MLS -> Outlook + photos -> Blackberry?

[RossEvans]

Installing Blackberry Desktop on the ward computer may not help more than 1 person. If the software is anything like how syncing works with the iPhone, you can only sync one device to the software.

That is one more proof-of-concept test that ought to be run.

Also, does Blackberry Desktop do a one-way sync between Outlook and the Blackberry, or a two-way sync?

I talked to a guy in my office today who uses Outlook and Blackberry Desktop at home. He tells me these particular concerns should not be a problem. According to him, the desktop utility can be configured to sync either one-way or two-way, and the same instance of Blackberry Desktop can service multiple Blackberry devices. (He and his wife use Blackberries and share a copy of Outlook.)

Still worth testing, but sounds like it should work.

The biggest technical problem remaining is how to sync Outlook with MLS. The more I think of it, the more I would favor a solution that employs the Outlook programming object to do the adds and revisions field-by-field, and deletes contact-by-contact. This is so straightforward it could be driven by a script, because there really is no significant user interface required.

Edit: Of course, there still is a significant question about whether the bishopric's Blackberries can be configured not to sync to their employer enterprise servers, as The Earl warned about above. And approval by the stake president is still required for installing the two software products on the clerk's PC.

For the photos, I would not worry about adding them programmatically. Just use the Outlook user interface to import them once for each member as the photos become available.

[bstein]

Well, I did it. I can now convert an MLS-exported vCard of many vCards to individual vCards, each with a photo, which cards can be imported into Outlook 2007 (individually). I did it by writing a bash script (on Mac OS X's BSD), which is fine because my bishop has a Mac. Brief attempts to run it on GNU/win32 revealed that much modification will be necessary.

Yes, it would be ideal to do this in VBA in Outlook, but I don't know VBA. But a plug-in to mass-import vCards into Outlook would still be very handy.

While I haven't as yet done the Blackberry phase, from what has been said, Blackberry Desktop should do the trick. Otherwise, for the extended membership record info, saving an MLS-exported .csv of a custom report as an .xls with password protection should take care of the rest of the bishopric's desires.

Thanks for everyone's input! I'll post the script when it's approved (as if anyone were interested.

[mkmurray]

But a plug-in to mass-import vCards into Outlook would still be very handy.

Which I have ready, and will announce shortly on the thread I have been keeping up. Although, it's likely not to work on a Mac because of it's dependencies on .NET and the Visual Studio Tools for Office.

[cwhanderson-p40]

To avoid the hassel of creating vCards and going thru all that trouble, you can use an iPhone - either 3G or 3Gs - and you can purchase an "App" called iStake or iWard for about $5 which pulls the membership info from the LUWS (iStake pulls all wards - iWard pulls just the one Ward) and you can easily view members' info. Theoretically, you keep your Ward MLS up to date, which automatically keeps LUWS up to date, thus, you have the latest info on your iPhone (which is far more flexible and usable than a Blackberry - my opinion). I thought we weren't supposed to keep paper copies of membership records any more, since we have MLS?

[aebrown]

...you can use an iPhone ...(which is far more flexible and usable than a Blackberry - my opinion).

The iPhone is indeed cool. But this thread deals with BlackBerry devices. Many people with a BlackBerry don't have the option of using an iPhone, either because of cost, or because of corporate policies that dictate BlackBerry use. Others actually prefer the BlackBerry.

I thought we weren't supposed to keep paper copies of membership records any more, since we have MLS?

There's no policy against keeping paper copies. Some wards find it very useful. Others have chosen not to keep paper copies. It's the bishop's call.

[RossEvans]

To avoid the hassel of creating vCards and going thru all that trouble, you can use an iPhone - either 3G or 3Gs - and you can purchase an "App" called iStake or iWard for about $5 which pulls the membership info from the LUWS ...

That wouldn't fill the need anyway, because the task at hand is to populate the ward leaders' handheld devices with data from MLS plus photos. That data includes a lot of detail not available on LUWS.

Also, what Alan_Brown said.

[mkmurray]

To avoid the hassel of creating vCards and going thru all that trouble...

As boomerbubba mentioned, photos is a key part of the discussion and proposed solutions. Also, if you have need of more info than what LUWS provides for each member, then MLS vCard exports would be required.

[stevengolson-p40]

We did this two years ago for the bishopric.

1. Create a .pst contact folder for outlook
2. export the MLS data to CSV and format it for your needs
3. inport the MLS contact information into the PST file
4. manually add the photo to each contact
5. sync with blackberry, windows mobile, etc.

Tada. you now have all your ward contacts (including photos) on your mobile phone, and they will also sync with exchange, outlook, or BlackBerry Desktop as a backup of your data.

[bstein]

We did this two years ago for the bishopric.

1. Create a .pst contact folder for outlook
2. export the MLS data to CSV and format it for your needs
3. inport the MLS contact information into the PST file
4. manually add the photo to each contact
5. sync with blackberry, windows mobile, etc.

Tada. you now have all your ward contacts (including photos) on your mobile phone, and they will also sync with exchange, outlook, or BlackBerry Desktop as a backup of your data.

Part of my goal was to make the process of vCard creation as automatic as possible, including getting photos into vCards and identifying individuals to add or delete in Outlook prior to syncing.

My current solution (a shell script and a selection of Cygwin files), identifies:
1. Missing photos
2. Orphaned photos
3. Duplicate vCards
4. New vCards
5. Old vCards

Identifying new and old vCards is possible only when the bulk MLS vCard file or a photo has been changed after an initial run of the program.

The ultimate solution, I think, would be for MLS to support adding photos to vCards as well as creating individual vCards for those whose records either moved into the ward after a specified date, or (if MLS keeps track of this) those whose records have been modified after a certain date.