NOTE: This article is for the Higher Logic Thrive Community integration with iMIS. For information on the Higher Logic Thrive Marketing Professional integration with iMIS, see iMIS Integration - Version Migration Guide (Thrive Marketing Professional).
Higher Logic and ASI, along with our partners ATS, have developed new integrations to support customers migrating to iMIS EMS. These integrations are built to provide depth of features while being scalable and maintainable in ASI's iMIS EMS Software as a Service (SaaS) hosting environment. As environments change, there are differences in what data can be pulled and/or written back, and at what frequency.
This guide provides version-based recommendations, as well as information on what features are available when integrating your Higher Logic Thrive Community (Thrive Community) with iMIS.
As you plan your migration to iMIS EMS, it's important that you work with Higher Logic, ASI, and your iMIS partner to plan the migration and understand what is changing. To prepare for the migration, we recommend that you review:
- The IQA or SQL queries that you're using — for both the Higher Logic integration and in general — in order to determine how they're being used and how best to accomplish your goals in iMIS EMS.
- The integration features below to understand some of the differences in how data moves between Higher Logic and the various versions of iMIS.
iMIS version migration recommendations
Higher Logic has established version-based migration recommendations.
NOTE: Thrive Community does not integrate with iMIS versions 100/200.
| iMIS Version | Recommendation |
|---|---|
| 20.2.x | Maintain your existing integration until you upgrade to iMIS EMS. Coordinate with ASI and/or your ASI partner to plan your upgrade and review your queries ahead of a planned upgrade. |
| 20.3.x, using Higher Logic integration, v1 | Work with Higher Logic to upgrade to Higher Logic integration, v2. Higher Logic will contact you to plan this upgrade. |
| 20.3.x, using Higher Logic integration, v2 | No action necessary; you are on the latest version. |
Integration features
NOTE: Thrive Community does not integrate with iMIS versions 100/200.
This section provides information on integration features, based on iMIS versions and current integration types.
iMIS version 20.2.x
Applicable integrations: SQL-based and iMIS REST API (for iMIS 20.2.64, Service Pack F and beyond)
Customers who are upgrading to iMIS 20.2.64, Service Pack F (or beyond) must update their Thrive Community integration to use the iMIS REST API. A limitation of the iMIS REST API is the tracking of changes to some data associated with the contact because not all changes will flag the contact or the associated fields for a refresh:
- Group Memberships can be synced weekly; however, this can result in a very large API load and is not supported for large memberships.
- Group Memberships can also be updated on a periodic basis, based on the group Join Date.
- Event Communities can be synced with Group Memberships.
iMIS version EMS 20.3.x
Applicable integrations: iMIS REST API and Higher Logic integration, v2
Thrive Community will support either the REST API integration or the new IQA-based Higher Logic integration, v2. Customers who are currently using the REST API integration for do not have to migrate unless they are adding Higher Logic Thrive Marketing Professional (Informz) because the features for Thrive Community are very similar.
Groups and event registrations can be synced more frequently with the Higher Logic integration, v2.
The integrations for Cloud/EMS do have some feature differences compared to earlier versions.
This is largely due to the realities interacting via API/IQAs compared to a direct database connection, differences in change tracking, and ensuring traffic is predictable and manageable for the hosting environment.
Integration features:
- New and updated Contacts and standard contact fields are pulled hourly
- Custom demographics are synced nightly from Panel fields, via IQA
- Group, chapter memberships, and event registrations are synced weekly or nightly, depending on the integration
- Writebacks are supported. Currently, they are sent to the Activities table but a move to Panel fields is planned in 2023.
IMPORTANT: Migrating to Cloud/EMS from self-hosted iMIS
Your organization might have custom SQL or scripts running that support the integration, manage mailing lists, or which automate activities that may or may not be Higher Logic-related.
It's important that you review those with ASI or your iMIS reseller/AiSP prior to migrating. Some of these might not be supported in EMS or might have to be updated and/or converted to an IQA and reviewed for performance in the SaaS hosting environment.