent loop.

Import adds; it doesn’t update¶

Import only creates glossaries and terms. It never changes a term that already exists: duplicates are skipped. To change existing terms in bulk, edit them in Kenseme, or delete them before you import the corrected file.

Tip: Try a small file first, five to ten terms, to confirm your format end to end before you load hundreds.

Related¶

• Create and edit a glossary
• Define a term
• Apply attribute values on glossary terms
• Extract glossary terms from documents