Tendenci – The Open Source AMS Blog
Community Blog for Open Source AMS Makers
Since the implementation of the new mini calendar, we felt the daily view of the calendar event module was, well, boring. So we gave it a face lift. It now includes more details, links, and just looks a lot better! Just one more reason to start using the mini calendar on your site! Here’s a screen shot.
Thanks,
J
The latest Tendenci update includes a mini calendar that gives users a birdseye view of your events! Dates with events are highlighted in red. Users can click on the date to see what is taking place that day. The smaller version of the calendar fits neatly onto any page design.
Contact the Tendenci Production Team about adding the mini calendar to your homepage!
Thanks,
J
Tendenci is powerful in its ability to give all of your members a voice. Distributed authorship is great not only because it gives your Web site new and interesting content, but also because it keeps your membership active and engaged.
But sometimes you may want to make the distinction between an opinion-based piece of content posted by a member and a more objective one written/posted by your organization.
No problem – you are able to label any article with a disclaimer stating that it is a piece of ‘unofficial content’ by following these easy steps.
Your site users can now subscribe to email notifications of your job board updates. This will help your members utilize your online job bank to the max by bringing them all the latest job postings in the areas they are most interested in, right to their inbox.
Users can define how often they want to receive updates, as well as what job categories they want to be notified about. For more information, read this Tendenci help file!
Things are going along just fine and then – BAM – your site admin up and quits. You take over the job and the first order of business is to remove the old admin from the site and add yourself. But where does the admin’s email address show up? The Tendenci HR help files will walk you through adding and removing administrators from your site, as well as show you how to run a periodic listing of all of your site admins. Security is muy importante! Stay on top of it!
Memberships are cool! Have you seen what Tendenci can do to manage Membership status?
You can upload your members from a third party (national) database, then let new members join and pay online. Members receive automatic email notification when their membership nears its expiration 
date with a click to renew their status, update their record and pay online — or print the renewal application to submit with a check or cash.
You can set a grace period during which members retain site access after expiration and run a script that removes all expired memberships from the system. You can also set up multiple membership types at different rates and with different pricing for events and restrict site access, including member lists, to members only.
What an awesome feature!!
The latest Tendenci update brings you richer RSS feeds for your feed consumption pleasure.
What does this mean? When you subscribe to an RSS feed, via a free service like Bloglines, your Tendenci feeds now appear with even more content, clearer headlines and include all of your graphics and photos from your online content!
These changes make your content appear even more professional and enticing to your potential Web site visitors and content readers. Great stuff!
Schipul loves to repeat the ‘Content is King’ mantra. By now you may be tired of hearing it, but it’s true! Fresh content really is important to your search engine ranking and the way your users interact with your site and your organization.
Everyone likes to be able to add content to their site quickly and easily – which is one of the great things about the Tendenci software. However, some users have found that one of the fastest ways to do this is by re-activating OLD content. Not a good thing to do.
Example – An already expired job position comes open again and instead of creating a new job and posting it, an administrator re-activates that original (old) job listing. Don’t let this happen to you!
But why is activating old content on your Tendenci site so bad?:
The moral of the story is to always add new content as new content. Doing so will keep the search engines, your site users and your RSS feeds happy and up-to-date. Happy content adding!
New RSS Icons and more prominent OPML links are live on all servers over the weekend. Easier "add to reader" links and style sheets applied to the feeds to make them prettier when an unsuspecting user clicks on them.
The screen image on the right is from www.ppag.org, one of our long time Tendenci clients.
If you aren’t familiar with RSS and using it personally, I still like www.bloglines.com the best as a web based reader. Free so check it out.
The RSS feed links for your individual site should be linked in the footer, maybe the nav (varies by site) and definitely at /en/rss/index/ on all sites.
Thanks!
Ed
Help is here! The Getting Started with Tendenci tutorial has been added to the Help Files found on the Tendenci web site. Starting with an explanation of what Tendenci is, this tutorial walks new Tendenci users through the basic software modules: Users, Events, Jobs, Articles, Newsletters and Content Management. Simple step-by-step instructions demonstrate how to perform basic tasks within Tendenci and how to easily administer your site content and data.
The tutorial is also chock-full of tips on maximizing your use of the Tendenci software, providing better support to your members, increasing communication with your customers, and turning your site into a revenue center!
This is a great, self-paced way to get your new employees up to speed on Tendenci — or to take a refresher course — without leaving your desk.
