User Support Forum

Hi, we are exporting personal profile data to build some custom printed/online directory material on our webs site. PowerChurch is our master of all membership data. As changes are made in PC, we will export the profile data (all fields) to XML, and read those into our custom program, which stores them for real-time queries, printing, etc.

Obviously we have to sync our system with the PC data periodically. To do that we must be able to reliably identify individuals in the exported data, even if their data (including first/last names) have changed since the last export. I see in the exported XML a field <meid> - is that a guaranteed unique, system-generated stable personal profile identifier? If not, how can we identify individuals reliably from one export to the next?

Also, I don't see any similar identifier in the family data section of the personal profiles. Is there any unique, stable key to identify the family? Currently we are using family first+last name, but that is not stable (e.g. sometimes those change).

Thanks!
-Mark

The MEID is a unique identifier for an individual. The equivalent for the family is a field called mail_no it is a 5 digit numeric value.

Thanks! That will greatly simplify our code.

-Mark