Using your own users table for PowerMessenger (experimental)

Step 1: Compare the table structures

This screenshot shows the structure of my old and working users table and PM's pm1_users table

Step 2: Alter existing users table - Be careful!

To prepare the old users table, to be used as the recipients table in PM, we will have to add some columns.
We are not going to change any of the existing column names or values, as this would result in our login system not working anymore!
We are just adding some missing columns (I've experimented on this issue and found out, that PM obviously "needs" these columns to be present, even if they hold empty or "NULL" values)

O.k. let's do it:

Referencing the above screenshot with the two table structures, we can see, that we already have corresponding/matching columns:

IDUser --> UserID
NameUser --> UserLastName
VornameUser --> UserFirstName
EMailUser --> UserEmail
PasswortUser --> UserPassword

So we dont' even touch these columns!!

Now we are going to add the missing ones:
Open PHPMyAdmin, select your old users table and click on structure...
Perform the settings as shown in the following screenshot:

Click OK when you're done.

The following screenshot shows how the table will look like after the changes.
The default types and valuse in this screenshot have worked for me, so just make sure, you have the same data types, lenghts etc. for the added fields

Time for a break! You might want to check, if your old login system is still working... Just kidding!

Step 3: Renaming "pm1_users" table

We are almost done...
Now it's time to rename the original pm1_users table that comes with PM, before we can create our custom view.

Still in PHPMyAdmin click on the pm1_users table and rename it:

Click OK

Step 4: Creating custom view

Now comes the important part. We will create a custom view in MySQl to be able to use the data from our modified old users table in PM:

Open PHPMyAdmin and click on the SQL tab:

Study the following SQL statement:

CREATE VIEW `pm1_users` AS select `users`.`IDUser` AS `UserID`,`users`.`EMailUser` AS `UserEmail`,`users`.`PasswortUser` AS 

`UserPassword`,`users`.`VornameUser` AS `UserFirstName`,`users`.`NameUser` AS `UserLastName`,`users`.`UserCity` AS 

`UserCity`,`users`.`UserState` AS `UserState`,`users`.`UserZip` AS `UserZip`,`users`.`UserEmailVerified` AS 

`UserEmailVerified`,`users`.`UserRegistrationDate` AS `UserRegistrationDate`,`users`.`UserVErificationCode` AS 

`UserVerificationCode`,`users`.`UserIP` AS `UserIP`,`users`.`UserPhone` AS `UserPhone`,`users`.`UserFax` AS 

`UserFax`,`users`.`UserCountry` AS `UserCountry`,`users`.`UserAddress` AS `UserAddress`,`users`.`UserAddress2` AS 

`UserAddress2`,`users`.`UserGroupID` AS `UserGroupID`,`users`.`UserSubscribed` AS `UserSubscribed` from `users`

Adjust this matching your column names!
Notice the "MyColumnName" AS "pm1_columnName" parts. Example: `users`.`IDUser` AS `UserID`
It's very, very important, that these match your needs!. O.K. if anything goes wrong, you'll hopefully just get error messages from MySQl and try again..., But this is really the essential part of the whole action.
Once you're done click OK

Step 5: Congrats!

If everything was done correctly, you should now be able to use your existing users table as a base for PM's recipients/audience list.

Give it a try and tell me, if that's ok for you!!