Release 2020.01

Community: the next step

Products: Community
Tags: /Universal

In 2019 we’ve started a course of actions to improve our Community product. ‘Improved’ knows may forms in this context: ranging from technical improvements to accessible and renewed functionalities.

With this release, you’ll notice that the Community has changed in many ways. The community participants acquire a centered role and the views of channels will aid the participant to navigate easier in the communities.

Here, you will find an overview of the changes that have become available for the community manager:

Profiles offer more information; participants can edit their profile picture and biography.

Community users can see other (context related) information about other community members. We emphasize on the reason for which a user is in the community: similarities between users and how to get in contact with each other (if desired). This improves the interaction between users from a community point of view.

The profile of a community user is divided in blocks with information. Apart from the information shown on the community profile (profile picture and biography), the profile is upgraded with other data, such as a name, function, communities you have in common, contact details and extra field that you can manage.

Contact details

In the general community settings you can choose to show the contact details of a user. You can choose to show phone numbers, email addresses or both. By default none of these are shown.

Extra fields (functional)

In the general settings of a community, you can add extra fields to the profile. These are free fields by default. Through (custom developed) plugins (exclusively available to Universal-customers) we can add other (domain specific) fields.

Extra added fields are shown in the profile of the community user, e.g. the user’s gender or office availability.

Channel introduction sidebar helps users to identify a channel

The right side of a list of posts within a channel has been equipped with a channel introduction and cover photo. This helps the user to identify the channel. Furthermore, it is possible to add specific channel guidelines. This allows users to decide if and why they should be part of a channel and as an added bonus teaches them the values and rules of the channel.

Do you wish to incorporate the sidebar? In the channel settings - under the section ‘Presentation’ - you can enable the feature. You can also set a cover photo, enter an introduction text and/or community guidelines.

Navigating to channels and your own profile using the navigation side bar

Community didn’t offer an easy way to navigate to your own profile. This release fixes that issue. Additionally, the channel picker has returned in the form of a list. We chose this form to improve the visibility. Ultimately, this results in a left sidebar consisting of the community name, the corresponding channels and the managing of your own profile card.

List view of posts ads to a neat timeline.

Apart from the already existing card view of posts, we’ve introduced a list view. This view is more suited for a community that requires a clear timeline. In the community settings you can select the default view for the community.

We offer the following options:

• Card view: a large view of posts in a grid;
• List view: a smaller view of posts in a list;

User preferences

Community users can select their very own community specific preferences. This means that per community of which you are a member, you can set a different profile picture or biography. In addition, users can choose which views they want to apply; card or list views. This can also be changed on the channel.

Importing attachments with contact moments

Products: CRM
Tags: /Universal, /Fundraising, /Members

We’ve added the possibility to import document references for attachments (one-by-one or multiple) with contact moments. As a reference, the document-ID of the Library is chosen. The document-ID is accessible when creating an export from the Library, after which the import file can be linked.

Improved management of labels and tag categories

Products: CMS
Module: Weblog
Tags: /Universal, /Fundraising, /Members

We have a new management interface for labels and tag categories. The old management screen and URLs are no longer available.

Label management also has a new feature; on the deatil page of a specific label, you can now see what objects are linked to that label.

Preventing invalid BIC codes on direct debit batches

Products: Finance
Module: Direct Debit
Tags: /Universal, /Fundraising, /Members

It sometimes happens that banks are taken over by different banks, leading to a different - so called - Bank Identifier Code (BIC). In many cases, the BIC stays unchanged.

To prevent invalid BIC codes when generating new direct debit batches, the validity of a BIC is automatically checked. For certain countries we monitor the current codes on which we determine what the actual BIC should be. The current BIC code is still being exported, but is not saved in our platform.

Importing payment references

Products: Donations
Tags: /Fundraising

Importing payment references was added as a new feature. This allows you to match certain existing references to the correct relation and the correct fund. Additionally, we prevent that the same reference is issued multiple times.

And finally we've completed a number of improvements and preparations for optimizing the foundation of our platform. These changes aren’t immediately visible, but will contribute in a short term to the stability and reliability of our platform.

Questions?

Do you have any questions about new functionalities or improvement? Contact our service team. Even when you’re not sure what version your platform runs on, feel free to contact us. Our teams will gladly help you.