Connecting with other Gateway Ticketing Galaxy users

John Heizer · September 2015

I'd like to be able to connect with other organizations using both RE and Galaxy to compare notes and commiserate on the problems.

What version of Galaxy are you using? Do you use REConsole to interface between RE and Galaxy?

Paula Crawford · September 2015

John Heizer:

I'd like to be able to connect with other organizations using both RE and Galaxy to compare notes and commiserate on the problems.

What version of Galaxy are you using? Do you use REConsole to interface between RE and Galaxy?

We use RE and Galaxy, as well as RE Console. We just upgraded last week to Galaxy 5.5. We certainly experience our fair share of issues, so would be interested in talking about them with other organizations as well.

Roberta Muldrew · October 2015

We are also using RE and Galaxy as well as the REConsole. We have had many, many issues. We will be upgrading Galaxy shortly which is supposed to resolve some issues but not all of them.

John Heizer · October 2015

Several months ago we upgraded from 4.something to 6.2. It hasn't solved any of the RE interface issues we've had (at least as far as Development is concerned and I don't think there have been any improvements there for Membership either).

Our biggest headache these days is what happens when you merge a pair of records in RE it can destroy the VisualID in Galaxy. We sell memberships via Galaxy and it assigns a VisualID (based on Access Code and Pass ID) that comes over to RE as a Membership Attribute. When a duplicate Constituent is created (which is all too often) we prefer to merge "down" to the oldest Constituent record in RE. But if we do that REConsole sees that and overwrites the VisualID based on information in RE. So the next time the Member visits our museum their card won't scan.

We also have problems with a gift of Membership from one person to another. If the transaction comes in via eGalaxy everything works just fine. The money shows up on the donor record and the Membership information shows up on the member's record with the gift correctly linked to the donor's Gift record. But, for some reason, we can't get that to work correctly if we sell the membership at our box office or through our call center. The Gift winds up on the member's record, not the donor's.

Of course there are all kinds of other issues where we have to go in and touch each record in RE because Galaxy doesn't collect all the information we'd like (or at least not where we'd like it).

I still think they're both the best products for what each of them do, but it sure would be nice if they played together better.

Linda Cherry · October 2015

John, where can I go to find out more about interfacing between Galaxy and RE? Thanks!

erin russell · August 2016

Hello Everyone! Just trying to bring this thread back to life!!! I am always looking for Gateway/RE users. I came from being a FOH system admin for Gateway (at my org), and have now been managing the RE database for about a year and a half. It's been very interesting having both perspectives on the products.

My org has never had a data request form in use, and lately my co-workers have been asking me to create one and in all honesty i think it could help me as well. Do any of our gateway/re users have data request forms they would be willing to share? I have tried looking at others around the forum, but the data lists i pull are far more robust and i assume that has a lot to do with galaxy and memberships and netcommunity etc.

Would love some feedback! Thanks!

erin russell · August 2016

John Heizer:

Several months ago we upgraded from 4.something to 6.2. It hasn't solved any of the RE interface issues we've had (at least as far as Development is concerned and I don't think there have been any improvements there for Membership either).

Our biggest headache these days is what happens when you merge a pair of records in RE it can destroy the VisualID in Galaxy. We sell memberships via Galaxy and it assigns a VisualID (based on Access Code and Pass ID) that comes over to RE as a Membership Attribute. When a duplicate Constituent is created (which is all too often) we prefer to merge "down" to the oldest Constituent record in RE. But if we do that REConsole sees that and overwrites the VisualID based on information in RE. So the next time the Member visits our museum their card won't scan.

We also have problems with a gift of Membership from one person to another. If the transaction comes in via eGalaxy everything works just fine. The money shows up on the donor record and the Membership information shows up on the member's record with the gift correctly linked to the donor's Gift record. But, for some reason, we can't get that to work correctly if we sell the membership at our box office or through our call center. The Gift winds up on the member's record, not the donor's.

Of course there are all kinds of other issues where we have to go in and touch each record in RE because Galaxy doesn't collect all the information we'd like (or at least not where we'd like it).

I still think they're both the best products for what each of them do, but it sure would be nice if they played together better.

We usually merge up? I guess you would say. Since the most recent profile has the most recent information, we merge old into new and then rebuild from there. Duplicates are such a nightmare with the console going both ways, but i think its the best option available!

Tamra Kirl 2 · September 2016

erin russell:

John Heizer:

Several months ago we upgraded from 4.something to 6.2. It hasn't solved any of the RE interface issues we've had (at least as far as Development is concerned and I don't think there have been any improvements there for Membership either).

Our biggest headache these days is what happens when you merge a pair of records in RE it can destroy the VisualID in Galaxy. We sell memberships via Galaxy and it assigns a VisualID (based on Access Code and Pass ID) that comes over to RE as a Membership Attribute. When a duplicate Constituent is created (which is all too often) we prefer to merge "down" to the oldest Constituent record in RE. But if we do that REConsole sees that and overwrites the VisualID based on information in RE. So the next time the Member visits our museum their card won't scan.

We also have problems with a gift of Membership from one person to another. If the transaction comes in via eGalaxy everything works just fine. The money shows up on the donor record and the Membership information shows up on the member's record with the gift correctly linked to the donor's Gift record. But, for some reason, we can't get that to work correctly if we sell the membership at our box office or through our call center. The Gift winds up on the member's record, not the donor's.

Of course there are all kinds of other issues where we have to go in and touch each record in RE because Galaxy doesn't collect all the information we'd like (or at least not where we'd like it).

I still think they're both the best products for what each of them do, but it sure would be nice if they played together better.

We usually merge up? I guess you would say. Since the most recent profile has the most recent information, we merge old into new and then rebuild from there. Duplicates are such a nightmare with the console going both ways, but i think its the best option available!
We merge down to the oldest ID and we delete the duplicate record from RE.

Do any of you have problems with Galaxy overwriting a renewing member's ID with a new visual ID? Check the membership attributes and find a mismatched ID? When we send credentials out with the original ID, then the member's card will not scan correctly. It will bring up a record that says ID has been replaced. The record will not show the current information for the member.

erin russell · September 2016

John - are you still having the problem when you sell memberships in person or over the phone with the gift? We dont have a problem with that as long as everyone does it right. Maybe we can help?

I am curious to hear that you are selling memberships online with egalaxy. We would like to do this, but i feel like there are so many problems. Are you guys on joint membership? and how do you handle gift memberships online?

Thanks

erin russell:

We also have problems with a gift of Membership from one person to another. If the transaction comes in via eGalaxy everything works just fine. The money shows up on the donor record and the Membership information shows up on the member's record with the gift correctly linked to the donor's Gift record. But, for some reason, we can't get that to work correctly if we sell the membership at our box office or through our call center. The Gift winds up on the member's record, not the donor's.

John Heizer · September 2016

Linda Cherry:

John, where can I go to find out more about interfacing between Galaxy and RE? Thanks!

Oh, geez. Sorry I did 't see and respond to this sooner.

Gateway sells a product called REConsole that is a piece of middleware that exchanges data between RE and Galaxy.

John Heizer · September 2016

erin russell:

John - are you still having the problem when you sell memberships in person or over the phone with the gift? We dont have a problem with that as long as everyone does it right. Maybe we can help?

I am curious to hear that you are selling memberships online with egalaxy. We would like to do this, but i feel like there are so many problems. Are you guys on joint membership? and how do you handle gift memberships online?

Thanks

erin russell:

We also have problems with a gift of Membership from one person to another. If the transaction comes in via eGalaxy everything works just fine. The money shows up on the donor record and the Membership information shows up on the member's record with the gift correctly linked to the donor's Gift record. But, for some reason, we can't get that to work correctly if we sell the membership at our box office or through our call center. The Gift winds up on the member's record, not the donor's.

Erin,

I think the latest upgrade has solved the problem of selling gift memeberships at the BO. At least I don't recall seeing that issue lately.

Selling via eGalaxy seems to work fine, though I'm not directly involved with Membership or the Box Office. I do know that we still jump through lots of hoops to get things to work the way we want to (like not printing the membership cards with the sales transaction, then immediately reissuing the cards to get them to print), and that (for whatever reason) we have a duplicate ticket type for every online membership that's essentially the same as those sold at the Box Office. And, yes, for whatever reason, we do use Joint Memberships, though I don't see any advantage to that (and lots of drawbacks).

Dana Decareaux · November 2017

John Heizer:

I'd like to be able to connect with other organizations using both RE and Galaxy to compare notes and commiserate on the problems.

What version of Galaxy are you using? Do you use REConsole to interface between RE and Galaxy?

I hope it is okay to revive a thread from so long ago, but I was so relieved to find this! I work at a zoo that uses Galaxy and RE and it is a constant struggle. We currently do not have any means of having the systems talk and therefore membership does double data entry. No one likes this method - it is time consuming and training intensive, especially for seasonal staff. And in the several years that we have been doing things this way, we have created thousands of duplicates not to mention all of the wonky information entered. I've been here two years and am doing my best to clean this up.

I'm curious - has anyone moved from Galaxy and RE to Altru? I've been pushing for us to do so but have gotten a fair bit of resistance from Guest Services about it. The entire Development Team supports the idea though! Guest Services wants to get REConsole but I am really concerned for many of the reasons listed in this thread. It is interesting to hear that you do have to go in and touch each record, which is what we are trying to remedy.

Thanks for this thread and any/all input you have!

Best,

Dana

John Heizer · November 2017

Dana Decareaux:

John Heizer:

I'd like to be able to connect with other organizations using both RE and Galaxy to compare notes and commiserate on the problems.

What version of Galaxy are you using? Do you use REConsole to interface between RE and Galaxy?

I hope it is okay to revive a thread from so long ago, but I was so relieved to find this! I work at a zoo that uses Galaxy and RE and it is a constant struggle. We currently do not have any means of having the systems talk and therefore membership does double data entry. No one likes this method - it is time consuming and training intensive, especially for seasonal staff. And in the several years that we have been doing things this way, we have created thousands of duplicates not to mention all of the wonky information entered. I've been here two years and am doing my best to clean this up.

I'm curious - has anyone moved from Galaxy and RE to Altru? I've been pushing for us to do so but have gotten a fair bit of resistance from Guest Services about it. The entire Development Team supports the idea though! Guest Services wants to get REConsole but I am really concerned for many of the reasons listed in this thread. It is interesting to hear that you do have to go in and touch each record, which is what we are trying to remedy.

Thanks for this thread and any/all input you have!

Best,

Dana

Touching each record to add/tweak information is certainly much easier than entering from scratch, and REConsole has lots of other benefits. I'm not thrilled with Altru from a Development standpoint because it lacks the power of RE and I prefer the POS interface for Galaxy for box office sales (just a shame that you completely lose that interface with Order Entry .... I want someone at the box office to be able to easily call up an order and issue it while keeping the nice GUI).

You should at least look at Import-Omatic for bringing the information from Galaxy into RE on a batched basis. You'll save a small fortune in re-keying labor.

Connecting with other Gateway Ticketing Galaxy users

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