Update Multiple Contributions with Missing Attributes via Search Builder?

Question

We have 300 or so contributions that are missing a custom field. We want to manually update those records. We are running a search for contributions that have a custom field but are missing the custom field we want. We run a search builder.

Example

• Contribution - Custom Field 1 - = - Attribute
• Contribution - Custom Field 2 - Is Empty
• Contribution - Date Received - > - ##/##/####
• Contribution - Amount - > - 1

I run the search and I find the 300 or so contributions. I can only update each record by clicking on the contact, going to their contributions, finding the contribution, edit the custom fields. If I try to update multiple records - I can only update the contacts - not the contributions. So I add them to a group - run a contribution search for the date range and limit to only the group. Now I have over 700 contributions as those contacts may have given multiple times. I can bulk update the contributions now with a profile - but I now have to sift through half the contributions that do have the correct custom field chosen and find only those that are blank.

Is there a better way to do this?

Export/Import is not a good solution.

Answer 1

Try creating a Profilewith the necessary Contribution fields and then accessing it via Actions (Bulk update) from the Find Contributions page

Answer 2

You can do either one of the two methods

1. Export all contributions into csv, use csv skills to clear rows that are not empty and then update the rows with necessary data and import it back using contribution ID from import contribution UI.

2. Use contribution reports(contribution detail report probably) to filter contribution that have empty data for custom fields, export the results with contribution id, update csv file with necessary data and import it back using contribution ID from import contribution UI.

HTH

Pradeep

Answer 3

You could do this via the API with chaining. The basic pattern is:

civicrm_api3('Contribution', 'get', [
  'sequential' => 1,
  'custom_1' => ['IS NULL' => 1],
  'api.Contribution.create' => ['id' => "\$value.id", 'custom_1' => "42"],
]);

Or in words:

• Find contributions that you want to update: this just looks for the custom_1 field being null. Add whatever conditions you need.
• When you have a contribution that matches, call Contribution.create with the existing id to update it, and set the field you want. "\$value.id" is a bit of API magic to give you the id of the contribution you just found.

You'll need to add 'options' => ['limit' => 0] if you want to process all 300 in one go.

You can run this via the API Explorer, or if you have shell access, create a script and run with cv