diff --git a/sasdata/data_io/exporters/exporter.py b/sasdata/data_io/exporters/exporter.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..157759d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/sasdata/data_io/exporters/exporter.py
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+
+class Exporter:
+    # The following are class-level objects that should not be modified at the instance level
+    # String to describe the type of data this reader can load
+    type_name = ""
+    # Wildcards to display
+    type = []
+    # List of allowed extensions
+    ext = []
+    # Bypass extension check and try to load anyway
+    allow_all = False
+
+    def __init__(self):
+        # TODO: Importer and Exporter are similar in concept: Create a top-level Meta class for both
+        # A map of Path-like objects to the data that should be exported into that path
+        self.data_to_export = {}
+        # Path object using the file path sent to reader
+        self.filepath = None
+        # Starting file position to begin reading data from
+        self.f_pos = 0
+        # File extension of the data file passed to the reader
+        self.extension = None
+        # Open file handle
+        self.f_open = None
+
+    def write(self):
+        pass
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diff --git a/sasdata/data_io/importers/importer.py b/sasdata/data_io/importers/importer.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..88f561b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/sasdata/data_io/importers/importer.py
@@ -0,0 +1,142 @@
+"""
+This is the base file importer class most importers should inherit from.
+All generic functionality required for file import is built into this class.
+"""
+
+import codecs
+import logging
+from abc import abstractmethod
+from pathlib import Path
+from typing import List, Union, Optional, Any
+
+from sasdata.data_util.registry import CustomFileOpen
+
+logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
+
+
+def decode(s):
+    # Attempt to decode files using common encodings
+    # *NB* windows-1252, aka cp1252, overlaps with most ASCII-style encodings
+    for codec in ['utf-8', 'windows-1252']:
+        try:
+            return codecs.decode(s, codec) if isinstance(s, bytes) else s
+        except (ValueError, UnicodeError):
+            # If the specific codec fails, try the next one.
+            pass
+        except Exception as e:
+            logger.warning(e)
+    # Give warning if unable to decode the item using the codecs
+    logger.warning(f"Unable to decode {s}")
+
+
+# Data 1D fields for iterative purposes
+FIELDS_1D = 'x', 'y', 'dx', 'dy', 'dxl', 'dxw'
+# Data 2D fields for iterative purposes
+FIELDS_2D = 'data', 'qx_data', 'qy_data', 'q_data', 'err_data', 'dqx_data', 'dqy_data', 'mask'
+
+
+class Importer:
+    # The following are class-level objects that should not be modified at the instance level
+    # String to describe the type of data this reader can load
+    type_name = ""
+    # Wildcards to display
+    type = []
+    # List of allowed extensions
+    ext = []
+    # Bypass extension check and try to load anyway
+    allow_all = False
+
+    def __init__(self):
+        # List of Data1D and Data2D objects to be sent back to data_loader
+        self.imported_data = []
+        # Path object using the file path sent to reader
+        self.filepath = None
+        # Starting file position to begin reading data from
+        self.f_pos = 0
+        # File extension of the data file passed to the reader
+        self.extension = None
+        # Open file handle
+        self.f_open = None
+
+    def read(self, filepath: Union[str, Path], file_handler: Optional[CustomFileOpen] = None,
+             f_pos: Optional[int] = 0) -> List[Any]:
+        """
+        Basic file reader
+
+        :param filepath: The string representation of the path to a file to be loaded. This can be a URI or a local file
+        :param file_handler: A CustomFileOpen instance used to handle file operations
+        :param f_pos: The initial file position to start reading from
+        :return: A list of Data1D and Data2D objects
+        """
+        self.filepath = Path(filepath)
+        self.f_pos = f_pos
+        if not file_handler:
+            # Allow direct calls to the readers without generating a file_handler, but higher-level calls should
+            #   already have file_handler defined
+            with CustomFileOpen(filepath, 'rb') as file_handler:
+                return self._read(file_handler)
+        return self._read(file_handler)
+
+    def _read(self, file_handler: CustomFileOpen) -> list[Any]:
+        """
+        Private method to handle file loading
+
+        :param file_handler: A CustomFileOpen instance used to handle file operations
+        :return: A list of Data1D and Data2D objects
+        """
+        self.f_open = file_handler.fd
+        # Move to the desired initial file position in case of successive reads on the same handle
+        self.f_open.seek(self.f_pos)
+
+        basename, extension = self.filepath.stem, self.filepath.suffix
+        self.extension = extension.lower()
+        if self.extension in self.ext or self.allow_all:
+            try:
+                # All raised exceptions are handled by ExtensionRegistry.load(). No exception handling here.
+                self.get_file_contents()
+            finally:
+                # TODO: Do something here to ensure data quality
+                pass
+        else:
+            # TODO: Throw meaningful error (unknown file type!!!!)
+            pass
+
+        # Return a list of parsed entries that data_loader can manage
+        final_data = self.imported_data.copy()
+        self.reset_state()
+        return final_data
+
+    def reset_state(self):
+        """
+        Resets the class state to a base case when loading a new data file so previous
+        data files do not appear a second time
+        """
+        self.imported_data = []
+
+    def next_line(self) -> str:
+        """
+        Returns the next line in the file as a string.
+        """
+        return decode(self.f_open.readline())
+
+    def next_lines(self) -> str:
+        """
+        Returns the next line in the file as a string.
+        """
+        for _ in self.f_open:
+            yield self.next_line()
+
+    def readall(self) -> str:
+        """
+        Returns the entire file as a string.
+        """
+        self.f_open.seek(self.f_pos)
+        return decode(self.f_open.read())
+
+    @abstractmethod
+    def get_file_contents(self):
+        """
+        Reader specific class to access the contents of the file
+        All reader classes that inherit from FileReader must implement
+        """
+        pass
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