ParticleMan wrote:... but first, even before dealing with the dilemma of photos, I need contacts in Outlook to sync! ... How do you import a .csv into Outlook along with its custom fields (from a custom report in MLS)?
As for the source data, I assume you would not use a custom report but one of the standard MLS export formats. See
the wiki article. The first design question you have to answer from the bishopric is: Do they want a set of contacts structured as one record per member, or as one record per family? That will shape your choice of export file, and possibly require a little programming.
Regarding the software, I gather you are using Outlook, not Outlook Express? What version? Have you looked at the
Microsoft articles here? I don't have much hands-on experience importing to Outlook, but clearly there is an interactive step where you have to map the fields in your csv file to the fields Outlook can handle.
As far as I can tell, Microsoft does not advertise that Outlook can "sync" such a data import derived from an external source. Rather, the user loads the records as a file and then deals with any duplicates, etc. This is a major challenge, because a given export from MLS typically will have additions, revisions and deletions compared to another export taken from MLS a week or so earlier.
I have been assuming that in the long run, you would be using a dedicated copy of Outlook -- likley on the clerk's PC -- to do this, rather that using some person's individual copy. That way, at least you don't have a problem comingling the MLS contacts with someone's personal contacts. Right?
In that case, the easiest way to do a batch update is just to delete everything and reimport all contacts anew from the MLS export file.
The problem is, that does not handle the photos, which of course will not be in the MLS export. In theory, some external application could be developed to do this, maintaining a persistent store of pictures that have been mapped with human verification to unique keys -- such as the "Indiv ID" or "HofH ID" data fields from the MLS export -- so the photos can be merged with the MLS records automatically.
From the research mkmurray has reported, I would venture to say that such a custom application could be written, loading vCard records into Outlook. (I don't blame him for being reluctant to volunteer, however. That is quite a bit of scope creep from the project he has described elsewhere.)
