CiviCRM Community Forums (archive)

Our organization has a waiting list from which it invites new members to join annually.  We're in the process of transitioning all of our old spreadsheet-based data into Civi (w/Drupal), and the waiting list is one of the last items to be integrated.

The current system is a simple web form whose contents are exported to a spreadsheet when we need to invite more members.  We sort the data on the date registered, pick the top X number of invitees (however many we need to bring our membership back up to the current member limit) & send them invitations.  This web form is not connected in any way to Civi...

The best idea I've been able to come up with so far is for users to fill out a Civi profile-generated web form (replacing our old web form) and to have anyone who submits the form be automatically added to a "Waiting List" group.  I know the "Date Added" info is attached to the group entry, but I cannot figure out how to sort the results based on that date.  Also, while sorting based on "Date Added" would work for any new entries, it would be useless for the ~500 people currently on the waiting list - unless I can import the date they registered directly into the "Date Added" field.

I've also looked into having those who'd like to register for the waiting list set up a "Pending" membership, but I think I'd rather stick to using a group to manage the list - unless there is a compelling reason not to.

Basically, my 'best idea' is clearly lacking.  I need some help with how to set up our waiting list using Civi.  I've spent a number of hours working on this and have hit a brick wall given my novice level of knowledge.  Any & all suggestions would be greatly appreciated.  --Thanks.

Interesting...  I installed "Webform CiviCRM" and see how it works.  Very slick, and I think likely to be very useful.  Also, the 'transitional' waiting list format ('old web site' -> drupal site w/out Civi -> drupal site w/Civi) uses the webform module, so I've been able to capture ~125 of the ~500 people currently on the waiting list using webform already.

However, I'm still still not seeing how I'm going to be able to sort based on waiting list registration date, choose the top X people, then use CiviMail to send them invites.  Is it possible to create a custom Civi field that is automatically populated with "today's date" (to be either a hidden or view only field in the webform)?  I could then upload the registration dates for all current registrants to that field, and auto-populate the registration date for all future registrants.  It would also be easy to search &/or sort on a custom field.

If this is not possible, are there other suggestions for handling my "registration date" issue?

Our current process has been to only interact with those on the waiting list once per year because all contact was done via USPS.  However, we'd prefer to have the option of sending emails to the group on a regular basis, so having all the info in Civi would be preferred if I can make it work.

I've been continuing to work on this.  As a test, I created a custom date field in Civi, then exposed that field in webform (hidden) and set the default to "today" - no problems to that point.  However, when I do a test submission, the date stored is "1969-12-31 18:00:00".  I know what that means, but I don't know why it is being stored that way.  The webform submission results show today's date, so it has to be getting translated somewhere between drupal & civi, right?

Any thoughts?

After continued testing, I noticed that the "Webform CiviCRM" module allows an activity to be created upon submission.  I created a custom Activity ("Register for Waiting List") and was able to successfully search for the newly created activity based on the date.

Is there any downside to using an Activity record to track when a person registered for the waiting list?  I can import an activity for all those already on the waiting list, so that is not a problem.  Basically, is there any way for the date of an activity to be changed, other than by someone with admin privileges?  If no, how do I ensure no one (other than myself) has those privileges?

Thanks again for any help or input on this - I truly appreciate it.