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Deleting Aliases
Hi Barabara,
It turns out I was on this site recently looking for some sample code for a similar purpose and ended up writing my own. I can't guarantee my syntax is best practice, however, it does work. You will also want to test, test, test. Alias is a collection and so you will not have a 'Load' method, therefore this code will cycle through each alias record and find the one you want by using criteria (e.g. if the alias name = '123456'). You can also update Alias Types and Values by setting the values (I added a row of code for each of these below as an example). This code should go in the "BeforeConstituentSave" Public Override Sub. Also, don't forget to add the import references at the top of your API code (e.g. "Imports Blackbaud.PIA.RE7.BBREAPI")
Dim oAlias As BBREAPI.CAlias
Dim ConsID As String = Import.Fields.GetByName("Consid").Value
For Each oAlias In oRec.Aliases
If oAlias.Fields(Blackbaud.PIA.RE7.BBREAPI.ECONSTITUENTFields.ALIAS_fld_KEY_NAME)=ConsID Then
If oAlias.Fields(Blackbaud.PIA.RE7.BBREAPI.ECONSTITUENTFields.ALIAS_fld_ALIAS_TYPE)="Convio Constituent ID" Then
'If you want to remove the Alias
oRec.Aliases.Remove(oAlias)
'If you want to update the Alias Type
oAlias.Fields(Blackbaud.PIA.RE7.BBREAPI.ECONSTITUENTFields.ALIAS_fld_ALIAS_TYPE)="Luminate ID"
'If you want to update the Alias Name (value)
oAlias.Fields(Blackbaud.PIA.RE7.BBREAPI.ECONSTITUENTFields.ALIAS_fld_KEY_NAME)="12345"
End If
End If
Next oAlias
Grant
I was hoping to adapt it for a problem I'm having. There are some blank rows in the alias field. I suspect this was caused by importing into the alias field with no values included. These need to be deleted before we can manually add and save and alias, so it's a bit of a pain. I'm having trouble figuring out how to delete the rows when there's no alias type to reference. Any thoughts on how to solve that?
Thanks in advance.
Gregg
-Barbara
I'm very unfamiliar with code. And my logic is way off in my brain. What fields in the import file do I need or am I mapping incorrectly? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
Melissa
| Thanks for sharing this code. I was able, through trial and error, to add in the code to remove the alias without errors in the code. However, I'm not sure how I would set up my file/columns. Right now, I have an alias of Patient ID that is the same as the Constituent ID. So I have the same value in both places, incorrectly. I'm wanting to delete the alias all together, but when I tested this code on 1 record, it runs fine, but the alias and value are still there. My file contains 2 columns, ConsID and Patient ID, and is mapped to Constituent ID and Alias Match or Add. (the same thing happens if I am mapped to Alias Add. I'm very unfamiliar with code. And my logic is way off in my brain. What fields in the import file do I need or am I mapping incorrectly? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Melissa | |
Hi,
I included a row of sample code in my original post that will remove an alias record: "oRec.Aliases.Remove(oAlias)"
If you include this line after you select your alias record via criteria (if Alias=1234 then), it should remove it. Remember that when you are using criteria to select a specific alias record, the selected alias record is represented in the code by 'oAlias.' Also, if your Constituent ID and Alias name (ID) is always the same, you could use one column in your profile (Constituent ID) and use it to match to both the constituent record and then the alias record you want to delete.
Example:
'look through each alias on the constituent
For Each oAlias In oRec.Aliases
'find an alias on the constituent where the alias = consid ('1234') and the alias type = 'convio constituent ID'
If oAlias.Fields(Blackbaud.PIA.RE7.BBREAPI.ECONSTITUENTFields.ALIAS_fld_KEY_NAME)=ConsID Then
If oAlias.Fields(Blackbaud.PIA.RE7.BBREAPI.ECONSTITUENTFields.ALIAS_fld_ALIAS_TYPE)="Convio Constituent ID" Then
'remove the matched alias record (alias = 1234, alias type = 'convio constituent id')
oRec.Aliases.Remove(oAlias)
End If
End If
Next oAlias
Grant
I finally got around to this project. Here’s what I finally ended up with in case someone else is trying to do something similar. My goal was to delete old/unused aliases from constituent records.
My import file has the following fields (mapping):
A: ConsID (mapped to ConsID)
B: ImportID (Ignore)
C: AliasType (Ignore)
D: Alias (Ignore)
I want the IOM Profile to delete any aliases where the type and alias match the incoming record.
1st line in Code: Imports Blackbaud.PIA.RE7.BBREAPI
After "Public Class Profile Inherits ImportOM.API.ProfileBase" (before Public Overrides):
Public function GetColumn(ColumnName As String) As String
GetColumn = Import.Fields.GetByExcelName(ColumnName).Value
End function
End sub
In BeforeConstituentSave section:
'This starts the section to remove matching Aliases
Dim oAlias As Blackbaud.PIA.RE7.BBREAPI.CAlias
Dim sAliasType="C"
Dim sAlias="D"
'look through each alias on the constituent
For Each oAlias In oRec.Aliases
'find an alias on the constituent where the alias type matches incoming remove the alias
If oAlias.Fields(Blackbaud.PIA.RE7.BBREAPI.ECONSTITUENTFields.ALIAS_fld_ALIAS_TYPE)=GetColumn(sAliasType) And oAlias.Fields(Blackbaud.PIA.RE7.BBREAPI.ECONSTITUENTFields.ALIAS_fld_KEY_NAME)=GetColumn(sAlias)Then
oRec.Aliases.Remove(oAlias)
End If
Next oAlias
End Sub
Barbara Daenzer
Has anyone already written code to globally delete an alias based on type (type and name)? We have lots of old ones that I'd like to get clean-up.
I'd be interested in any alias-related API.