Custom constituent import data fields

Clara Shapiro · February 2009

Hello,

Does anyone know if it's possible to to include a field for the center opt-in/out checkbox in a custom constiutent import? The checkbox is on the "Email Preferences" tab of the costituent profile. I don't see that field in the list here:

http://help.convio.net/site/PageServer?pagename=Admin_ImportExport_CustomConstituentImport#data_fields

Thanks for your help.

Clara

Bryce Katzman · February 2009

Clara,

Do you mean to add people into an Interest along with adding them for the first time into Convio?

Clara Shapiro · February 2009

Bryce Katzman:
Clara,

Do you mean to add people into an Interest along with adding them for the first time into Convio?

Actually it's a list of people who are already in Convio. I don't think it's an interest, it's the checkbox in the section above the "Email Interests" section. It only shows up if you're in that center (not if you're in all centers mode). If that checkbox is not checked, contacts won't get emails from that center even if they're opted in to receive email on their profile tab.

We have a list of people who are mistakenly opted out of a center's email, and I'm hoping I won't have to change each person's record individually...

Bryce Katzman · February 2009

Clara Shapiro:
Actually it's a list of people who are already in Convio. I don't think it's an interest, it's the checkbox in the section above the "Email Interests" section. It only shows up if you're in that center (not if you're in all centers mode). If that checkbox is not checked, contacts won't get emails from that center even if they're opted in to receive email on their profile tab.

We have a list of people who are mistakenly opted out of a center's email, and I'm hoping I won't have to change each person's record individually...

It sounds like you are talking about the Accept Email box within a constituent's profile which effectively allows/shuts off all communication to that constituent.

Although you can definitely check/uncheck Accept Email on a group of constituent's record I don't see how you are going to be able to distinguish who has changed this preferenced by their own volition or by the error that you are alluding to (unless you know of days to query by or some other criteria).

Laura Vacco · February 2009

Bryce Katzman:
It sounds like you are talking about the Accept Email box within a constituent's profile which effectively allows/shuts off all communication to that constituent.

Although you can definitely check/uncheck Accept Email on a group of constituent's record I don't see how you are going to be able to distinguish who has changed this preferenced by their own volition or by the error that you are alluding to (unless you know of days to query by or some other criteria).

We filed a case on this very topic. The crux of the issue is the the Center opt-in/opt-out is not an explicit email interest, and it is confused with the Center Member Group besides. Per Convio, "removing a person from the Center Member Group as well as any groups tied to the center is all that is needed for you to opt out of a center". As it happens, there is no way to do this in a batch job, and the case is about. However, since you need to add people, not remove them, you may be OK. The implication of the statement above is that adding a person to the Center Member Group will have the action you desire. You should be able to do that with a Group Assignment Upload. Try it for one person first to make sure it works. If it does not, file a case for something like "How can we reinstate people in a center after they have been accidentally removed?"

Clara Shapiro · February 2009

Laura Vacco:
We filed a case on this very topic. The crux of the issue is the the Center opt-in/opt-out is not an explicit email interest, and it is confused with the Center Member Group besides. Per Convio, "removing a person from the Center Member Group as well as any groups tied to the center is all that is needed for you to opt out of a center". As it happens, there is no way to do this in a batch job, and the case is about. However, since you need to add people, not remove them, you may be OK. The implication of the statement above is that adding a person to the Center Member Group will have the action you desire. You should be able to do that with a Group Assignment Upload. Try it for one person first to make sure it works. If it does not, file a case for something like "How can we reinstate people in a center after they have been accidentally removed?"

Thank you, Laura, it's nice to know that I'm not the only one who is having problems with this! The contacts I'm concerned with are already in the Center Members group, but somehow when we migrated from GetActive to Convio about 1,000 contacts were accidentally opted out of receiving email from that center. We started getting all these complaints from people who had stopped receiving messages, and it took a while for us to figure out what the problem was. I'll try logging a case about it, as you suggested.

Thanks,

Clara

Custom constituent import data fields

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