Importing Connections from Another Project | Tier IV

Many of our customers work with different networks that have overlapping members. It is usually the case that each network will be managed in a separate sumApp project, be shown in it’s own Kumu map and have different kinds of questions. But in a Tier IV account, where there is an overlap of members between two or more of the projects within a single account, you can import the rank-able question connections from the population of one project into another – thereby reducing the ‘ask’ of those overlapping members.

Facts about the connection import:

• It will not move members between projects.
• You will not see this option for a project if you don’t have other projects with connections.
  • It’s only available if there are connections existing somewhere that could be imported.
• Even if the feature shows – it only means there are other projects with connections. It doesn’t mean there WILL BE members who overlap and have connections. You have run the feature to discover that.
• When running this feature, it first selects all the members who exist in both projects.
• Once it has selected the members in both projects, it looks for the connections between those specific members.
• If it finds connections, you can ‘map’ the rank-able question options from one project to the rank-able question options in another project. Read more about mapping options below.
• It ONLY imports one rank-able question.
  • If you have many questions in a tile, the members will still have to manually respond to the extra questions. But at least they’ll be able to sort on ‘connected’ to find which to add more information to.
• Running the connection import is a one-time event – it will not continually feed changes from Project #1 into Project #2.
• However, you can re-run the connection import as often as you want.
• If you have data continuing to come into either project, and will want to re-run the import regularly, you can save the ‘mapped’ options.
• You can also import connections from as many projects as you want, into one project.
• When importing connections, the feature honors and doesn’t over-write the most-recent change.
  • For instance, say you have project #1 that’s a year old. Member A said they knew Member B by a rank of 2.
  • Then you set up and start to run project #2, and you run the import where A said the knew B by rank 2.
  • Then Member A goes into sumApp and says that now they know Member B by rank 4. The member changes the data in Project #2, but not in Project #1 because #1 is inactive.
  • If you re-run the import, the old data in Project #1 will not overwrite Member A’s change of connection rank to Member B – because the most recent change is kept, regardless of which project it came from.

How to access the connection import interface

• It will only be available in Tier IV
• Select the project you want to import connections INTO (the ‘receiving’ project)
• Click on #2 ‘Import Connections’
• The option will only show if:
  • There are other projects in the account
  • Those other projects have connections (see #2 the ‘Connections Made’ column)

Note: This feature will move very slowly when your project has a large number of connections (such as in some of the projects in the image above)

Working with the connection import interface

Step 1 – Selecting the import process

The first screen you’ll see:

1) Shows you’re in the Data Management phase.

2) Shows you’re on the Import Connects page.

3) Select if you are starting fresh with a new import.

4) Select if you have previously defined an import and saved the option mapping – and you want to re-use that mapping. (greyed-out in this instance because no prior mappings have been saved)

Step 2 – Selecting the ‘sending’ project

After you’ve opted to define a new import,

• You’ll be given a dropdown of the project/network names. #1.
• You’ll only see projects that HAVE connections. #2
  • If you have projects in your account where no members have made any connections to other members yet, those projects won’t show up in the dropdown.
• #2 Select the ‘sending’ project i.e. the project you want to import connects FROM, into the current project.
• #3 Click the ‘Import’ button.

Step 3 – Mapping your connection options

Mapping options is necessary because your ranking question options may be different in the two projects, and you may need to make some decisions about how and what to move over.

Once you’ve selected the receiving project and the sending project, and clicked on ‘import’, you’ll be taken to the option-mapping page.

1) On the left is the option list from the rank-able question in the sending project.

2) On the right is a series of drop-downs.

Each dropdown contains all the rank-able question options in the receiving project.

Each dropdown on the right corresponds to the same-place option on the left. You select the appropriate option to map the response on the left into the response on the right.

3) Back – return to the sending project selection list

4) Run the import matching function based on the mapping indicated. Takes you to the next import step.

5) Store the mapping for future use.

Understanding option mapping

When mapping options, you are defining how to translate the selections in one dataset into the, potentially different, options in another datasest.

So, in the example above:

• First note that in this instance, the sending project (#1) and the receiving project (#2) have the same number of options. It could also be that you have more options on either side than the other.
• In this instance, the option language is very similar, so we can just select the corresponding option on the right side for each option on the left.
• It will end up looking like the image below.

It won’t always be that simple a correspondence. You may even choose not to import some responses because there simply isn’t a good option to map it to in the receiving project.

• For instance, suppose you have ‘I know of this person’ on the left, but on the right, you only have options for actual relationships, not just ‘knowing of’. In that case, you shouldn’t map the connection. You’d select ‘None’ from the drop-down list on the right.
• Or perhaps you have 4 options on the left, to move into just 2 options on the right. You might end up with something like the image below.

The bottom line is – be sure to think through your option mapping carefully!

Step 4 – Saving the mapping

If you know you plan to repeat this exact import again, in exactly the same way, it will save a little time if you save what you just mapped out.

To do that, click ‘Store mapping’.

1) Name the mapping set – keeping in mind that each stored mapping has to have a different name, so be as specific as possible.

2) Click on ‘Save mapping’

Step 5 – Review list of possible imports and select whose connections to import

Once you have run your option mapping by clicking on the ‘Map Connections’ button on the mapping page, you will see the import list.

1) It lists everyone who a) exists in both projects and b) had connections to others in both projects

2) It lists how many connections each person has that can be imported – note that it only shows if there are NEW connections to import, it doesn’t count connections imported previously. (in this case, there are only a couple new members in the receiving list for connections to be imported for)

3) Select which members connections to import. You may have some reason not to import someone’s connections – this enables you to leave those individuals not selected.

4) Back – takes you back to the import mapping page.

5) Import – runs the import and takes you to the connections list – which is sorted on the most recent – so you can see the connections that came over.