Author Topic: Updating Multiple-Select Fields (Read 2221 times)

e_mason · August 07, 2013, 02:31:38 pm

We're planning a build that requires multiple, and a variable number of, instances of the same variable.

Using the Mulit-Select option works very well on the initial import; however this isn't a good option if we have an update import and need to add a value to the multi-select: the importer doesn't add the new value, its just replaces it (technically, the value isn't concatenated to the old value). This is reasonable behavior... but a bummer....

So scratch that approach.

Alternately ... using multiple instances doesn't seem to work either. Is it really the case that a custom data group allowing multiple instances is NOT exposed to the importer? I can't get any fields in a multiple instance group to show in the field selector on the second import screen.

Am I using CiviCRM wrong, or do I need to break these into multiple fields?

JonGold · August 07, 2013, 02:39:36 pm

Hi Eliot,

It's true that support for custom field sets allowing multiple instances is thin; not being exposed to the importer is one of the issues.

As for the multi-select fields - I've given a lot of thought to what the correct behavior should be here, and couldn't come up with it. If the behavior was as you described - concatenating on to the old value - how would you remove values on import?

While this probably isn't the answer you're looking for, I have an ETL job set up that extracts the values in the current database, merges them with my existing values, and imports a CSV file with the merged records.

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Author Topic: Updating Multiple-Select Fields (Read 2221 times)

e_mason

Updating Multiple-Select Fields

JonGold

Re: Updating Multiple-Select Fields