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I am beginning to work on a massive export. Our organization was the sponsor of a hospital for many years and now the hospital has formed its own foundation to fundraise and as a result I have to transfer all their applicable data to them in the coming weeks. They are moving to RE7 in January 08 and their consultant has asked for the data to be in a delimited file format.
Can anyone suggest what the best possible way to go about tackling such an export would be? We're talking 30,000+ records here and I want to include as much info as possible including relationships, notes, actions and, obviously, gifts. There's also a great deal of tribute information.
Is there a way to do this in a single export, or does it have to be segmented? Assuming I'll have to at least do seperate exports for Indiv and Org records. Was wondering if anyone has ever undertaken such a thing.
The consultant's request sounds simple, but it's really not. You not only have to worry about getting the constituents, but their giving, education, actions, constituent attributes, etc., etc., ad nauseum. Each of these is going to require it's own export file.
The best way to do this is to use Import, yes Import, to create the import files based on queries. You'll need each of the import file types that is going to be used to seed the new database. Each import type will only support a limited number of query types, so you're going to need one query for each distinct type that you are using.
Go to Admin > Import and select a given import type. Change the action to "Create Import File". When you do this, you'll have the option to choose a query. You'll also want to check "Include all fields in the import file."
This is going to be a major pain, but it's probably going to get you the best results.
Drew
__________________ J. Drew Allen
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Crystal Reports and SQL Server Consultant
It is better to live your destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else's life with perfection.
Are ALL of your records going to their foundation? If so, it'd be even easier to just copy the database file... If not all records, you could copy the database file to a temporary machine, and delete all of the information that doesn't get passed on to them (for example, if you're using constituent codes to identify constituents across organizations, globally delete all constituents without the appropriate constituent codes).
I realize this kind of forces them into your system, but they could take what you give them and modify at their will, and have a much cleaner starting point then trying to import all that information into a clean database...
Just another idea...
Doug
__________________ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Doug Creek
RE Database Administrator
University of Alaska Foundation sndgc@email.alaska.edu
Simply copying the database violates your contract with BB. If you bought the enterprise version, and the other organization did not, you would be giving them the enterprise version. While it's technically possible to just copy the database, I do not recommend this.
Drew
__________________ J. Drew Allen
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Crystal Reports and SQL Server Consultant
It is better to live your destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else's life with perfection.
Is that true? Just giving them a copy of your backup to populate their database gives them all of the modules/extras you have?
It depends on what they do with the database. If they follow the procedure that I first outlined to export your data and then import it into their database, then no. On the other hand, if they attach your database and start using it, then yes, it does. BB ships all of the modules with each database, which is how you can access all of the modules in the sample database. Entering the unlock code will unlock a particular module for use. These unlock codes are are stored in the database. If you give them a copy of your database to use as their production database, then they will have whichever modules you had already activated.
If you do give them a copy of your database, then you should have a clear statement of acceptable use and have them sign it.
Drew
__________________ J. Drew Allen
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Crystal Reports and SQL Server Consultant
It is better to live your destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else's life with perfection.
hrm, didn't think about that part of it. However, there should be a way for Blackbaud to assist them in changing the unlock code to the appropriate unlock codes for that organization... I'd be bugging them for that rather then trying to create export files...
Doug
__________________ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Doug Creek
RE Database Administrator
University of Alaska Foundation sndgc@email.alaska.edu
I agree with Doug. I think as long as you talk with Blackbaud and get them to remotely re-lock the portions that the new org did not get then copying the database is much easier than imports. Maybe the new org would find it worthwhile to pay a Blackbaud approved consultant to do the install of the database so it goes well for all parties.
The number of imports you would have to do would be huge and it would not be a job even I would look forward to tackling.
Thanks for everyone's input. I knew the tranfer was not going to be easy, but yikes! To receive so many responses from the board's heaviest hitters, now I'm really scared!
Thanks for everyone's input. I knew the tranfer was not going to be easy, but yikes! To receive so many responses from the board's heaviest hitters, now I'm really scared!
Paul,
I didn't mean to scare you but depending on the richness of your data it could be a large undertaking. If you have extra modules like Event, Prospect, Membership, Volunteer, etc. it gets even more complicated. Because of the multiple tables and sub tables in RE each needs its own export import and some things are even more complicated than they need to be. For example, a proposal record with a solicitor takes two different imports to complete.
There could be dozens of imports and any one thing goes wrong and I can imagine needing to start over at least once. If you honestly haven't been using RE to its fullest and the only things you expect to transfer are bio records, address records and gift records then it might not be so bad.
I would definitely consult with Blackbaud on this before you begin your planning. Once you have decided on your strategy - get it documented and planned out thoroughly before you start would be my advice.
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