IPhone Membership Tools

[RossEvans]

However, the only difference that I can find is that the two columns that had "GEO Code" in the column header now have "Geo Code". You should be able to take an MLS 3.0 export file, edit those two column headers using any text editor to be "GEO" instead of "Geo" and then the export files should be identical to MLS 2.x. It's certainly worth a try.

Yup. I edited

Code: Select all

"Ward Geo Code","Stake Geo Code"

in the first line of Membership.csv to be

Code: Select all

"Ward GEO Code","Stake GEO Code" 

The Ward Tools conversion utility seemed to process the altered file and the other three export files just fine. I can't test the actual loading to the iPhone, but there is no reason to think it would not work.

[jbh001]

I used a text editor to change "Geo" to "GEO" in the two places needed in the Membership.csv file, and the conversion utility worked.

I couldn't get the converted files transferred to my iPhone via Mac OS 10.4, and initially it also failed using Windows XP. But after moving the converted files into the same folder as the conversion and updater utilities, and pointing the updater at that folder, the files successfully (and quickly) uploaded to my iPhone via Windows XP.

Thanks for your help.

In addition to getting to know how this app works in the iPhone, now I need to figure out how to get the update process to work via Mac OS X. I'll report back if I figure that out.

[russellhltn]

You should be able to take an MLS 3.0 export file, edit those two column headers using any text editor to be "GEO" instead of "Geo" and then the export files should be identical to MLS 2.x.

Just make sure it's a text editor and not Excel. Excel will totally mess up the CSV format. The fact the Excel is frequently the default program for CSVs makes that quite possible.

[RossEvans]

To close the loop here, one of you iHead users of Ward Tools should report this problem to the application's developers.

Now, if they would just build a version for my Android ...

[calvinrg-p40]

I have a build of the MLS Converter app for Windows and Mac that fixes the problem with the header capitalization. You can download it here:

http://downloads.ldstools.com/wardtools ... -2.0.2.zip

I would post that for general consumption on the LDS Tools website but there are still some people reporting issues with the way dates are being exported from the MLS 3.0 software. I'm not quite sure where the issue is since many have also had success using the above build with MLS 3.0. Once the issue is resolved I'll replace the current version on the site with the version I've linked above.

[RossEvans]

...but there are still some people reporting issues with the way dates are being exported from the MLS 3.0 software.

I am unaware of any changes to the ways dates are handled in the MLS 3.0 exports, which I use for my own purposes. What are the reported symptoms?

[daddy-o-p40]

Now, if they would just build a version for my Android ...

Or what about a version for the phone with the largest market penetration ..... blackberry.

[RossEvans]

I have a build of the MLS Converter app for Windows and Mac that fixes the problem with the header capitalization. You can download it here:

http://downloads.ldstools.com/wardtools ... -2.0.2.zip

I would post that for general consumption on the LDS Tools website but there are still some people reporting issues with the way dates are being exported from the MLS 3.0 software. I'm not quite sure where the issue is since many have also had success using the above build with MLS 3.0. Once the issue is resolved I'll replace the current version on the site with the version I've linked above.

I suggest that you accelerate that update on the LDSTools web site.

It appears from browsing the Google Groups discussion for Ward Toolsover the past several days that what has been happening is this:

1. The MLS 3.0 release changed the format of the file headers from "GEO Code" to "Geo Code" as described above, which broke the old Ward Tools conversion utility.
2. Several users figured that out, and edited the headers in Membership.csv as a workaround.
3. Some of those users published this advice on the support forum, encouraging others to try the workaround.
4. Unfortunately, many users editing Membership.csv have used a spreadsheet such as Excel to do the editing, which mangled the formatting of various date fields when the file was saved. They should have used a text editor such as Notepad instead.
5. That has caused multiple users to report, erroneously, that the MLS 3.0 release changed the formatting of dates in the export file. Alternately, many users report that various Ward Tools functions are now broken because the app can't handle the date formats these users mangled as a side-effect of their editing. Apparently that may even be causing some Palm-based apps to crash.

The sooner the updated conversion utility is disseminated, the better.

[RossEvans]

Just to close the loop on the Ward Tools file-conversion problem, the developers now have released a new production version of the converter utility, available at the free product's web site.

This version is based on the beta release of the utility linked higher in this thread. It fixes the problem in reading MLS 3.0 export files.

The conversion problem was not just affecting users of the iPhone product, but also users of the Palm and Windows Mobile versions of Ward Tools.

For more information, see this post at the Ward Tools support forum.

[zaneclark]

I am using my Mac to try to upload the MLS files to Ward Tools on my iPhone. Here is the problem: I was able to convert all 4 files from csv to pdb easily, but when I try to use Ward Tools Updater, the pdb files now residing in my documents folder stay greyed out when I select them. I suspect this is a very basic problem that could be easily solved if I just hit the right key combination. Any Mac people with an idea of what I need to do?