CiviCRM Community Forums (archive)

Hello,

We are inching our way towards deploying our new website using Drupal 6.12 and CiviCRM 2.2.7. Until we have it going, I periodically need to update our contacts and memberships records on the new (test) site. Updating contacts using a csv file is a snap. However, I am stuck when I try to update existing and add new memberships. I managed to do this once back in April using an earlier CiciCRM 2.2 version. I think then the job was straightforward, I just had to import all the membership data for the first time.

Now I've just completed updating the contact records. Some are new contacts, some are old contacts. Some of the old contacts' membership data has changed and there are also some new members.

1) Do I have to try and separate out, from my import file, new memberships and old memberships into separate csv files and run "import/insert new" and "import/update existing" separately on the files? Or, if I keep my data as it is -- combined-- will CiviCRM ignore existing memberships and only add new memberships for those records that do not have existing memberships if I run "import/insert new"? I don't want more than one membership per contact.

2) Likewise, if I run "import/update existing" using a csv file containing both new and existing memberships, will it ignore the new memberships? If this does work using a combined file, it seems it would make sense to run "import/insert new" first and then run the update since the newly added memberships would not be changed, having not been altered since they were added.

3) I'm also at a loss as to why I have the choice of matching the contact ID or the External ID when I choose "import/insert new" but not when I choose "import/update existing". I remember there being a discussion a while back on this forum about a bug in 2.0 having to do with these choices (http://forum.civicrm.org/index.php/topic,4056.0.html) and I hope the bug is not back. Seems like, using update, I should be able to match with any of the following: Contact ID, External Identifier or even a custom field if set in the matching rule.

Any tips on how to handle a membership import involving both new and existing memberships would be greatly appreciated.

Chrys

Thanks, Stoob, that helps a little. It's good to know that "new memberships will be imported and existing memberships will be updated if you import/update memberships." I'll believe that when I can actually get that far.

First, to clarify, my first question was about importing memberships, not contacts. It looks by your answer as if you thought I was talking about updating contacts. Importing/updating contacts is a breeze, relatively speaking.

My problem is, when I need to import membership data, I navigate to CiviMember>>Import Memberships, I choose my csv file, choose "update existing memberships", set up the date format, choose my field map and click continue, here are the only choices I get for matching CiviCRM fields:

Do Not Import
Is Pay Later
Member Since
Membership Expiration Date
Membership ID
Membership start Date
Membership Status
Membership Type
Source
Status Override
Test

There's nothing in this list that I can use to match my external data with memberships already in the CiviCRM database.

In the "Insert New Membership" import flow, the list is identical to the above, but it also contains

Contact ID (Match to Contact)
External IS (Match to Contact)

I can't understand why I'm not also given these two choices when I want to use "Update Existing Memberships". I'm pretty sure using "Insert New Memberships" when there is already a membership for a contact but the data for a contact has changed, that it would result in an additional membership being registered, which I do not want.

Chrys