VAN Synchronization
Connect will optionally synchronize Events and Signups with VAN. To set this up go to your dashboard and on the right for the appropriate organization click the VAN link. In the popup enter your VAN application name and API key.
Once you do that it will then copy all events and signups from Connect up to VAN. When you create, update, or delete an event or signup, it can take up to 5 minutes for the synchronization to occur.
Configuring Your Connection
In the event grid on your dashboard, in the rightmost column, click VAN… This will bring up the VAN Properties page. On this page you need to set:
- The credentials (do this first). This is where you set your VAN application name and API key. Make sure you check Enable VAN synchronization.
- Set the event roles you want assigned for every event. If a given VAN event type does not include one of these roles, then that role will not be set for events of that type.
- Set the VAN Signup Status to be set for a signup for Interested and Sign me up (attending). The selected list of statuses are the statuses that are set for every VAN event type. It will also always add Tentative and Scheduled even if they are not set for all event types.
- Map the Trade Winds Interests to the matching VAN event type. This mapping is inherited so if you are for example a committee in Colorado, it will first look at the U.S. and then Colorado mappings. That mapping will be used if you do not set a mapping. You must set a mapping if there is no mapping set by the (grand) parent organization or they are mapping to an event type you do not have.
Some notes on this
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This synchronization is one-way. Any creation, editing, deleting of events or signups on VAN will not be copied back to Connect. Two way synchronization is a major PITA because if both changed, who wins? If you think 2-way synchronization would be beneficial, please enter it as a suggestion.
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Any changes you make in VAN to an event or signup will be overwritten by Connect if it updates that event/signup. Connect will only do this if you update the event/signup in Connect.
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As the synchronization occurs on the server, usually when you are not using our system, any errors synchronizing are reported to you via email. The email is sent to the event owner.
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VAN has no concept of projects (our events that are not appointments are are generally based on a deadline). Therefore projects are not copied to VAN.
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VAN events can be a maximum of 24 hours long. And all shifts must be within the event start & end times. Therefore, longer events will be truncated to 24 hours and shifts will be truncated to the VAN event start/end times.
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VAN has the concept of repetitive events, but that is not available via their API. Therefore a repetitive event will be copied to VAN as a set of individual events. The first instance is copied to VAN immediately (or within 5 minutes). Subsequent instances will be copied to VAN when they are 14 days away.
Synchronization Issues
Connect will create/update a VAN event/signup, then write that information to the database. If the server dies (power supply fires, Microsoft reboots to apply security updates, etc.) between the call to VAN and the save to the database, then VAN was updated but Connect is unaware of that update. This is incredibly unlikely, but it can happen.
You specify how to map a Connect event/signup to VAN. If that map does not exist, this is what Connect does. This follows the Hippocratic Oath - First Do No Harm.
- If one or more of the roles you specified to set for events does not exist for a given VAN EventType, it will just set the other roles.
- If the Event Interest mapping to Event Type is to an Event Type that does not exist, then the event will not be copied to VAN. You will receive an email alerting you to this.
- If the Signup Commitment does not map to a VAN signup status for the VAN Event Type, then the signup will not be copied to VAN. You will receive an email alerting you to this.