Ability to login to Ward Website via Windows application

First off, I am new to this forum and I hope that I have posted in the correct place. Also, if an answer already exists, I am sorry for reposting, I couldn't find anything in the search.

I am currently called as a ward missionary. We live in a ward where we have a lot of apartments, in the which we have about 5 different wards that have the same apartments. We have three different University married student wards, 1 singles ward, and our home ward. Our ward is in charge of the apartments, and therefore it is critical that we keep an up to date list of all those in the apartments that are in other wards so that we can know who we need to go and visit and find out more about them.

So, I am a software developer and would like to write an application that logs into the ward website and pulls out all the names and addresses so I can do some comparisons on people moving out and in, etc. I realize that the ward clerk could get me this information, but I would like to automate the system for myself.

I noticed that you have a mobile API that can allow you to login and extract data, but is their a way that I can just submit certain information through a browser windows component and get the data?

I realized after writing my question that I won't have access to the University Ward's Directories because they are not in our stake. But at least I could automate 2 of the wards, ours and the singles ward.

If anyone knows of an option of being able to look at another's stake's directories (like being given permission from our Stake Leaders or something), that would be the best, but that probably is not available.

perkley wrote:I realized after writing my question that I won't have access to the University Ward's Directories because they are not in our stake. But at least I could automate 2 of the wards, ours and the singles ward.

If anyone knows of an option of being able to look at another's stake's directories (like being given permission from our Stake Leaders or something), that would be the best, but that probably is not available.

For the current ward and stake websites, this capability does indeed exist. It's called a "Non-resident member" and you can learn how to do this on the wiki at Adding nonresident members to the Web site.

Note, however, that new websites are coming (see many threads, such as Beta Directory Issues), so I don't know just how long the current websites will be supported. That may affect your motivation to write an app that depends entirely on the current structure (the new sites are 100% different).

perkley wrote:First off, I am new to this forum and I hope that I have posted in the correct place.

Welcome! Yes, its the right place for your questions. Not me, but some smart people are here!

perkley wrote: So, I am a software developer and would like to write an application that logs into the ward website and pulls out all the names and addresses so I can do some comparisons on people moving out and in, etc.

...their a way that I can just submit certain information through a browser windows component and get the data?

You can do it now for your own ward via https://new.lds.org/, the new site that WILL REPLACE YOUR luws. Make sure you log in, then go to "tools" and select "directory."
More direct link: https://new.lds.org/directory/#
You should see your ward once you log in with your LDS account info.

On the left, on the bottom of the menu column, is an option: Export members. Choosing this will export a CSV file of your ward-which I assume you know how to use. (if not do a search on CSV or Export in this forum) In Firefox, when I do it, it asks me which file to open it with, and I choose Openoffice Calc (you could do it with excel,) and there is my export. You can't do it with any other ward in your stake, to my knowledge.

Other ways to do this without programming a new app? Get your ward clerk to give you some printouts through some "custom reports." Do a search on this forum for Custom Reports, and Beta Directory, as Alan_Brown suggested.

Custom reports are incredibly powerful, but a little tricky. You can print them or save them to a csv file for further manipulation. There is a wiki on them: https://tech.lds.org/wiki/index.php/Custom_reports

good luck

kisaac wrote: Other ways to do this without programming a new app? Get your ward clerk to give you some printouts through some "custom reports." Do a search on this forum for Custom Reports, and Beta Directory, as Alan_Brown suggested.

Custom reports are incredibly powerful, but a little tricky. You can print them or save them to a csv file for further manipulation. There is a wiki on them: https://tech.lds.org/wiki/index.php/Custom_reports

good luck

One advantage to custom reports is that you can share the custom report with the other wards and then can send you the saved csv file for you to combine in your application/excel.

perkley wrote:therefore it is critical that we keep an up to date list of all those in the apartments that are in other wards so that we can know who we need to go and visit and find out more about them.

And don't forget to try the new "meetinghouse locator" tool (currently it is not available, i think, from the new beta lds.org "tools" list, but maybe
try it here http://new.lds.org/maps/


This will allow you at least to see other wards in your stake...and their membership. Directory will also let you see other wards members, just not export to a csv their names. I know leadership can export membership from beta maps, but I'm unfamiliar with what it exports.

Since these are in beta, their availability comes and goes, so we are all patient until they get the bugs worked out. Do a forum search on beta LDS maps or Meetinghouse locator.

Thank you for the responses, it is much appreciated. I already have an app that I wrote that compares the CSV from the ward website.

My initial question was whether or not I could download that information like the iPhone Apps are doing it. Instead of me logging into the system and downloading the CSV and then importing into my app, I would like to just push a button from my app, it automatically sends my username and password to the web, gets the data and does the comparison.

Any more thoughts on that?

perkley wrote:My initial question was whether or not I could download that information like the iPhone Apps are doing it. Instead of me logging into the system and downloading the CSV and then importing into my app, I would like to just push a button from my app, it automatically sends my username and password to the web, gets the data and does the comparison.

Any more thoughts on that?

I did address that in my initial response. This is certainly an option if you are willing to scrape the data you are interested in from the HTML. You can access data from any ward in your stake, and if the university stake in your area is willing to add you as a non-resident member, you can access all the wards in that stake as well. I explained how to go about that:

Alan_Brown wrote:For the current ward and stake websites, this capability does indeed exist. It's called a "Non-resident member" and you can learn how to do this on the wiki at Adding nonresident members to the Web site.

So if you are willing to write such an app based on the current ward and stake websites, it is certainly feasible. My guess is that those sites will be active at least through 2011, since there is a lot of information on them which the developers of the new sites have not even begun working on, but they will have a limited lifetime at this point.

I think what he's looking for is a API. I don't know of any. As far as I know, all the other apps out there are parsing the HTML.

RussellHltn wrote:I think what he's looking for is a API. I don't know of any. As far as I know, all the other apps out there are parsing the HTML.

There are API's but they are used internally and I believe that they are available to the community applications. I don't know what it takes
The only api I know about is for the community applications that are sponsored by the church. I don't know much about the process to get a new application started but I would start by sending a message to Tom Welch.

Yes, an API is what I am looking for.

I have tried to submit to the ward website and give it the login information and then try to access the page with the data on it, but I don't get any more than just the front page and menu.

It is like it is blocking anything unless it comes directly from the correct domain, probably for security. Anyway, I will contact Tom and see what I get.

perkley wrote:Yes, an API is what I am looking for.

I have tried to submit to the ward website and give it the login information and then try to access the page with the data on it, but I don't get any more than just the front page and menu.

It is like it is blocking anything unless it comes directly from the correct domain, probably for security. Anyway, I will contact Tom and see what I get.

I have a codebase that successfully logs into the ward website and navigates to the membership list and scrapes family pictures and CSV downloads automatically from the site. Or at least it did as of like 6 months ago (and for the previous year and half before that). Logging into the ward website is tricky because you have to POST all the right form values to the right URL and keep track of your auth cookie and then redirect to the right URLs it tells you to go to. I mean I practically wrote a barebones web browser almost. But anyway, I used Firebug and viewed the HTML source constantly and did much trial and error to find the right combination of web requests to make.

A short summary is that I first loaded up the login page and saved off any cookies I inherited just from that request. The next request is a post with several form values beside username and password, namely the input tags with hidden="true". The post request URL is the "action" attribute of the form tag. The response of that post will be more cookies and a URL you need to redirect to, which should be your ward's homepage at that point.