Issue with Email Address + subscriber key + GUID Exacttarget LIST

Question

We use Lists for the subscriber .We don't have DE enabled.We used to have email address as primary key . Now we decided to have subscriber with same email addresses(family sharing same email).

I cannot unselect the emailaddress as primary key. And i see the subsciber key attribute is filled with email address too.

My questions:

1. Can i use subscriber key to store GUID and make it as primary. And remove Email address from being primary key.

2. I tried to create a subscriber via SOAP api (c#) and assign GUID to subscriber Key in the code . Subscriber gets created but subscriber key = email address not GUID.

3.whats the best solution at this moment?

Do i have to create a new field 'customID' for GUID and make customID plus email address as primary .If i make both as primary then can i have same email address of the subscriber?

can i remove the email address as primary key and make only customID as primary key?

Answer 1

see if this help page will help you to get there: http://help.exacttarget.com/en/documentation/exacttarget/subscribers/subscriber_key/migrating_your_account_to_use_the_subscriber_key_feature/

In the API call you just need to make sure to set the correct property which is SubscriberKey.

Note that moving from one key value to another you effectively create a new subscriber record and not migrating the old one. That would result in you loosing tracking on the personal/subscriber level as new subscribers (with GUID keys) will be treated by ExactTarget as new.

As an easier solution it is quite possible to use additional key attribute in conjunction with Email Address, all really depends on the business needs.

One more thing - just in case if you are indeed specifying the subscriberKey in your API and the system still stores Email Address value there is a business rule which need to be enabled for the subscriberKey functionality to work. Contact your account rep or support team to help you with that.