How to bulk update/mass update a Personal Code?

[pbumc]

Hi,

In PC 10.4, is there a way to mass-update Personal Codes? E.g. for all persons with Code 1 = X, set Code 2 = Y?

I found the mass update function for activities but not for simple fields.

Mark Berry

[NeilZ]

Hi,

In PC 10.4, is there a way to mass-update Personal Codes? E.g. for all persons with Code 1 = X, set Code 2 = Y?

I found the mass update function for activities but not for simple fields.

Mark Berry

Seem to remember that in v10, you can delete 'code 1' and the system will ask what code do you want to replace it with for those with 'code 1'. I know that happens in v11, but I don't have a v10 test setup any longer.


That said, I'd first do a backup before you try it

[pbumc]

Thanks Neil. We want to populate new codes without getting rid of old ones. Think "if they get that newsletter, they'll want to get this new one."

The DB is small enough that they should be able to go through one by one in under half an hour; I just thought if there were a simple Replace, I'd use that.

What about a box for executing SQL? Basically all I need is

UPDATE PersonalProfiles
SET Code2 = 'Y'
WHERE Code1 = 'X"

Mark Berry

[NeilZ]

Thanks Neil. We want to populate new codes without getting rid of old ones. Think "if they get that newsletter, they'll want to get this new one."

The DB is small enough that they should be able to go through one by one in under half an hour; I just thought if there were a simple Replace, I'd use that.

What about a box for executing SQL? Basically all I need is

UPDATE PersonalProfiles
SET Code2 = 'Y'
WHERE Code1 = 'X"

Mark Berry

The Powerchurch staff does not usually advise doing that.

FWIW .. Personal Profile codes are not normally used to track 'newsletter' subscriptions or stuff like that. Its usually used for tracking Members, non-members, visitors, etc.

If you want to track newsletters, setup a set of activity codes that you can add and delete people from. You can print mailing labels from the Activity module just as easily as you can from Personal Profiles.

For example:
Activity Code 1000 - Newsletters (I would set this up as a 'header' type of number)
code 1001 - Church Newsletter
code 1002 - Women's Group Newsletter
code 1003 - Youth Group Newsletter

And so on.

In this manner you can assign many newsletters to one personal profile and not worry about adding personal profile codes.

[pbumc]

Thanks for the tip. I set up some simple activity codes for committee membership a few years back but the user has not kept them up to date. I think having to go one level deeper than the personal profile is just a bit more cumbersome than seeing the code immediately on the Dates & Codes tab. (Member/Non-Member/Visitor all fits into one field, the Pers. Status code, on the main Profile Information tab.) There are 10 codes open and we're only using one so far so a couple more shouldn't be a problem. Also, I don't see an Export option under Activities and Skills, which we need for exporting lists of email addresses.

[NeilZ]

Thanks for the tip. I set up some simple activity codes for committee membership a few years back but the user has not kept them up to date. I think having to go one level deeper than the personal profile is just a bit more cumbersome than seeing the code immediately on the Dates & Codes tab. (Member/Non-Member/Visitor all fits into one field, the Pers. Status code, on the main Profile Information tab.) There are 10 codes open and we're only using one so far so a couple more shouldn't be a problem. Also, I don't see an Export option under Activities and Skills, which we need for exporting lists of email addresses.

You're still on 10.4 ... 11.5 shows all activities on a tab on the Personal Profile so you could see them easily, it also has a mail merge feature (which I thought 10.4 has) to create mail merge lists. Using one of the user defined codes is another option, but again, if you want people to be on multiple newsletters its kind of cumbersome, however, whatever works for you.

[pbumc]

10.4 has mail merge from activities but at first glance it looks like it's for labels or direct email only. There is an additional option under Profiles called Export that lets you create text or Excel files, which we'll need for import into a bulk email hosting provider (MailChimp).

We'll be looking more at 11.5 down the road.

[NeilZ]

10.4 has mail merge from activities but at first glance it looks like it's for labels or direct email only. There is an additional option under Profiles called Export that lets you create text or Excel files, which we'll need for import into a bulk email hosting provider (MailChimp).

We'll be looking more at 11.5 down the road.

Just wondering, why would you use MailChimp when PCPlus has its own built-in bulk email system ?

[pbumc]

We have been using the PC bulk mail feature with success to send out a PDF version of our monthly paper newsletter. MailChimp seems like a more comprehensive alternative for weekly e-newsletters for several reasons:

• Formatting. MailChimp allows templates; I think PowerChurch requires direct HTML formatting?
• The pastor (a Mac user) will be able to format and send the newsletter from work or home.
• Advanced delivery tracking. Not only which email bounced, but who opened the mail, and what links did they click on.
• Allows recipients to unsubscribe.
• More reliable delivery. We have our own mail server. Large quantities of mail are not really a problem, but delivery has sometimes been a problem: Time Warner, for example, gets suspicious when it receives the same message for 10 subscribers at once from an unknown source. Actually this has been more of a problem with Outlook groups (which send the same email to all recipients at once) than with PowerChurch (which sends an individual email to each recipient).

Now if you tell me that PowerChurch 11.5 has full integration with the MailChimp API so it will automatically reconcile subscriptions and update email addresses, I'll really be impressed .

[NeilZ]

With your own mail server, I can see that the interfacing is easier.

As far as interfacing with MailChimp .. not in this latest version, but you could request it. Send an email to wishlist@powerchurch.com