Method Community

I changed some sales rep associations for the Customers and Leads table and I am trying to re-import into Method.

I checked RecordID as the key field to match/import 4 sales rep fields.

However, for 3 of the fields, the default is "Do Not Import". When I select "To Existing Field" for one of them (eg. SalesRepName), a drop-down box appears, defaulted to the first alphabetical option (AccountNumber). I look for SalesRepName in the dropdown but it's not there.

Exporting the customers and leads table gives me the proper column headings (eg. SalesRepName is there) but when re-importing, Method doesn't seem to be able to locate the column name in the drop-down window in order to match fields.

Can you please explain to me what's going on?

Thanks

Could it be that the 3 fields not able to be found are derived fields? I notice the same thing also happens with fields like "FullName" and "Balance".

MikeB:

Can you please explain to me what's going on?

I'm just looking into this for you now - I'll post back if I spot any problems with this.

~C

Well, I guess I answered my own question. It appears that the Sales Rep ID field (ie. the only one of the 4 sales rep fields I was "allowed" to explicitly import) is the basis/key field for populating the remaining 3 sales rep fields (SalesRep_RecordID, SalesRepName, SalesRepRecordID).

I imported and then re-exported to check and everything updated accordingly.

Please let me know if this is correct.

I noticed someone else had asked a similar question (i. Method couldn't find the field) and I found no mention of derived fields. It would be good if this was the answer.

Thanks

This was the other thread: http://www.methodintegration.com/cs/forums/p/3013/11429.aspx#11429

Near the bottom, the user was asking a similar queastion. Method wasn't showing "Entity Type" as a field in the drop-down that could be selected. So, "Do Not Import" and "Create New Field" are the only options. If it's a derived field, then creating a new one would create some problems, no? But there's no way to really know this when importing.

MikeB:

It appears that the Sales Rep ID field (ie. the only one of the 4 sales rep fields I was "allowed" to explicitly import) is the basis/key field for populating the remaining 3 sales rep fields (SalesRep_RecordID, SalesRepName, SalesRepRecordID).

To update the SalesRep you only need to import into the SalesRep field, you won't be able to update SalesRep_RecordID and SalesRepRecordID.

MikeB:

Near the bottom, the user was asking a similar queastion. Method wasn't showing "Entity Type" as a field in the drop-down that could be selected. So, "Do Not Import" and "Create New Field" are the only options.  If it's a derived field, then creating a new one would create some problems, no?

You won't be able to create a new FullName or EntityType field - you won't be able to create a duplicate of any field.

~C

"You won't be able to create a new FullName or EntityType field - you won't be able to create a duplicate of any field."

OK, but you can see how that's confusing, right? If I export a file, change a few entries and then re-upload, a user would expect the columns to match and be re-uploaded.

Anyway, I think I got it now.