Fixing CSV Upload Errors for Focus Area Allocations in Talent
Platform Notice: Cloud Only - This article only applies to Atlassian apps on the cloud platform.
Summary
If your custom CSV upload for the Upload position to focus area allocations fails, and every row returns focus_area_ari: Invalid focus area ARI, the values in the focus_area_ari . The column doesn't match the exact format expected by the system.
Diagnosis
Use the following checks to confirm this is an ARI format issue before applying the fix.
Check | What to look for | Indicates |
Error message on every row |
| The entire |
ARI format | Values should start with | Anything else (a name, a URL, a partial string) will fail validation |
Whitespace | Open the CSV in a plain text editor and check for leading/trailing spaces around ARI values | Even a single extra space causes the row to fail |
Invisible characters / encoding | Check for BOM ( | Common when copying ARIs from a browser or spreadsheet tool |
Names vs ARIs | If the | The column was populated manually instead of from the sample spreadsheet |
Quick test: Download the focus area sample spreadsheet (Settings → Talent admin settings → CSV allocations), copy one ARI value from it, and compare character-by-character with your upload file. If they differ in any way, that is the cause.
Cause
Here are some common causes for this issue;
Using focus area names instead of ARIs in the
focus_area_aricolumnCopying outdated, incomplete, or manually altered ARI values
Extra whitespace before or after the ARI
Invisible characters introduced by spreadsheet tools or file encoding
Solution
Use the system-generated focus area ARIs from the sample spreadsheet and make sure the focus_area_ari values in your upload file match exactly.
Steps to fix
Go to Settings → Talent admin settings → CSV allocations.
Download the focus area sample spreadsheet.
Open the sample spreadsheet and locate the valid
focus_area_arivalues. These are system-generated and are the only values accepted during upload.Compare the
focus_area_arivalues in your upload CSV with the values from the sample spreadsheet.If the format does not match exactly, update your CSV to use the ARIs from the sample spreadsheet.
Save the file as CSV and upload the completed allocations spreadsheet again.
What to check
Make sure the
focus_area_aricolumn contains ARIs, not focus area names.Do not manually type or modify ARIs. Even one extra space or one missing character will cause the row to fail.
Check for hidden formatting problems in the CSV, such as leading spaces, trailing spaces, invisible characters, or BOM encoding.
If needed, open the file in a plain text editor to verify the raw CSV values.
If the same error appears on every row, the issue is typically not with individual allocations. It usually means the entire focus_area_ari column is populated with invalid or incorrectly formatted values.
Reference
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