We are using Connections for a church directory of our church members. It would be nice if the family entry type had fields for children, including their name and D.O.B. (or age caclulated from their D.O.B.)
Also, since it is a family entry, it would be nice to have a name field for each added phone number, email address, website and social media link since the husband and wife usually have separate conatct info and some children do as well.
Lastly, the anniversary field says “not available for this entry type”. It would be cool if that was enabled and could be used for a wedding anniversary.
Thanks. Great product!
Here is an example on how to use the Family entry type.
Say we have a family, the Doe’s.
First, lets start with one of the parent’s, John. Create a new Individual entry for John and put in all his personal info.
Second, simply copy John and change the first name to Jane and add/change any info that relates only to her for example her birthday.
Third, do the same for Girl and Boy.
Now create a new entry using the Family type. For the Family Name enter something like “Doe, John & Jane” and then click the “Add Relation” button for each member in the family, in this example, four times. In the first column of drop downs select each family member and in the second column of drop downs select their relationships.
Finally, just add a the following attribute to the shortcode like such; [connections list_type='family']
If I go this route, though, my directory now has 5 entries for one family. Individual members, and then the members as a family.
[Maybe it's my template but] I can’t click the ‘family’ card to see the family as a group, anyway.
Furthermore, the getConnectionGroupBlock only lists the family member’s names, it does not link to their profile as a whole, which would give access to the members individual information (in the event that they each had a different phone number for example).
And finally, our [church] directory includes pictures of families as a whole, not of members individually. As such it would be SO much more convenient to be able to specify family member information but within the “family” class.
If I can’t figure this one out, I’ll have to keep looking for a plugin. I think it’ll work, I just don’t know how yet. Even though it really is a great plugin.
One more thing about doing it the suggested way. If you do it that way, and allow it to sort alphabetically, here is what happens.
Doe’s (family listing)
Boy (individual listing)
Girl (individual listing)
Jane (individual listing)
John (individual listing)
Which is kind of strange, but it works – all those people are of the same immediate family, so no big deal.
But then if you get a new entry from a different family, say, named David Doe, you get this auto sorted listing
Doe’s (family listing)
Boy (individual listing)
David (individual listing)
Girl (individual listing)
Jane (individual listing)
John (individual listing)
Not TECHNICALLY wrong, because we know what it MEANS, but for people who aren’t understanding what we are trying to say, it will not make sense. They will think David is an IMMEDIATE family member along with Boy Girl jane and John Doe. Which is not right. Which is a good reason to make the “family” class be able to handle information for individual members….
@Jay
If you add the list_type=’family’ option to the shortcode, the individual entries will not be shown.
@Jay
You would upload the family photo in the family entry same with all the other info. You only need/have enter the individual members details and photo if you need/want to.
The one area where this feature is lacking is a template that really makes this feature stand out. The getConnectionGroupBlock method is really just a basic function, so much more is possible.
Is there a way to do this using the uploader? If so how would you setup the CSV file so that it would import correctly?
@Caleb
Sorry, but the Family entry type can not be uploaded using the CSV Import. Families have to be built after the individuals are loaded in to Connections.