Incomplete Description and use of Custom Fields

Discussions around using and interfacing with the Church MLS program.
Locked
colingardner
New Member
Posts: 26
Joined: Fri Nov 11, 2011 8:10 am
Location: Buntiful,Utah,USA

Incomplete Description and use of Custom Fields

#1

Post by colingardner »

Wrong: One might expect that it (Custom Fields) would be accessable through an Individual Member Record....indicating that this is humanly impossible....etc.

But I found out that I can....easily and profitably...My Bishop is very excited to use what I, as a membership clerk, provided for him...He would go no wheres without it...Other Bishops, in our building, are also excited about this capability.

True: One "can" select any Custom Field, having (a) a Name, followed by (b) STRING and (c) Its Description...examples of these are shown below:

NAME Date or String Description
Sports ability String Like tennis, basketball, golf, etc
Music ability String Teach/play piano, organ, violin,cello, sing
Special training String Like Electronics, Barber welder,Nurse,
Dr, Nurse, CPR, etc
Food specialty String Home-made ice cream, cookies, Dutch Oven
Cooking, etc
Heavy equipment String Back-hoe , tractor, dump truck
owner/operator, trailer, etc
Other String Cherry Picker, sizzer lift, fork lift
owner/operator
Scouting String State skills, abilities and kind of support
that member is willing to provide.

More Names, up to 11 can be added....Every Name shown here, including Talents and Interests, can become available the same as Preferred Name, Birth Date, etc. for ANY MLS Custom Report. It is recommended that only 5 such Names , besides Preferred Name, for any Custom Report.

The above becomes possible by "adding" them by going to System Options, and clicking on "Custom Fields. Next will appear "Add Custom Field, then add the info given by the table shown abovel.

After adding this info, then "CORRECT" the 2nd paragraph under Talents and Interests indicating the capability as shown above.

Thanks,

Colin Gardner, Former Membership Clerk, Bountiful, 20th Ward, South Bountiful Stake
I will now attempt to provide two pages that contain the above so that any one having an MLS system can utilize this 'CURRENT" (Which has been available for more than 5 years...maybe much longer.)
User avatar
aebrown
Community Administrator
Posts: 15153
Joined: Tue Nov 27, 2007 8:48 pm
Location: Draper, Utah

#2

Post by aebrown »

It appears that you are making comments about the wiki article Custom fields (MLS). It would have been helpful if you had provided a link, but I managed to figure it out.
colingardner wrote:Wrong: One might expect that it (Custom Fields) would be accessable through an Individual Member Record....indicating that this is humanly impossible....etc.

But I found out that I can....

Please provide steps for how that can be done. Remember that the statement that you claim to be refuting is that custom fields are not accessible through an Individual Member Record. Obviously, custom fields are connected with a member, but they are indeed accessed through a separate interface, not through the member record itself. If that's not true, I'd love to hear how it can be done.
colingardner wrote:True: One "can" select any Custom Field, having (a) a Name, followed by (b) STRING and (c) Its Description...examples of these are shown below:

That is indeed true, but you've posted this information many times, and what you are posting is well known and already documented on the above referenced wiki page.
colingardner wrote:More Names, up to 11 can be added

There is no limit of 11. The system initially has 11 custom talents listed as "Not Defined x" where x is a number from 1 to 11. But in addition to renaming those, any number of additional custom talents can be defined, as described in the wiki under Customizing the Member Fields.
colingardner wrote:....Every Name shown here, including Talents and Interests, can become available the same as Preferred Name, Birth Date, etc. for ANY MLS Custom Report.
True, but already documented.
colingardner wrote:It is recommended that only 5 such Names , besides Preferred Name, for any Custom Report.

Where does this recommendation come from? The number 5 seems entirely arbitrary.
colingardner wrote:After adding this info, then "CORRECT" the 2nd paragraph under Talents and Interests indicating the capability as shown above.

I see no need for any "correction." You have said that the default custom talents can be changed as needed for a particular ward, and the documentation already says that. If I'm missing something, I would welcome new information.
colingardner wrote:I will now attempt to provide two pages that contain the above so that any one having an MLS system can utilize this 'CURRENT" (Which has been available for more than 5 years...maybe much longer.)

I don't see any reason to repeat your previous lengthy posts. The documentation for how to use custom fields already exists.
Questions that can benefit the larger community should be asked in a public forum, not a private message.
colingardner
New Member
Posts: 26
Joined: Fri Nov 11, 2011 8:10 am
Location: Buntiful,Utah,USA

#3

Post by colingardner »

Dear Moderator,

By following what you "say" is adequate documentation relating to "how" one can use Custom Fields, as I have done....this is wrong....

You, and others, have "scattered" comments, suggestions, facts...that "if" followed...will "most likely, NO ONE WILL EVER...ARRIVE AT WHAT I CAN DO, AND HAVE SHOWN TO BE TRUE., BY THE the ATTACHMENTS ACCOMPANYING MY ENTRY....

I have learned, over 30 years of computer programming....that those who write and document computer programs...most often...."DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE MIND SET OF ITS USERS." Also they put in false steps, uneeded steps with criteria, nemonics....that they only understand....and are most often undocumented.

I am speaking, as a USER...WHO is "totally" unfamiliar of what can and should be done....I have given more than "enough" examples to show how of what can be collected,stored and displayed....

I have tried to show, by my 1 page set of steps, how to do "EVERYTHING" that I said "can be done. It is seens obvious....to me...that you...and your tribe of moderators...have NOT been MEMBERSHIP CLERKS....and tried to accomplish...what I did...the way that I did...
--------------------------------------------------------
An anology: The New FamilySearch programmers....are, for the most part....DO NOT KNOW A THING ABOUT BEING A GENEOLOGIST....Everyone there KNOWS this...and "IT IS ONE BIG PROBLEM."

-------------------------------------------------------
What I have "tried" to present...is the shortest, most complete... way...on just two pages....How to do what I say and can be done....

By following the MLS documentation....descriptions....it is very, very hard...for the novice membership clerk....to "conceive" what I have accomplished....Membership clerks....do not have, in my estimation, neither the knowledge nor wisdom to understand is written(and the way it is written).....to put it into practice....I have tried to do that...

You can "give some VISION" to those who read these pages....by ADDING THE FOLLOWING TO
THE SECTION CALLED:

Adding Custom Member Fields:

Names such as Music-ability, Sports-ability, Special Education or Training, Scouting-abilities,
etc, with suitable descriptions for each...with each having a type as STRING....are reasonable and acceptable and can be selected for printing in a MLS Custom Report.

Note:

If I could set down with you, or your representative, in front of a Ward Computer....with real people, with real talents, skills, abilities, training, etc...I can show you that the MLS is Specifiically made "specifically" as I have stated.... Over the 8 years as Membership Clerk, with the SAME Stake Clerk, neither of us have "ever" found anyone...over the phone.... anyone who understood what we were talking about.....with the acception....a few months ago...when we were both CLERKS ....discoverd 3, only 3, MLS personnel who "knew" what we were talking about...2 over the phone...and one in person....a real live person...that's a story all of its own...

Each of these three...probably older staff members...were most likely around when it was "first" put into the system....Since then...programmers.....have worked hard...to make it sophistigated, difficult, AND HARD TO "VISUALIZE" actually what is wanted, needed, and should be.....FULL OF TERMS WHICH ONLY DOCUMENTORS/PROGRAMMERS UNDERSTAND....AND are

"not" intended for the user...a membership clerk, most often unfamiliar with how a computer works...

Apparently.....from your point of view.....THERE SHALL NEVER, REPEAT, NEVER...any true example "illustrating" what "can" or "should" be done....just possibilities ..the beeholder "has" to RECEIVE his own "revelation" of what to use and how to use it....even when to use his new revelation.

I "believe" that I have provided some "much needed(practical) revelation" as relating to (1) identifying, (2) storing, and (3) displaying information that each and every Bishop of the Church needs to affectively use in order to fullfull his calling as Bishop.

-----------------------------
In light of what I have said above.....please, please...DELETE the sentence"

"These are not particular useful...in their default state...but seem to be in the list to suggest that Custom Fields can be Defined."

Replace by:

"Thee are particularly useful in defining fields that describe abilities, knowlege, capabilities, etc
of church members which their Bishop needs or requires to facilitate his responsibilities."

The type of fields, Should identified as a STRING, and will be names that appear along with PREFERRED Name for selecing for a MLS Custom Report.


In referring to identifying the "number" of Custom Fields per line of print, in any MLS Custom Report, to be no more than 5 columns of info, besides the Preferred name, has been "learned" from many years of presenting such information to my Bishop(s)......

It terns out that,if you will notice on the "sample" page of ACTUAL Talents or Interests, Sports ability, Music ability, Special training, and Food specialty..."regulates" number of lines needed, for those 6 selected items...for each individuals...which is very good of MLS to do that. Thanks.

God Bless...

Colin
Locked

Return to “MLS Support, Help, and Feedback”