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Custom codes configuration examples needed
Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 3:29 pm
by blanneau
I am configuring PowerChurch for our church staff. I haven't found a good discussion or examples of the use of custom codes in both the Mailing and Membership areas.
Would anyone who feels they have an elegant setup for coding, please share these dbf files: MACODES.DBF and MECODES.DBF?
Many thanks!
Bazile
(601)445-4143
Custom codes configuration examples needed
Posted: Thu Nov 20, 2008 11:29 am
by blanneau
Well, this is what I have come up with for the Mailing Codes:
Code: Select all
field code descript
CATEGORY MA Member - Active
CATEGORY MI Member - Inactive
CATEGORY FC Friend
CATEGORY SC Sister Church
CATEGORY NA Non-Member - Active
CATEGORY NI Non-Member - Inactive
CATEGORY VI Visitor
CATEGORY PR Prospect
CATEGORY CO Community
SPECIAL1 ML All Mailings
SPECIAL1 MN Newsletter Only
SPECIAL1 MO Others Only
SPECIAL1 MP Playschool Only
SPECIAL1 MC Community Only
SPECIAL2 CY Children
SPECIAL2 CP Children - Play School
SPECIAL2 CN No Children
SPECIAL3 FG General
SPECIAL3 FA Young Adult
SPECIAL3 FS Young Single
SPECIAL3 FR Senior
Please contact me for my MACODES.DBF file if you would find it useful.
I have set preferences for the mailing codes as follows:
Code: Select all
SPECIAL1 -> Mailings
SPECIAL2 -> Children
SPECIAL3 -> Families
The database manager was used to delete all code values in the MA.DBF table and to set a default value. Church staff are now updating the records from the default values.
In the future releases it would be helpful to expand the codes to at least 4 characters for more flexibility.
Posted: Thu Nov 20, 2008 2:04 pm
by Jeff
The 2 digit code is usually never seen by the end user. They just see the 25 character description. When you add the code in the program, it generates a random code to use.
Posted: Thu Nov 20, 2008 3:02 pm
by blanneau
Hi, Jeff-
This would only matter if someone would be doing queries from the raw tables...
! Nice system though.
-Bazile
Posted: Thu Nov 20, 2008 7:48 pm
by NeilZ
blanneau wrote:Hi, Jeff-
This would only matter if someone would be doing queries from the raw tables...
! Nice system though.
-Bazile
Actually, replacing that file affect any existing codes that are setup, along with any custom reports that have already been created.
All the average user needs to know is the different category codes themselves, that is:
member - active, member - inactive , etc.
Then they can add those codes to what they already have, and the system will then generate the internal codes without changing those codes that have already been created.
Posted: Thu Nov 20, 2008 9:42 pm
by blanneau
Thanks, Neil-
I am just a church member with some technical background trying to help get the system set up in a logical manner. Our church has had PC since 1994, but never made proper use of the system. It was eventually relegated to keeping track of contributions only. We are now changing that - trying to move into the 21st century. So we are starting out from scratch.
My objective has been to get the system configured in the most direct manner and consulted this forum after PC Support told me they didn't have any suggestions, beyond what is in the manual, for a coding structure. So far, no one on this forum has been willing to share how they set up their codes, though we are only a couple of days in. So, I get to do it myself and hope that I can anticipate what our needs will be. What I definitely don't want is for church staff who do not have any concept of the data environment to be making up codes on the fly.
Would you mind sharing your set of member codes? I would really appreciate it. You indicated in another post that you have structured your system so that you could easily extract data for PCUSA statistical reports. We have the same need as well.
I apologize if my database shenanigans make some folks nervous and will try to keep that to myself in the future.
-Bazile
Posted: Fri Nov 21, 2008 10:13 am
by NeilZ
blanneau wrote:Thanks, Neil-
I am just a church member with some technical background trying to help get the system set up in a logical manner. Our church has had PC since 1994, but never made proper use of the system. It was eventually relegated to keeping track of contributions only. We are now changing that - trying to move into the 21st century. So we are starting out from scratch.
My objective has been to get the system configured in the most direct manner and consulted this forum after PC Support told me they didn't have any suggestions, beyond what is in the manual, for a coding structure. So far, no one on this forum has been willing to share how they set up their codes, though we are only a couple of days in. So, I get to do it myself and hope that I can anticipate what our needs will be. What I definitely don't want is for church staff who do not have any concept of the data environment to be making up codes on the fly.
Would you mind sharing your set of member codes? I would really appreciate it. You indicated in another post that you have structured your system so that you could easily extract data for PCUSA statistical reports. We have the same need as well.
I apologize if my database shenanigans make some folks nervous and will try to keep that to myself in the future.
-Bazile
See my reply to your email .. hope those lists help.