The Bulk Stops Here: Why Your Custom Dataset Can’t Register in Style

Scenario

Picture this: your institution has a beautifully crafted custom dataset in Slate, designed to track a unique group, maybe partner school cohorts, third-party educational consultants, or VIP visitors. The plan? Bulk register them for an event in one quick sweep. The reality? You’ll be clicking your way through a manual marathon while person records zip through bulk registration like it’s a red-carpet check-in.

Problem 🤝🏻 Solution

The root issue is that custom datasets, while flexible and endlessly configurable, are the DIY IKEA furniture of Slate records — sleek, adaptable, and able to hold anything you dream up, as long as you’re ready to build every piece yourself. They’re independent objects without built-in structures or the complex, pre-wired relationships that make bulk actions possible. You get the freedom to design every field, tab, display name, and matching rule yourself, but you also inherit the joy of building every element and connection from scratch, including, related dataset rows, dataset row queries, and permissions. Custom datasets are, quite literally, a blank slate.

When it comes to bulk event registrations, Slate’s tools are designed with people and applications in mind, which is why bulk registering and updating event registration statuses for custom dataset records cannot use the same bulk upload process as person/applicant records. For person records, you can import event registrations in bulk, update them quickly, and let the system handle the heavy lifting via a source format. For custom datasets, the experience is more… artisanal. Bulk register/edit options are limited, even if you build everything for your custom dataset correctly. Instead, you’re left with manual updates, custom forms, or elaborate workarounds that feel like over-engineered science projects, but not impossible.

Bulk Event Registration/Status Update Custom Solution:

If a key feature of your custom dataset is tracking event registration/attendance status in Slate, then this workaround option, thanks to Configurable Joins’ and a bit of advice from Technolutions, is exactly what you have been looking for:

1. Create a query on the custom dataset scope – International Agencies for our example

2a. If initially registering records, filter as desired to identify those records that should be registered for the event.

2b. If needing to update records already registered, insert a subquery filter joining to the Form Responses and filter for those who are registered, and add any additional parameters that you determine is necessary to identify the correct records.

3. Add in any export that makes identifying the correct records recognizable

4. Run the Query

5. Select the Output of Interaction 

Here is an example from ReWorkflow database:

Event Registrations: The People’s Privilege… until now

Final Thought

Before committing to a custom dataset, weigh the long-term upkeep and consider whether a person record might be the better fit for event-heavy workflows. Custom datasets shine when you need ultimate flexibility, but if you’re dreaming of smooth, one-source upload like person/applicant records? Sorry, the bulk stops here.