Answers.Body: <p>It isn't allowed and with very good reason! People do not morph into organisations (in my experience), therefore a CRM does not allow it. What is the problem you are trying to solve? Bad import?</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2016-10-19T16:15:24.517Z
Answers.Text: The public facing signup forms only allow a new contact to sign up as an individual. But some of our membership types are for households and should be marked as household contacts. When an admin tidys up later on they have no way to switch the contact to household. This is a limitation of the default civicrm membership forms. Would take some custom programming to fix.
Answers.UserDisplayName: P a u l
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2016-10-20T06:57:53.720Z
Answers.Text: The answer then is to use Webform if on Drupal, or whatever WordPress/Joomla's equivalent is. Hacking the data to compensate for an inappropriate form is 100% nonsense, sorry.
Answers.UserDisplayName: JohnFF
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2016-10-25T01:12:42.047Z
Answers.Text: Well an inappropriate form is all they offer. Webform add on does not appear to be available for wordpress or I would try it out. I disagree with you on editing the database directly. I am only doing exactly what the software should do based on form input, albeit displaced in time.
Answers.UserDisplayName: P a u l
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2016-10-18T09:56:45.237Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2016-10-18T09:56:45.237Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: JohnFF
Answers.Body: <p>Click the Edit button on top of the summary? That will allow you to edit the contact type. Not as nice is the inline edit but it works.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2016-04-21T16:04:13.730Z
Answers.Text: Using the Edit button I still see no affordance for setting type. This is on wordpress and civicrm 4.7.6.
Answers.UserDisplayName: P a u l
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2016-04-23T13:25:20.243Z
Answers.Text: I do, in Wordpress. Do you actually have contact sub types? The option will only come up with Edit if you have configured additional contact sub types.
Answers.UserDisplayName: ErikH - CiviCooP
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2016-04-23T16:06:27.693Z
Answers.Text: No we just use the standard types so that's just peachy. I fixed the issue for now using a sql update with inner join command against the contacts and memberships tables.
Answers.UserDisplayName: P a u l
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2016-04-23T16:12:40.620Z
Answers.Text: Does this edit control allow you to switch between basic types or just within subtypes?
Answers.UserDisplayName: P a u l
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2016-04-24T09:46:46.297Z
Answers.Text: The UI only lets you change between subtypes belonging to the same  contact type.  There are different fields for say, individuals and organisations (eg no first or last name for orgs), so changing basic types is not simply a case of choosing a different value from an option list.  If the fix you describe as "using a sql update with inner join command against the contacts and memberships tables" just involved changing the field contact.contact_type, then you could have infomation in the contact table that doesn't belong to the new contact type. That could create problems at a later date.
Answers.UserDisplayName: JoAnne
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2016-07-20T17:29:10.323Z
Answers.Text: I think that's the answer @JoAnne!
Answers.UserDisplayName: KarinG - Semper IT
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2016-10-19T16:20:33.067Z
Answers.Text: Maybe editing the databases is a problem in some cases but our data is not very complex or different between households and individuals. We just need a simpler way to add and maintain multiple contacts per membership in combination with the public facing signup forms.
Answers.UserDisplayName: P a u l
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2016-11-17T15:21:45.537Z
Answers.Text: It is possible to change contact type with the api. I just changed a Household in a Individual. Advantage: it updates the sort_namen and the display_name. However the field household_name is not cleared.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Kainuk - CiviCooP
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2016-04-21T06:31:48.400Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2016-04-21T06:31:48.400Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: ErikH - CiviCooP
Body: <p>Why is the contact type read only in the summary tab for a contact? The 'contact_type' field is easily edited directly in the database, but I can't find a built in civicrm form to do this.</p>
  
Tags: <wordpress><contacts>
Title: Contact type is read only in contact summary
ThreadText: # Contact type is read only in contact summary
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2016-04-21)
  
  Why is the contact type read only in the summary tab for a contact? The 'contact\_type' field is easily edited directly in the database, but I can't find a built in civicrm form to do this.
  
  **Tags:** wordpress, contacts
  
  
  ---
  
  ## 2 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_1 on 2016-10-18. Score: 1
  
  It isn't allowed and with very good reason! People do not morph into organisations (in my experience), therefore a CRM does not allow it. What is the problem you are trying to solve? Bad import?
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_0**: The public facing signup forms only allow a new contact to sign up as an individual. But some of our membership types are for households and should be marked as household contacts. When an admin tidys up later on they have no way to switch the contact to household. This is a limitation of the default civicrm membership forms. Would take some custom programming to fix.  
  > **username_1**: The answer then is to use Webform if on Drupal, or whatever WordPress/Joomla's equivalent is. Hacking the data to compensate for an inappropriate form is 100% nonsense, sorry.  
  > **username_0**: Well an inappropriate form is all they offer. Webform add on does not appear to be available for wordpress or I would try it out. I disagree with you on editing the database directly. I am only doing exactly what the software should do based on form input, albeit displaced in time.  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_2 on 2016-04-21. Score: 0
  
  Click the Edit button on top of the summary? That will allow you to edit the contact type. Not as nice is the inline edit but it works.
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_0**: Using the Edit button I still see no affordance for setting type. This is on wordpress and civicrm 4.7.6.  
  > **username_2**: I do, in Wordpress. Do you actually have contact sub types? The option will only come up with Edit if you have configured additional contact sub types.  
  > **username_0**: No we just use the standard types so that's just peachy. I fixed the issue for now using a sql update with inner join command against the contacts and memberships tables.  
  > **username_0**: Does this edit control allow you to switch between basic types or just within subtypes?  
  > **username_3**: The UI only lets you change between subtypes belonging to the same  contact type.  There are different fields for say, individuals and organisations (eg no first or last name for orgs), so changing basic types is not simply a case of choosing a different value from an option list.  If the fix you describe as "using a sql update with inner join command against the contacts and memberships tables" just involved changing the field contact.contact_type, then you could have infomation in the contact table that doesn't belong to the new contact type. That could create problems at a later date.  
  > **username_4**: I think that's the answer @username_3!  
  > **username_0**: Maybe editing the databases is a problem in some cases but our data is not very complex or different between households and individuals. We just need a simpler way to add and maintain multiple contacts per membership in combination with the public facing signup forms.  
  > **username_5**: It is possible to change contact type with the api. I just changed a Household in a Individual. Advantage: it updates the sort_namen and the display_name. However the field household_name is not cleared.  
  
  ---
  
  