Dear HarmonySite administrator,

Here are the latest new features in your HarmonySite...

1. Upload documents and files for each member

We have been asked many times whether it is possible to upload "files" for each member.  "Files" in this context means PDF documents, Word documents, JPEG photos, etc - one for each member.  For example, you may wish to store each member's signed consent form, or similar, uploaded as a PDF directly to their member profile.  This is now possible.

It's done using the "Member Audits" system.  As you may recall, the Member Audits system is a means for storing information about each member that the standard member database doesn't have a spot for, such as "shoe size", "dietary limitations", etc.  Each "audit" can be thought of as one question, or one piece of information collected about each member.  Responses to such questions could be free text, multiple choice, etc.   Now, there's a NEW type of response:  An uploaded file...

So to create a spot for, say, a "Signed membership agreement" for each member, you would create a new audit/question in the usual way.  When you are selecting the type of response, you would select "File upload" (as above).

Once the audit/question is created, the members and admins can upload files to that audit/question.  They might look like this after being uploaded...

Note that if you don't want the actual members uploading or viewing the files you keep on their profile (in other words, only ADMINS can see them and upload them), then simply set the audit/question's "Access Level required" to Data Administration Access.

Attendance can now be taken via a hand-held scanner

As you may be aware, it's already possible to take attendance at an event by scanning the QR code on each member's name badge during the event.  (And for those that don't know, HarmonySite has a neat feature for printing name badges for all your members, where the badge layout can be customised by you, and can include a QR code for attendance-scanning purposes.)   Scanning the QR code is typically done using the camera in a mobile phone, where the phone's owner is logged in (on their phone) as an administrator.  This process works well, but can be a bit time-consuming, as each scan loads a new tab in the mobile phone's browser, and takes a few seconds to process.

Now there's a faster way.  If you have a hand-held scanner that's capable of scanning QR codes (not simply regular barcodes), you can now use that to scan each member's QR code on their badge at the event, the same way you would have done using a phone's camera.  Each scan would take less than a second.  Then, at the end of the event, you would do the following...

1. Obtain the OUTPUT from the scanner, which would be a simple list of URLs (web-page addresses), one for each badge scanned
2. Logged in as an administrator, visit the "Attendance" page in your HarmonySite
3. Select the correct event
4. Ensure that the event is in ATTENDANCE-tracking mode.  If it's still in AVAILABILITY-tracking mode, you'll need to click the button in the yellow box to switch to ATTENDANCE-tracking mode
5. Scroll to the bottom of the page, to see this new box...
   
6. Copy/paste the scanner's output (the list of URLs) into this box, and click the "Save" button.  Each URL represents one member's attendance at the event, so the system will mark all those members as "Present/Attended".

That's it for now.  More coming soon...

In harmony,

Mark Virtue

HarmonySite

Australia

+61 2 8005 4277 (Australian number)

In North America, call:  1-415-651-7009 (San Francisco number)

mark@harmonysite.com

www.harmonysite.com