Tech Forum

Anyone tried using HTML code in the contact information in MLS? I am just curious what happens when it is populated on the LUWS.

I realize that the downfall to this is that when the contact information is printed from MLS, then the HTML tags will be right in the middle of it.

It is more of a hypothetical question.

In particular I was wondering if a
tag in the main phone number field would allow proper formatting of additional phone numbers on the LUWS.

ssintay wrote:Anyone tried using HTML code in the contact information in MLS? I am just curious what happens when it is populated on the LUWS.

I realize that the downfall to this is that when the contact information is printed from MLS, then the HTML tags will be right in the middle of it.

It is more of a hypothetical question.

In particular I was wondering if a
tag in the main phone number field would allow proper formatting of additional phone numbers on the LUWS.

I understand the hypothetical curiosity (as you've got me now curious as well of what would happen).

However, I don't think this solution would be worth pursuing at this point. MLS 3.1 with individual contact information (phone number and email addresses) is in beta and likely due out for official release in a few weeks. I imagine Church developers would follow up that release with some changes to LUWS to show individual contact info. The question would be how much longer after, but I'm sure it would definitely be on its way.

Actually I wonder if HTML would be needed at all?

Perhaps simply adding two numbers with only white space separating them would do the trick. i.e.

Put the following in the primary phone number of MLS.
555-555-5555 555-555-5553(cell)

Due to automatic line wrapping this might format correctly in both LUWS and MLS print outs.

ssintay wrote:Actually I wonder if HTML would be needed at all?

Perhaps simply adding two numbers with only white space separating them would do the trick. i.e.

I think that's a very bad idea. The field is supposed to contain a single phone number. And even though MLS is dumb enough to accept anything keyed into it, entering anything other than a single phone number into the field risks breaking any process downstream that reads the data.

Better to take mkmurray's advice and wait for the new version that accommodates individual phone numbers.

I also know that being able to put notes about people in these fields is one thing the programmers are trying to prevent so they limit the amount of information that can be placed in them. For instance, the phone field only allows 20 characters and the e-mail field only allows 59. Also, I tried putting in two e-mails in a field for a person (separated by a semi-colon) and I received the information back from HQ the second e-mail had been deleted. I tried putting two phone numbers with area codes and there wasn't enough room.