While the Bulk Change option allows you to update multiple item properties/metadata through the user interface, you may alternatively update item properties/metadata by importing an external CSV file.
Formatting the CSV File
Before importing a CSV (Comma delimited) (*.csv) file containing item metadata, the file must be in the required format. The column headers in the CSV file should refer to item properties you want to edit (e.g., subject, grade level, etc.).
- One column header must be either ItemID or ItemGUID or ItemVendorID (but not more than one), which specifies the item you want to edit. (Refer to Finding Items for more information on item identifiers.)
- Each row of the file indicates an existing item (by either Item ID, Item GUID, or ItemVendorID) and contains values for each item property.
The table below outlines which column headers/properties you may include in the file, as well as the values supported for each property.
Important: All column titles and allowed values are case-sensitive, as shown in the table below.
Column Header Title | Item Property | Multivalue property? | Allowed Values |
ItemID (required, unless ItemGUID or ItemVendorID is present) |
ItemLogic ID | No | Any integer representing an existing item's Item ID. Example: 33422 (Note: If more than one version of the item exists, the latest version is edited.) |
ItemGUID (required, unless ItemID or ItemVendorID is present) |
ItemLogic Item GUID |
No | Any GUID of an existing item. Example: 5daf1cd5-7b28-4146-8d6a-005dac130032 |
ItemVendorID (required, unless ItemID or ItemGUID is present) |
ItemLogic Vendor ID (for identifying an item to edit via Vendor ID) |
No | Any set of characters representing an existing item's Vendor ID. Example: i-4-1-2 |
Subject | ItemLogic Subject | Yes | MATH, ELA, SCI, SS, HIST |
GradeLevel | ItemLogic Grade Level | Yes | PK, K, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 |
VendorID | ItemLogic Vendor ID (for editing the Vendor ID) |
No | Any valid Vendor ID. Example: i-336026 |
DepthOfKnowledge | ItemLogic DOK | No | 1, 2, 3, 4 (Recall, Skill/Concept, Strategic Thinking, Extended Thinking) |
Difficulty | ItemLogic Difficulty | No | E, M, H (easy, medium, hard) |
BloomsTaxonomy | ItemLogic Bloom’s Taxonomy | No |
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 (Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analyzing, Evaluating, Creating) |
Language | ItemLogic Language | No | EN, ES (English, Spanish) |
Project | Project name in ItemLogic | Yes | Any existing project number. Example: 46 (The project number is located at end of the URL when you are viewing a project. For example, in the URL below, the project number is 46: app.itemlogic.com/banks/view/46 ) |
Tools | Tools available when taking online test | Yes | PR, CM, RU (Protractor, Compass, Ruler) |
Column Header Title | Item Property | Multivalue property? | Allowed Values |
Passage | Context for the item | Yes | Any valid ItemLogic Resource ID of a passage (or other resource). |
Calculator | Type of calculator available when taking online test | No | Ba, Sc, Ex (Basic, Scientific, Basic Extended) |
Scoring | Scoring algorithm on the Settings tab | No | PARCC, Partial, All, Boolean |
Max Score | Max Score (Maximum Score) of an interaction in the item |
Yes (Only provide multiple values if the item is a multipart item. If multiple values are provided, they are applied to multiple stems/interactions within the item.) |
Any integer (0 - 999). |
Alignment (AlignmentDocumentID required in addition to this column if you choose "Replace existing values" for multivalue properties when importing.) |
AB Standard to which the item is aligned |
Yes |
Any AB Standard GUID Example: 6ce96954-1ef1-433e-80b5-b2873e910e05 |
AlignmentDocumentID (Required if you choose "Replace existing values" for multivalue properties when importing and include an Alignment column.) |
AB Standards Document containing the Alignment standard | Yes | The AB Document GUID of the standards document containing the standard you are removing/replacing or ALL Example of a GUID: 194437D8-29E9-11D8-879C-D6B4BCE9769D Note:
|
ItemStatus | ItemLogic Status | No | PUBL, BANK (Published, Locked) |
AltItemID (May be used if AltItemGUID or AltItemVendorID are not present in the file.) |
Alternates | Yes | Any valid Item ID of an existing item. Example: 36026 Example: 36026,342,521 Note: If multiple versions of an item exist, the latest version is added as the Alternate. |
AltItemGUID (May be used if AltItemID or AltItemVendorID are not present in the file.) |
Alternates | Yes | Any valid Item GUID of an existing item. Example: 5ce7f491-3410-4e43-aec1-0a23ac13003 Example: 5ce7f491-3410-4e43-aec1-0a23ac13003, 5ce7f492-3510-4e43-aec1-0a23ac13003 |
AltItemVendorID (May be used if AltItemID or AltItemGUID are not present in the file.) |
Alternates | Yes | Any valid Item Vendor ID of an existing item. Example: i-2343 Example: i-2343,i-9856,ia-2225 Note: If multiple versions of an item exist, the latest version is added as the Alternate. |
tag:[API Search Key] The API Search Key is associated with a tag. It is visible when editing a tag. (From choose a workspace, click the Tags panel and click on a tag. See Creating Custom Tags for details). The API Search Key is modeled after the title of the tag. Example: A tag called “Resource Grade Level” has the API Search Key resource-grade-level) Example: tag:resource-grade-level |
A custom tag for items | Depends on definition in ItemLogic | Depends on definition in ItemLogic. May be:
|
Translations-ItemID Should only be added to Primary Items. This ID represents the alternate language variant of the item being updated. |
ItemLogic ID or GUID or VendorID of the Translation Relationship item |
Yes | Any valid ItemLogic ID or GUID or Vendor ID of an item that is a translation of a Primary Item. Example: 1223456 |
Note: If you need to remove data while editing the CSV file in Excel, right-click on the selection and choose Delete; otherwise, empty data may be detected when imported.
Removing Property Values
To remove existing property metadata from an item, include the property in the CSV file and set the value to null.
Ignoring Properties
If you leave a property value empty, the system will skip that value; no changes will be made to the property. For example, the following lines from a CSV file would give item 233 a Subject of ELA, but the Subject for item 235 will not be changed.

Multivalue Properties
Some properties can accept multiple values. To indicate multiple values for a single property, a column or row must be repeated within the file so that the values are accumulated. For example, either of the following CSV file contents would give item 235 the grade levels of 3 and 4 and a DOK of 1:


Note: If a row is repeated in the file, single-value properties must have the same value in each row (or be empty or have only one non-empty value).
Sample CSV File
The following image shows a sample of a CSV file appropriately formatted and opened in Notepad++ (click to see it larger):
Here is the same CSV file opened in Excel:
Note: "date-to-release" is a custom tag supporting a date.
Importing the CSV File
To begin importing item metadata from a CSV file:
- Verify that the contents of the CSV file satisfy the criteria outlined in the section above titled, “Formatting the CSV File.”
- If you know an import was started, make sure you get an email indicating that it was processed before beginning another import.)
- Navigate to the Items panel in your Item Bank.
- From the Actions menu, choose Advanced > Import Metadata.
The "Import Item Metadata" dialog appears. Make selections for both drop-down menus in the dialog box.

For Multivalue Properties, choose “Add values to the existing values” to append to the property values already in ItemLogic; or choose “Replace existing values” to remove what is in ItemLogic and use the values in the CSV file. Single-valued properties will be replaced.
Drag the CSV file from it’s location in the File Explorer or your desktop to the blue space provided.

Once you see the filename in the dialog, click Import.

You see a message indicating that the file is under review. It will be imported if no major problems are discovered.

Look for a Confirmation Email
After you click Import, the system reviews the file for general validity. If the file cannot be imported for any reason, you will receive an email from ItemLogic explaining what needs to be fixed, and nothing is imported.
If no initial file problems are discovered, the system imports as much of the file as possible. If errors are encountered during the import process, the process terminates and ItemLogic sends you an email indicating that the process failed. The email includes the row at which the import failed and the reason for failure. If no errors are discovered during the import process, you receive an email indicating that the import finished.