Online MLS vs MLS

I am seeing an issue where once a member has moved out and the records are transferred. The records / people still show on the online MLS.

Basically the system is not linking correctly. New families transfer in and the records show. Yet move outs still show... it is very clear on my Ipod.

danmcf wrote:I am seeing an issue where once a member has moved out and the records are transferred. The records / people still show on the online MLS.

Basically the system is not linking correctly. New families transfer in and the records show. Yet move outs still show... it is very clear on my Ipod.

What do you mean by "online MLS"? Are you talking about some official Church website you are viewing on your iPod in a browser, or some third-party application?

With in Istake on my Ipod mostly because that is where I view it from. But the same issue exists on the ward website. An example would be at the meeting house I know the Edlers Quorum President does not exist. Yet both Istake and the ward website shows an Edlers Quorum President.

danmcf wrote:With in Istake on my Ipod mostly because that is where I view it from. But the same issue exists on the ward website. An example would be at the meeting house I know the Edlers Quorum President does not exist. Yet both Istake and the ward website shows an Edlers Quorum President.

iStake scrapes data from the ward website, so it makes sense that they show the same data. But note that callings on the ward website are not integrated with MLS. Changes to callings have to be made manually by the ward website administrator. So if a calling is out of date on the ward website, contact your ward website administrator.

However, this is all changing with the new website on http://new.lds.org/directory -- those callings are indeed synchronized with MLS via CDOL, so no manual updating of callings is required. Of course, that won't help iStake, but third party apps like that will have to make adjustments as the Church phases out the old stake and ward websites.

Alan_Brown wrote:iStake scrapes data from the ward website, so it makes sense that they show the same data. But note that callings on the ward website are not integrated with MLS. Changes to callings have to be made manually by the ward website administrator. So if a calling is out of date on the ward website, contact your ward website administrator.

However, this is all changing with the new website on http://new.lds.org/directory -- those callings are indeed synchronized with MLS via CDOL, so no manual updating of callings is required. Of course, that won't help iStake, but third party apps like that will have to make adjustments as the Church phases out the old stake and ward websites.

OK bad example I don't mean it does not show callings because it does. When a given memebers record is transfered out. That record remains on the ward website, it also remains in Istake. As that is where Istake pulls data from.

danmcf wrote:OK bad example I don't mean it does not show callings because it does. When a given memebers record is transfered out. That record remains on the ward website, it also remains in Istake. As that is where Istake pulls data from.

I wonder if what you are seeing might be related to a problem with the current ward website (called LUWS for Local Unit Web Site) that is described in this post. Apparently, if a person is associated with a calling in LUWS, and then their membership record is moved out of the ward, the person can still appear on LUWS in the leadership section. The fix is to have the ward website administrator remove the person from the calling on LUWS, and then it should clean up itself, which would of course fix up iStake as well.

Could be, I will check that out because a couple of the people that still show did have leadership callings.

Thank You.

One thought as well - the LUWS can take up to 2 weeks to show changes made to MLS.

That being said, I have noticed that if someone has been entered in a position, the name persists in that position until they are manually removed even if their records have left the ward. They are indeed gone - they don't show in the directory any more but do show as still holding that position.

Just a lingo clarification as well. There is currently no "online MLS". The closest thing to it is the beta.lds.org. As Alan_Brown pointed out, we refer to this as the LUWS - local unit website.

crislapi wrote: Just a lingo clarification as well. There is currently no "online MLS". The closest thing to it is the beta.lds.org. As Alan_Brown pointed out, we refer to this as the LUWS - local unit website.

Pieces of MLS have been put into the beta application. It has been for a limited number of callings at this point. Bishop, Ward Clerk, Stake President and Stake Clerk I think are all that are currently allowed. I don't know how much is released where but you can check at beta and new.

I know they are planning to continue adding more of the MLS features and additional callings access over time.

Ok thanks for the correction, I know there is no online MLS.

I have also reported the issue I see with Avikey the maker of Istake. They tried saying the same thing you guys did rather than saying it is Istake. This issue is clearly with Istake and and issue with how they say it works and how it actually works.

Here it how they say it works...

"1. Downloads the ward membership directory
2. Downloads the ward leadership directory
3. If any members of the ward leadership don't appear in the ward membership list, it creates a new membership record for them (examples of when this is useful might be missionaries in the "Other" category). However, this can sometimes cause members to appear in the membership list who aren't members of your ward if the ward webmaster hasn't been dilligent about keeping this up to date. More on that in a minute..
4. Once it successfully downloads all data for a ward or stake, it deletes the entire database on the phone (it's completely wiped out and starts from scratch)
5. The newly downloaded information is then inserted into the phone's database
I mention this because if the data in the phone is outdated, then it's definitely outdated on the ward or stake web-site somewhere because the phone is not capable of "remembering" information between updates."
+++++++++++

WRONG.... I say that because what is seen with in the online stake, leadership, ward leaderships, and directories. Is indeed correct or it corrects itself with in a matter of days. Yet my Ipod / Istake reports continued outdated data. So the is no way it is doing a directory replacement based on newly downloaded data.

I can assure you and them that some how it does remember data between updates, or there is an issue with where they are pulling data from.

They have told me to check this or that section or area to verify things are correct. The one and only place data is incorrect is in Istake itself.

Thanks for the information and assistance. I will report back what I hear from Avikey.

Dan

OK so naturally Avikey won't admit an actual issue and claims the issue is within the CSV file. Even though the ward and stake sites are correct.

I found a solution on my own, should you see anyone else with this issue. Simply have them login to their local stake / ward website and then do an update with in Istake.

I imagine few people if any can run through a ward list and tell you who should or should not be on as I can.... so few people have or will ever run into this issue.

This evening I will be tackling the Ward Tools app and figuring out Home Teaching on it.

Thanks for all the advice

Dan...