How to Build Your Database

When you register as a user of the Compugene Software Online Round Robin, you automatically get an online database allocated to your organization with the number of members you can have based on the number of members that you specified when you registered. Once this database has been allocated, the next step is to upload your member data (names of your members, their e-mail addresses, etc.) to the online database.

There are two ways to accomplish this: to add many new members at once via bulk-update from a spread-sheet that you provide, use the method described on this page; or, to add one member at a time via the Add Member facility, click here for further details.

First, create a comma-separated values (.csv) file on your pc with your member data, in which each record contains a minimum of 3 columns and a maximum of 10 columns, with each column separated by a comma. The .csv file type can be created by most spread-sheet software, such as Microsoft Excel - save the created file as type .csv; you can also create such a file by using any text-editing program, such as Windows Notepad.

Note: Please ensure that there are no commas within the data in each column; commas can only be used as separators between the columns.

The minimum 3 columns required (but not necessarily in this order) are:
1) Last name,
2) first name(s) and optional salutation, such as Mr. and Mrs., and
3) e-mail address.

Two additional columns you might want to provide are:
1) a 2nd e-mail address and/or
2) the section number that a member is part of (this is significant if you define more than one section in your Charge Options (Click here for further information regarding sections).

Sections are useful if you would like to separate members into different categories on the selection page. For example, you could give your main section a title of Members and also create another section named Officers, which would include your officers; or if your organization is a school, you can have sections entitled Parents, Teachers, Administrators, etc. You can define up to five(5) different sections. In addition to presenting the selection window in sections, you can also use sections to create different charging options for a section. For example, if a member selects another member, you can charge a particular cost per item, and if a member selects a teacher, you can have a different cost per item.

If you would like to print mailing labels so you can send your invoices by regular mail once the Round Robin has completed, then you should also provide the following five additional columns:
1) address line 1,
2) address line 2,
3) city,
4) state, and
5) zip code.

Columns do not have to be in any particular order, as you will be able to specify the column position for each type of data when you execute the Build Your Database function. Of course, all lines in your .csv file must have the columns in the same position; for example, if you have Last name in column 1 on line 1, then all lines in your .csv file must have the Last name in column 1.

If you have defined sections in your Charge Options (Click here for detailed information about Section Headings and Charge Ranges) one of your supplied columns in your .csv file should be the section number of the section that a member will belong to.
If you would like to print mailing labels when the round robin is completed to send invoices to your members via regular mail, then you must also provide the following address columns: address line 1, address line 2, city, state, zip code.

When you click the Build Your Database function, you will be able to indicate which columns you are supplying and in what order the columns appear in your .csv file. For example, lastname can be in any column of your .csv file.

Here is a sample of a .csv file with 4 member records containing the minimum required number of 3 columns in the order: last name, first name(s), e-mail address:

Albertson,Leslie and Sandy,leslie123@aol.com
Longoria,Eva,eval@gmail.com
Botwin,Judah and Nancy,judah234@showtime.com
Creed, Danny and Alice,dalice@yahoo.com


Notes:

1- You can't add more names to your database than the maximum value that was set for your organization at the time you registered for the Online Round Robin. If you need to increase that maximum value, please contact Compugene Software.

2- The system will not add the same lastname/firstname combination to the database if it already exists in the database.

3- When creating your .csv file, you should keep in mind that if you would like names to appear as "Goldberg, Mr. and Mrs. Joe and Linda" in the selection listing, then you must set the first name column equal to "Mr. and Mrs. Joe and Linda" and set the last name column to "Goldberg" in your .csv input file.
Note that via the Display Values function you can specify whether you want the names to print as Last name first or First name first: last name first would be: "Goldberg, Mr. and Mrs. Joe and Linda" while first name first would be "Mr. and Mrs. Joe and Linda Goldberg"

4- Since mourners are not permitted to give Mishloach Manot, for mourners in your organization, you should set the first name column to null ("") and set the last name column to "The xxxxx Family" where xxxxx is the family's last name, such as "The Goldberg Family".

5- Your .csv file does not have to contain records in alphabetical order. The system will automatically sort your data based on last name, so that all names will be in correct alphabetical order in your database.

6- Should a member choose not to provide you with their e-mail address, then you should use the e-mail address of the administrator as if it were their e-mail address. This way, the administrator will receive the notification e-mail containing the id and password of the member and the administrator can then login as the member and make the choices for the member following discussion with the member.