Import users into Liferay

If you’re using Liferay, and not using LDAP, you will probably face into the same problem I did – how to import a large amount of users without manually adding them to the system.

So, loving automation, I’ve decided to create a simple Portlet that does just that.

1. Create a new Dynamic Web App in Eclipse.
2. Configure all necessary deployment files (liferay-portlet.xml, portlet.xml, web.xml etc)
3. Create a new User class:

   package com.tona.liferay.web;public class User {
   private String firstName;
   private String lastName;
   private String email;
   private String phoneNo;
   private String screenName;
   private String password;
   
   public String getEmail() {
   return email;
   }
   
   public void setEmail(String email) {
   this.email = email;
   }
   
   public String getPhoneNo() {
   return phoneNo;
   }
   
   public void setPhoneNo(String phoneNo) {
   this.phoneNo = phoneNo;
   }
   
   public String getFirstName() {
   return firstName;
   }
   
   public void setFirstName(String firstName) {
   this.firstName = firstName;
   }
   
   public String getLastName() {
   return lastName;
   }
   
   public void setLastName(String lastName) {
   this.lastName = lastName;
   }
   
   public String getScreenName() {
   return screenName;
   }
   
   public void setScreenName(String screenName) {
   this.screenName = screenName;
   }
   
   public String getPassword() {
   return password;
   }
   
   public void setPassword(String password) {
   this.password = password;
   }
   
   public User(String line) {
   String[] tokens = line.split(",");
   setFirstName(tokens[1]);
   setLastName(tokens[2]);
   setEmail(tokens[3]);
   setPhoneNo(tokens[4]);
   String screenName = getFirstName() + getLastName().substring(0, 3);
   setScreenName(screenName.toLowerCase());
   setPassword(getScreenName() + "123");
   }
   
   public User() {
   
   }
   
   }
   

4. Create the portlet itself:

   package com.tona.liferay.web;import java.io.BufferedReader;
   import java.io.FileReader;
   import java.io.IOException;
   import java.util.ArrayList;
   import java.util.List;
   import java.util.Locale;
   import java.util.logging.Level;
   import java.util.logging.Logger;
   
   import javax.portlet.ActionRequest;
   import javax.portlet.ActionResponse;
   import javax.portlet.PortletException;
   
   import com.liferay.portal.model.Company;
   import com.liferay.portal.service.CompanyLocalServiceUtil;
   import com.liferay.portal.service.UserLocalServiceUtil;
   import com.liferay.util.bridges.mvc.MVCPortlet;
   
   public class ImportUsersPortlet extends MVCPortlet {
   public void importUsers(ActionRequest actionRequest,
   ActionResponse actionResponse) throws IOException, PortletException {
   
   String fileName = actionRequest.getParameter("fileName");
   
   BufferedReader fr = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(fileName));
   
   Listusers = new ArrayList();
   
   String line;
   
   while ((line = fr.readLine()) != null) {
   users.add(new User(line));
   }
   
   // We now have the user list
   com.liferay.portal.service.ServiceContext context = new com.liferay.portal.service.ServiceContext();
   long companyId = 0;
   
   try {
   Company company = CompanyLocalServiceUtil.getCompanies().get(0);
   companyId = company.getCompanyId();
   for (User user : users) {
   try {
   UserLocalServiceUtil.addUser(0, companyId, false,
   user.getPassword(), user.getPassword(), false, user.getScreenName(),
   user.getEmail(), 0, "", Locale.getDefault(),
   user.getFirstName(), "", user.getLastName(), 0, 0,
   true, 1, 1, 1970, null, null, null, null, null, false,
   context);
   } catch (Exception e) {
   e.printStackTrace();
   }
   }
   } catch (Exception e) {
   e.printStackTrace();
   }
   
   }
   }
   

5. Create a WAR file and deploy it in Liferay
6. Note that the portlet does not upload the CSV file – and expects it to exist on the Liferay server itself

You can of course change the algorithm of the screen-name and password creation, by changing the User constructor method.