Dear HarmonySite administrator,

This is a follow-up email to our announcement email from October 23rd (which is reproduced below), which outlined our new "Administration Dashboard" and "User Menu". In that email we advised you that the existing "Administration" box on the main Members page would be removed after one month. That month has now passed, and the "Administration" box is no more. To access admin functionality, please now use the new "Administration Dashboard", found by clicking the "Admin" link in the top-right corner (only visible if you're an administrator). Also gone from the main Members page is the "Update My Details" box, and the "Change Password" icon. The functionality from those items is in the new "user menu" - look for your name/photo/username in the top-right corner.

So now administrators and regular members all see pretty much the same thing on the main Members page.

Also, we have removed the "Printable version" link from the bottom-right corner of every page, and replaced it with a little icon in the top-right corner. And finally the drop-down list in the bottom-right corner of the page that allowed you to switch access levels on the fly has been removed, replaced by a similar menu top-right, indicated by a little "key" icon (only visible if you're logged in with "Webmaster" access).

More New Features Just Released

New "Delete Member" button

Many people have been asking for a "Delete Member" button for a long time, but due to the architecture of the HarmonySite database, this was very difficult to provide. Instead, you always had to email us if you wanted someone removed, and we would do it for you. In a flash of brilliance, we realised that there was, in fact, a way to provide this functionality for you, so we have now added a "Delete member" button to each member's profile page, alongside the "Terminate membership" button, which looks like this:

Notes:

We STRONGLY ADVISE that you DON'T use this new button, but instead continue to use the "Terminate membership" button. There are several good reasons for this, all of which are outlined in a big WARNING message on the new "Delete Member" page. Click the button and you'll see it.
Unfortunately this button is not available on the websites of chapters/clubs that are part of a parent body that also uses HarmonySite. Such parent bodies include BHA, BHNZ, SABA, various SAI regions, etc. The reason is that the parent body also needs access to the details of the member you want to delete, so no one chapter/club is allowed to remove a member. Having said that, if the member was created in error, or is a test member, you can still contact support@harmonysite.com, and we'll delete it for you.
Similarly, for the same reason, this button is not available in the parent body websites themselves (e.g. BHA, BHNZ, SABA, various SAI regions, etc).
This button is only visible to users with "Webmaster" access. Someone with "Data Administration Access" will not see the button.

Enhancements to the Member List Page

Two small but useful enhancements to your "Member List" (aka "Member Database" page)...

If you're logged in as a data administrator of the "member groupings" system, you'll see a new "More..." tab at the top of the page:

In case you're not aware, each of these "tabs" actually represents one "member grouping". A member grouping is a mechanism for defining and viewing groups of members based on criteria you specify, such as "Former members", "Tenors", etc. Many HarmonySite users - even experienced admins - are not aware that each tab at the top of the "Member List" page is actually a member grouping. This new "More..." tab helps make that mental connection: When you click on the "More..." tab, you are taken to the page where ALL member groupings are administered. That page allows you to add new ones, adjust criteria, designate them to show on the "Member List" page, etc.
The results of an "Advanced Search" now has a "Save" icon:

When you perform an "Advanced Search", you are specifying a set of criteria for selecting members from the database. This set of criteria is identical to the set of criteria used to define a member grouping. So if you have used the Advances Search facility and isolated the set of members you want, you might then want to save that set of criteria as a new member grouping, for easy future reference. Just click the little "Save" icon (circled in red in the above screenshot), give the new member grouping a name, and you're done!

Enhancements to the Orders/Invoices/Bookings/Donations Page

The page we're referring to here is the page that lists all orders that have been placed in the system for merchandise, event tickets, member invoices and donations. To find this page, visit the Administration Dashboard, and find the link called "Orders/Invoices/Bookings/Donations" in the "Financials" area.

Enhancements...

There's a new column called "For", which shows exactly what was purchased/ordered/etc.
There are two new buttons at the bottom of each section on that page: "CSV" and "Excel". These export the data in the section to CSV and XLSX pages respectively.
The whole page now loads faster

The Site Logo now has an "Update" icon on it

Your logo now has a little "Update" icon superimposed on it, in the bottom-left corner of the logo - only if you're logged in as an administrator. Here's an example...

Click that little icon and you'll be taken to the page where you can change the logo.

Shortcodes

This is an advanced topic, for webmasters that are pretty comfortable with most aspects of administering HarmonySite.

There's a new page in your HarmonySite, which is simply a help guide for admins. It explains the use of all of HarmonySite's "shortcodes". I'm not going to explain what a shortcode is here - it's very well explained on the page itself. Shortcodes are not new in HarmonySite, they've been around forever, but this HELP PAGE is new.

It's only visible to those with "Webmaster" access. To find it, visit the Administration Dashboard, and click the link called "List all Shortcodes", found in the "Website Content" area.

SUMMARY

That's it for this round of changes. PLEASE INFORM ALL ADMINS IN YOUR GROUP, so that they know where their "Administration" box has gone.

Also, please don't forget: All requests for support need to be directed to support@harmonysite.com, and not to mark@harmonysite.com. Please advise any person in your group that contacts us for support. We're still getting MANY support requests sent directly to mark@harmonysite.com.

Enjoy,

Mark Virtue

HarmonySite

Australia

+61 2 8005 4277 (Australian number)

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

Skype name: mvirtue

mark@harmonysite.com

www.harmonysite.com

From: Mark Virtue - HarmonySite <mark@harmonysite.com>
Sent: Tuesday, 23 October 2018 6:06 pm
To: 'announcements@harmonysite.net' <announcements@harmonysite.net>
Subject: New Administration Dashboard and User Menu (phased release, phase 1)

Dear HarmonySite administrator,

The latest change to your HarmonySite is the revamp of the Administration area, plus a new user menu in the top-right corner.

The reason that the revamp was needed was because the existing Administration system was a bit disorganised, and not easy to find the admin option you wanted. For example, SOME admin options were to be found in the set of links in the "Administration" box on the main Members page:

...while OTHER admin pages were to be found in the drop-down list in that same box:

But even these two areas didn't completely encompass all the places in your system that you could do admin. Some aspects of the system, such as events, were administered by actually going to a public-facing or Members page (such as the "Event Calendar" page) and doing your admin from there.

Moreover, the links in the above box were not arranged in any logical order, not even alphabetical.

So we've gathered together links to ALL pages that you could do admin on, and put them all onto one new page, called the "Administration Dashboard". This new dashboard has a link to EVERY page from which you can administer the system (including public-facing and members pages, such as "Event Calendar"), logically grouped together into various admin "AREAS". Examples of admin areas are "Members", "Events", "Financial", etc. The new Admin Dashboard page is even searchable.

This new admin dashboard is accessed via a new "Admin" link in the top-right corner of the page (just to the left of the little "cog" icon, if that cog icon is visible to you). Naturally, your members will only get to see admin links that are applicable to their access privileges.

NOTE: This is phase one only!

We've left the original "Administration" box on the main Members page there for now. We will be removing it in about a month, to give you all an opportunity to get used to the new Admin Dashboard. So I encourage you to start using the Dashboard for all your administrative tasks, so you can get used to it, and even offer us feedback.

Again, "phase 2" will be the removal of the "Administration" box from the main Members page, which will happen in about a month.

New User Menu

The other part of this revamp is the new "user menu" in the top-right corner of the site (which now also contains the "Admin" link). See the screenshot below...

This new user menu is in alignment with current web fashions - positioning links to all "user functions" in one place (top-right), making them accessible on ALL pages in your HarmonySite, not just the main Members page. Note that ALL people that log into your site get to see this user menu, not just admins.

Tip: There's a photo of the logged in user in the user menu. Photos will display best if they're SQUARE (not landscape or portrait). 800 x 800 pixels is ideal.

This user menu will replace two other items on the main Members page: The "Update My Details" box, and the "Change Password" icon. Both of these will be removed in a month when the "Administration" box is removed.

Note also that when you're NOT logged in, that area of the screen in the top-right corner now displays your social media icons (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, etc) - if you have any.

Please advise all administrators in your organisation about these changes (and possibly all regular members as well).

Have a play with the new user menu and Administration Dashboard. We welcome your feedback. Are there ways that these could be improved?

If you don't see these new items, or the page looks weird or wrong, then refresh the page a couple of times or clear your browser's cache. If it still looks wrong, please email a screenshot. Email it to ME (via return email), not support@harmonysite.com.

I believe there are one or two groups that use HarmonySite that have completely turned off the top line of their website. Those groups won't even see the new user menu, and thus will have no way to access the Admin Dashboard. For the moment that won't be a problem, but after the 3 items are removed from the main Members page, they'll have no way to access their admin links, nor will their members have an easy shortcut to update their details. If you're one of those groups, please contact me to discuss this.