Marking e-mail addresses inactive

Jessica Smith 4

I have about 500 e-mail addresses in our database that are no good. We do not want to delete them in case we get the same e-mail given to us later and can know it's no good before we add it back. We only want to mark them inactive and add a comment about returned e-mail. Some are constituent e-mails and some are spouse (non-constituent) e-mails. 

I know the easiest way to do this is the export/import. But that process scares the bejesus out of me! Can someone give me some guidance on this? My other option is to sit here and manually open 500 records and mark 500 e-mails inactive....my arm hurts just thinking about it.

Jen Claudy

Set up your process and run it on a Query of just a few records.  Check those records that they are now the way you want them, then go back and adjust the Query for the rest of them.  Do the bulk of the records after your database has been fully backed up, just in case something goes very wrong.

Alan French

You'll need to create a file that contains constituent ID (ConsID) or constituent import ID (ImportID), phone import ID (PhoneImpID), an Inactive column (PhoneIsInactive) where all the values are "true", and a column for your comment (PhoneComments). Possibly also a column for Primary (PhoneIsPrimary) with all the values set to "false" if you use the Primary tick box.

If you use the names I've given in brackets above for your column headings, when you select the file in Import, Raiser's Edge will automatically map all the columns to the correct fields for you.


Give me a shout if you'd like me to guide you through the process step-by-step. I regularly clean up our bounced emails this way and it is so much easier than doing them one at a time!


 

Jessica Smith 4

Using the advice from Jen, I created a query of 10 of the constituents I needed to change. Then I created the file per Alan's instructions and processed the import change on the 10 constituents. All went well! 

I am about to start attempting to process this on the database as a whole. I think my biggest issue will be not messing up my data file as I sort to find the e-mails I need to change. Hopefully I can report back later that all my changes were made and I am on my way to being able to use import for more changes. 

Alan French

Jessica Smith:

Using the advice from Jen, I created a query of 10 of the constituents I needed to change. Then I created the file per Alan's instructions and processed the import change on the 10 constituents. All went well! 

I am about to start attempting to process this on the database as a whole. I think my biggest issue will be not messing up my data file as I sort to find the e-mails I need to change. Hopefully I can report back later that all my changes were made and I am on my way to being able to use import for more changes. 

 

Glad it's working so far! To make the process even less manual and avoid the risk of messing up your data file by sorting it, what you could do is use a formula (VLOOKUP or COUNTIF are my staples for this sort of thing!) to see which of the emails you've just exported using the query are present on your original list of bad emails, then you can remove the others from your import file in one go without having to compare the whole list by eye.

Jessica Smith 4

I used the VLOOKUP function and it worked great. I was able to match the list of bad e-mail addresses to my Import File and make the changes right there without my usual colorcoding duplicates. I imported it back into RE and, if the Date Last changed>Today query I ran is accurate, it worked like a charm! 

Now I feel like I can take on the world! LOL Or maybe just the rest of the cleaning of the database that I have been dreading doing manually. 

Thanks again for all the help!

 

Cathleen Mai

You could also copy the 500 emails in a "one of" query (one one of for each email type you use) and then create an import file with the fields recommended by Alan, using include "selected records". That would limit the changes to these records only.

see here:

http://www.blackbaudknowhow.com/the-raisers-edge/smart-copypaste-in-query.htm


 

Jessica Smith 4

Cathleen Mai:

You could also copy the 500 emails in a "one of" query (one one of for each email type you use) and then create an import file with the fields recommended by Alan, using include "selected records". That would limit the changes to these records only.

see here:

http://www.blackbaudknowhow.com/the-raisers-edge/smart-copypaste-in-query.htm


 

 

Ah, I should have thought of that! I created a massive CSV doc of all my records and manually deleted what I didn't need. That took a while, especially creating the import file. I will remember that next time!

Thanks Cathleen. 

Alan French

Cathleen Mai:

You could also copy the 500 emails in a "one of" query (one one of for each email type you use) and then create an import file with the fields recommended by Alan, using include "selected records". That would limit the changes to these records only.

see here:

http://www.blackbaudknowhow.com/the-raisers-edge/smart-copypaste-in-query.htm

 

Do you need a separate "one of" for each email type? I always just paste everything into the "Phone Number" field directly under the Phones node, rather than fiddling around with the Specific Phone types.

Cathleen Mai

Alan, you are right. You don't need to do that.