Resolved can I tell RO CSVI to index a custom field?

Actually, the more I think about it, the more I come to the conclusion that this would solve a lot of problems.
If there were a "plugin" I could tell that this specific value / field is my unique identifier, updateing items would be without problems. In my case: the change of the category path (eg. change of department) would not create a second contact item but only update the existing one.
This is what I need, and I guess it would be useful for others, too.
If that kind of functionality does not exist, could you give me a quote?

Thanks you again!
Chris

Hello Chris,

In all these years I am doing RO CSVI, you managed to come up with yet a new request Now I see your point and I see the use-case for it. There is nothing of the likes in RO CSVI because nobody has asked for it as it is also more of something that is only usable once you configured your site to work in a certain way.

Agree, if we are going to do something like this it should be abstract in a way that you could have a processor for primary key, processor for alias, processor for a custom field, processor for if it rains etc.

Let me have a closer look at what this entails and I can come back to you with a quote. Just want to make sure we can give you something that allows you to update to newer versions without having to patch each update.

Thanks for your reply, RolandD!

Somehow I'm glad I came up with something new, somehow I'm sad because this is crucial for my use case and I expected RO CSVI could do something like this. And I did not plan any budget for that
I'm also surprised nobody would have the need for such a functionality, because it seems so "simple" and obvious.

I "just" need to add contact data for persons that eventually move from one department to another (eg. contact categories). Or have name changes due to marriage, or drop out and new one move in, etc. So basically synchronize contacts from an external file on a regular basis. If it where only to import the data once I'd be quicker (and already finished) by putting in all data manually

I have some more pieces of data to be to synchronized after the contacts, and I guess I'll have the same need. So please have a look on this.

Thank you very much!
Chris

There's another thing I found, that's probably connected with this: The INT custom field is perhaps not the best option for what I need to do. I have 8digits ID numbers for each contact. If I use the INT custom field
a) it does not show the actual database content but always "1". I can see that the data is correctly imported to the database and the custom field, but in the backend it allways schows "1" (like "one".
b) it always shows a dropdown (which makes it unusable in backend) - I should have seen this in the Joomla! documentation.
c) There seems to be a nasty bug if I define the field with values between 1 and 1000000 (in steps of 1): I can't edit the contact anymore.

Basic line - and that's why I write this down - : I guess I need to index a Joomla! custom _text_ field.

Hello Chris,

For the past couple of days I have been looking into this and I have reached a conclusion. The all-inclusive option I am working on is not something that will be ready/implemented soon, soon as in days. This is going to take some weeks. I understand that you cannot wait for that so the alternative solution is to use an import override in this case.

The INT field is only useful if you have a full integer, any number with preceding 0s are trimmed as well. So let's say you have the value 001, 002, this will then be stored as 1, 2 and so next time you check it thinks it does not exist because 001 is not the same as 1. A text field in this case will be better.

There seems to be a nasty bug if I define the field with values between 1 and 1000000 (in steps of 1): I can't edit the contact anymore.

That will be because you are going to get a dropdown with 1 million entries Your browser most likely won't be able to render it

I will send an email with the quote for the custom import routine.

Thanks!
Looking forward to hear from you.

Meanwhile I posted a bug report on the Joomla! tracker, but I understood that the problem was me using INT for a wrong purpose. A textfield with integer filter is much better. No errors. Learning, learning, learning .... constant learning

Hello Chris,

The email was sent earlier today.

constant learning

There is no end to it, for us as well

I was going through all my issues, and I found this as "unresolved".
Well, somehow, yes.
So I ask two questions:

• Any news on this new feature?
  
• Should I make this thread as resolved or leave it open to "remember"?
  

Best regards!
Chris

Hello Chris,

Any news on this new feature?

We provided you an override for supporting this feature as a custom job. If the question is about if we have plans to include this feature in core RO CSVI then we are looking into this feature not just for contacts but also for Joomla content.

Should I make this thread as resolved or leave it open to "remember"?

You can set this to resolved if your issue has been solved.

Using your custom import override template for our website project brought up some difficulties recently. I just want to give you a quick report; and - of course - want to ask if there are any news of the implementation of this feature into the component.

* we agreed on setting all contacts to unpublished before looking for the unique ID in the custom field. All of this works, unless you have other contacts in the database that are not imported regulary. This is the case for our project. So every time _all_ contacts are unpublished, whether the data gets updated or not. Basic line: Rules would be a good thing, things like import / overwrite only items in specific categories.

* we also discovered that contacts / items which are trashed already get updated eventually. Another issue for a rule or a filter.

So it's a complex topic. However I'm curious if the feature of making custom fields a unique identifier will be in one of the next versions of RO CSVI.

Thanks!
Chris

Hello Chris,

we agreed on setting all contacts to unpublished before looking for the unique ID in the custom field. All of this works, unless you have other contacts in the database that are not imported regulary. This is the case for our project. So every time _all_ contacts are unpublished, whether the data gets updated or not. Basic line: Rules would be a good thing, things like import / overwrite only items in specific categories.

Thats correct, setting all contacts to unpublished will unpublish all contacts in database. It is a single query in override file which runs on all records including trashed items and have no specific check applied. We do have RO CSVI Skip rule which can skip specific records from import file.

However I'm curious if the feature of making custom fields a unique identifier will be in one of the next versions of RO CSVI.

Sorry to say but not anytime soon. We do have it in our todo list and will be included with later version of RO CSVI release.

Hi there!

coming back to ask quickly for the status of this new feature. RO CSVI has been developed a lot since I last checked, but I could not find this feature we talked about.
So, what's the status of this? Have you dumped it because of the custom override you provided? As mentioned above there are some difficulties with the approach we took, therefor I'm still looking forward to have a proper way to do this imports.

Regards!
Chris

Hello Chris,

So, what's the status of this? Have you dumped it because of the custom override you provided?

We have not dumped this feature request and this feature is still in our todo list.

As mentioned above there are some difficulties with the approach we took, therefor I'm still looking forward to have a proper way to do this imports.

If I remember it correct we created an override file for this feature. Override file is same as import file but with little modifications as per your needed. If may I ask what is the difficulty you have with override?

We have not dumped this feature request and this feature is still in our todo list.

Good to hear. Looking forward to see it integrated in CSVI!

If may I ask what is the difficulty you have with override?

Thanks for asking! I'm afraid, as weeks go by my memory turned kind of incomplete. I need to look at it once a gain closely.
As far as I remember without looking at it, I have two different import routines into different contact categories. So one problem was that running the import template renders _all_ contacts to "depublished", regardless which category is affected.
But - again - I have to look at it to refresh my memory.
However, this feature would solve the problem anyway.

Regards!
Chris

Hello Chris,

So one problem was that running the import template renders _all_ contacts to "depublished", regardless which category is affected.

This was one of the feature we developed in the override custom job . Please see attached screenshot on our discussion.

Hello Tharuna!
Of course I remember that we discussed and decided this. Little later, when I realized I needed two different import templates for different types of contacts it turned out that it's only a "almost" solution. So I'm still interested and waiting for the feature, which makes a custom field the index field for import.
Never mind, as stated above I'll have a detailed look and then get back to this discussion.

Regards!
Christian

Any news on this one feature?

Hello Chris,
Not yet. This task is still in our future todo list. We are looking at more requests on this feature. As of now you are the only user requesting this feature.

Hello!
Coming back to this issue, I guess it will never happen. Am I right?