How to disable Suffix as a dropdown menu- turn into text field?

[The Next Wave]

I've got a state database with data entered by idiots.
Suffix is supposed to be what is on your birth certificate. Title is what you earn later.
These idiots have MD, PhD, DC, DVM etc. in the field. It kills my import with errors.
I want to set this up to run automatically- I don't care if the data in the Suffix field isn't perfect- I'm not German.
I can't find any place to edit this- instead- I just get the instruction:
" CiviCRM is pre-configured with standard options for individual contact name suffixes (e.g. Jr., Sr., II etc.). You can use this page to customize these options and add new ones as needed for your installation."

Gee- thanks CiviCRM-  I can't keep adding these on the fly. I don't really care- but I do need them- since Jr. and II and III are different people with the same name.

Can anyone point me in the right direction. Civi 4.4.4

[xavier]

Hi,

I do get that you despise the people that worked on the database you import, that you don't like germans, that you consider incompetents the ones that wrote the help instructions on civicrm and are upset with civi not doing what you want.

What I fail to understand is what kind of help you are expecting, and how you think your tone is going to help.

Want to try again asking?

Some readings that might help you getting what you're looking for:
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politeness_maxims

X+

[The Next Wave]

Hi Xavier, pretty please with sugar on it, can someone point how to disable the drop down for Suffix and make it an open text field?
I guess sarcastic humor isn't appreciated.

and please note- someone else asked nicely about this back in 2009 or so- and no one helped them either.
http://forum.civicrm.org/index.php/topic,10948.msg135942.html#msg135942

[JonGold]

You could
a) make a custom field "Suffix" and use a template override to put it next to the name/hide the original suffix field.
b) Use an ETL tool like Kettle to move non-approved suffixes to a new field, or, as I've done, use it to create new suffixes on the fly.  I can send you an example transform if you go that route.

There's probably other options, but those are the two that come to mind.

[The Next Wave]

Hi Jon-
Thanks for the response-
Kettle looks interesting, but I think it is beyond my skill set. However I think the Extraction, Transformation, and Loading (ETL) capabilities could come in handy for other issues that I've encountered.
I think that others may go that route.

I'm still trying to figure out how to configure the batch import via SSH- as outlined here: https://civicrm.org/blogs/xavier/api_batch_tools
Once I figure this out- then I want to make a CRON job to fetch the data from the State site-- and then do a batch update.

For me- the first solution looks like the easiest- since this isn't easily changed in Civi via normal field rule assignment.
If anyone else has ideas- I'd love to hear them.

[The Next Wave]

Hi Jon- a friend showed me Open Refine, formerly Google Refine- made it easy to conform the suffix's via the fractal function on the field.
http://openrefine.org/

Still searching for a way to do a big import- I use WP not Drupal.
Ideally- I'd like a script that pulls the voter list weekly from the Secretary of States office-
conforms the bad data-
and then runs an update using the rules that I have for dedupe-
- if this was all through the civi interface- even better.