To our Tendenci clients, you are changing the world. It has been a privilege to be a leader for the company and the community, and I thank you all for the opportunity.
It is with mixed emotions that I say that last Friday December 6, 2019, was my last official day with Tendenci. I say “official” because you never really leave a community that you care deeply about. (And don’t worry, Ed is still guiding the ship with the help of a strong team.)
I have been an avid part of the growth of Tendenci from a small, proprietary software product launched almost twenty years ago into the global, multilingual, open source resource it is today. My enthusiasm for Tendenci is as strong now as ever. And I’m proud of what we have accomplished.
I have truly enjoyed working with so many great people over the years, both the amazing employees who feed my soul and the wealth of Tendenci users who keep me challenged. Software, like a garden, is never finished. It is designed, built, tended, and constantly improved. Keeping things fresh, adding new functionality, and building on the latest technology are the core of a thriving environment.
To everyone I have worked with, keep moving forward. I know there are great things ahead for you and all of the Tendenci community!
Feel free to connect with me (Rachel on linkedin) as I move forward knowing Tendenci is in good hands and our clients are safe and growing! I will still be in the background keeping Ed in line and celebrating the future successes of Tendenci and the community as they happen. Rock on y’all!
(Editor “Ed” notes: THANK YOU RACHEL FOR YOUR HUGE CONTRIBUTION TO OUR GLOBAL GROWTH!)
We Are So Excited to Introduce the New Tendenci Dashboard!
The Tendenci Dashboard is the very first page you see when you log in to your Tendenci website. In the past, the Tendenci Dashboard has contained a list of Tendenci modules and corresponding icons. With the NEW Tendenci Dashboard, you will now see a whole console of helpful metrics that visually show stats from your top Tendenci modules!
Our goal with Tendenci is to build software that gives you insight into your online and offline community. The new dashboard provides valuable information about what is happening across your website!
The new dashboard will begin rolling out Monday July 1 to Tendenci 5.1 sites.
Old Tendenci Dashboard:
New Tendenci Dashboard:
Available Tendenci Dashlets
The charts that make up your Tendenci Dashboard are called “dashlets.” The new Tendenci Dashboard is launching with the following dashlets:
Memberships
Members shows a graphical breakdown of Memberships by type.
Corporate Memberships
New, Renewed, Expired, and Upcoming Expired Corporate Memberships show activity in each of those categories for the last 30 days.
Top Corporate Memberships lists your top 5 Corporate Memberships by active users.
Events
Upcoming 5 Events shows the next 5 upcoming events on your calendar and registration stats.
Top 5 Events shows the most popular events sorted by event log views over the last 30 days.
Forms
Top 5 Forms shows the most popular forms sorted by number of submissions over the last 30 days.
Pages
Top 5 Pages shows the most popular pages sorted by event log views over the last 30 days.
Customizing Your Dashlets
You can customize your Dashboard by setting these dashlets to show or hide, and reordering them.
To customize your dashboard, click the top link labeled “Customize Dashboard Statistics.”
From here, simply check the boxes to show and hide dashlets you want to see. Use the drag and drop arrows on the left to reorder the dashlets, and click Save to set your changes.
Miss the Tendenci Icons?
As you get used to navigating your site with the new Dashboard, you can always display the Tendenci icons by scrolling down to the bottom of the page, and clicking “Show Tendenci Icons.”
More to Come!
We are constantly working to improve Tendenci, and will continue to expand the functionality of your dashboard.
Have questions or specific suggestions you’d like to make? Let us know! Contact our Support team at (281) 497-6567 ext 411 or by contacting support@tendenci.com!
UPDATE: As of Tendenci 6+ Full Newsletter Functionality is Enabled through Extremely Low Cost Email Relays like Mailgun. If you are hosted in the Tendenci Cloud you may want to read the helpfile on how to send email through Tendenci.
Over the past year, we have been updating several sites to the 5th version of Tendenci which we lovingly call T5. The new software brings several of the features you love from Tendenci like:
Association and Membership Management
Event Calendar and Registration
Job board listings
Stories for featured content
Photos and Photo sets
Basic Pages
Articles, News, Resumes, Business Directory, and many others
We have added a few new features as well, such as:
Boxes for quick content editing
Easier template editing
Videos gallery
Case Studies
Staff Profiles
Tendenci 5 has been launched on several sites, including the Houston Technology Center (HTC) and Discovery Green. We also run T5 on Schipul.com with 12 different dynamic content areas on the homepage alone.
HTC Calendar
Discovery Green Homepage
Photo Albums
The Tendenci development team is making updates and adding new functionality daily, all of which is automatically added to all Tendenci 5 sites. We’d like to highlight a couple of the backend features that we think make Tendenci a standout product.
Open Source Platforms
Tendenci 5 is built on top of several open source technologies. We utilize apache for our web server, a free software that powers some of the largest sites on the internet. Our databases our in Postgres, which provides similar functionality to Microsoft SQL databases without any of the licensing fees. Our servers live in the cloud, to provide maximum uptime and durability. The Linux operating system powers our servers, and provides us with great open source tools to help enhance the websites that run on top of it. And the specialized search indexing functionality comes from Solr, an open source product that provides fast, accurate search results for sites with thousands of pieces of content.
The crown jewel is Django, a framework built in python that supports thousands of websites. The Django community continues to provide active development and security updates, which helps keeps Tendenci secure. Django and python offer speed and functionality for publishing content and have a highly flexible template system to make your site your own. The built-in tools in Django allow the Tendenci development team to makes changes quicker and make the software more flexible.
T5 Additions
Tendenci allows organizations to manage memberships as well as groups of people that may not be paying members. T5 takes these associations and allows admins to create selective benefits for members on the website. For example, a site could have a set of Members-Only pages where members could read articles or see news updates that weren’t available to the general public. These selective benefits also apply to event registration, so specific member groups can be offered a lower rate than non-members. These controls allow organization administrators to provide extra benefits to their membership which can help increase member turnover and grow the organization.
New advancements have also been made in site-wide search. Tendenci utilizes Solr search combined with Haystack to create a fast and accurate search across multiple apps at once. This means you can search for Articles, News releases, Jobs, Resumes, and Photos all from the same search box. The search also handles all of the selective benefits, so each member can only search content they are permitted to see. Site-wide search allows administrators to filter through all of their content and site visitors to find the info they need.
Tendenci has advanced features for administrators that let them perform advanced actions more quickly. There is an admin bar across the top of the website where admins can quickly jump to different apps in the software like articles or events. Admins can view reports, update their template, or add a new photo set all from the admin bar. Because of the selective benefits described above, different site users may have access to different pieces of content.
UPDATE: Impersonation was removed for increased security: Tendenci 5 comes with impersonation, the ability to view the website as another user. Admins can quickly impersonate a user to see how the website looks for them. We have found this to be a time-saving feature that gives administrators a quick tool to check security settings for their content.
In previous versions of Tendenci, it was difficult for a single website to have a customized feature in the “core” code. Tendenci 5 helps this in two ways: Templates and Plugins. Templating is a feature of Django, and Tendenci leverages it to allow site owners to customize every part of the visual display of their site. From customizing automated emails to changing a list to a grid, template customization gives site owners the power to make the software work for their organization. Plugins are completely new to Tendenci. Our plugin system allows site owners to activate custom plugins for them. This may be in the form of an app like a Testimonials list or a Donations plugin. These plugins can be completely customized. Get with our sales team for more information on custom plugins.
In addition to this post, we will be spotlighting some of the newest functionality in Tendenci 5 right here on the blog, so be sure to subscribe if you have already migrated to T5 or are interested in migrating. For more info, please contact Tendenci..
Options are good and now your Tendenci site even lets you pick how to show your dates!
In a fresh update from our Programmers, the new Tendenci date format editor in your site settings area allows you to decide how your visitors read your dates.
So whether you prefer January 1, 2010 or 1-Jan-2010, you're covered!
