open source Archives - Page 2 of 3 - Tendenci

2017-09-092017-09-09

The Incredible Growth of Python – StackOverflow

Python, the language used to program Tendenci – The Open Source AMS, continues it’s meteoric rise in the world of developers. And where the developers go is where the rest of us go. Thus Python’s rise matters. And it benefits every Tendenci user, self hosted or hosted with our small company (same software either way).

IEEE Spectrum rates the languages by its readers as follows:

Python has continued its upward trajectory from last year and jumped two places to the No. 1 slot, though the top four—Python, C, Java, and C++—all remain very close in popularity.

StackOverflow, a go-to site for pretty much every programmer and sysadmin out there, has a new blog post up on the incredible growth of the Python Programming Language. Python is of course the programming language used in Tendenci – The Open Source AMS. From the Stack Overflow post:

June 2017 was the first month that Python was the most visited tag on Stack Overflow within high-income nations. This included being the most visited tag within the US and the UK, and in the top 2 in almost all other high income nations (next to either Java or JavaScript). This is especially impressive because in 2012, it was less visited than any of the other 5 languages, and has grown by 2.5-fold in that time.

They have numerous charts to back up the data, but these two in particular paint a telling picture.

From Stack Overflow – the current tag questions viewed:

Perhaps even more impressive is the projection on the continued growth of Python. Just WOW!

The above graphs should give you confidence in your choice of using Tendenci as your AMS as the developers are not only there, but growing. Given Tendenci is fully open source (this is different from “free trial” AMS systems which are NOT actually FOSS (Free and Open Source Software). Wikipedia describes the difference as:

(FOSS means) anyone is freely licensed to use, copy, study, and change the software in any way, and the source code is openly shared so that people are encouraged to voluntarily improve the design of the software.^[3] This is in contrast to proprietary software, where the software is under restrictive copyright and the source code is usually hidden from the users.

Many of our competitors who are NOT Open Source and not true FOSS which can sometimes confuse people. I’ll do a future post on examples of sometimes misleading representations by AMS systems that are not “actually” Free and Open Source (FOSS) as defined on Wikipedia.

The good news is with the growth of Python, it only make sense that developers will look at and many will join in to help the community improve the software as they join associations themselves.

We’ve written about why we chose Python over PHP to develop Tendenci open source several times. Correctly choosing the open source stack gives us, and everyone in the community, confidence to see the trends predicted correctly. It wasn’t rocket science – we just listened to our team, we listened to younger developers, and most importantly we listened to our clients on what the future was/is going to be.

And associations are kind of a big deal and they can’t use minimum viable products.

Why are associations unwilling to accept apps that meet only minimal requirements? Um… because they started as Guilds and go back to Medieval times. From Britannica on Guilds and Trade Associations:

Guild, also spelled gild , an association of craftsmen or merchants formed for mutual aid and protection and for the furtherance of their professional interests. Guilds flourished in Europe between the 11th and 16th centuries and formed an important part of the economic and social fabric in that era.

and Britannica goes on….

… associations are known to have existed in ancient Rome, however, where they were called collegia. These craft guilds seem to have emerged in the later years of the Roman Republic. They were sanctioned by the central government and were subject to the authority of the magistrates.

This is a huge topic of course. Just know that Tendenci is the ONLY top ranked AMS system that is truly FOSS. Unlimited admins, users, contacts – you can self host or if hosted with us we only charge for processing power. Got 1M users and contacts and 50 admins? No problem. And the growth of Python assures your continued freedom from vendor lock-in no matter what.

#peace and happy (Python) programming y’all!

2016-11-03

What is Software and what is a Theme?

I’ve gotten a few more questions on upgrading from Tendenci 5 to Tendenci 7. It seems we have been overzealous in explaining the changes at https://tendenci.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ and here and here and very extensively here. Perhaps too much info and too technical.

Listening to a client I realized that maybe “geek speak” on my part was part of the challenge. Definitions:

Themes – The “theme” is the visual part of your site that makes you unique. When a major change happens, like the rapid growth in mobile traffic, it is not uncommon to have to purchase or pay to upgrade your theme with WordPress, Drupal or Tendenci.
Software – The “software” stack is all of the functionality below the theme. Open source projects are driven by a community and most modules or add-ons strive to be backwards compatible.
Game changers – sometimes a company like Apple will invent a “game changer” like the iphone. Awesome! Oh, but wait. You can’t write software that works on a device that either didn’t exist or was a tiny fraction of visitors to your site when you first deployed your theme.
LTS Timelines – Who sets the timeline for LTS (Long Term Support) major releases? In Open Source it is driven by the community around a project. Frequently it is a combination of software and “dependencies”.

Examples?

To use a large open source project as an example, WordPress users (like me – my blog is on wordpress) sometimes need to pay to upgrade a premium theme when WordPress does a major release.

WordPress has a theme compatibility checker.
https://codex.wordpress.org/Themes/Theme_Compatibility/

As WordPress makes changes and improvements, sometimes these impact WordPress Themes and their underlying code and use of Template Tags. When a new version is announced, WordPress users are recommended to check the various WordPress Theme Compatibility lists to ensure their WordPress Theme is updated and ready for the new version.

Drupal, another major open source project, lists information on how to upgrade themes to work with each version here:
https://www.drupal.org/docs/8/theming-drupal-8/theming-differences-between-drupal-6-7-8

Tendenci, a much smaller but growing open source project, is doing the same thing for the same reasons. You want a unique brand (your theme) and new functionality (the software) and you’d like it to be as low cost as possible. Hence software updates are “usually” free, it’s just when a “game changer” happens that you need to update your theme.

If you are really curious what is in a theme, there is a great infographic on WordPress themes here.

For more on EOL support on Tendenci 5 you can read this really long blog post. And of course your site will still work if you don’t upgrade, it’s just the Django community has moved on so it’s best to move with them!

Please see this comprehensive blog post for more detail on the Tendenci 5x to 7x upgrade process.

2016-10-212018-04-04

Why Tendenci Chose Python over PHP

Note: this is a repost from the eschipul.com blog and also lives as a help file on Tendenci.

This blog is a WordPress blog written in PHP. And WordPress, which is written in PHP is a great platform when secured properly.

So why did our team choose to rewrite Tendenci Open Source and in the Python Programming language? It is a question I get asked a lot. We’ve never been a company that likes to talk in the negative if at all possible, yet it is important to talk about the megatrends going on given we work with associations and nonprofits.

Python Growing in Academia — Why Python instead of PHP for Tendenci

Source: https://www.upguard.com/blog/which-web-programming-language-is-the-most-secure

programming vulnerabilities — Vulnerabilities in each language

Source: http://info.whitehatsec.com/rs/whitehatsecurity/images/statsreport2014-20140410.pdf

Popularity of a language is a trend, and what you want is as many developers familiar and liking the language of your open source project as possible. This means you have a better chance to have a secure web site and therefore a more secure future.

To be fair – as Disraeli said – “lies, damn lies and statistics” – so there is no one perfectly secure language any more than there is a perfectly “safe” hammer. There will always be operator error and programmers make mistakes.

So we’re not saying Python is perfect, and all of us have used most of the other languages on those charts at some point. We’re just saying we are pleased so many other programmers also like Python and Open Source. THAT is the best that can be done to secure your future online. Secure code that you can examine yourself and even host yourself!

Addendum: As I post this on the Tendenci Blog. Given we focus on non-profits, associations, memberships, education, medical, religious – basically the do-good cause-based organizations, I believe it is particularly important that the project is as transparent as possible. Sometimes it is healthy to inform everyone of WHY we made a decision seven years ago. Python was the right call.

2016-08-222016-12-21

Tendenci 5.x EOL is Approaching !IMPORTANT!

URGENT REMINDER – TENDENCI 5.X IS APPROACHING “END OF LIFE” AND STOPS BEING SUPPORTED IN NOVEMBER 2016.

Mobile and responsive is the new baseline and we need to get everyone updated for security and to be secure and mobile responsive. The timelines are listed on our site at https://www.tendenci.com/tendenci-life-cycle/ .

Upgrade pricing from 5.x to 7.x is a one time cost and we’ve done our best to standardize them and make the process affordable.

https://www.tendenci.com/tendenci-upgrade-options/

A Longer Explanation for those who like knowing all of the details. Because we like being open and transparent.

Let’s keep it simple. Think about tires. When you buy tires, over time, they wear out. You can’t keep adding tread to them. At some point you have to get new tires or you are in an unsafe vehicle risking your own safety as well as that of everyone that rides with you or is near you on the roads. It’s irresponsible to drive an unsafe vehicle.

Or as Billy Joel explains it:

WHY CAN’T WE JUST KEEP GOING AS IS? YOU KNOW, JUST IGNORE IT?

(Yes, I really got this question recently.) Because software that is outdated can have security holes. Security updates are the most important. Tendenci runs on top of lots of other amazing open source products, which are called “dependencies.” Tendenci’s dependencies are listed here in the code.

Yes you have your own site. But you are sharing email servers, backup servers, email relays, security scanners, proxy servers, firewalls, access control lists, IDS/IPS systems and they are all are part of an environment that is watched very closely.

Going back to the car analogy. Porsche doesn’t make every component or the tires that are installed on their cars. When you wear out the tires, you have to upgrade. Similarly if a component that Tendenci uses is not maintained by the project behind it, then you are in danger of hurting others. A simple example would be if someone found a way to hack your site and sent spam emails, then the shared email server for the server-farm your site is in could get black-listed. That hurts ALL of the clients using that shared resource. Just like when your tire blows and you wreck into another car. It is then fundamentally your fault for not maintaining your vehicle.

Why do I want to upgrade if I just don’t care about security?

This is a bad idea. There is performance, functionality and a ton of new features you are missing out on. For more click the image below to go to the newsletter that highlights a lot of it.

And this is what we now consider baseline – responsive across all devices.

If you are thinking “THIS IS THE FIRST I HAVE HEARD OF THIS!?” .. um…

No. No unfortunately it is not. It’s just the first time it got your attention. We get it given we also miss communication sometimes given the amount of noise in our inboxes. Here are some links below so you can catch up a bit. And Tendenci 7.x is WAY ahead of Tendenci 5 because of industry changes – you really want to upgrade.

But yes, we have communicated this over and over and over. Links:

Tendenci’s Version Lifecycle is here: https://www.tendenci.com/tendenci-life-cycle/
Dates are driven by Django Supported Versions timelines: https://www.djangoproject.com/download/#supported-versions
Tendenci Notification in News on Tendenci bumping from django 1.4 to 1.8 https://www.tendenci.com/articles/tendenci-open-source-lifecycle/
Tendenci email newsletter sent to all clients onTendenci bumping from django 1.4 to 1.8 and some of the great new functionality https://www.tendenci.com/tendenci-upgrade/

Your users and the search engines expect you to have an SSL encrypted and mobile responsive website that is ADA compliant. NEW technology that consumers use and new behaviors have emerged and people expect more. Blame Al Gore and Apple and Microsoft. Tech changes fast.

WE LACK THE POWER TO MAKE EXCEPTIONS AS WE DO NOT CONTROL THE FRAMEWORK.

To our open source and our hosted clients, it is imperative that you do NOT ignore the pending “end of life” for the 5.x version of Tendenci. You must upgrade. From December 2015:

Django 1.49 EOL drives Tendenci 5 EOL date – time to upgrade

From the DjangoProject website:

And the future is outlined as well:

PLEASE DO NOT IGNORE THIS NOTICE. TENDENCI IS A COMMUNITY. AND OUR COMMUNITY IS PART OF THE DJANGO ECOSYSTEM. WE MUST STAY SAFE.

Is there a charge to upgrade your site from Tendenci 5 to Tendenci 7?

Yes. Why? Because from Tendenci 6 forward we require all sites to be responsive (meaning they work on mobile devices). To achieve this we chose bootstrap as the front end css framework for standardization. Bootstrap 3 is very flexible with many options for low cost templates such as found on wrapbootstrap.com

What is the cost of upgrading from T5 to T7?

If you are a developer, there is no cost besides your time. Just follow the instructions at https://tendenci.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ . If you run into a problem post an issue on github at https://github.com/tendenci/tendenci/issues

If you are not a programmer or developer then you will need to work with one to complete the upgrade. It can be our team or a Django developer of your choice.

Please remember that Tendenci is fully open source and available at https://github.com/tendenci/tendenci/ in addition to the documentation linked above. No gotchas or hold-backs. Just very direct and honest communication of the facts and accountability through code reviews.

Did clients get charged upgrading from Tendenci 6 to Tendenci 7?

No, they did not. The upgrade from Tendenci 6 to Tendenci 7, then 7.1 and now 7.2 was all done automatically. These sites were already responsive and it is the front graphics changes that require human intervention as opposed to scripted updates.

Why are you charging to upgrade from Tendenci 5 then?

Because the layouts used back then were not standardized because there was NO CLEAR STANDARD. Thus every site was a bit different. On Tendenci 6 and 7 they are strictly standardized on the front end on Bootstrap 3+, a front end responsive framework made by Twitter. The appearance of Tendenci 7 sites is very diverse, it’s just the behind the scenes name-spaces that require updates.

Do we have to use your company to upgrade?

Of course not. Tendenci is open source. The whole freedom thing. We are the only membership management software company ranked in the top 20 by Capterra that is open source. You are part of a community with Tendenci, not some locked down solution that holds you hostage.

If we don’t use Tendenci to upgrade, who can we use?

Python and Django are very popular. You are free to use any developer you want, self host or host with us.

The whole point of Tendenci is to enable freedom so you aren’t trapped with a proprietary vendor that locks you in by retaining control over your data, including redirecting links from your events to their domain so when you leave, you lose all of your inbound links and search engine rank. We do not support that practice. Unfortunately many non-profit boards don’t catch it until it’s too late and make the mistake of locking in future boards with no way out.

How easy is it to leave Tendenci? How do we know you won’t make it difficult?

Well first because that would be against our values. We make it easy to leave because folks have a tendency to come back when they experience the alternatives. We have found that the easier you make it to leave, to be free, the less likely people are to leave because the alternatives don’t share our values, particularly when it comes to data ownership. It’s your data. You own it and should have access to it at any point. Period.

An example: I believe (this is Ed typing) that WordPress is the best blogging platform in the world and I also love that it is open source. This blog is on wordpress. Yes we pay for hosting. And no, I don’t plan to leave WordPress. Even my personal blog is on wordpress hosted at another provider.

I don’t plan to leave WordPress specifically because I know that I can leave if I wanted to take the hassle on myself. I don’t – I have my hands full taking care of our team and clients. I just like knowing that freedom is an option because WordPress is like Tendenci – OPEN SOURCE.

You sound kind of over-the-top about open source and data exports? Prove it!

We’ve proven it. Look at our history. Look at our open source project.

Data doesn’t lie. And your site most likely has a repo on https://github.com/tendenci/tendenci/ to which we can provide you access. (they are obviously secured for your protection.)

We can also run backups directly to your own AWS cloud instance for S3. Actions speak loudly.

Type “Tendenci exports” into Google to see the number of options to export your data.

T5 clients – for you it’s not all automated but you have the same rights as everyone else. By that I mean, if you are on T5 not all of these exports were available 5 years ago through the interface but we will gladly provide a full database export that you can then import into postgres yourself. (Note: The technology simply wasn’t available back then, but the moment it became possible (which happened when we were on T6) we enabled clients to do full database downloads themselves. It’s YOUR DATA.)

Is this “charge to upgrade” going to happen every two years?

This one is a trick question. We have more work than we can do so charging you for updates is not our goal. But you already know that if you use the nav editor and the theme editor so you can make your own updates. Tendenci is about empowerment.

Tendenci is open source so you can work with a different developer and host with them if they are more cost effective for you.

Disruption causes adaptation which comes with a price tag

Disruption happens. That darn iphone. With candor, LTS releases tend to last two years. We didn’t invent the iphone or android so the switch to mobile responsive design was effectively dictated by changes in technology. We do our best to keep your costs down, but when Steve Jobs changes the world, we all get caught up and have to adapt. That isn’t a conspiracy, it’s an opportunity.

Are you sure? Is there ANY way I can upgrade for free?

I so wish I could wave a magic wand and make your entire site bootstrap3 responsive, but I can’t. Our contractors and employees deserve to be compensated just like you do. But you know that. Maybe there is someone your know, or maybe you, can redo your site’s theme in bootstrap3 to control costs. It is an option.

What I do know is YOU will not succeed with a non-encrypted and non-responsive web site. When we chose to make ALL SITES RESPONSIVE for all releases after Tendenci 5, yes, it required us to contract with graphic artists for your upgrade and obviously these talented people deserve to be paid for their work.

What is Tendenci doing to help us control costs?

We already have far greater functionality at a lower price than all of the proprietary vendors. True, we don’t have a sales team to fill out a 5 page excel RFP, but we have a demo site where you can see for yourself at https://demo.tendenci.com admin/admin login (resets every two hours.)

The comparison grids several competitors have on their sites are WILDLY INACCURATE. Our target client wants the additional functionality of Tendenci, to be a part of a community, they understands open-source, they are cause focused more than monetary focused, and knows how to do due diligence.

Tendenci open source means GREATER FUNCTIONALITY. The freedom is a bonus.

But the competition says they have greater functionality?

They don’t. Do a fact check and judge for yourself. Facts are facts. See above. Just for fun, ask to look at their code. #heh Why? Because a community of interested people will add to Tendenci and everyone benefits instead of all of the money going to a proprietary vendor who says they own your data.

Your data is your data.

Do I really need to upgrade my Tendenci site now as it’s been fine the last 11 months since you first told us we had to upgrade? Can’t this wait until next year?

NO! November 30 2016 or you need to self-host or move to a dedicated server. We cannot be responsible if the underlying software is no longer being maintained and therefore may not be secure. That legal burden falls on your board.

This is NOT Tendenci making the decision or driving the timeline. We blogged about this last December in particular as soon as we learned of the announcement from Django. See above.

Why can’t I get a personal hand written note like in the old days?

Man, I miss those days. Unfortunately, we simply can’t identify every stake-holder inside of every NGO/NPO/Association/Business we work with or who self hosts. By definition there is constant turn over on non-profit boards. And we have no way of tracking open source clients using Tendenci in the wild.

We love our open source clients, but we aren’t “big brother” and don’t currently have a 100% method of tracking or communicating with these awesome developers outside of the blog, facebook, twitter and newsletters.

OK, after we upgrade, what then?

We are working hard to keep upgrades and updates automatic and at little or no cost. The evidence speaks for itself in the no-cost site updates from 6.0 to 7.2x. Judge us by our actions.

Yet, if someone invents another disruptive technology, well, logically there could be a cost for an upgrade once it requires changes that can’t be automated.

If you host with us, contact, budget and schedule your upgrade. If you self host then please read all of the documentation which explains the full process and is posted and available online at https://tendenci.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

So how much does does this cost if we go with Tendenci team to do our upgrade? It scales with the type of upgrade you want to do and they are listed on our site here:

https://www.tendenci.com/tendenci-upgrade-options/

It’s always hard to have a crucial conversation with clients. I strive for candor and fairness as the leader of the company behind the community. We want you happy. Technology changes. We’ve done our best to keep the price as low as possible. Thus in closing, I’ll leave you with another image of a happy puppy because they make us smile, and like Tendenci, they enjoy a community of supporters but also being able to run free every once in a while.

2016-01-012016-01-01

10 Million NGOs Worldwide (who just might want open source multilingual software)

Let’s start 2016 off with some great news. NGOs are growing internationally and their role in our society is becoming more important. From the post:
https://www.ongood.ngo/portal/facts-and-stats-about-ngos-worldwide

#NGOfacts is an ongoing campaign that highlights statistical data about NGOs, nonprofits and charities worldwide. Committed to building a comprehensive list of facts and stats about the NGO sector, please check back regularly for updates.

1. There are an estimated 10 million (non-governmental organizations) NGOs worldwide.
Source: The Global Journal

2. The number of people worldwide donating money to NGOs increased from 1.2 billion in 2011 to 1.4 billion in 2014. By 2030, the number is expected to grow to 2.5 billion.
Source: Charities Aid Foundation

(those are the first two points of 14 – go read the full post here!)

And yes, we are pretty happy to see greater adoption of Tendenci – an open source software solution for NGOs that is already multilingual. Join us!

2015-12-152015-12-15

Why Use Open Source Software: The Benefits – LinuxIT Europe

This video is one of the best explanations of why people are switching to Open Source solutions like Tendenci,

The video is from LinuxIT Europe so go check them out.

And if you’d like to learn more about Tendenci functionality for non-profits here is a video from us.

Example: Our web site is at www.tendenci.com with membership management software functionality in addition to high end cms capabilities.

But what about the code? It’s right on github for you to peruse right now https://github.com/tendenci/tendenci because …. well, just watch this video to understand how differentiated open source is!

2015-05-20

If you’re doing things right, something will always be a little bit broken

If people don’t know how to do something, make them learn. That’s how Dropbox went from having 3 to 4 engineers regularly contributing to the iOS code base to over 30. “If you’re doing things right, something will always be a little bit broken. Most importantly, tell everybody that a little bit of chaos is okay,” Agarwal says

Source: http://firstround.com/review/The-30-Best-Pieces-of-Advice-for-Entrepreneurs-in-2014/

2015-05-17

Tendenci Transformation – The Right Choices for the Future

We’ve had a lot of crucial conversations lately about decisions that we made between 2006 and 2010. Yup, really. We are explaining now about how we are possibly too far ahead of the curve and why if you give it a bit of time, it will make you look like a rock-star.

MobileGeddon being a great example of how our early adopters are benefiting the absolute most!

Top39-Programming-Trends-700.4 — Python for the Win!

Source: Python is Now the Most Popular Introductory Teaching Language at Top U.S. Universities

We started using Python, the programming language named after Monty Python, in 2004 if not earlier. We first tested Pinax in 2008 if not earlier under J who was running our programming team.

We used Python extensively in our old environment to move files and push out content to our sites. Tasks that are now done by Puppet and Chef and Docker-Compose. We rolled our own using Python on Windows.

So for the curious, that explains why we have this huge depth of knowledge on Python programming dating back to when nobody heard of it. We’ve had to train numerous graduates of Tech, UofH, Aggies, Rice, Penn State, etc, what Python even was!

But that is all ancient history. Why? Because Python is now number 1!

It’s hard to predict the future. We started out writing our own compete web framework in ASP. We were too early in 2001. PHP soon arrived and, being basically identical but open source, the outcome was PHP won. It should have, and did, win. We were too early. But with timing there is also a bit of luck.

I’ll do another post about GIS and mapping and why our move to strictly Postgres with GIS enabled is working out so well. Another post. And I’ll edit this one with links soon. Just needed to get the content out.

Bootstrap3. – Because we know that we take gambles on technology and they have an impact. On you. And that is serious business. We take it seriously as evidenced by our decision to shut down Windows in line with Microsoft’s EOL policies. These are hard choices. Crucial Conversations. We’re the messenger.

And we CARE about YOU. Our clients. The future is bright. We picked our technology future amazingly well. Too well, so now perhaps our problems is more one of resources. And we’ll work through that.

Thank you. If I can leave you with one thought – it is this. THANK YOU! For those who stuck with us, WOW, um… our position for search and the future is crazy good. Open Source means freedom. Results mean donations and sales. Software means sustainable business models.

We appreciate you. Yes closure for some was hard. We wish you the best. We appreciated your time with us while it lasted longer than a Honda. As some depart and some charge forward, I’m especially excited about those who chose to charge forward.

We, you and us, we didn’t “guess” right. We did our homework and validation came ironically on April 21, the same day mobilegeddon hit and our Tendenci 6 clients jumped up in the search rankings. Luck? Hard work? I don’t know.

What do I know? I know how to serve. I serve y’all.

#peace

2015-02-072016-03-13

HOW TO USE DJANGO-SQL-EXPLORER IN TENDENCI MMS

Tendenci 6 ships with the excellent django-sql-explorer from ePantry. This means you can export anything at any time and build any report you want whenever you want. Absolute 100% anytime freedom of access to your data. #JOY #FREEDOM #ROCKS

First a warning. If you choose to use a direct query tool know they are dangerous. You are doing so at your own risk and could possibly corrupt your database beyond repair up to and including requiring a dba to come in and repair it at a cost of thousands of quid. So…. BE CAREFUL.

SQL explorer is a way to directly query your site through the user interface. It is for superusers only and we recommend disabling it by default (see disclaimer above.) But if you are still reading here is the lightning version.

Login to your Tendenci6 site at /accounts/login/
Navigate to /explorer/
Click on playground and test out some queries. For example here are two
1. “select tablename from pg_tables” – without the quotes to list all 300 tables in your database
2. “select * from articles_article” – list all articles including expired and inactive etc.
If you like the queries click “new query” and name and describe them and click save.
Click on the SQL explorer icon top left and your back at the dashboard with icons to download the results of your queries.

Visually when you add the URL /explorer/ to the end of your site path you will see something very similar to this.

First note the icon on the right to Download CSV so you can download all of whatever that query is for. If you don’t see any, no worries – that’s what this post is about!

So let’s write a basic sql statement.

And then when you click “New Query” you will find this interface and you can carefully name and describe your query so you know what it does later.

1) ALL Interactive users:

SELECT  u.first_name, u.last_name, u.email, u.username, u.is_staff,  u.is_superuser, p.salutation, p.company, p.position_title, p.phone,  p.address, p.address2, p.member_number, p.city, p.state, p.zipcode,  p.country, p.url, p.sex, p.address_type, p.phone2, p.fax, p.work_phone,  p.home_phone, p.mobile_phone, p.notes, p.admin_notes FROM auth_user u  INNER JOIN profiles_profile p ON u.id=p.user_id WHERE u.is_active=True  AND p.status=True AND p.status_detail='active'

Copy Paste Version:

2) ALL memberships:

SELECT u.first_name, u.last_name, u.email, u.username, u.is_staff, u.is_superuser,
    p.salutation, p.company, p.position_title, p.phone, p.address, p.address2, 
    p.member_number, p.city, p.state, p.zipcode, p.country, p.url, p.sex, 
    p.address_type, p.phone2, p.fax, p.work_phone, p.home_phone, p.mobile_phone,
    m.membership_type_id, m.renewal, m.certifications, m.work_experience,
    m.referer_url, m.referral_source, m.join_dt, m.expire_dt, m.renew_dt,
    m.primary_practice, m.how_long_in_practice, m.application_approved,
    m.application_approved_dt, m.areas_of_expertise, m.home_state,
    m.year_left_native_country, m.network_sectors, m.networking,
    m.government_worker, m.government_agency, m.license_number,
    m.license_state, m.status_detail
FROM auth_user u
INNER JOIN profiles_profile p
ON u.id=p.user_id
INNER JOIN memberships_membershipdefault m
ON m.user_id=u.id
WHERE u.is_active=True
AND p.status=True
AND m.status_detail <> 'archive'

Copy Paste Version:

SELECT u.first_name, u.last_name, u.email, u.username, u.is_staff, u.is_superuser, p.salutation, p.company, p.position_title, p.phone, p.address, p.address2, p.member_number, p.city, p.state, p.zipcode, p.country, p.url, p.sex, p.address_type, p.phone2, p.fax, p.work_phone, p.home_phone, p.mobile_phone, m.membership_type_id, m.renewal, m.certifications, m.work_experience, m.referer_url, m.referral_source, m.join_dt, m.expire_dt, m.renew_dt, m.primary_practice, m.how_long_in_practice, m.application_approved, m.application_approved_dt, m.areas_of_expertise, m.home_state, m.year_left_native_country, m.network_sectors, m.networking, m.government_worker, m.government_agency, m.license_number, m.license_state, m.status_detail FROM auth_user u INNER JOIN profiles_profile p ON u.id=p.user_id INNER JOIN memberships_membershipdefault m ON m.user_id=u.id WHERE u.is_active=True AND p.status=True AND m.status_detail <> ‘archive’

3) ALL corporate members:

SELECT cp.name, cp.address, cp.address2, cp.city, cp.state, cp.zip, cp.country,
    cp.phone, cp.email, cp.url, cp.number_employees, cp.chapter, cp.tax_exempt,
    cp.annual_revenue, cp.annual_ad_expenditure, cp.description, cp.expectations,
    cp.notes, cp.referral_source, cp.ud1, cp.ud2, cp.ud3, cp.ud4, cp.ud5, cp.ud6, 
    cp.ud7, cp.ud8, cm.corporate_membership_type_id, cm.renewal, cm.renew_dt,
    cm.join_dt, cm.expiration_dt, cm.approved, cm.admin_notes, cm.status_detail
FROM corporate_memberships_corpprofile cp
INNER JOIN corporate_memberships_corpmembership cm
ON cp.id=cm.corp_profile_id
WHERE cm.status_detail <> 'archive'

Copy Paste Version:

SELECT cp.name, cp.address, cp.address2, cp.city, cp.state, cp.zip, cp.country, cp.phone, cp.email, cp.url, cp.number_employees, cp.chapter, cp.tax_exempt, cp.annual_revenue, cp.annual_ad_expenditure, cp.description, cp.expectations, cp.notes, cp.referral_source, cp.ud1, cp.ud2, cp.ud3, cp.ud4, cp.ud5, cp.ud6, cp.ud7, cp.ud8, cm.corporate_membership_type_id, cm.renewal, cm.renew_dt, cm.join_dt, cm.expiration_dt, cm.approved, cm.admin_notes, cm.status_detail FROM corporate_memberships_corpprofile cp INNER JOIN corporate_memberships_corpmembership cm ON cp.id=cm.corp_profile_id WHERE cm.status_detail <> ‘archive’

4) All users in a specific group (replace <YOUR GROUP ID> with your group id)

SELECT ug.name, u.first_name, u.last_name, u.email, u.username, u.is_staff, u.is_superuser, p.salutation, p.company, p.position_title, p.phone, p.address, p.address2, p.member_number, p.city, p.state, p.zipcode, p.country, p.url, p.sex, p.address_type, p.phone2, p.fax, p.work_phone, p.home_phone, p.mobile_phone FROM auth_user u INNER JOIN profiles_profile p ON u.id=p.user_id INNER JOIN user_groups_groupmembership ugm on u.id=ugm.member_id INNER JOIN user_groups_group ug on ug.id=ugm.group_id WHERE ug.id=<YOUR GROUP ID> AND ugm.status=True AND ugm.status_detail='active'

Copy Paste Version:

SELECT ug.name, u.first_name, u.last_name, u.email, u.username, u.is_staff, u.is_superuser, p.salutation, p.company, p.position_title, p.phone, p.address, p.address2, p.member_number, p.city, p.state, p.zipcode, p.country, p.url, p.sex, p.address_type, p.phone2, p.fax, p.work_phone, p.home_phone, p.mobile_phone FROM auth_user u INNER JOIN profiles_profile p ON u.id=p.user_id INNER JOIN user_groups_groupmembership ugm on u.id=ugm.member_id INNER JOIN user_groups_group ug on ug.id=ugm.group_id WHERE ug.id=<YOUR GROUP ID> AND ugm.status=True AND ugm.status_detail=’active’

Contribute back your brilliance to the rest of us? Have you written some good queries for Tendenci using the amazing django-sql-explorer from ePantry? Post them on the Tendenci Community Site for others to learn and share with!

Please do be careful. Remember the warnings above. Using a live sql tool on a relational database for anything besides SELECT queries is ill-advised. It really is your live data on a live site SO BE CAREFUL!

We believe this level of access to the superusers on Tendenci sites is empowering. We like knowing people can download any of their data when they need it. And perhaps contribute back some suggested new reports to the Tendenci Community as a whole!

Because Tendenci is part of the Django community and we couldn’t have brought this functionality to you without others in the community “giving first.” We may have added it to Tendenci, but that’s ONLY because of the generosity of building and making it available by others. Explorer is brought to you by the power of collaborative open source software (THANK YOU ePantry!)

Note this is a cross post from our help files. See the Help File for the latest accurate info at: https://www.tendenci.com/help-files/how-use-django-sql-explorer-tendenci/

2014-10-272014-10-28

Communications Needs a Town Square

Communication needs a town square. Step 1 was to implement a forum independent from our site. Encrypted (of course) and endorsed, and with it’s own unique karma.

Talk to us. Tell us what we can do better. Group listen – a challenge to all of us is to listen as a group. To truly listen.

And the software needs direction. Our job is to listen to and foster the community of Tendenci users across the globe while respecting that ultimately we, they, you, them, us, are all independent individuals and organizations, cultures and people, nonprofits and companies, we speak different languages, the only thing in common with the global tendenci community is our diversity. Just as the only constant is change.

We wouldn’t be cause related software developers or working at cause related companies that aspire to the #openeverything OSCON type of ethos to begin with.

First – it is to serve.

To achieve our communication goals we are using some amazing open source software based on django and postgres just like tendenci of course – The Misago Open Source Discussion Forums is used to power the new https://community.tendenci.com site to provide a “place” for that dialog to take happen. Developers are welcome to continue posting issues on github of course, clients who prefer to have us (or you!) manage their tendenci hosting will submit billable tendenci support requests, but there is something different about a forum that is toned down and not quite as public. I can’t quite explain why.

Join us?