Managing Your Address Book

Each website has an online address book that is only viewable to the website manager. The book is one of the tools you can use to keep access critical information online. Keeping contact information on your website provides you full access to that information any place you have Internet access. The database will hold up to 2500 records with standard fields and an additional 20 custom fields you define to fit your business model.

To add custom fields:
Under the Address Book Management there should be a link to [ Add Custom Fields ]. This will allow you to add up to 20 custom fields making your database unique and extremely useful. The page will have 20 form fields. Simply add the names of the the fields you want to add and click the submit button.

For example, you want to include the customers birthday so you can send them a birthday card. You can name the field anything you wish, but you will want to know what it is, so don't use abbreviations or codes. We would suggest simply "Birthday".

When you add any new records, the new Field will appear on the page. It is important to get the fields configured before you add records so you do not have to go back and edit old records. Adding new fields will not damage old records, but the fields will be blank, until you add the information.

Searching the Address Book:
Under the Address Book Management there should be a link to [ Search Addresses ]. The link will take you to a search form. The form will allow you to search all your records for a keyword or limit to one field.

If you know the persons first name, you can narrow your search to first names and return only records with a match. But if you search all fields, you could get any match that includes the name string. For example, search ALL fields for "BOB" might return "JOE at 123 BOB Street".

Modify Records:
To modify a record, you must first find the record sing the search. The search will display all the information in that record followed by 2 links [Modify] [Delete]. To modify the record, click the Modify link and the information will be displayed editable text boxes. Simply make the changes or add new information and submit the changes. The record is updated.

Add Records:
Under the Address Book Management there should be a link to [ Add Entry ]. Clicking that link will bring up a blank form. Just fill in the information you want to save and submit the form. A new blank form will appear and you can continue to add new records.

Importing Data - The import feature allows you to upload files from other programs or devices and store data on your website. If you have a business computer with contact names it is nice, but if you are on the road you cannot access your data on your business computer. This allows you to operate in the cloud and keep all of your address information and vital contact details always within reach regardless of where you are.To import a file it must be in the correct format, either in columns in the correct order or with a header row defining each field value.

The fields are:

action - This is the action you wish to take on the record can be add, modify, ignore or remove.
recordnumber - The record number or reference id for the record. Will auto generate if left blank.

Standard fields that need no explanation.

name
address
city
state
zipcode
homephone
workphone
cellphone
email

custom01 to custom20 - There are 20 custom fields you make up. They are still referenced by the custom01 name for import and export but are displayed on the website as the names you define in the set up.

blank - This field is left blank and reserved for the program if needed.
notes - Each record can have a series of notes along with the data.

Rather than listing all the fields and sample data here, we suggest you add at least 1 record, export the data and use that as the framework for your import file. If you already have a file from another program, just use the field names above to set up a header row in the file so you can import the data.

Uploads are limited to 2MB and 2500 records. File format must be ".txt" or the upload will fail. You cannot just upload any database, it must be formated correctly and have the correct fields.

Exporting Data - The export feature allows you to export all of the files in your address book to be used by outside programs. The output file is a plain text file in CSV or pipe or tab delimited format. The file can be exported with our without the header row and in an email only format for bulk mailing lists. You will need to check each outside program for the best format and how they want the data formatted for import.