exporting from Education Edge for import into RE

Leslie McGeady

Happy Friday!


I'm preparing an applicant export of 162 registered students that I will then import into RE (our programs are not integrated). Until now these were entered manually by admissions staff, but I'm determined an export/import is better (maybe not a timesaver this first time).  I've read EE Export Guide and everything else I can find, and have done other imports from an outside source into RE.  My export is coming together and I continue to test it with two records.  But I have a ton of questions such as:


Will I need to parse relationship names Mr. Joe Smith into three cells for import?

We use only the middle initial, so will I need to parse the applicant name then convert the middle name to an initial?

Is it better to break this up into smaller exports vs 30+ columns?

Applicant IDs are different from RE ID so I figure I shouldn't include it in the export; rather RE will assign ID?

Many parents of applicants have other students here so they already have a record.  What if a data field such as address or phone number varies?

If parent is new to school, how will they get their own record?


Okay so I could go on and on.  Am I nuts to try to do this?  Is there anyone who is experienced who I could lean on through this process or should I call support instead?  Thanks for your input!



 

Aaron Rothberg

Hi Leslie-


I don't have any experience with EE, but I have lots of experience with constituent and gift imports using the Raiser's Edge import tool. I'd be happy to help you via emai. I can even send you the template I use for those imports. If you're interested, send me a message in Blackbaud's Community mail and I will send you my contact information.

 

Cathleen Mai

No EE experience here either.

I would have RE assign the Constituent IDs, but import the Ids from EE as a Constituent attribute, so you can cross reference the records easier.

Leslie McGeady

Good suggestion
Cathleen, thank you!

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Leslie McGeady

Development Database
Coordinator

505 South Ludlow Street

Dayton, OH 45402

(937) 461-3740
x212

cjeagles.org

Jen Claudy

You might want to look at Zeidman Development's Importacular.  It's free for importing Constituents and Gifts, and if you are Hosted, it should already appear in Plug-Ins.  A bit of work to set up the templates, but once it's done, it should be smooth importing from that point on.  And, you can import in one pass where sometimes with RE Import you need to do multiple passes.


I would recommend importing the Applicant ID as the RE Import ID and/or Alias/Attribute (Alias is searchable, if you need that...might want to prefix them with "EE-" so that records don't come up in searches when an RE ConstID is the same as another record's Applicant ID Alias).  Assigning the Import ID means you can very easily do multiple passes of Imports, should you need to.  And you can add other data to your Import ID to easily be able to query on records imported.  For example, if importing Applicant ID 456789, I might assign an Import ID of [20180504-EE-456789] imported today, from EE, with Applicant ID.  While you can use Query to search Import IDs, if you think you will regularly be wanting to see the Applicant ID, I'd use Attribute/Alias, because Import ID is hidden in the Properties window.

Leslie McGeady

Jen - thank you!!!  This sounds so dumb but I had no idea we have importacular! Just found it.  Next I'll review the 75 page guide  


We just added another member to our team and I'm hopeful that will free up some of my time to expand my RE knowledge and experience.  This is exciting!


 

Jen Claudy

Related Comment copied-and-pasted from my profile:

Jen - one of the limitations I think I see with Importacular is that a parent's record must already exist before the child's record can be linked to it.  So when both the parent and child are new the import process is impacted.  Do I understand this correctly?
A possible work-around may be to take the exceptions identified, sort out the parents and do a separate import?  Then import those children? Your thoughts?

I don't know much about the Relationship Module of Importacular, which, I believe, is available for purchase.  I would recommend contacting Zeidman directly about that.  There is likely also a free trial for the relationship piece so you could test it out yourself.  The answer may be as simple as checking the sort of your import file, or it may be that your thought about subsequent imports from the exceptions file is the answer.

Leslie McGeady

Ok, thanks
Jen.

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Leslie McGeady

Development Database
Coordinator

505 South Ludlow Street

Dayton, OH 45402

(937) 461-3740
x212

cjeagles.org