MLS 2.9 Export Formats

[RossEvans]

Just as a footnote to those who care about such details and might want to do something similar:

The reason I use PalmFamily.csv in my own scripts downstream is that it happens to possess certain properties (yes, undocumented properties) that are useful when relating this .csv table to the others.

First, it has a family name formatted in a friendly way like this: "Doe, John & Jane." I like that title -- which is different from the preferred-name string for head-of-household or member -- best for displaying household names. Not only that, this particular string format happily coincides with the string formatted for use in the HomeTeaching.csv file.

In addition, the ordinal position of the records in PalmFamily.csv coincides with the ordinal position of records in HomeTeaching.csv, which does not contain a MRN key for head-of-household. But PalmFamily.csv does, provided I select that element upon export.

Much as I wish there were unique keys across all these files to link them, there is no joy there. I hate depending on string names alone, because they are ephemeral, not unique, etc. But the implementer really has no perfect choice. The best I can figure out here is to combine the family name string ANDed with the ordinal record position as a cross check to link these two tables.

In turn, Membership.csv can be related back to MRN, which I have parsed out of PalmFamily.csv into a new field of its own.

Once I have that, I can link Organization.csv to Membership.csv by the "Indiv ID" field. Thus there is a kludged way to relate all five of these .csv files together in SQL queries.

The weakest link in all the relationships is linking home and visiting visiting teachers back to Membership.csv. The best workaround I have is to join them by preferred name ANDed with phone number. The "Sister Taught" field in VisitingTeaching.csv suffers from a similar weakness.

For all this to work, it is vital that all the export files be extracted at the same time.

[jeromer7]

All in all, I found this whole discussion very informative and by and large, quite civil--no cussing, no yelling. I am really quite thankful that we know MLS 2.9 is coming, along with some information about the impending changes. Just two short years ago, this whole on-line discussion--with Church employee participation--probably wouldn't have happened, though we did get some occassional unofficial participation in the LDS Clerks' Mail list.

This discussion is just one more in an increasing line of topics which validates the usefulness of the Forum. Thanks for all who make this possible.

[mkmurray]

This is not a result of a developer in a cubicle or any hidden agenda. It is most likely a result of missed code, which is why we have a beta like 2.9 is currently in and a great forum like this where people can discuss the needs and discrepencies of Church programs at a local level. It is good to hear your feedback on this and other issues. There are always various reasons for inclusions and exclusions in programs. In this case it is good to see that we found the issue in the beta.

I think we will be able to get it back in for the final release.

Thanks.

I just want to point out that the Release Notes made it appear that vCard was totally replacing CSV export. This is why the community got all bent out of shape (and because the change seemed very sudden). From the MLS 2.9 Release Notes:

Exported MLS files containing address information, such as family data or individual data, have been changed from Palm file format to vCard file format, which is a more widely-used standard. Palm brand devices should be able to handle the vCard format without difficulty.

If it was a mistake by some developer, then the Release Notes were written out of sync with your intentions as well. This is why the assumptions were made that this new feature was released as planned.

If the CSV file exports are going to make it back into MLS 2.9 before the official release, then be sure the Release Notes make it more clear that the vCard export is new and helpful, but not a replacement. Or if the intention is to phase out CSV file export, make that clear instead.

Thanks.

[childsdj]

I just want to point out that the Release Notes made it appear that vCard was totally replacing CSV export. This is why the community got all bent out of shape (and because the change seemed very sudden). From the MLS 2.9 Release Notes:



If it was a mistake by some developer, then the Release Notes were written out of sync with your intentions as well. This is why the assumptions were made that this new feature was released as planned.

If the CSV file exports are going to make it back into MLS 2.9 before the official release, then be sure the Release Notes make it more clear that the vCard export is new and helpful, but not a replacement. Or if the intention is to phase out CSV file export, make that clear instead.

Thanks.

The problem was that originally it was done with only the vcard option. When the release notes for the beta were created they were correct. This will soon be changed in the next beta revision.

[johnshaw]

One thing that I find missing from this thread is that there is now competing Vcard files out there with different content. This conflict has been out there for a while now with the .csv files, but now it is also applies to the Vcard. I use Outlook and the previously referenced vcard splitter freeware. But until the data is consisten in LUWS and MLS there will always be a question of what data is correct. Most of my ward signed up wth LUWS using a completely different email address than they keep updated in MLS.

[mkmurray]

BTW, for those who do want to import the vCard file into Outlook, the contact manager with the largest installed base out there, did anyone ever find an optimal tool for loading a .vcf file of multiple records? I see that problem reported in another thread, but the only real solution offered seemed to be purchasing a third-party conversion utility. I see there are several on the market. Perhaps those who do use vCard heavily in Oulook could help others populate that application with the new files.

I found a VBScript that some guy wrote that I think will do the trick. He also has a VBScript for getting a vCard with an embedded photo into Outlook. I describe the files and link to them here:

http://tech.lds.org/forum/showthread.ph ... #post17988

[skiptaylor]

Has anyone found or created a program to convert from the vCard format back to something resembling the old Palm formats we had? Freeware or open source if possible. Commercial if we just absolutely have no other choice.

Does anyone know whether we are staying with vCard or will we get the Palm formats back in a future release or a choice at least?

One program that seems broken by this change is Ward Tools. This is very popular among the leaders in our stake/wards. I wrote to the company that makes it to see if they will start supporting the vCard format, perhaps they will have an answer.

This certainly put a cramp in our get-along.

Skip

[russellhltn]

The palm format should still there. The menu is less then clear on that detail.

Because of all the correlation and languages involved, it was easy to put the code back in. It wasn't so easy to update the menu to indicate that Palm format is still available.

[RossEvans]

Has anyone found or created a program to convert from the vCard format back to something resembling the old Palm formats we had? Freeware or open source if possible. Commercial if we just absolutely have no other choice.

Does anyone know whether we are staying with vCard or will we get the Palm formats back in a future release or a choice at least?

One program that seems broken by this change is Ward Tools. This is very popular among the leaders in our stake/wards. I wrote to the company that makes it to see if they will start supporting the vCard format, perhaps they will have an answer.

This certainly put a cramp in our get-along.

Skip

The Palm formats (which are Palm in name only, really just CSV formats) did not actually go away. They disappeared in the early beta but were restored in the final 2.9 release.

The only confusing thing is that to get this out the door, without waiting for the user interface to be translated into all the languages that MLS supports, MLS developers released 2.9 without fixing the UI yet. So while the screens say that only vCard is available, if you pick the vCard household file or the vCard member file, MLS exports both the new vCard format and the old CSV format for each.

Ward Tools actually never was affected. It does not load from either PalmFamily.csv or PalmIndividual.csv, but from the other core export files: Membership.csv, Organization.csv, HomeTeaching.csv and VisitingTeaching.csv. Those four files never were dropped, although early ambiguous release notes gave the impression that they might be.

[skiptaylor]

You're right! It is writing both of them. I thought that was an old one I was playing around with so I never looked at the properties (it's on my desktop).

I thought that WT used the Palm files. Been a while I guess.

Thanks!
Skip