Adding users via Data Loader and activating them in one step

Question

I have an idea, don't know whether or not it's possible. I need to add ~ 200 users to my org and have them all activated at the same time and have activation emails sent to their user email address. Like you can do manually with the "Generate new password and notify user immediately" checkbox on the user page.

I see two methods that (hopefully) could work:

1. Add all the users in one go, but keep them Inactive and mark them in some way (with a custom field checkbox). Activate them later in another Data Loader import.
2. Add all the users, activate them and keep them active.
3. Have users sign up manually via the Chatter Coworker Invitations, then query for them and use the Data Loader to change the ProfileId to the correct one.

The question is: can this method (generate password and send the email) be called somehow via the API? I tried adding a new test user via Data Loader, and he came in Active but no email was sent. Bit of a fiddle, having to do this manually with every user.

The reason for this workaround is because the users have to have access to the Ideas object, and Only Chatter Only licenses grant that access, while Chatter Free does not.

Answer 1

If you are OK with having the initial email be the reset password then you can do the following which involves zero coding

Software

1. Data Load the Users
2. Go to Manage Users which lists out all of the users in the system.
3. Create a view that contains only those users in which you are interested.
4. Check all of those users' checkboxes (can also check the 'Action' checkbox in the header to select all).
5. Click the Reset Password(s) button.

On step #3 if you need to display more users you can click the More link at the bottom of the page and you can also hack the url parameter rowsperpage=210 to rowsperpage=500, for example.

Answer 2

I do not think it's possible to do with the DataLoader, but here are 2 methods of doing it:

1. SF provides a way to add multiple users. https://help.salesforce.com/HTViewHelpDoc?id=users_adding_multiple.htm&language=en_US

   If you have chatter licenses, this might easily solve your problem. There is a limit of 10 as it is shown, so still might not solve your requirement for a single automated solution.

2. You can do this with the API. These are the methods and objects you need:

   • To create the users, with Inactive mode, use the API call: http://www.salesforce.com/us/developer/docs/api/Content/sforce_api_objects_user.htm

   • Remember to set the IsActive to false.

   • Once you are done with creating all of your users
     • Go through all of the users with the following: resetPassword() that will reset the password, and send them their password.
     • Remember to enable them as well while still in the loop. Set IsActive = True