April 2017: Spring Cleaning for Easter

We're clearing out some dust bunnies in our code in time for Easter. All of these bug fixes and usability improvements are coming your way the evening of Wednesday, April 5.

Maintenance

Calendar & Events

Pending events now show in a room's calendar subscription.
Needs that have been assigned to you will now show up in the .ics feed for your personal calendar, just like they do when you're logged in and viewing that calendar.
We are now properly excluding all 'exception' dates in a repeating event when viewing that event through the .ics feed. Before, we were showing those exceptions for all-day repeating events.
We will be stripping HTML from event descriptions when viewing events through the Apple Calendar or Outlook Calendar subscriptions because neither of these feeds was interpreting that code properly. (They were just displaying the raw HTML code). HTML will still render properly in event descriptions viewed through the software and through the Google calendar subscription, API services, and Public Web tools.
We've fixed calendar subscriptions, so the correct event time shows when a church has multiple campuses in different time zones. However, we still haven't mastered the technology to get your watch to adjust automatically when you cross those timezone lines. You're on your own for that one.
The last occurrence in all day repeating events is now properly showing in .ics feeds.
The API is now returning the correct event address, to match the changes made in the calendars and .ics feeds.
Email notification settings are now properly saving when you change them from the group Guest List Tab > Add / Invite People > Invitation Settings.
You can now duplicate an event with attendance recorded and set a date in the future for that duplicated event. (Before, we were incorrectly only letting you choose the present date or a date in the past).
The date of the event is once again being included when sending an attendance event summary to 'the entire group and leadership'. This problem was only affecting attendance recorded through the Group Actions.
'Attendance Only' events are no longer visible to group members, since, you know, they are only supposed to be used for attendance.

Check-In

Check-In reports now include everyone who attended an event, even people who were checked in and later removed from the group or non-group members who were marked as attending that event through a different attendance entry method.
We've improved the way Allergies are collected and reported on in the software. Now, You will see 'Any Allergies?' followed by the options Yes / No / Not specified. This should help make it clear whether or not someone has allergies, and whether you've verified that information.

Files

Impatient Uploaders, this one's for you: When uploading a file, we've disabled the 'Save' button after the first time it's clicked. This way, we no longer attempt to upload multiple versions of the same file.
Department Admins can now see files in their department that require a login. Granted, Department Admins will still have to log in like everyone else to see those files.

Financial

When authorizing Pushpay on a campus that also had an RDC merchant, sometimes they weren't successfully saving either the Pushpay Merchant or the RDC merchant. We have conducted peace treaties, and both side now work amicably in the campus financial area!
We've removed the 'Display Card Type Icons' option from the campus settings because we no longer display card icons in online giving or form payments.
We've added a unique serial number to the top of every giving statement. The first portion of this ID is a unix timestamp that represents the time that batch of giving statements was run. Following that is the Individual ID for the person who the giving statement belongs to.

Forms

We've fixed the weird problem where users could sometimes submit incomplete form responses. We learned this happened with forms that only required Contact Information and no other questions.
Sometimes, a picture is worth a thousand bugs. Images do not play nicely when attached to individual form questions, so we are now stripping those out once the question is saved. You can still successfully upload an image to the form description, explanation text, and form confirmation page.
We improved the prioritize question type, so it works when you drag and drop answers or click on them.
You can once again submit a payment on someone else's behalf when filling out a form on any of our supported browsers (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, IE 11, and Edge).
When a form requiring payment automates to an event, we are now ensuring the matched person is only added to the event once.

Groups

We no longer allow iFrames to be added to a group description because they were breaking the Logged Out Group Finder page.
Groups can now be successfully deleted once all events in the group are deleted. Before, some groups were unable to be deleted even after all events were deleted.
If an assistant leader to a group is added back into that group through form or process queue automation, we now properly keep them as an assistant leader, rather than accidentally demoting them to group member.

When using the 'Keep Me Logged In' feature, your session is now correctly refreshing when you upload an event or group image, look at your Metrics page, submit or edit a form response, or book a room or resource.
We expanded the character limit for passwords to 128 characters, matching the industry standard. This is applied to all pages where a user can enter or edit a password. If you can remember a 128-character-long password, bravo! You deserve a cookie!

Metrics

We now prevent you from naming a metric the same name as one of the pre-loaded metric attributes (e.g., Attendance, Capacity, Giving, Volunteers). Using one of these attribute names as your metric name was breaking your metric. We don't like it when your things break.
We improved the performance of the metrics dashboard. In most cases, this will shorten the time it takes a metric dashboard to load.
We are now correctly accounting for edited data in Metrics, so the metric dashboard accurately reflects any modifications made to the data.
We now refresh metrics data every 6 hours, rather than nightly, to increase the real-time accuracy of your metrics.

Needs

When someone deletes a need after they've already sent out an email to inform the group, if someone clicks on the email to view the need, they now see a helpful message that the need was deleted (rather than an unhelpful blank needs screen).
If you've created a need in an unlisted group, you can no longer inform people who don't belong to the group about that need. This is because the very existence of unlisted groups is supposed to be hidden from people who aren't members, and informing non-members of the need would expose the existence of that group.

Process Queues

When viewing an individual's 'Involvement' tab in a process queue, the links in that tab work again.

Profiles

When a Full Write people admin sends an email to an individual from their profile or a people search, they can now save a copy of that email in the person's notes.
When looking at a profile on your phone in incognito mode, the dropdown arrows now work properly under the Involvement tab.
In the 'Serving' section of the 'Involvement' tab, dates are now correctly sorting by the date of the service, rather than by the date the position was accepted.
We've improved the way Allergies are collected and reported on in the software. Now, You will see 'Any Allergies?' followed by the options Yes / No / Not specified. This should help make it clear whether or not someone has allergies, and whether you've verified that information.

Rooms & Resources

We corrected a problem that was allowing resources with a limited quantity to be booked more times than it was available. This problem arose because when calculating the number of remaining resources available, we were only considering approved requests and not pending requests.
Sharpshooter clickers: When you click on a room or resource to see upcoming conflicts, close that modal, and then immediately try to open it again, you can now successfully open it again.
Reserving a resource with a limited quantity available now works for a repeating event. Before, it wasn't reserving the right amount if a different quantity remained on each occurrence of the repeating event.
We removed the confusing (and erroneous) "Invalid Argument" warning that was showing up at the top of some Room & Resource request emails.
When an event organizer receives an email letting them know if their rooms were approved, that email now has a link to the event they requested the room for.
For you procrastinating approval group leaders or last-minute room requesters: Leaders of approval groups can now successfully approve the use of a room or resource even if the event is occurring right now. (Before, they would see the notification in their Attention Needed bell, but the event would not be listed on the Approval page.)

Schedules

When checking your schedule, you will now only see the services and additional meeting times you are scheduled for. If you are not scheduled for a service or a meeting, they will not appear on your "My Schedule" page.
Schedule Organizers can now view all weeks in the grid, even ones they are not organizers for. They can still only edit weeks they organize.
Schedule assignments on the logged out schedule page are now staying until the end of the day on that schedule's day.
We added AM/PM notation on serving opportunities in the Open schedules tab.
You can no longer add volunteers on '0 qty needed' positions in a schedule. Those positions were being disconnected from specific service and meeting times, resulting in problems with the position requests.
You can now have more than one volunteer sign up for an "Open" position (when the position requires more than one volunteer). This was not working when a service had additional meeting times.

Searches & Reports

Full Read people admins can no longer see hidden processes in the 'Process - Queue' people search criteria. The only people who should be able to see hidden processes in this context are the MA or people admins who also have the Process Admin privilege.

HOT FIXES

Sometimes we become aware of issues in the software that are so important, they can’t wait for the next scheduled software release to be fixed. We call those ‘Hot Fixes’. Here is a list of all of those Hot Fixes that have already been resolved since the last release.

API

(Feb 10) We fixed an error in the individual_profile_from_login_password service. This service now works as expected again.

Attendance

(Feb 17) We restored the ability for Essential churches to take attendance using the name search box.
(Feb 28) Attendance and Pre-attendance reminders are once again reliably being sent out for all events for all churches.

Check-In

(Mar 1) On a Self Check-In station, the 'Refine Search' modal no longer occasionally shows the wrong family information.

Events

(Mar 10) The event overlay now displays the Event Phone number, rather than the Event Organizer's mobile phone number. If no Event Phone number exists, no phone number displays.
(Mar 15) The Event List report will now show an Event Phone number if one has been set for the event. Otherwise, it will be left blank. This column is now named 'Event Phone'. Previously, that report was incorrectly showing the Event Organizer's mobile phone number.