The next update for the Church Admin plugin will make an important change to the way people are stored.
Up to now each database row has contained a family, which limits the usefulness of the plugin as churches get larger (Perhaps husband and wife are in different small groups, or a teenager is in a different small group…)

So the next update will split the storage of households up under the hood, so that future updates can add useful functionality to the plugin.

How can you prepare?

1. Use & to split up adults in the address Name field – I have always used the Address Name field to be something like “Andy & Janet” or “Bob & Sue” – so if you do the same the update will be automatic (it will spot “& “!)
2. Use comma and space to split children in the children field – The children field will split with a comma and a space – eg “Rebecca, David, Katie”

The update will assume the first name adult in a family is male and the second is female and all children wil be assumed to be male! (Too many names for intelligent guessing!)
You may need to edit some entries after the next update.

What will under the hood database look like?

For the techies – this is the new table structure…
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `wp_church_admin_household` (
`address` text,
`lat` varchar(50) DEFAULT NULL,
`lng` varchar(50) DEFAULT NULL,
`phone` varchar(15) DEFAULT NULL,
`ts` timestamp NOT NULL DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP ON UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
`household_id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
PRIMARY KEY (`household_id`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM;

The address field will be a serialized array and the address table will also store geolocation of address for map plotting etc.

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `wp_church_admin_people` (
`first_name` varchar(100) DEFAULT NULL,
`last_name` varchar(100) DEFAULT NULL,
`date_of_birth` date DEFAULT NULL,
`member_type_id` int(11) DEFAULT NULL,
`roles` text,
`sex` int(1) DEFAULT NULL,
`mobile` varchar(15) DEFAULT NULL,
`email` text,
`people_type_id` int(11) DEFAULT NULL,
`smallgroup_id` int(11) DEFAULT NULL,
`household_id` int(11) DEFAULT NULL,
`user_id` int(11) DEFAULT NULL,
`people_id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
PRIMARY KEY (`people_id`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM;

people_type_id will be 1 for adult 2 for child
sex 1 male,0 female
roles will be a new feature – a serialized array that in future updates will allow for teams etc.
household_id will connect the people row to a hosuehold.
smallgroup_id is which small group
member_type_id will allow for membership level -visitor,member and adjustable levels between!