Bulk creating users

Gopher for Users improves the efficiency with which Google Workspace admins can mass-create users from existing data sources, like SIS exports or employee information systems. The specific advantages Gopher for Users provides over the admin console includes the ability to mass create users:

• Directly into the correct organizational unit, rather than root.
• Populated with all key user properties, contact information, and employee details.
• With the power of Google Sheets formulas to assist in data population via extra data columns.
• With predefined domain group memberships.
• With random, auto-generated kid-friendly passwords.
• With the ability to distribute printer-friendly passwords to staff points of contact.
• With the ability to PREVIEW all users before they are created

What you’ll learn:

Creating users in bulk is a multi-step process. In this article, you’ll navigate these steps, learning how to:

• Decide which method to create users by
• Create and validate email addresses
• Generate passwords
• Set OU paths
• Set user properties and attributes
• Add users to domain groups
• Preview and create users

Deciding which method to create users by

1. Click the Bulk User Actions tab of the sidebar.
2. Click Create users.  This will open the Create users workflow stepper and insert a new tab in the spreadsheet named Create New Users.
3. Select how you’ll populate user info.
   

   Setting	Description
   Manually in sheet	Requires a minimum of Last name and First name. Given the formula powers of Google Sheets, don't be afraid to add custom columns, such as Student ID, that may be useful when constructing email addresses, for example.
   From CSV	In general, exports from 3rd party student or employee information should be handled via the From CSV option. Click Choose File to select the CSV file. For use in Gopher for Users, CSV data files: Must contain: Unique headers in row one. At a minimum, First name and Last name data. May contain: Any header values you want. The mapper will let you save mappings. Columns that will get directly mapped onto any colored column in the Sheet. Unmapped columns, such as Phone 1 and Student ID. These will get automatically appended to the right of colored columns in the Sheet and can be integrated into Sheets formulas for any purpose. Edit Import Mappings: Once you select your file, Edit Import Mappings is available. Click Edit import mappings in the sidebar to launch the field mapper.  The mappings you define in one Google Sheet for User Gopher will be saved to your user profile and get re-used each time you run an import, saving precious time. Check the checkbox for a source data item to map that item to your CSV. Select the CSV item to map this source data to from the drop-down. Check the Also import all unmapped source data as new columns in the sheet checkbox if you want to include data source columns, but don’t have anything to map them to. These columns are imported to the right of all colored headers. Any column in the Sheet can be used with combinations of text formulas like =LEFT(), =RIGHT(), =LOWER() and concatenation operators like "&" (see example below).  Complete your mappings. Click Save. Pro Tip: If you build column-referenced formulas like this, for columns like user email, if you leave your Row 3 formulas in the Sheet they will be auto-preserved and applied to all rows during your future CSV uploads! Time saver!!!

4. Click Next.

Creating and validating email addresses

After you've populated the First name and Last name columns, the next step will ask you to generate and validate email addresses. To validate email addresses, Gopher for Users checks for the following potential errors:

• Email address already exists
• Duplicates exist in the sheet
• An invalid domain name was provided
• Email address is not an email address

This validation check can provide a great way to identify name collisions and filter out pre-existing users or users with name collisions that need to be manually resolved.

All of these validation issues must be resolved in the sheet or have their rows deleted before you can proceed to user creation.  

To validate email addresses:

1. From step 2 of the Create stepper, click Validate emails.
2. Resolve any invalid email addresses in the Sheet and click Re-validate Emails.
   
3. Once all email addresses are valid, click Next.

Generating passwords

Once all email addresses have been determined valid, you will be able to proceed to the Generate new passwords step, where you can generate passwords directly in the Sheet, or via memory-friendly rules.

For younger students, it's generally preferable not to force a password change.  This can be accomplished by setting a blank value in the Sheet. Gopher for Users allows the distribution of multiple passwords to a single point of contact via a printer-friendly email.

To generate passwords:

1. From step 3 of the Create stepper, select how you’ll Generate new passwords.
• From a rule: The rule determines what is used to generate the passwords. Select one option from the list. Options include AdjNounNum,Random,ColorNum,ColorAnimal, NumColorAnimal.
• Manually in sheet: You’ll add passwords directly in the Sheet.
2. Click Generate Passwords.
   

   Note: Once passwords are generated, Generate Passwords changes to Regenerate Passwords letting you create new passwords for all users in the sheet.

   
3. Click Next.

Setting org unit paths

In this step, you set the OU path for users by selecting the path from the Org unit path column in the sheet. 

To set OU paths:

1. In the sheet Org unit path column, select the path for each user.
   
2. Click Next.

Setting user properties and attributes

Next, populate properties and attributes. Here you can also include enabled custom user attributes like Student ID, which might be useful to associate as a part of Google Workspace user profiles. The stepper indicates which columns need review/editing.

To set properties and attributes:

1. In the Sheet, update the columns listed in the sidebar stepper.
   
2. Click Next.

Adding users to domain groups

Next, use the sheet to populate any Google Workspace domain groups to which you want users added.  Use commas to separate multiple group email addresses.

To set domain group membership:

1. In the sheet Add user to these domain groups column, enter group email addresses in a comma-separated list, including the group name.
   
2. Click Next.

Previewing and creating users

Clicking Next from step 6 loads a preview of all users to be created, along with any errors that will prevent specific users from being generated. 

• Click Create Users to generate the accounts, perform additional actions such as group additions and password sends, and note the status in the row. When finished the summary populates to the Bulk Action History tab.

When passwords are sent to points of contact with new user emails, they look like this: