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Help needed doing Imports

Last post 06-21-2008 6:51 PM by Becky Vodrey. 5 replies.
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  • 05-14-2008 4:39 PM

    Help needed doing Imports

    I recently discovered that the person who had this position prior to me didn't enter our new University Graduates into Raiser's Edge.  This needs to be done and I'm trying to do it, but it hasn't been easy.   I have spent hours working on Imports and have called Customer Support twice and read everything there is to read about it, but still, I'm having problems.

    I'm guessing there's someone out there who is a master at Imports, and if so, I'd love some help!  No matter what I do, no matter how I change my Import file, I get 'Exceptions' when I Validate my Import.   The latest 'exception' for each one of my records is 'Phone Number - Record Does Not Exist'.     But yet I have a phone number listed for almost all of the Graduates!

    If anyone out there can help me, please let me know!

    Thank you!

     

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  • 05-14-2008 4:52 PM In reply to

    • Veronica Renzo
    • Top 150 Contributor
    • User Since: 2003
    • Posts 59
    • Organization: Scenic Hudson, Inc.
    • Products:  The Raiser's Edge

    Re: Help needed doing Imports

    Linda Richards:

    I recently discovered that the person who had this position prior to me didn't enter our new University Graduates into Raiser's Edge.  This needs to be done and I'm trying to do it, but it hasn't been easy.   I have spent hours working on Imports and have called Customer Support twice and read everything there is to read about it, but still, I'm having problems.

    I'm guessing there's someone out there who is a master at Imports, and if so, I'd love some help!  No matter what I do, no matter how I change my Import file, I get 'Exceptions' when I Validate my Import.   The latest 'exception' for each one of my records is 'Phone Number - Record Does Not Exist'.     But yet I have a phone number listed for almost all of the Graduates!

    If anyone out there can help me, please let me know!

    Thank you!

     

    I feel your pain and frustration.  Do you have the following fields for your import?  ADDRIMPID (needs to match PHONEADDRIMPID) , PHONEADDRIMPID (needs to match ADDRIMPID) , PHONEIMPID (should be left blank), PHONETYPE, PHONENUM.?

    You should have these fields in your file.  I hope this helps.

     

    Veronica Renzo
    Scenic Hudson, Inc.
  • 05-14-2008 5:21 PM In reply to

    Re: Help needed doing Imports

    This is actually a known issue with validation and it can't add a subrecord to a record without the record existing first.  If you are trying to import the constituent as a new record and get this message sometimes it means nothing.  When this happens it is sometimes better to take a sample of 2 or 3 of your records and try importing them (without validating) and see if they import right without exceptions.  If they do then you should feel okay to import the rest.

    AS ALWAYS, create a backup immediately prior to importing in case things go wrong and create the exception file so you can import those that did not go in as a separate batch.

    Melissa S. Graves
    Annual Fund Development Services Manager
    Pathfinder International
  • 05-14-2008 5:27 PM In reply to

    Re: Help needed doing Imports

    Below is the KB solution that explains this better than I did.

    Solution Number: BB251564 
    Applicable Product(s): Raiser's Edge 7, Raiser's Edge Enterprise

    Solution Title:  Exceptions that occur during the import validation do not occur when importing

     

    Note: Before you proceed with the following instructions, we recommend you back up the database.

    Review the exceptions to determine if they are caused by the record not yet existing. If so, import the file.

    For import instructions, refer to the following solution. Each contain a sample data file.

     


    Here is the problem or goal:
    Exceptions that occur during the import validation do not occur when importing
    Receiving an error when validating an import but no error when importing

    Causes of this problem:
    Importing new constituents with relationships, addresses and/or phone numbers. When validating, the constituent record and relationship/address record do not yet exist, which can lead to an exception for the relationship, phone number or address.
    Melissa S. Graves
    Annual Fund Development Services Manager
    Pathfinder International
  • 05-28-2008 5:28 PM In reply to

    Re: Help needed doing Imports

    You can also run a validation on the records before you actually do an import.  That should spit out a list of your exceptions.  You can then run the import of the successful records and then deal with your exceptions.

    There's a gigantic document on importing - not sure what version you're running, but this might help - http://www.blackbaud.com/files/support/guides/re7/import.pdf

     

    Before you click print, let me warn you, it's something like 270 pages.  However, I think what you're wanting to do is covered in the early part of the first chapter.   *Sigh*  I'm reading it right now to figure out how to do address updates.

    HTH!!!

  • 06-21-2008 6:51 PM In reply to

    • Becky Vodrey
    • Not Ranked
    • User Since: 1997
    • Posts 7
    • Organization: Jacksonville University
    • Products:  The Raiser's Edge

    Re: Help needed doing Imports

    Lisa -

    I just finished writing this process up for our university and would be more than happy to send you the import field names I used as a sample. Just let me know if you'd like this. I, too had several discussions with the BB Help Desk and read and re-read the BB Knowledgebase solutions!

    Becky Vodrey

    Jacksonville University

    Becky Vodrey
    Data Manager
    Jacksonville University
    2800 University Blvd.
    Jacksonville, FL 32211
    (904) 256-7167
    rvodrey@ju.edu
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