Fresh Vine Status Updates

This is the second minor update to the 2.0 release that came out in late July. This update addresses two improvements to the email system. The first update to the way emails are generated to make sure they continue to be show up in your members in-boxes and not their spam folders. We implemented two features to further improve our system.

The second makes it more clear when you are not able to preview emails (because your member profile does not have an email address).

Features

Minor Features

• Two improve email headers added.
• First: helps to correctly identify our email server as a valid sending agent for generating the email
  (like ensuring the return address on a letter is valid)
• Second: helps to more confidently make sure we are the sender through an encrypted code. Also checks the message contents to ensure it has not been altered en route.
  (like placing a wax seal over the opening of the envelope to ensure its contents are not altered)
• Added visual cues and blocked preview button from functioning if member profile not correctly set.
• Simply add an email address to your member profile and you will be able to send messages.

Additional Note

This release is major step for us. Not only does it signify the first release on our new 4-6 week release cycle, but it also is includes the last major building block modules we need to really start having a lot of fun in the coming year. These last two pieces are the Campus system (for multi-site support), and the Services module. They allow you to understand the trends and attendance for your weekly worship services. After setting up the services you will be able to attach giving to a particular service, and will automatically update the attendance as you log the giving information. These elements will continue to integrate more deeply into the system with future releases.

These pieces, along with the rest of the system, will allow us to have more fun pushing the limits of what a web based church management system can do. So read on, and enjoy all the details below.

Update Video:

Update Gallery:

Features

Major Features:

• Service Management
  • You are now able to create and manage services
  • Enter Attendance, Giving, Salivations, and up to 8 other customizable data points
  • Track Giving by Services/Campuses
• New Lists for Member Roster, Group Roster, and Service List
  • Improved Filtering
  • Map functionality for the Rosters (not for Services List)
  • New Batch functions for the Group Roster
    You can now create subgroups directly from the batch menu
• Member Roster Updates
  • Addition of new date fields for Baptism, Confirmation, Membership and Background check dates.
• User Experience Improvements
  • New page titles help clearly communicate where you are in the system
  • Sections are branded by color for more quick recognition of where you are in the system
  • Contextual menus beneath the page titles (links that are pertinent to what you are doing right now)
  • New custom Icons to more clearly communicate purpose and function of the modules

Minor Features:

• Giving Input Page has been upgraded
  • Giving can now be tracked by services
  • Live Countdown has been replaced by the service giving total
• Email management system now resides at http://YourSite.freshvine.co/email/
  • Also tracking when messages are opened
• New Access Type ['Church:Services'] and Group [Services]
  • This access is required to view and edit the services module
  • This access type has been automatically added to the administrator group
• Settings Page Updated
  • Added the Multi-Site campus setup. Include all the campuses you have.
  • Settings for the Service Record Keeping added.
  • Added the toggles for the new Member Date fields on the roster tab
  • Website and Media is now Content and Media in preparation for future updates
• Migration System Developed for importing data from external systems (for use during account creation)

Other Fixes:

• Dynamic totals on the giving input and editing pages now work as expected
• Logo in the email footer now represents fresh vine
• Corrected some iOS (iPad and iPhone) display issues with the navigation system (icons overlapping)
• Modified the persistent header to function in IE8 and newer (though we recommend other browsers: firefox, chrome)
• Other minor Bug Fixes and Interface tweaks

Other Changes:

• The Content Management System has now been officially depreciated except for two clients who are in the process of developing their new websites. This module will be completely removed in September, 2011.

This update has been a long time coming. A fresh look has been given to nearly every page within the site and there where some sizable updates as well. The email system is more useful with it’s single opt-in model. Making sure that your settings are correctly configured is now even easier with our unified settings page.

From here forward our intentions are to release new versions every 4-6 weeks. The next release will be version 1.7 near the New Year.

Features

Major Features:

• Updated Member Profile Pages
  • These pages have been completely retooled to provide information more clearly and quickly
  • Added an member Email archive page to see what messages they’ve received and which ones they have sent
• Email System Migrated to a single opt-in approach
  • New Composition and Template design
  • Rosters now show broken email addresses
  • New email footer includes church addresses, phone, and email management links
• Church Settings Page (new)
  • Format and set your church address and hours
  • Determine who is a primary contact between your church and nineteen05
  • Upload a logo to use within the system

• 

  Quick View – Member Profiles (new)

  • Hover over a member name with a light blue underline to see member details
  • Instantly access to link to view or edit their member profile
  • Instantly download their address card
• Update/Closed Screens
  • New screens will be displayed whenever your site is deactivated or while updates are being processed.
  • Screens will immediately disappear when the update completes successfully or once late payments are received.
• New Client Management system (internal)
  • Mostly an internal development but this system will stream-line our update system, version management, and communication with our customers
  • You’ll now receive emails when the software is updated with details about the update.

Minor Features:

• Redesigned User profile pages, now includes options to manage your nineteen05 email subscriptions and shows you which automatic notifications you will receive from nineteen05
• Event pages now include a ‘remove’ button
• Added a school grade option to the member profiles (works for k-12 and also includes college and graduate levels)
• Updated subscription management page for your members to more easily manage the email lists they are subscribed to

Other Fixes:

• Event Tracking has been renamed Event Follow-up
• Event pages now include a ‘remove’ button that was accidentally removed in a previous version.
• Bug fixed in the address synchronization for family members (Home Addresses only)
• Changed the giving method ‘Online’ to now read ‘Card’

For the first time since we have implemented the Google email service, Gmail, there was downtime once earlier this month along with a minor service disruption this week. The issues have been addressed and corrected by Google. There were two periods were service was interrupted.

September 1st, 2009 (status)

• They experienced service disruption from roughly 2:50pm until 4:37pm.
• Users accessing their email via POP/IMAP through a client like Outlook or Mail were unaffected by this outage.

September 24th-25th, 2009 (status)

• Some customers were experiencing difficultly accessing their contact lists within the web-based Gmail client.
• This has only affected web based Gmail users. Stand alone clients like Outlook or Mail were unaffected.

We apologize for any inconvenience that these incidents may have cause you. Google provides unparalleled service for our clients, as well as for us at nineteen05. In the future these alerts will be much more prompt, but since the status site didn’t exist on September 1st we are doing our best to inform you today.

If you are interested in setting up IMAP to use your Gmail account with Outlook or Mail view this Getting Started Guide.