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Unfortunately it is difficult to reliably synchronize an internet resident service with a PC resident database. We have not attempted to do this in our integration with Clublink, since most clubs will view Clublink as their system of record rather than the web-site. The Clublink integration exists to allow registrations to be captured into Clublink, without the need to key or re-key membership data.
Some additional notes about the integration approach are included below:
| • | There is currently no mechanism to "bulk import" registrations into Clublink. This is because Clublink stores information not known to NeatClubs.COM such as provincial role definitions and fees meaning that every registration needs to be inspected by the club registrar and categorized as it is received. The integration can clearly accelerate this process, but it cannot remove it. |
| • | The Clublink fields are static and have particular format requirements. For example, phone numbers are consistently of the format (999)999-9999 while dates are of the format 2000-01-15. Because phone numbers may not accommodate things like extensions, different clubs have adopted different approaches to storing this information in additional fields. (only Clublink administrators know what fields they are using of course!) - when exporting information to Clublink, NeatClubs.COM will automatically make adjustments to date and phone number formats to the formats required by Clublink however sophisticated Clublink users may need to make their own adjustments to get registrations from web-site populating the extra fields in Clublink properly. |
| • | The integration may also be used to update information about an existing athlete who has been previously registered and is present in Clublink. In this case, before pasting the registration, the administrator in Clublink can bring up the existing student record. Pasting the newly received registration record will update any fields that have been changed. |
| • | When validating members against the provincial registration database, validation is made based on a valid combination of a club's First Name, Last Name and Date of Birth. (Clublink also offers the ability to validate based on a club identification number, however NeatClubs.COM is not using this feature currently). Failing to enter the name exactly as entered in the database will result in a member not being found. Also, there are timing windows where validation of records against a central database may be unreliable. For example, a member record may not appear in the central database for a few weeks following registration depending on how quickly a club enters the information to the central database via e-sport or synchronizes their membership with Clublink. |
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