Coming Soon to a unit near you: MLS 3.1 Beta

[RossEvans]

Everyone will have individual numbers, including children. Parents must first give verbal permission for anyone 17 years and under to have a phone number or e-mail listed.

Can I make a plea here for some detailed documentation to be published once this goes into a formal beta -- more detailed than the typically terse release notes?

I am making this plea on behalf of all those third-party developers and local users, including myself, who depend on the MLS export files. Even if the file formats don't change, its sounds like the business rules that govern their content will.

Coping with this long-awaited change is the sort of problem we like to have, because it will enrich the value of MLS generally. But it would be nice to minimize the pain of transition from the soon-to-be legacy version.

[aebrown]

Can I make a plea here for some detailed documentation to be published once this goes into a formal beta -- more detailed than the typically terse release notes?

I am making this plea on behalf of all those third-party developers and local users, including myself, who depend on the MLS export files. Even if the file formats don't change, its sounds like the business rules that govern their content will.

I will be beta testing MLS 3.1, and I'll provide information on export files fairly soon after I get it.

I understand your desire to get the details on export files, but given that the Church has not ever documented the format of the export files at all, I really doubt that we would get any details on changes caused by the MLS 3.1 upgrade. My guess is we'll still be on our own with empirical analysis of the export file format.

[RossEvans]

I will be beta testing MLS 3.1, and I'll provide information on export files fairly soon after I get it.

I understand your desire to get the details on export files, but given that the Church has not ever documented the format of the export files at all, I really doubt that we would get any details on changes caused by the MLS 3.1 upgrade. My guess is we'll still be on our own with empirical analysis of the export file format.

Thanks.

A historical footnote: In the bad old days of MIS, there was at least minimal official documentation distributed for the MIS equivalent of the membership export files. I don't know that it was any kind of policy decision not to document MLS exports. Perhaps it just never was made a priority by management.

[aebrown]

A historical footnote: In the bad old days of MIS, there was at least minimal official documentation distributed for the MIS equivalent of the membership export files. I don't know that it was any kind of policy decision not to document MLS exports. Perhaps it just never was made a priority by management.

I imagine that you're right that it was simply not a priority. At this point, it could also be that we are the victims of our own efforts. By providing detailed information on the wiki, which is probably more detailed than anything the Church would have done (even if it had been a priority), we probably are eliminating any motivation the Church may have had to provide such documentation.

[zaneclark]

Everyone will have individual numbers, including children. Parents must first give verbal permission for anyone 17 years and under to have a phone number or e-mail listed.

And will these additional numbers and email addresses show on the LUWS directories?

[jdlessley]

And will these additional numbers and email addresses show on the LUWS directories?

Changes in MLS do not necessarily result in changes to the LUWS. Currently the e-mail address in the LUWS is not provided by MLS. It is provided separately by the member in their LUWS profile. The LUWS telephone number is provided by MLS. How that will link without a concurrent change to the LUWS will most likely be that the LUWS telephone number will be the MLS household primary telephone number.

[chriswoodut-p40]

If the MLS doesn't tie into the unit website for members to maintain their own information, this will be brutal for a clerk to try to keep up with (emails, cell #s, etc). I tracked this exact info for our Elders Quorum and it was hard to do for only 50 people. The data changes too quickly for one person to keep up with it.

I applaud the changes, but somehow it has to be easy to maintain.

[jdlessley]

If the MLS doesn't tie into the unit website for members to maintain their own information, this will be brutal for a clerk to try to keep up with (emails, cell #s, etc).

The LUWS does get most of the information for members from MLS data. The LUWS does not get the member preferred name or e-mail address from the MLS data. The rest of the member data is MLS provided.

The changes to permit individual telephone numbers most likely will not be reflected in the LUWS since the telephone number is the primary household number in MLS. A change would be required in the LUWS to have the individual telephone numbers available beginning with MLS version 3.1. But once MLS provides individual number capability then it will be possible in the LUWS, but only after the LUWS is updated.

[aebrown]

The last communication sent to MLS beta testers said that the MLS 3.1 beta test would be on the weekend of October 24th. But nothing was downloaded to our stake today (we are on the beta list).

I suppose it's possible that it is still coming sometime later this weekend, but I would doubt there's much development work being done on a Saturday. Does anyone have any information on if it will still be coming this weekend?

[cherishj]

They found a "showstopper" bug at the last minute, so the release was pushed back.