Customize Advanced Mapping

When to Customize Advanced Mapping

Most organizations can use the pre-configured Advanced Mapping settings without additional customization. Customize Advanced Mapping if you want to map data into an object or field that hasn't yet been mapped.

Most organizations can use the pre-configured Advanced Mapping settings without additional customization. Customize Advanced Mapping if you want to map data into an object or field that hasn’t yet been mapped.

For example, maybe you want to track your constituents’ favorite literary genre for a monthly book club and capture that information on their Contact records. Or you want to include a custom field for Preferred Thank You Gift on your Gift Entry form. In these situations, customize Advanced Mapping to include your custom fields in the import or data entry process.

Brand-new to Advanced Mapping? Here are some handy resources:

• Understand Field Mappings
• Understand Object Groups

• Extend NPSP Data Importer with Advanced Mapping Trailhead module

High-Level Steps to Customize Advanced Mapping

To customize Advanced Mapping, create the necessary objects and fields and connect them using Field Mappings. Follow along with this example scenario to see how a typical nonprofit customizes Advanced Mapping.

Here are the high-level steps to customize Advanced Mapping:

1. Confirm the target object and fields. Is the data going into a custom field or object? If these objects or fields haven't yet been created, complete this step.

2. Create staging fields on the NPSP Data Import object that correspond to fields on the target object. For example, if you’re importing data into a custom field on Opportunity called "Thank You Gift", you’ll need a "Thank You Gift" field on NPSP Data Import.

3. Connect a new object in Advanced Mapping (applies only in certain circumstances.) This step applies only if you have a new custom object. See Connect a New Object in Advanced Mapping for more information.

4. Connect staging and target fields with Field Mappings.

To see how customizing Advanced Mapping works in a typical nonprofit, let’s walk through the steps with Molly, a Salesforce admin at Read Now. Read Now is a grassroots organization dedicated to promoting adult literacy.

Read Now keeps track of their donors' favorite literary genres to use in marketing campaigns. Along with basic contact information, they include a question about favorite literary genre on their online donor profile forms.

The donor profile form collects information about the primary Contact in a Household, as well as optional secondary Contact information. Molly plans to include the Favorite Literary Genre field for both the primary and secondary household members.

Let’s follow along with Molly as she sets up Advanced Mapping to include this custom information.

Confirm the Target Object and Fields

The first step in customizing Advanced Mapping is to make sure you have a place for your custom data to land.

The first step in customizing Advanced Mapping is to make sure you have a place for your data to land. Is the data going into a custom object? Into custom fields? Do those objects or fields exist? If not, you need to create them.

Note If you need a refresher on creating custom objects and fields, see Trailhead modules Custom Objects: Quick Look and Custom Fields: Quick Look.

To store Read Now's custom donor information, Molly creates a picklist field on Contact named Favorite Literary Genre.

Now she's ready to create corresponding staging fields on the NPSP Data Import object.

Create Staging Fields on the NPSP Data Import Object

To import data, create a matching field on the NPSP Data Import object for any field you created on another object.

Create Fields on NPSP Data Import

Since Molly created a picklist field on Contact, she creates a matching field of the same data type on the NPSP Data Import object. She makes sure both fields have the same picklist values, and the same field-level security.

Note You can reduce the maintenance of keeping picklists in sync across objects by using Global Picklist Values. See Create a Global Picklist Value Set for more information.

The NPSP Data Import object contains fields that correspond to many different objects (Account, Contact, Opportunity, and more). To easily distinguish which object a field is mapped to, the Advanced Mapping field naming convention begins with the Object Group name. Molly follows the naming convention and names the new field Contact1 Favorite Literary Genre.

The Contact1 Object Group represents the primary Contact in a Household. To include the secondary Contact in a Household on the same donor profile form, Molly creates another picklist field with the same picklist values and field-level security, and names it Contact2 Favorite Literary Genre.

Note For more information on Object Groups, see Understand Object Groups.

In Connect Staging and Target Fields with Field Mappings, you'll see how to connect these two fields to the Favorite Literary Genre field on Contact.

Connect Staging and Target Fields

Molly is ready for the final step—connecting the Favorite Literary Genre field on Contact with the two Favorite Literary Genre fields on the NPSP Data Import object.

This step requires creating two Field Mapping records. Let's follow along:

1. Click the NPSP Settings tab. If you don't see the tab, find it in the App Launcher ().

2. Click System Tools | Advanced Mapping.

3. Click Configure Advanced Mapping.

4. In the Contact1 row, click , then select View Field Mappings.

5. Click Create New Field Mapping.

6. In the new Field Mapping dialog, select Contact1 Favorite Literary Genre (Contact1_Favorite_Literary_Genre__c) as the Source.

7. Select Favorite Literary Genre (Favorite_Literary_Genre__c) as the Target.

8. Save your work.

Molly has created her first Field Mapping record, which connects the NPSP Data Import field Contact1 Favorite Literary Genre with the Favorite Literary Genre field on the Contact object.

Now, Molly repeats the steps to connect Contact2 Favorite Literary Genre to Favorite Literary Genre on Contact. This mapping connects the information for the secondary Contact in the Household. This time, she chooses View Field Mappings from the Contact2 row, and selects Contact2 Favorite Literary Genre as the source. She connects it to the same target field on Contact, Favorite Literary Genre.

And voila! Molly completed the steps to map her custom field. Now she can include it on Read Now’s donor profile form for both the primary and secondary Household members.

Edit or Delete a Custom Object Group

Object Groups are collections of field mappings that tell the NPSP Data Import tool what types of records to create or update. Edit or delete custom object groups in NPSP Settings.

1. Click the NPSP Settings tab. If you don't see the tab, find it in the App Launcher ().

2. Click System Tools | Advanced Mapping.

3. Click Configure Advanced Mapping.

4. In the row for the custom Object Group to edit, click and select Edit. To delete a custom Object Group, click and select Delete.

5. Make your changes, then save your work.

Edit or Delete a Field Mapping

Field Mappings relate fields on the NPSP Data Import object to fields on the target object for data import. Edit or delete Field Mappings in NPSP Settings.

To edit or delete a Field Mapping for a standard or custom Object Group:

1. Click the NPSP Settings tab. If you don't see the tab, find it in the App Launcher ().

2. Click System Tools | Advanced Mapping.

3. Click Configure Advanced Mapping.

4. In the row for the Object Group with Field Mappings to edit or delete, click and select View Field Mappings.

5. In the row for the Field Mapping to edit, click and select Edit. To delete a Field Mapping, click and select Delete.

6. Make your changes, then save your work.

Objects Available for Advanced Mapping

View the list of objects and fields already included in Advanced Mapping.

For a list of Object and Fields already included in Advanced Mapping see Standard NPSP Data Import Fields. These are the Salesforce objects available for Advanced Mapping. Is there another object you'd like to map? Please add an Idea on the IdeaExchange to request it.