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Member Database Nightmare!

PostPosted: August 31st, 2011, 10:00 pm
by lmdean22
Hello! I have changed the registration fields on my member database several times since members started to register. I have also gotten rid of the paypal payment for registration since I started accepting membership. The problem I am having is the columns are not aligned when I export to excel. Some of the user's address fields are in different columns, zip codes are in different columns, and so one, so it is very difficult to sort and analyze. There are also several fields at the beginning of the spreadsheet that I find unnecessary such as "website," "role," "custom capabilities," "first payment date," "last payment date," and so on that I would like to remove altogether from the database export file. Is this possible? How can I clean it up so that it exports with all of the same fields in the same columns?

Also, I am not familiar with CSV format. Can I reimport a file using an excel spreadsheet?

Re: Member Database Nightmare!

PostPosted: September 1st, 2011, 1:45 pm
by Cristián Lávaque
That's the format the custom profile fields are exported/imported in at the moment, and it's not yet possible to choose what columns to export. Only the fields with a value will be added at the end of each row, in pairs of field label and value, they don't follow columns. You should read the import tool's documentation. WP Admin -> s2Member -> Import/Export -> User Import

I hope that helps.

Re: Member Database Nightmare!

PostPosted: September 10th, 2011, 11:37 pm
by man-O-media
Cristián Lávaque wrote:That's the format the custom profile fields are exported/imported in at the moment, and it's not yet possible to choose what columns to export. Only the fields with a value will be added at the end of each row, in pairs of field label and value, they don't follow columns.


That makes sense for the Default export mode "Formatted for easy re-importation" but it is really not any better in the "Improved Readability" mode and is of course totally useless for use in other programs or for other uses where you need that s2 member data, in my case, compiling a printed member directory.

That said, I am just now looking at it but amr-users does seem to understand most of the array data written by s2 and it can do exports so, as they say, there is more than one way to skin a cat. (But I don't want to know how that saying was invented)

DP

Re: Member Database Nightmare!

PostPosted: September 14th, 2011, 2:32 am
by Cristián Lávaque
I'm glad you figured out how to skin that one! :P

That looks like a good members list plugin. Let us know how it works for you to keep it in mind for this use in the future, please. :)

Re: Member Database Nightmare!

PostPosted: September 14th, 2011, 7:16 am
by man-O-media
Cristián Lávaque wrote:I'm glad you figured out how to skin that one! :P

That looks like a good members list plugin. Let us know how it works for you to keep it in mind for this use in the future, please. :)

Well so far so good.

I exported a users list with much of the custom data: addresses with city , state, phone, etc and as far as I know, all the data was properly placed in the right column.
For another list I was able to use a non-displaying field to determine which users to actually output, very useful.
And the plugin gives you many levels of sort control so from that perspective its pretty good.

Beyond the very vague "how to"info, my only real issue so far is when using it to generate a on-screen members list, I can't figure out how to wrap the data onto multiple lines for a more organized appearance.

DP