How 'person detection' works during sign-up
There are several places where ChurchSuite will attempt to intelligently detect whether someone is an existing contact or child when personal data is submitted through a ChurchSuite form. Person detection takes place for:
- Event sign-up through an event page
- Group sign-up through a group page
- Donate via SMS
Detecting just a mobile/cell number
If only a Mobile/Cell number is provided, for example through Donate via SMS, a Contact or Child will be matched if there is exactly one person within the Address Book or Children module with that Mobile/Cell number. If there are multiple people with the same Mobile/Cell number, no match will be detected.
Detecting with other data
Person detection works against either Address Book Contacts and children in the Children module and requires an exact match against the Last Name that is saved within ChurchSuite.
In addition to an exact match against Last Name, the following fields are examined for exact matches:
| Collection | Field | Specific To |
| Name | First Name | - |
| Formal Name | - | |
| - | ||
| Spouse Email | Contact | |
| Parent/Carer Email | Child | |
| Mobile | Mobile | - |
| Spouse Mobile | Contact | |
| Parent/Carer Mobile | Child | |
| People | Spouse ID | Contact |
| Parent/Carer ID | Child |
ChurchSuite compares the supplied data against all Contacts/Children who have an exact match on Last Name, with priority given to first attempting to match on Contacts and subsequently on Children if an appropriate match was not found. Once all Contacts matching Last Names have been compared, if there is just one Contact with an appropriate match percentage, ChurchSuite considers that to be a match. If there are multiple Contacts with the same match percentage, ChurchSuite will 'fail safe' and not match any of them.
If no match is detected for Contacts, the same checks are undertaken for Children.
Examples
Consider the following data already in ChurchSuite:
| Contact John Smith thesmiths@hotmail.com 07970 123 456 |
Spouse Jane Smith thesmiths@hotmail.com 07999 987 654 |
Child Sally Smith thesmiths@hotmail.com No child mobile |
Scenario 1
| Collection | Field Data | Match |
| First Name | J | No unique match |
| Last Name | Smith | Multiple matches |
| thesmiths@hotmail.com | Multiple matches |
In this scenario the data matches both John Smith and Jane Smith; as a result, ChurchSuite will "fail safe" and not identify a match for either.
Scenario 2
| Collection | Field Data | Match |
| First Name | Johnathan | No unique match |
| Last Name | Smith | Multiple matches |
| Mobile | 07970 123 456 | Unique match |
While still using the same ambiguous First Name & Last Name combination as Scenario 1, the addition of the mobile number (which is considered to be a unique attribute) allows us to reliably detect John Smith as the person, even though First Name isn't a unique match.
Scenario 3
| Collection | Field Data | Match |
| First Name | Sally | Unique match to the child |
| Last Name | Smith | Unique match to the child |
| Mobile | 07999 987 654 | Unique match to child's Parent/Carer |
Sally Smith is detected as a match based on an exact First Name and Last Name match, along with the addition of the Parent/Carer Mobile.
Scenario 4
| Collection | Field Data | Match |
| First Name | Harley | No unique match |
| Last Name | Smith | No unique match |
| Mobile | 07999 987 654 | Unique match to child's Parent/Carer |
Ordinarily, a unique Mobile would be determined as a match to Jane or Sally, but the ambiguous First Name means ChurchSuite will "fail safe" and not identify a match for either.