CiviCRM Community Forums (archive)

Hello all,

I am currently running two websites using civicrm 3.1.1 and I'm making good use of the new contact sub-type option. On the first site I'm running I have the option of change the sub-type (currently organization to) one of the new sub-types, however in the second site no such option exists. In the first the option exists next to the SIC Code field. As far as I can tell I've set both databases up in exactly the same way. Is there a setting somewhere that I'm missing.

Many thanks for any tips,
Durruti

Thanks for the reply Dave!
I don't see the content type listed, but I think the existing custom data may be the problem. I'd assumed that as I was dealing with sub-types of 'organization' the custom data for organization would be OK, but I understand the logic of hiding the option to change it.

So, here is what I did to try to sort the problem

• Backed up my database.
• Disabled all the 'organization' specific custom groups,
• In civicrm_custom_groups' I changed the 'extends_entity_column_value' of the groups to reflect the new contact sub-type
• truncate civicrm_cache ; truncate civicrm_acl_cache;

Now when I create of new contact with the new contact sub-type I see all the custom fields transferred over, but I'm still not able to change the contact type of existing records. Is this something I can do manually through phpmyadmin.

Many thanks again,

Durruti

I know this is an old topic, but I just found a solution and so I thought I would post this for any who come here by searching:

Changing contact types can be accomplished fairly easily through a duplicate contact merge.

For example, if you have an existing "Individual" contact "Jones, Bill" whose email address is "bill@jones.com" and want to change him to a "Client" (assuming that "Client" is a sub-type of "Individual"):

Go to Contacts -> New Individual -> New Client

Enter first name "Bill", last name "Jones", and any other "Client" information you need.  Save the record. 

If you don't immediately see an option to merge the new "Client" record with the old "Individual" record, edit the "Client" record by adding the email address "bill@jones.com" if you haven't already done so.   (Depending upon your dedupe rules, you may need to put duplicate information in additional fields as required by your rules.)  Then click "Check for Matching Contact(s)" or "Save".

The merge screen should now appear.  Go through the usual merge procedure, being sure that the "Client" record is selected as the "original" and the "Individual" record is the "duplicate."

When the merge is done, your "Individual" record for Bill Jones will be gone, and in its place will be a "Client" record for Bill Jones.

(The above procedure worked for me on CiviCRM 3.3.1.)