Cause Machine Release Notes

General Platform Updates

06 November 2023

Removed gender from the platform as a required field - We added a gender toggle in community settings - meaning communities can choose if they'd like it as a required field, a hidden field or an optional one. 

Event search filter -  We added sort, defaulted to closest, and added a setting where the community can change the default sort. We removed the proximity filter and made it so that all results are rendered on the map focusing on the nearest event and current location (either through browser location or manual address override).

Place and venue both possible - We made both Place and Venue show up on map details. Wherever the community chooses to show one location, we made Place trump Venue if one exists. Additionally, we added help text when adding venue while Place is connected to an event. 

 

Ad Hoc Push Notifications

19 October 2023

Event and Community Ad Hoc Push Notifications:

• Enhanced event and community email senders to support push notifications alongside email notifications.
• Renamed "Email Sender" to "Message Sender."
• Changed "Emails" to "Messages."
• Replaced "Send New Email" with "Send New Message" button.
• Added "Delivery Method" and "# Push Recipients" columns for communities with push notifications enabled.

Writing a Push Message:

• Updated the schedule/edit email screen to include a "Delivery Method" selection.
• Users can choose to send an email, push notification, or both.
• Default delivery method is "Email."
• If "Push Notification" or "Both" is selected, a text box is shown to enter the push notification message.
• Message length limited to 240 characters, with 178 characters recommended for iOS.
• Character count is displayed while typing.
• Shows the audience size, the number of emails, and the number of push notifications to be sent.

Sending Push Notifications:

• Enhanced the email sending process to include push notifications for users with enabled push notifications in the community.

Group Ad Hoc Push Notifications:

• Improved group email sender to support push notifications alongside email notifications.

 

Category Stats Export

19 October 2023

• Admins can now view statistics for each category by exporting categories to Excel.
• An "Export" button has been added to the admin Categories page.
• An Excel export is generated for each tag with the following information if applicable: Category, Parent Tag, Tag, Neighborhood URL, Admin(s), Number of Sub-Tags, Number of Discussions, Number of Content, Number of Stories, Number of Organizations, Number of Users, Number of Jobs, Number of Courses, Number of Groups, & Number of E-Commerce Products
• An email is then sent to the user with the exported excel attached:

 

Group Enhancements

15 September 2023

• Group Registration Period: You can optionally specify a registration start date and end date for a group. Users will only be able to join the group during that registration period.
• Restrict Groups By Membership Tier: You can now make a group only available on specific membership tiers. When configuring a group, if you specify membership tiers, only membership who are on that tier will be able to see and join those groups.

 

eCourse Quiz Enhancements

14 September 2023

• Optionally allow course members to view their form answers after completing a lesson.
• Optionally allow course members to edit their form answers after completing a lesson. If a notification email is provided, an email will be sent when a member updates answers.

 

Secure Speakers

23 August 2023

• This project consists of three interconnected components aimed at enhancing speaker security and identity protection. The primary objective is to enable the classification of speakers as "secure." The three parts are as follows:

1. Secure Speaker Identification: The project involves the implementation of a feature that allows administrators or authorized users to designate certain speakers as "secure." This feature will likely be integrated into the edit speaker page, enabling easy and intuitive marking of speakers for enhanced security.
2. Livestream Exclusion: Once a speaker is labeled as "secure," they will be automatically excluded from live streams. This measure ensures that individuals marked as secure are not exposed to public live broadcasts, contributing to their identity protection.
3. Content Prevention: Furthermore, when a speaker is designated as secure, any recording of their session will be prevented from being uploaded. This aspect ensures that sessions involving secure speakers do not generate content that could potentially compromise their identity.

 

SEO Performance Improvements

23 August 2023

Automated XML Sitemap Generation: 

• Automatically generates an XML sitemap for each community containing links to public pages. 
• Added an option to exclude specific pages from the sitemap. 
• Excludes non-public pages from the sitemap. 

Enhanced Sitemap Generation:

• Created XML sitemaps for each community.
• Includes specific pages in the sitemap that are available without requiring login.
• Pages include: Homepage, Custom Pages, Resources, Groups, E-Courses, Jobs,
• Events, Stories, Store Products, Category Pages.
• Cached sitemap for improved performance.
• Accessible at communitydomain.com/sitemap.xml.

SEO Performance Improvements:

• Enhanced SEO by optimizing page rendering speed for core web vitals.
• Average 'Best Practices' SEO performance raised from 74 to 97
• Reduced unnecessary JavaScript and CSS.
• Split JavaScript and CSS into separate files for global scripts and each module.
• Loads only necessary scripts and CSS for each page.

CMS Heading Tags:

• Introduced the option to specify H1-H6 tags for CMS pages.
• Provided H1-H6 options in the WYSIWYG editor for text blocks.
• Hero sections now use H1 if added as the first section, improving SEO.
• Empowered community admins to select different fonts for various heading sizes (H1-H6).

Content SEO Tags:

• Added SEO Title and SEO Description fields for content pieces.
• SEO Title used for <title> tag, falls back to Resource Title if not provided.
• SEO Description used for meta description, falls back to Resource Excerpt if not provided.
• Updated Title field help text for optimal SEO practices.

Keywords and Page Grader Link:

• Added SEO Keywords field for tracking content-related keywords.
• Added External Page Grader Link field to input tool URLs for the page.
• Content and CMS Pages can utilize these features.
• Displayed keywords in the Content List, with clickable links to external page grader.
• Updated content export to include columns for keywords and page grader link.

These enhancements are designed to improve the SEO performance and user experience.

 

Event Enhancements

23 August 2023

Merge Organizations:

• The objective of this user story is to enable community admins to merge organization accounts. To achieve this, the admin will be given the ability to choose the target account for merging and merge the accounts following the specified guidelines and checks outlined below.

1. Choose Organizations to merge: Admin Dashboard > Members > Organizations
2. Initiate Merge buy selecting 'Merge' Button:
3. Select the Primary Organization:
4. Review and Merge

Merging Considerations:

• Organization Accounts are merged into the selected primary account according to the following guidelines:

1. Organization Info
2. Membership
   • Upgrade primary organization membership to most expensive membership from merging organizations (if applicable) and cancel any remaining paid subscriptions. 
3. Tags
   • Add any tags from merging organizations that don’t already exist in the primary organization.
4. Custom Questions
   • Add answers to custom questions from merging organizations that don’t already exist in the primary organization.
5. Admins
   • Add any admins from merging organizations that don’t already exist in the primary organization.
6. Members
   1. Add any members from merging organizations that don’t already exist in the primary organization.
7. Stats
   • Favorites: Re-assign any favorites for merging organizations to the primary organization.
   • Views: Re-assign any views for merging organizations to the primary organization.
8. Events
   • Re-assign any events created by merging organizations to the primary organization.
   • Re-assign the exhibitor registration for merging organizations to the primary organization if the primary organization is not already registered for that event.
9. Content
   • Re-assign any content created by merging organizations to the primary organization.
10. Courses
    • Re-assign any courses created by merging organizations to the primary organization.
11. Store Products
    • Re-assign any store products created by merging organizations to the primary organization. 
12. 12. Jobs
    • Re-assign any jobs posted by merging organizations to the primary organization.
13. Admin Notes
    • Move any admin notes from merging organizations into the primary organization.
14. Payments

Assign Booths to Unregistered Organizations:

• This new feature empowers event administrators to efficiently manage booth assignments and exhibitor registrations. Here's what you can look forward to:

Assign Booths to Unregistered Organizations:

• Event administrators now have the capability to re-assign booths to organizations that have not completed their exhibitor registration.

Simplified Booth Assignment Workflow:

• When assigning a booth to an organization that has not registered as an exhibitor, administrators will be presented with the following options:

1. Reserve Booth: Admins can reserve the booth for the organization, maintaining its status as "reserved." This is especially useful when awaiting the organization's completion of registration.
2. Assign Booth and Add As Exhibitor: This option initiates the exhibitor registration process immediately:
   • Admins will be prompted to provide exhibitor contact information. If available, this information will be pre-filled using the organization's contact details.
   • The organization will seamlessly be added as an exhibitor. 
   • The booth will be assigned to the organization and marked as "Paid."

Guided Instructions for Admins:

• Admins will receive clear instructions on how to proceed based on the organization's status:

1. Exhibitor Registration Open: If exhibitor registration is active, administrators will be directed to the general exhibitor signup link. Organizations can complete registration through this link.
2. Exhibitor Registration Closed or Booth Connected to Private Product: In such cases, admins will be guided to generate an offer for the organization. Detailed instructions on generating offers will be provided.

Enhanced Management of Booth Assignments:

• This update simplifies the management of booth assignments and exhibitor registrations. Admins can effortlessly assign booths, add organizations as exhibitors, and follow step-by-step guidance based on registration status.

Event Email Sender Filter:

• This filter empowers administrators to send emails based on volunteers' job assignments, empowering Admins to communicate more effectively with event volunteers, providing information that is directly relevant to their involvement.

Category Selection Limits:

• We've enhanced the category setup process to include the ability to specify a maximum number of tags that can be selected for different modules.

Setting Category Limit: Settings > Category > Edit

Enforcing Category Limits:

• To ensure that the selected tags adhere to the specified limits, we've implemented clear guidelines and validation during tag selection. Here's how it works:

1. Tag Selection Note: For each area with a selection limit, a note will be displayed indicating the maximum number of tags that can be chosen from the associated category.
2. Validation on Selection: If a category has a limit set, the system will enforce the constraint during tag selection:
   • A notice will remind users of the tag limit.
   • The system will prevent users from saving the selection if it exceeds the allowed number of tags.

 

 

Groups Maximum Member Setting

16 August 2023

• The new setting also shows the current number of group members, provided as a reference for the admin when deciding on the max # of members.
• Admins can actually set the max number of group members to a number lower than the current number of members - this is to give the admins complete control over the group. In this case, when the number of group members drops back below the max number, then the group will allow new group members to join - but as long as the number of group members is at or above the max number allowed, the group will not allow new members to join
• Admins can also manually add group members to groups that are full (at or above the max number of members), again to allow them full control over the group