Cleaning Up Old Campaigns

Short answer: The changes you propose are superficial but could have far-reaching consequences.  You should discuss this with a database administrator. 

DETAILS

Chances are that the outliers aren’t genuine original Tessitura records, but something mapped out in a conversion from previous software, in which case, changing descriptions won’t work out quite as you propose.   Even if it’s all original Tessitura, where most tables that get populated by a contribution or order don’t include the campaign descriptions or category descriptions, just ID numbers,  there are issues of historical records that may exist outside Tessitura that would no longer line up. 

Fiscal year may be recorded in some tables,  you are likely to have acknowledgement records with descriptions, and you could have custom tables and other artifacts that have already recorded the descriptions as they existed on the date of the original transactions.  Without looking hard over your system, I’d say you’d be playing with fire to try such a cleanup.  If you plough ahead anyway,  be sure to TEST extensively before doing anything so radical in your live system.       

John Trimble
Data and Prospect Manager
Dallas Symphony Orchestra
Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center
Schlegel Administrative Suites
2301 Flora Street
Dallas, Texas 75201-2413

214-871-4041 - phone
214-981-2988 - fax

j.trimble@DalSym.com
www.MyDSO.com

From: Tessitura Development Forum [mailto:forums-development@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Nick Pjevach
Sent: Tuesday, August 05, 2014 11:06 AM
To: John Trimble
Subject: [Tessitura Development Forum] Cleaning Up Old Campaigns

I have come across years worth of old campaigns/elevated events which are still active that I am hoping to clean up. I know I can inactivate them without concern (only greys them out and pushes them to the bottom of drop-down lists). The real issue is that the following have not been entered consistently in campaign details from one year to the next:

• Name (the inclusion of a space and change of names have made the alphanumeric sorting frustrating)
• Category
• FYear
• Start/End Dates (Don't match Fiscal Year start and end, but to my understanding this only affects the default when processing gifts? Meaning it shouldn't affect me now)

Is there any reason why I shouldn't update this information to make previous campaigns more usable/accessible? Membership is part of this too, but sadly a different topic for another day, as it hasn't been utilized for a few years (before my predecessor)

This message was sent automatically to you by www.tessituranetwork.com because you subscribed to the Tessitura Development Forum. You may reply to this message to post to the Development forum or visit the site to search, read and post to the forums. In the interest of keeping the forum posts from becoming cluttered, we encourage you to delete previous message text from your reply before sending. Thank you!

Short answer: The changes you propose are superficial but could have far-reaching consequences.  You should discuss this with a database administrator. 

DETAILS

Chances are that the outliers aren’t genuine original Tessitura records, but something mapped out in a conversion from previous software, in which case, changing descriptions won’t work out quite as you propose.   Even if it’s all original Tessitura, where most tables that get populated by a contribution or order don’t include the campaign descriptions or category descriptions, just ID numbers,  there are issues of historical records that may exist outside Tessitura that would no longer line up. 

Fiscal year may be recorded in some tables,  you are likely to have acknowledgement records with descriptions, and you could have custom tables and other artifacts that have already recorded the descriptions as they existed on the date of the original transactions.  Without looking hard over your system, I’d say you’d be playing with fire to try such a cleanup.  If you plough ahead anyway,  be sure to TEST extensively before doing anything so radical in your live system.       

John Trimble
Data and Prospect Manager
Dallas Symphony Orchestra
Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center
Schlegel Administrative Suites
2301 Flora Street
Dallas, Texas 75201-2413

214-871-4041 - phone
214-981-2988 - fax

j.trimble@DalSym.com
www.MyDSO.com

From: Tessitura Development Forum [mailto:forums-development@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Nick Pjevach
Sent: Tuesday, August 05, 2014 11:06 AM
To: John Trimble
Subject: [Tessitura Development Forum] Cleaning Up Old Campaigns

I have come across years worth of old campaigns/elevated events which are still active that I am hoping to clean up. I know I can inactivate them without concern (only greys them out and pushes them to the bottom of drop-down lists). The real issue is that the following have not been entered consistently in campaign details from one year to the next:

• Name (the inclusion of a space and change of names have made the alphanumeric sorting frustrating)
• Category
• FYear
• Start/End Dates (Don't match Fiscal Year start and end, but to my understanding this only affects the default when processing gifts? Meaning it shouldn't affect me now)

Is there any reason why I shouldn't update this information to make previous campaigns more usable/accessible? Membership is part of this too, but sadly a different topic for another day, as it hasn't been utilized for a few years (before my predecessor)

This message was sent automatically to you by www.tessituranetwork.com because you subscribed to the Tessitura Development Forum. You may reply to this message to post to the Development forum or visit the site to search, read and post to the forums. In the interest of keeping the forum posts from becoming cluttered, we encourage you to delete previous message text from your reply before sending. Thank you!