EverWebinar Chat File Formatting

This article is for EverWebinar.

Upload a CSV file to quickly add many lines of chat messages to an EverWebinar event. 

In the webinar configuration wizard:

1. Go to the Live step
2. Open the Live chat box module and click Enable live chat
3. Configure the chat options to create the ideal attendee experience
4. At the bottom of the module, click Import from CSV to upload a file with multiple chat lines
   • Alternatively, enter chat lines one at a time using the fields in the setup wizard.
   • Note: You can upload more than one file if needed.

CSV Formatting

The CSV file must contain only 7 columns containing chat message values. Each row in the CSV file represents a new chat message.

• Hour: Number between 00 and 07
• Minute: Number between 00 and 59
• Second: Number between 00 and 59
• Name: Name of the person
• Role: Admin or Attendee
• Message: The actual chat comment
• Mode:
  • If role is Attendee: Chat, Question, or Answer
  • If role is Admin: Chat, Question, Answer, Highlighted, or Tip

Example of the correct format:

When the spreadsheet is complete, export or save it as a CSV file with UTF-8 encoding before uploading it to EverWebinar.

File upload limits

The maximum number of pre-loaded chat lines per file is 5,000, or 1 MB for a file upload. This limit ensures a good experience for attendees by preventing high demands on the webinar room from loading the chat.
If your file exceeds the limits, you can split it into multiple files:

• Split the file into one or more additional files with 5,000 lines or fewer. Save the files and confirm that the final size for each is under 1 MB (create more files if needed).
• Go back to EverWebinar and the Live step of the wizard. Upload all of the new CSV files as described in this article.

File upload errors

If your file cannot be uploaded, one or more error messages will appear, indicating which row requires an update:

• Row column count is not 7: Row has more or less than 7 columns.
• Role is invalid: Row must have the role as admin or attendee.
• Type is invalid: Row must have the type as text, question, answer, tip, highlighted. 
• Hour is invalid: Row must have the hours value between 0 and 7.
• Minute is invalid: Row must have the minutes value between 0 and 59.
• Second is invalid: Row must have the seconds value between 0 and 59.
• UTF issue: Row must contain a message with valid UTF-8 encoding.
• Name issue: Row must contain a name that does not exceed 100 characters.

If an error appears

1. Review your CSV file and check the row(s) referenced in the error message.
2. Make corrections as necessary.
3. Resave or export the CSV file with UTF-8 encoding and upload the file again.

If you can't upload a CSV file

You can upload a TXT file instead of a CSV file. You should ensure the TXT file uses the same format as the CSV file. 

Follow these steps to upload a TXT file:

1. Open your CSV file in a text editor like Notepad (Windows) or TextEdit (Mac).
2. Save the file as a .TXT file. 
3. Check the formatting:
   • The file must have 7 columns: Hour, Minute, Second, Name, Role, Message, Mode.
   • Each column must be separated by a comma (,) with no spaces before or after.
   • To create columns in your TXT file, type a comma between each piece of information.
4. Use double quotes for special content:
   • If the Message column contains commas (like Welcome, everyone), put the whole message in double quotes: "Welcome, everyone"
   • If the Message column contains special characters (like ?, !, ", &, etc.), use double quotes.
   • You do not need quotes if the message has only letters, numbers, or spaces.

Example of correct TXT formatting

Make sure your file looks similar to the one below before uploading:

This format helps the system read your file correctly.