To ensure a clean import, please review the following specifics:
All fields (except username and middle initial) are restricted to 32 characters
Username must be between 3 and 16 characters (alpha numeric, not case sensitive)
Username cannot have any foreign or special characters except @ and underscore
An email address may be used as a username
Users with the same username CANNOT be imported — the first user will be accepted, the second will be rejected and the error 'user already exists' will be generated
Middle initial cannot exceed 1 character (alpha numeric)
A valid email address is required
Users with the same email address CANNOT be imported — the first user will be accepted, the second will be rejected and the error 'user already exists' will be generated
Postal code may be alpha-numeric up to 32 characters
Telephone number has to be any numeric format, limited to 32 characters [( ) will not import]
There are a total of 25 custom fields; anything can be entered here
PROCESS STEPS
After obtaining the database, review the entire import process thoroughly before proceeding:
Confirm primary key
Username is the best recommended primary key
Confirm fields are in correct format
Confirm fields are in correct order
Confirm custom field names
Confirm password process (if randomly generated/pre-assigned)
Convert file to either .csv or .tab for import purpose
Obtain customized member notification message (if preferred)
Note: In the Announcement Category, General Announcements inherits all newly imported members as subscribers. If there is a default welcome message in the subscriber options box, it will be sent out to all the newly imported members. If this is not desired, ERASING THE CONTENT FROM THE WELCOME MESSAGE IS ESSENTIAL.
Confirm if Primary Database
If the ReadyPortal Directory is the primary database, members can edit profiles online
If Organization Database is the primary database, edits to the ReadyPortal database are not allowed. Rather, edits require re-import.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
A full report can be viewed and/or saved for reference
If all fields followed the parameters, the members have now been imported into the directory
If a field is blank, the import process may not be successful
All blank fields need to be recognized as having some type of character in order for the import to be successful
For all blank fields in .csv file, use the space as 1 character, this will allow the ReadyPortal database to accept the .csv excel file and not cause syntax errors
Usernames and passwords are either assigned (based on field layout and primary key), or they have been carried over from the existing database
If randomly generated passwords are assigned, the user has the option of changing their password once they log in to the site. If the members already have their own passwords, this field HAS TO BE MAPPED up in the MATCH page; if it isn't, then the password will be randomly assigned
Click on "my membership" in the upper left hand corner and then select "edit user information" in the right hand side. Simply enter your old and new passwords and click "finish."
The notification message can be sent anytime after the newly members have been imported.
If a username is not assigned, it is being derived from the full name (first name/last name), email address, or account ID.
If a database is being re-imported, the fields need to be aligned in the same sequence as the first import process, and names existing in DB will be overriden if contact information has been changed (except for primary keys and candidate keys — they will generate a USER ALREADY EXISTS message)
IMPORT PROCEDURE
There are six steps:
Policies
Select
Match
Customize
Passwords
Confirm
Policies
Always make Organization Database as the primary during the import process. This locks up the member directory from any changes/edits during the import process. Always remember to change the process back to the original setting once the import is complete. Confirm which database will be the primary database.
Select Organization Database as the primary database, edits to the READYPORTAL database are not allowed. Rather, edits require re-import.
Select
Upload the .csv or .tab file in this section
Excel files are not always compliant with the ReadyPortal DB*
There's an option to send an email report (to the Lead Admin) of import results
New members can receive email with their username and password
A customized (or default, if preferred) member notification message can be generated, which will include username and password at the bottom of the email message
Please Confirm DO NOT copy this message from a WORD document into the TEXT box, copy it from NOTEPAD or WORDPAD, for they are not UNIX compatible. This message goes out as a mail merge document, which makes punctuation marks to be read as UNIX characters, hence non-compliant
Comma Separated Values or Tab Separated Values can be selected for field separator
Match
Input fields need to be mapped up with their corresponding ReadyPortal Directory fields
Depending on the primary key (username, account ID, or email address) that is assigned, a matching field must represent the primary key
Fields have to be mapped up properly for a clean import and for future imports
Customize
Custom fields can be defined in this section
Duplicating existing fields and changing names later can undermine the integrity of the membership data
Passwords
If Member Notification was selected in the SELECT option, this page will prompt up
Default message can be used, or message can be customized (no HTML tags can be used in this area)
Confirm
Primary Key has to be assigned
Selection of the primary key — Account ID, ReadyPortal Username, or Email Address
If Account ID is PK, Username and email address can be changed
Account ID has to be pre-assigned from existing DB
If Username is PK, username CANNOT be changed
A primary key cannot be changed
Red Dog Software has introduced additional functionality to its Job Board feature.
1.
Job seekers can upload their profiles including resumes and additional information about themselves and their goals. This new Jobs Wanted enhancement was created primarily to enable organizations to attract recent graduates and interns.
2.
A "Print Ad" function has been added to the feature for easy of printing the postings.
3.
The display page outlines additional fields for ease of browsing through the listings.
4.
Postings can be emailed to friends or colleagues.
5.
The new granular Advanced Search allows searches by
Company
Job function
Job title
City and/or state
6.
Additional fields to make the postings more informative include:
Preferred City/Cities of Work
Areas of Interest — Drop down menu
Graduation Date — Textbox
College Attended or Currently Attending — Textbox
Degree Earned or Degree Currently Seeking — Textbox
Is an internship required for graduation? — Drop down menu
Semester would you like to work as an intern? — Drop-down menu
Relevant Experience — Textbox
Red Dog Software is pleased to announce another new ReadyPortal Feature: Photo Gallery.
The Photo Gallery provides you and your site users a quick and easy way to share photographs of group members, events, facilities, personnel, or any other images. And Photo Gallery handles the display sizing for you, so you can achieve consistent display results even when oversized images are added to the Gallery.
You may deploy an unlimited number of different Photo Gallery instances throughout your site to support both organization and membership photo display needs. And like all ReadyPortal Features, the Photo Gallery allows you to choose the permissions and policies surrounding its use: who may browse, who may post, and whether subscriptions, postings, or comments are moderated.
The Photo Gallery provides you with a choice of display modes — thumbnail grid, two filmstrip selections, two rollover selections, and a slideshow option — plus control over image display size for both the thumbnails and the full-size images.
Red Dog Software is pleased to introduce the ReadyPortal Blog Feature.
Blogs or Web logs readily fulfill the promise of the web to allow everyone to publish. From humble beginnings as no more than online diaries containing personal musings and links to other sources, blogs are growing up to be recognized as a legitimate source of social media and an important business and marketing tool. While blog content varies dramatically, invariably most blogs are used by individuals or companies to distribute content or to interact with target audiences.
The benefits of blogs are numerous. To name a few — blogs are easy to start, you can get information out faster than mainstream media, and blogging can increase the profile of your organization or business at minimal cost. The best part of blogs is search engines love links and fresh content, which blogs are all about. So, if you would like better rankings for your site and have a subject or opinion to share, blogging might a good option to consider. In response to customer business requirements, RDS has introduced the ReadyPortal Blog feature.
The Blog feature is included in ReadyPortal Professional and Enterprise packages. ReadyPortal Lite customers may purchase the Blog feature for an additional fee. Like all ReadyPortal features, the new Blog feature is created with an easy-to-use Wizard that allows you to determine precisely how you want site visitors or members to interact with it. The ability to post to a blog can be open to all site visitors, limited to only site members or blog subscribers, or set so the blog "belongs" to a designated site member. Like all ReadyPortal features, you can also designate who may browse the blog and whether blog subscription requests are moderated.
The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important blog option, and the ReadyPortal Blog allows you to determine who may post comments. You may also choose to moderate comments, giving you full control over participation
Naturally blogs can be used for many different purposes: building community by encouraging blogging among your members; providing a forum for industry experts to communicate with your members or site visitors; or any of the other myriad ways that blogs are used across the web.
For more information about ReadyPortal's new Blog feature, contact customer support.
More real estate! No more wasted white space at the top.
The extra white space and the inability to remove date, title and breadcrumbs easily have been an issue with ReadyPortal customers for sometime. If a customer did not want to display the "date" on the homepage or the page titles or breadcrumbs on the secondary pages, there was no easy way with the existing templates to remove them. One could make the fonts smaller and change the font to match the background color.
An admin can now remove date, page title and crumbs or all three by defining the following custom CSS styles under custom HTML section in the Admin Wizard.
An admin can define one or all three to remove various sections.
Melinda Lofgren, our design expert came up with the recommendation to revise the basic design templates and make ReadyPortal layout even more flexible. Thanks to Melinda.
RSS Feed Enchancement
We are pleased to announce that with the new enhancement the following options can be controlled with RSS feeds:
Number of items displayed
Channel description on/off
Channel title on/off
Item description on/off — allows you to display "headlines" only
Having the ability to eliminate the descriptions gives the admin greater control over display. The descriptions often contain graphics and advertisements.
Google Maps
ReadyPortal now has Google maps available with both the Calendar and Vendor Directory features.
Jobs Offered Enchancements
Jobs Offered enhancements consist of the following:
a.
Additional "Contact" fields (Address line 1, Address line 2)
b.
Extra field for "Responsibilities"
c.
Extra field for "Qualifications"
d.
Additional drop-down menu to select "Full-time" or "Part-time"
e.
A field for "Benefits"
f.
A field for "Application Instructions"
g.
A field for "Deadline" and a "Calendar lookup" option.
h.
A URL field for "Web site" of the company
i.
Additional menu items in "Customize Job Function" field include:
Executive Management
Management Fundraising
Facility Management
Program Administration
Volunteer Management
Event Planning
j.
"Printer Friendly" option
k.
Counter — displaying number of total classifieds — shows on all ad types
Announcement List Feature Enchancements
1. ReadyPortal has doubled the number of characters and spaces you can use for your email announcements to 32,000 characters and spaces in the combined text and HTML portions of your email.
2. Announcement List emails now accept international characters such as German vowels with umlauts (ë) and Spanish letters with tildes (ñ).
Calendar Feature Enhancements
ABILITY TO POST PRIVATE EVENTS
The ability to post private events makes the ReadyPortal Calendar more personalized and interactive for both users and administrators. The following settings need to be in place to activate this feature:
1. Administrator setting — To allow members to add a private event, an administrator has to turn on the feature. To turn on the feature:
a) Log in as an admin and go to any existing or new calendar feature
b) Click on modify policies or go directly to the settings page
c) Under the Settings page, you still see an additional option for 'Private Events.' To activate private events, click on 'enabled' and thereafter, the "finish" button.
2. Member setting — Members may now add private events and invite others to view the event. The event will only be viewed by the member, invited guests and an admin.
To add a private event a member will have to:
a) Log in and Click on 'Add New Event'
b) Post an event and click on 'Private' under 'Event Class'
c) Once the event is posted, the member will see an additional option 'Invite guests to private events.' The member can then type in the email addresses of guests that he/she would like to invite.
IMPORT A READYPORTAL CALENDAR EVENT TO OUTLOOK
ReadyPortal now offers the option for its users to download a V Calendar file (VCF) which may be imported into Microsoft Outlook. Steps to follow:
1. To download an event to your Microsoft Outlook, simply select ‘Download to Outlook’ and select open when prompted.
2. Once the event opens in Microsoft Outlook Calendar, click on save and close.
We hope you find these new features useful.
Sincerely yours,
ReadyPortal Team
Membership Directory Feature Enhancements
These enhancements allow site administrators greater flexibility to customize their member directory.
Membership Directory Display
To customize member directory display:
1. Log on as an admin and go to admin wizard
2. Go to 'manage user information and join sequence' under site settings and security
3. Click on the radio button 'customize member directory display'
4. Choose the fields to be displayed on the member directory
Ability to Hide Member Profiles
An admin now has the ability to set a default value for new members to show up in the member directory:
1. Log in as an admin and go to admin wizard
2. Go to 'site settings and security'
3. Click on Access Policies
4. Set the "default member directory display"
From then on new users would default to that setting.
The change will not affect current users.
No More "Lost" Pages
Pages previously set to be hidden to prevent them from showing up in the site navigation will now show up on the site map if you are an administrator, which makes this a much more useable feature.
NNTP News Support
You can now connect directly to a Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) server and download content from the hundreds of thousands of USENET news groups on a configurable schedule. Most news servers will return content in an HTML or text format but. Some subscription services such as Associated Press will deliver XML, a custom XSL transform can be designed to format this content to match your site. There are public, private and subscription based servers available offering a huge amount of content. The major difference between this and the built in news feed feature or the Rich Site Summary module is that the entire story is brought over, not just a summary and a link to the story on another site.
URL Changes
This feature allows pages to be accessed and bookmarked in a friendly way, particularly if aliases are used:
Note that dynamically generated navigation will automatically pick up this change, but hard coded HTML links will not and should probably be migrated over time as to become more Search engine friendly. This feature will also aid search engine optimization.
XML/XSL Improvements
Local XML streams (from a shared files module) can now be processed. This allows you to upload XML data, and using XSL, easily transform the content to HTML for easy viewing by users.
