At Bass Hall - Fort Worth, we're still learning the front and back sides of Tessitura.
Recent posts regarding SSRS have been very helpful (thank you), and I'm beginning to develop some preliminary reports.It may help to create one or more database views containing patron data, and I'm puzzled about one customer field.
I'm familiar with the active flag (link to TR_INACTIVE_REASON) in T_CUSTOMER, and how it (essentially) removes a customer record from the database.We're considering add'tl values for TR_NAME_STATUS, but I'm puzzled how the database uses this table.
A "Status" field exists on the patron record, and the value for this field is pulled from TR_NAME_STATUS - kinda.
For a specific patron, the name_status column in T_CUSTOMER displays NULL.In the application, for this specific patron, the Status column displays Active (id 1 for TR_NAME_STATUS = "Active").I changed the value in TR_NAME_STATUS from "Active" to "ACTIVEXXX".In the application the Status field for the specific patron displayed "ACTIVEXXX".And yet, in T_CUSTOMER, the value in name_status still displays NULL.
It appears "something" is telling the application to display "Active" in the status field if name_status IS NULL OR name_status = 1.
Does the application determine the value, or is there a database view that determines the value?Most of our customer records have NULL in T_CUSTOMER.name_status. Should this value be updated?What am I missing?
ThanksWendell Baskin
Hi Wendell,
If you are looking at an individual record, "Status" on the Name line is what is tied to this value. In every organization I've dealt with, this field is ignored. The value (as far as I know) does not trigger any other behaviors in the system.
Historically, some organizations used this field to indicate a deceased patron. In versions of Tess prior to version 11 it was possible to have two individuals on the same record. You can see vestiges of this in T_CUSTOMER (fname, fname2,lname,lname2, etc). This led to a situation where one name on the record was deceased while the other was still living. They needed a way to show that the individual was deceased without inactivating the record. With the new constituent model introduced in V11 this was no longer an issue.
My recommendation would be to simply ignore the Status field unless Bass Hall has developed specific business practices which utilize it. There really isn't much you can do with it that can't be accomplished in a more elegant way with a different piece of Tessitura functionality.
- Levi