We'd like to explore something here:

We use the Sub Source Code field in our daily Luminate Online transaction download as sort of an appeal hint. It might say "071115 - Spring Match", which would tell the person importing that once in batch, they need to change the Appeal (which currently just pulls in as a generic appeal) on the gift to be "XYZ" appeal. Is there a way to create a source code list (like Enhanced Package/Appeal Processing), or a dictionary table so that they would automatically translate during the import? For example - "If SubSource Text = 123, Appeal should = ABC". It would need to be able to be a list that we could constantly add to as our online soliciting becomes more robust, but this would really help us with efficiency in batch!

 

Any thoughts on this?

Option 1:
You could do this with a virtual column

1) Make a virtual column called GiftAppeal
2) Set that column to map to the gift appeal
3) Assign the "Copy" function to that column
4) Assign the column that has the Sub Source Column as the "Seed" for the function
5) add the dictionary with the mappings to that column

This will copy the sub source to the column and then apply the dictionary (which will convert the sub source value into the appeal)

Option 2
Another way to do this is to have the sub source value be a standard format that includes that appealID and create a custom function that splits that value off. For example the sub source could be _ like 20150715_ABCAPPEAL. Then the function could split off everything after the underscore and copy that to the appeal column. That gives you more flexibility and alleviates the need to keep updating your dictionary.

Fabulous! I tested Option one and it works well.

I have a follow up question... Our appeals obviously tie to different campaigns. How would I then make sure the proper campaign comes through on the import as well? Would that be a dictionary to translate the translated Appeal to link to it's campaign, or is there no way to do this if there isn't a column to translate from?

I figured this translation out! Thanks for your help getting me started!

Nice work!