Creating a Compatible Genealogy

WARNING: This page will get a bit technical, so unless you enjoy reading Stereo Instructions, are the person responsible for actually creating these files, or are having a LOT of trouble falling asleep, this is not recommended reading… You have been warned.

Since we will not create custom import filters for individual distributors, and will ONLY create them for companies that want to provide genealogies to their distributors, you will need to have the person that wrote, or that maintains your corporate software read this over. He will need to create a custom export format (or modify an existing export format) to meet these specifications. This is not nearly as big a job as it sounds; we have found that it generally takes less than 5 - 6 hours of development time to create a compatible export file.

That being said, creating a compatible genealogy isn't that difficult. We have actually given you an extremely wide latitude as to the information that you can include in the file. There are only a few requirements that your file must meet:

• Must be a fixed length ASCII file.
• Must be in genealogical order. (see below)
• Must contain a unique distributor number for each node in the tree.
• Must have a "Name" for each node in the tree.
• Must contain a "Depth" for each node in the tree. (see below)
• Should (not required) contain a rank for each node which will map to the ranks in your template.

That's it… All the rest is up to you. You can include any additional information that you wish (phone number, address, email address, sales information, number of customers, etc.), and you can make those fields any size that you wish. Other than the required information stated above, make the export file suit your needs. The import filter that we create will take care of the rest.

What is a Fixed Length ASCII file?

In fact, if you have ever received a printed genealogy from a company, odds are good that it was a fixed length file in genealogical order: It is the industry standard.

We decided to use a fixed length file as opposed to a comma delimited file for two reasons:

• Speed… With a small file, the differences are negligible, but with a larger file, the speed differences can be quite noticeable.
• Readability… For the same reason that most printouts are in fixed length format, fixed length ASCII files are MUCH easier to read than a comma delimited file.

What are the requirements of a fixed length file?

• Each line of the file (row) contains one person's information (record).
• Each piece of information (field) in a row must take the same amount of space. If the information takes less room, it will be padded with spaces.
• Each row is the same length, and will be terminated by a carriage return / linefeed: chr(13) + chr(10) or hex(0D0A).
• No additional information is included. No summary information, no col headers… nothing. Just the data.

See below for sample "fixed length" data.

What is Genealogical order?

This has become the industry standard for reports, because of the fact that it not only shows the information for each person in the tree, but it also displays the structure of the tree. This is required in order to be able to re-build the tree structure in MLMPro*.

This image displays a small tree, and shows the genealogical order that the nodes should be listed in, as well as the level or "Depth" that should be included with each record.

Here is a fixed length example of how this tree should be exported:
Note: header information has been included in this example, but should NOT be in your export file.

Distrib# Dots Depth Name
-------------------------------
123582        0     Tree root
136436   .    1     Node 1
534668   ..   2     Node 2
764335   ..   2     Node 3
732576   ...  3     Node 4
245745   ...  3     Node 5
356545   .    1     Node 6
345236   ..   2     Node 7
634636   ..   2     Node 8
342421   ...  3     Node 9
084254   .    1     Node 10
734653   ..   2     Node 11
241543   ..   2     Node 12
734587   ...  3     Node 13
253567   ...  3     Node 14

You may notice a few issues about this example:

• There are no restrictions on field lengths. Make them as large or as small as you like.
• There is an extra field, "Dots", that shows a pseudo-graphical representation of the structure. I'm sure you've seen this before. This field is not required by, and in fact is not even used by MLMPro*, but may be included in order to increase the readability of the file. Include whatever you wish in the file; if MLMPro* can't deal with it, it will just be ignored.

Any Hints?

These situations are normally associated with any place that the program would have to apply logic to your information to break it into smaller bits. For example: As far as the program can tell, what is the difference between "John Smith" and "Smith Consulting"? To the human eye, it is easy to tell that one is a first / last name, and the other is a company name, but the program doesn't know that.

Here is a list of some items which would be better if stored separately as opposed to being combined...

• First Name, Last Name, and Company Name should all be separate fields. You can still include a "Name to use" field which the program will ignore, but it is better to leave these fields separate.
• Areacode and Phone number are stored as separate fields in MLMPro*, so it makes importing easier if they are included as separate fields in the import file.
• Dollar values… Any financial information can be included in the file, and can be both negative and positive and include a decimal place. This information will be mapped to the custom information, and can be viewed from within the program.
• Customer Count… If the number of retail customers has a bearing on rank advancement, this information can be included in the file, and once imported, the user can even add up this information from within the registered program.
• Email Addresses… Email addresses are stored in a Phone field in MLMPro*, and have a maximum length of 100 characters. They are specifically mapped by the import filter, so you don't need to do anything special other than include a field for email (if you want).
• If you are creating a master genealogy for distribution using the treeripper, start your depth count at the root. The treeripper will automatically convert this in the files that it exports. If, on the other hand, you want to export genealogies for each distributor without using the treeripper, the depth MUST be for that particular tree. (The root is depth 0.)

Which fields can MLMPro* handle?

Note: You can include additional fields in your file which do not map directly to MLMPro*. This information will either be ignored by the import (like dots), or will be assigned to the corresponding node in the tree (like sales volumes or customer counts).

Field Description	Field Length	Field Name*
Distributor Number	50 characters	DISTRIBNUM**
Depth***	integer	LEVEL**
First Name	50 characters	FIRSTNAME**
Last Name	50 characters	LASTNAME**
Middle Name	50 characters	MIDDLENAME
Company Name	50 characters	COMPANY**
Salutation****	50 characters	SALUTATION
SS#/SIN	15 characters	SIN
Birthday	date	BIRTHDAY
Phone Number 1	100 characters	PHONE1
Phone Location 1	50 characters	LOCATION1
Area Code 1	5 characters	AREACODE1
Phone Number 2	100 characters	PHONE2
Phone Location 2	50 characters	LOCATION2
Area Code 2	5 characters	AREACODE2
Phone Number 3	100 characters	PHONE3
Phone Location 3	50 characters	LOCATION3
Area Code 3	5 characters	AREACODE3
Phone Number 4	50 characters	PHONE4
Phone Location 4	100 characters	LOCATION4
Area Code 4	5 characters	AREACODE4
Address Line 1	75 characters	ADDR1
Address Line 2	75 characters	ADDR2
City	50 characters	CITY
State	50 characters	STATE
Zip	20 characters	ZIP
Country	50 characters	COUNTRY
Sponsor Date	date	SPONSRDATE
Rank	integer	RANK

* The field names listed here are those required for a tree to be imported using the generic MLMPro* import filter. If you are using the generic filter, make sure the fields of your database have exactly the same names as those in the table above. If you already have a database with different field names in place, you will need to have an import filter designed to your specifications.

** For the generic import filter, these fields must contain valid data. (Only one of FIRSTNAME, LASTNAME, and COMPANY needs to be present, not necessarily all three.) If any of the necessary fields are omitted in any of your records, the import will not work correctly and problems may result in your tree display.

*** "Depth" represents how many rows deep a node is below the root node. The generic MLMPro* import filter calls the root node "Level 0" and proceeds from there as shown in the diagram above.

**** "Salutation" refers to "Mr.", "Mrs.", etc.

That about sums it up… More than you ever wanted to know about creating a compatible file for import into MLMPro*.

If you have any questions, or need any clarification, you can send mail to tech@mlmpro.com or you can call (604)633-1004 after 8:00 AM Pacific time.