MLS Companion Database

MLS Companion Database:

http://web.mac.com/marlo.steed/MemDbase/

The MLS Companion Database is designed to provide useful information to church leaders interested in keeping notes on member interviews and can be installed and used on personal computers. There is also a program to facilitate sending out electronic ward bulletin e-mails and another application that would work for YSA FHE coordinators to make group assignments and e-mail groups.

mbsteed wrote:MLS Companion Database:

http://web.mac.com/marlo.steed/MemDbase/

The MLS Companion Database is designed to provide useful information to church leaders interested in keeping notes on member interviews and can be installed and used on personal computers. There is also a program to facilitate sending out electronic ward bulletin e-mails and another application that would work for YSA FHE coordinators to make group assignments and e-mail groups.

Note to the community:

This "advertisement" is allowed because it is an open-source project that has been discussed frequently here on this forum, with many of our own users contributing to the project.

Thanks for the clarification. Right, I should have explained that - this is hardly an advertisement for a product, rather it is meant as an offer to share resources - the programs are free to download. The programs have been compiled into stand alone applications that don't require any other software application.

The source code is also available for anyone interested in adapting it and folks are welcome to use or adapt it for their own purposes. The code was created in Filemaker which is a commercial program, so you would need that to customize the application. However Filemaker is not needed to run the applications - hence the term "stand alone".

Hope that clarifies things.

I think that this is a very cool project! Nice work! I'm using it regularly.

Tom

I have upgraded the system to version 2.2

http://web.mac.com/marlo.steed/MemDbase/

The main difference is that a stake/mission version of the program has been created, as well as a new web site, and video tutorials were added. In addition, minor errors were fixed. Another feature is the use an electronic questionnaire which can then be used as a data source for the MLS Companion Database (probably only practical for YSA wards because of the time it takes to transfer the data). Will be posting a video on how to do that soon.

oops,

There was a problem with the Update feature of the program so it didn't update all the information from the previous version. That should be corrected now. However, if you downloaded the program on Wednesday Feb 20, before 2:00 PM Mountain Standard time - please download and reinstall it and then try the update again. Hopefully it is fixed.

I'm interested to translate it in italian and makes some changes, if needed; which compiler do I need to use?

You could take the source Filemaker files and customize those. It would require Filemaker Pro Advanced. The Advanced version allows you to compile run-time versions that are stand alone applications. The source files are available for download at the site.

http://web.mac.com/marlo.steed/MemDbase/

Ok. I'll check out and see. Thanks.

I tried several times to run MembeshipMaster2 but no chance to get it work.
At the start it asks for a password, showing Windows user name.
Actualy there is no password to it. I tried to setup one but non chance any ways.
How can I overpass password check?

I'm in the same boat, I'm on Vista if that helps, can't ever get through the username/password screen

I should've read the directions... the default username/password is on the download page

Often the first time you open the application, the operating system (Mac or Windows) will ask you for permission to do that for security reasons and ask you for a username and password. If it does that, you can use your computer username and password (Window or Mac). Once that is input then the program should open and you can use the database username and password (admin, admin) to get into the program.

Let me know if that doesn't work.

Not sure why the system or the database would ask for just a username. I will test that out. I haven't tested it out in Vista yet. If anyone out there is using it with Vista, please let us know how it works.

I just upgraded the program to version 2.3. The main difference with the new version is it fixes a bug with the FHE groups (they disappeared whenever an MLS import was done). That should now be fixed.

Version 2.5 of the MLS Companion Database, adds a number of listing reports, adds dated confidential comments, and a couple of ways to integrate with iTouch and iPhone mobile devices.

http://web.me.com/marlo.steed/MemDbase/Welcome.html

I have been having trouble with v2.4 and v2.5 running on Windows XP. After importing the MLS info I have found that the home teaching information is not imported for all of the ward members. I checked the home teaching csv file and it is all there but it is not showing on some of the members records under the home teacher tab in the program. I am also unable to manually input the home teachers name but I can input all the all of the other fields (supervisor, supervisors phone number, home teachers phone). I really like the program and would like to offer it to the bishop of my ward but only if I can get it to work completely. Thanks for all the work this is the only problem I have found and hope that it can be fixed.

I just tested it on my windows XP system and it works fine. I checked every record (160) and every home-teaching companionship is there. I also did a similar check on my Mac system with the same result. I am having trouble replicating the problem.

Do you have all 4 files (Membership.csv, Organization.csv, Homteaching.csv, VisitingTeaching.cs) inside the Member_Master folder? That is all you should need to do and then "Import from MLS" from the utilities menu. This is odd, check your procedure, it sounds like the file is not in right place or is getting named differently or something. Are you in an administrative access when you import? ...just trying to brainstorm why your system is not working.

Is everything else importing? - callings, member records, visiting teaching?

Try again??? Not sure what else to say unless you could send me the offending file.

I read your email again more carefully and noticed that you indicated that the hometeachers were not showing up for some records - can I assume hometeachers are showing up for others? If that is the case it is probably not a procedural error. hmmm..... I would have to see the file - perhaps you could share a subset of the file or something. Look carefully at the records that don't have home teachers, is there a pattern there? I am in a YSA ward, wonder if that has anything to do with it? ...just trying to brainstorm possible explanations. Any other thoughts?

By the way, any of the pink fields come from MLS, there is no point in updating that information in this system because it can't synch back to MLS. That means that any of the information in the pink MLS fields has to be updated in MLS (that info gets replaced every time you do an import). The custom yellow fields are editable and will be retained even when you update the information from MLS. I tried to lock all the pink MLS fields so that folks wouldn't think they could edit those but I may have missed some.

mbsteed wrote:By the way, any of the pink fields come from MLS, there is no point in updating that information in this system because it can't synch back to MLS. That means that any of the information in the pink MLS fields has to be updated in MLS. The custom yellow fields are editable and will be retained even when you update the information from MLS. I tried to lock all the pink MLS fields so that folks wouldn't think they could edit those but I may have missed some.

You might as well make the pink fields be read-only text fields that are not editable. That would really prevent any confusion.

Actually I allow you to edit some of the pink MLS main fields (e.g. name address, phone, etc.) so that you can add someone not in your ward - e.g. missionaries

mbsteed wrote:
I read your email again more carefully and noticed that you indicated that the hometeachers were not showing up for some records - can I assume hometeachers are showing up for others? If that is the case it is probably not a procedural error. hmmm..... I would have to see the file - perhaps you could share a subset of the file or something. Look carefully at the records that don't have home teachers, is there a pattern there? I am in a YSA ward, wonder if that has anything to do with it? ...just trying to brainstorm possible explanations. Any other thoughts?

Yes as I went though the members records I found that the home teachers for some of the members did not get imported (this is the home teacher assigned to the member not who the members is assigned to home teach). I will contact you by email to work out a way to sent you more information.

Fergie34,

I have sent you a private message. My contact information is also on the web site.

http://web.me.com/marlo.steed/MemDbase/Welcome.html

mbsteed

I got you message and have sent you an email with the information. Thanks for all your help.

Fergie34,

Here is why your hometeachers are not showing up:

The problem is in how the Hometeaching Families names are entered in MLS, it seems those are not the ward directory names but those are being generated independent of the MLS names. The only way that the MLS Companion Database can link the membership file to the hometeaching information is by using identical names to to those in the ward directory. Most people use the browse option and just assign hometeachers from the list but whoever is assigning hometeachers in your ward, is generating new names. For instance they combined spouse names into one.

I can't fix that problem because the only way the MLS Companion Database can make the link between the person and their Hometeacher is through using identical names - the Hometeaching file does not contain anything else (e.g. it does not have their membership record number). The only solution is for the person in your ward to choose Hometeaching names from the ward directory and not to customize those.

If the Hometeaching.csv file would have contained the member record number, I could have gotten around this problem. However, it is not there so the only solution is to do things a bit different for your Hometeaching lists. For instance, instead of putting spouses together, just add each individual separately by browsing the ward directory and automatically selecting the names from there. If you do that all the Hometeachers should show up.

mbsteed,

Thanks for the help. I can fix the problem with the home teaching file. The EQ President was the one who entered the info for the home teaching but I can fix the data so that is will work.

A few people are asking about MLS Companion in other languages in the MLS Support, Help, and Feedback forum:

http://tech.lds.org/forum/showthread.php?t=2831

On closer inspection, the problem with Hometeachers not being assigned was in the MLS companion program not in the assignments made in MLS. Actually the real problem is in the data that gets exported from MLS; some of the exported files are missing key information (e.g. MRN or HofH id).

The latest upgrade (2.6) should fix that problem.

http://web.me.com/marlo.steed/MemDbase/Welcome.html

It seemed that in a family ward, the Hometeachers were only getting assigned one family. This version addresses that problem (searched for common Head of Household and then made the match). This version also modified the import function to address duplications on the stake database importing (I hope).

Caveat: this programs are becoming increasing difficult to maintain as the complexity increases. One of the problems is that I don’t have access to all the different types of data files that I need to test the reliability of the system (e.g. family ward and stake csv files), I only have access to YSA ward data, so I can only hope that my changes aren’t causing more problems than they are fixing. I only know there are problems when folks report that, so if you run into problems let me know..

Once I think all the bugs are squashed, I will turn my attention to creating a Spanish version.

...or Portuguese version? Maintenance will be a real issue - updating all the different versions of the program is a real pain now but if I add different languages it will be nightmare. I can't commit to multiple language versions. I thought Spanish might be a good one to do because my sense is there quite a few folks who could use that. If Portuguese is equally popular, I could look at that. ...but again, I am concerned about stretching myself too thin, I am only one person with a finite amount of time to spend on this.

I guess one of my questions should be directed to LDSTech. Will LDSTech move in this direction, of supplying a MLS companion database for laptops and mobile devices? If not I will continue to work on this but if LDSTech plan on moving into this area then they could use whatever ideas I have developed and expand on that.

Update:

Latest version is 2.8 - added the option of inputting voice through a microphone for confidential comments.

http://web.me.com/marlo.steed/MemDbase/Welcome.html

Just to clarify, this is only for pc, isn't it? It won't allow me to do these things on my windows mobile ppc?

This application will work on Windows (XP and Vista) - untested on others versions. It also works on Macs (OSX 10.x) with intel or PPC chip sets. I have not tested on Windows mobile systems. Try it and see if it works - please post your experience here.

Hope that clarifies things.

If you are using the MLS Companion Database program for managing ward information, there is a significant update (v. 302) that I just posted. The problem is that MLS 3.1 and 3.1.1 changed something and my program no longer worked properly when it imported MLS data. Version 302 fixed that problem as well as addressed many minor issues but also added enhancements; like pull-down menus. Here is the site where you can download the new version to update your programs or to download and test it out for the first time - it is open source:

http://web.me.com/marlo.steed/MemDbase/Welcome.html

Marlo Steed

There is now an update to version 304 available, which should make importing MLS files more stable and I tried to add individual and household contact information to all the reports.

The biggest change was rebuilding of a stake version specifically created for stake information - for stake leaders (this was on hold since MLS 3.1 file format broke the import function).

http://web.me.com/marlo.steed/MemDbase/

Hope this is of value to folks.

Sorry, too many jokes erupted in my brain to ignore this!
(Insert your own punchline.)

mbsteed wrote:Fergie34,

Here is why your hometeachers are not showing up:

...

If you do that all the Hometeachers should show up.