Discrepancies in GetDefaults() results

First of all, there are a number of settings starting with "CRED_EMAIL_" coming from T_DEFAULTS, but there are additional settings starting with "MAIL_" that seem to come from web.config.  In web.config, comments state "forgot login email" after each "MAIL_" key, which would seem to indicate that they are redundant settings for credentials emails.  I suspect that the "MAIL_" settings in web.config are left behind from an older version of Tessitura, but I wonder if they are still used in any way.

The API supports two methods of sending login information to customers (ForgotLogin or SendCredentials) and whichever method your website uses determines which default values are necessary.  The older method (original to the API), ForgotLogin, is configured using the MAIL settings in the web.config file.  As it emails credentials in plain text, it is not the preferred method and has been replaced by SendCredentials.  SendCredentials is configured using the CRED_EMAIL settings and emails a secure token to the customer instead which takes them back to the website where they can change their password.  ForgotLogin really only still exists for backward compatibility, and it is highly recommended that any sites still using this method look to adopting the SendCredentials method instead.  There are details for configuring and using SendCredentials in the API Documentation (the SendCredentials method overview as well as Appendix D: Email Templates).

Secondly, there are two default-postal-code entries in T_DEFAULTS, with slightly varying names: "Default Postal Code" vs "Default Postal_Code".  The documentation, "System_Defaults_Description.doc", uses the name with the underscore.  Is the entry without an underscore a mistake?

Default Postal_Code (with the underscore) is the default value that is used by the API when creating new accounts and is therefore the proper default value to use.  I am not sure where the other one without the underscore came from unless it was put there by mistake or perhaps for some custom purpose.

Thirdly, the same documentation specifies that without default address entries, "accounts will not be able to be established without complete address information."  However, several address-related entries in T_DEFAULTS are simply empty strings, including "Default Street1".  I'm wondering if that is standard practice, and how non-empty values might affect the API's functionality.

Because new accounts in Tessitura require an address, the default address values must be in place.  These are used by the Register method to build the basic account.  Any subsequent updates to this information – such as adding the customer’s real address – must be done using other methods such as UpdateAccountInfo.  Default Street1 cannot be a NULL value, or else Register will fail.  However, it is possible to use an empty string for Default Street1.  I don’t believe that this is generally recommended though.  Many sites set the Default Street1 to a value like ‘NO ADDRESS’ so that accounts like this can be easily found for mailing suppressions and also serve to show that the address was not given when the account was created. 

Gregg Stickney

Application Support Specialist

Tessitura Network

www.tessituranetwork.com

gstickney@tessituranetwork.com

Office  +1 888-643-5778 x318

From: Tessitura Web Forum [mailto:forums-tessitura-web@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Bryan Drenner
Sent: Monday, August 22, 2011 1:42 PM
To: Gregg Stickney
Subject: [Tessitura Web Forum] Discrepancies in GetDefaults() results

When I call GetDefaults(), some of the results seem redundant.  These discrepancies may be from settings left over from upgrades, but I wanted to check if other people are seeing the same thing.

First of all, there are a number of settings starting with "CRED_EMAIL_" coming from T_DEFAULTS, but there are additional settings starting with "MAIL_" that seem to come from web.config.  In web.config, comments state "forgot login email" after each "MAIL_" key, which would seem to indicate that they are redundant settings for credentials emails.  I suspect that the "MAIL_" settings in web.config are left behind from an older version of Tessitura, but I wonder if they are still used in any way.

Secondly, there are two default-postal-code entries in T_DEFAULTS, with slightly varying names: "Default Postal Code" vs "Default Postal_Code".  The documentation, "System_Defaults_Description.doc", uses the name with the underscore.  Is the entry without an underscore a mistake?

Thirdly, the same documentation specifies that without default address entries, "accounts will not be able to be established without complete address information."  However, several address-related entries in T_DEFAULTS are simply empty strings, including "Default Street1".  I'm wondering if that is standard practice, and how non-empty values might affect the API's functionality.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Bryan

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