In the Arena

Tweets on Your Website

nairdo — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 04:57:00 GMT

For my first post to this blog, I'm borrowing and slightly modifying the latest entry from my personal blog on CodersForChrist.com. I think this is something that even a non-developer can do so I'm sharing it with the larger Arena Community.

I recently heard someone say 'oh, Arena can't do that yet' on the topic of integrating twitter with their Arena powered website. Not true. There's no need to wait for a future of release of Arena. You can easily add your favorite tweets to an Arena powered website using the XML File Transformation module.

Here's how to do it in three simple steps:

Publish an XSLT file that transforms a Twitter RSS feed to suit your website's layout, look and feel. I've included mine below which you can reuse or modify as you see fit.
Add the XML File Transformation module to a page.
Configure the module's settings appropriately. For example, I'm using "http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/47123579.rss" for the XML File Path and "~/xslt/Custom/Cccev/twitter.xslt" for the XSLT File Path setting. (That XML File Path is the RSS feed for our @RefreshCache tweets.)

Here is what is going on in my XSLT file. In lines 9-60 is a small C# function for converting the RSS pubDate value into a more modern, friendly relative date. Lines 63-75 are an embedded a style block. Line 78 is where I restrict the number of tweets displayed to only 5. Lastly, lines 77-86 are the main HTML layout for the tweets. You can download mine and modify it as you please.

   1: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>   2:  <xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"   3:         xmlns:msxsl="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xslt"   4:         xmlns:cs="urn:cs"   5:         xmlns:js="urn:custom-javascript"   6:         exclude-result-prefixes="msxsl js"    7:  >   8:     9: <msxsl:script language="c#" implements-prefix="cs">  10:  <![CDATA[         11:     public static string UXDate( string pubDate )  12:     {  13:         DateTime d = DateTime.Parse( pubDate );  14:         DateTime now = DateTime.Now;  15:         TimeSpan timeSince = now - d;  16:           17:         double inSeconds = timeSince.TotalSeconds;  18:         double inMinutes = timeSince.TotalMinutes;  19:         double inHours = timeSince.TotalHours;  20:         double inDays = timeSince.TotalDays;  21:         double inMonths = inDays / 30;  22:         double inYears = inDays / 365;  23:    24:         if(Math.Round(inSeconds) == 1){  25:             return "1 second ago";  26:         }  27:         else if(inMinutes < 1.0){  28:             return Math.Floor(inSeconds) + " seconds ago";  29:         }  30:         else if(Math.Floor(inMinutes) == 1){  31:             return "1 minute ago";  32:         }  33:         else if(inHours < 1.0){  34:             return Math.Floor(inMinutes) + " minutes ago";  35:         }  36:         else if(Math.Floor(inHours) == 1){  37:             return "about an hour ago";  38:         }  39:         else if(inDays < 1.0){  40:             return Math.Floor(inHours) + " hours ago";  41:         }  42:         else if(Math.Floor(inDays) == 1){  43:             return "1 day ago";  44:         }  45:         else if(inMonths < 3 ){  46:             return Math.Floor(inDays) + " days ago";  47:         }  48:         else if(inMonths <= 12 ){  49:             return Math.Floor(inMonths) + " months ago ";  50:         }  51:         else if(Math.Floor(inYears) <= 1){  52:             return "1 year ago";  53:         }  54:         else  55:         {  56:             return Math.Floor(inYears) + " years ago";  57:         }  58:     }  59:  ]]>  60: </msxsl:script>  61:    62:   <xsl:template match="rss/channel">  63:       <style>  64:        #tweets a {  65:         text-decoration: none;  66:         color: #444;  67:        }  68:          69:        #tweets span {  70:         font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif;  71:         font-size: 9px;  72:         color: #888;  73:         font-style: italic;  74:        }  75:       </style>  76:    77:         <div id="tweets" style="padding-left:5px;font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;">  78:         <xsl:for-each select="item[position() &lt;= 5]">  79:             <p>  80:               <a href="{link}">  81:                   <xsl:value-of select="substring-after(title,': ')" />  82:               </a>  83:               <br/><span><xsl:value-of select="cs:UXDate(pubDate)" /></span>  84:             </p>  85:         </xsl:for-each>  86:         </div>  87:     </xsl:template>  88: </xsl:stylesheet>

Here's a close-up of what the final product looks like.

Staying in the Know

CRivers — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:54:00 GMT

Updates are everything in the software world, and without quality updates and timely information your awesome software product could be yesterday’s wasted effort. From time to time, users of Arena “need” to be informed. How do you keep up with the latest trends, newest Arena modules, and how can you vote on someone’s great idea if you have never seen it? Well, I thought I would share one the ways I keep up with the constant flow of information that comes from the Community - I subscribe to the Arena Community forums and read them in my e-mail client.

I use Microsoft Outlook as my e-mail client, but you could do the same thing in Google Gmail or any email client that provides rules or filtering.

Start by going into the Community website and subscribe to your choice of forums:

1. Log on to community.arenachms.com.

2. Go to your settings by clicking your username in the top right-hand corner. Click the Email Tab and choose the type of emails you wish to receive.

3. Click the “Forums” tab. On the far right hand side of the navigation bar you will see a “Forum Subscriptions” hyperlink. Click the link and check “Subscribe” on all of the forums that you would like to monitor.

4. Scroll down to the bottom and click the “Save” button.

In your e-mail client, create rules to filter e-mail from the Community:

5. In Microsoft Outlook, right-click a message in your Inbox from the Community and select “Create rule…”. In Gmail, check on the message and click on “Create a filter”.

6. Configure the conditions and actions to fit your needs… redirect to subfolders, forward to other users, mark with a label, etc.

Encourage everyone in your ministry team to subscribe to the forums in their areas of interest. Share these e-mail filtering tips to keep them informed with minimal effort. It’s a great way to help them see what other churches are discussing, creating, and voting for.

Hopefully this is something that will help you stay up to speed with this ever growing product. It certainly helps me!

Chris Rivers

A Couple Webinars for your Enjoyment

CRivers — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 20:47:00 GMT

A lot of activities take place as a new client comes on board to Arena,
and we take the next step processes very seriously to ensure a successful
roll-out. Last month, Brookwood Church was one of the many new clients that
have decided to partner with our team and the vision behind this shared
source product.

I will be giving two Webinars to help the Brookwood staff prepare for training
and implementation. What makes this so great for you, is the leadership at
Brookwood has given me permission to invite any other Church with interest
in our product to attend these two refresher Webinars. I will be offering
these on

Wednesday, October 21 at 9:30am for anyone on the East Coast.
Tuesday, November 3 at 3:30pm for anyone on the West Coast.

Arena is quickly becoming the preferred application of choice, especially
when it comes to choosing a flexible Church Management System (ChMS) that can grow within your ministry environment. This is a great opportunity to see the potential of what Arena can do for your Church. Please spread the word and register today!

Chris Rivers

Open Arena Demonstration

CRivers — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 16:21:00 GMT

A couple weeks ago I was offered a chance to see a demonstration of a wicked cool software that blends well with Arena. It was a pretty basic demonstration, but it was helpful as it uncovered a couple questions I had. Although, I find myself doing more specific demonstrations for Arena, I thought I could at least provide a chance for people interested in Arena to see what all the hype is about. So I am going to offer a 10 thousand foot view of Arena and show you as a user how powerful Arena really is. It will be more like a, "Oh my gosh that would be cool if we could do that" kind of demonstration. So if you are interested in checking out one of the best Church Software products on the market go here and register. See you then!

Chris Rivers
OurArena

Shelby Launches Community Site

mtwhite — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 12:48:00 GMT

Guest Post by Stephen O'Daniel - Shelby Community Moderator

We have exciting news for all of our Shelby Systems customers: the Shelby Community is now online! Exchange ideas, tips, or techniques related to the Shelby Systems Software. Ask a question or provide a solution. The Community is here to help you connect with other Shelby Systems customers and learn from one another. We know that you enjoy the Arena community as a place to gather and communicate, and hope that you will also come be a vital part of the Shelby Community.

Post to these forums:

•   ShelbyChurch - Ask questions, get answers, and share ideas on non-financial modules.
•   ShelbyFinancials - Ask questions, get answers, and share ideas on financial modules.
•   ShelbyConnections - Talk about products and services from Shelby Systems business partners.
•   ShelbyDonor/HQ - Ask questions, get answers, and share ideas on the ShelbyDONOR/HQ family of products.
•   ShelbyIT - Ask questions, get answers, and share ideas with other IT, Network, and Database professionals

In addition to communicating with other Shelby Systems users, the Announcement area provides us with another avenue to post important notices regarding our Company and the Shelby Systems software. The Community also houses Shelby Online Support, our online knowledge base. Finally, the General Support Questions forum allows you to post a question and get a response directly from the Shelby Systems Support Department.

Go to http://community.shelbyinc.com to login or sign up for the Community. For detailed instructions on how to sign up, click here or enter the following URL into your browser address bar:

http://www.shelbyinc.com/images/enews/2009/Community/theCommunity.pdf

So, Exactly Where Is That New Release?

mtwhite — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 20:36:00 GMT

Glad you asked. Originally we had scheduled the release of version 2009.100 for the week of July 13th. Between the time we announced that date and now, we've had communication with one of our 3rd party vendors which is causing us to delay the release. As most of you know, we use an ESRI web service to display the maps used in the Groups area of Arena. Just recently ESRI alerted us to the fact that they are changing the process and access to that web service and their intention to discontinue the current method altogether. After a few late nights with lots of caffeine our developers have completed our portion of the rewrite. We’re now waiting on ESRI to complete the setup and deployment of the new hosted solution.

So what does that mean for the release?

Unfortunately, we are forced to move the date back until August 3rd to coincide with their new service. This date gives us adequate time for thorough testing and will produce a solid release (including documentation!).

I realize this is not welcome news and we do not like being unable to fulfill our responsibility to you for an on-time release. But in this situation we feel it is in the best interest of you, our client, that we delay the release until we can ensure a smooth and complete release.

Thank you for your understanding and as always please let us know your thoughts.

Mark

Doing Your Homework

CRivers — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 15:03:00 GMT

It's clear that more and more churches are demanding a better product and service; a solution based on their specific needs. What two churches work alike? Each ministry department has its own goals and needs as it relates to security, reporting, and ease of use. As churches grow they want more control over their database and don't want to be told that there is a limit to accessing their information. It takes a lot of homework to find the right solution, to execute the right plan, to experience real benefits in ministry. I would love to sell you on Arena and that it is the best software out there, but I think it would be more useful to direct you to customers so they can speak on Arena's behalf.

Arena has been in the marketplace since Jan 2007 and has an ever-growing vibrant community. There are a lot of blogs out there that speak from experience about Arena. Maybe directing you to them might help as you continue to search for the application that best fits your needs. Check out Renewing Mind and this blog for starters.

Documentation Process

benlane — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 15:31:00 GMT

The Arena documentation is in the process of a complete overhaul and will come in two stages. The first stage involves making sure that the current documents include the features and enhancements from the 2008.3 and 2009.1 versions of Arena. With this new release we have also changed our documentation strategy. You will notice a difference in the documents coming out with the 2009.1 version which in include a new look in comparison to the older sections. One example is the section about Background Checks. Please check it out and give us feedback.

Our goal is to have all documents rewritten in preparation for the 2009.2 release . Our philosophy is that the Administrator's Guide will be one complete Arena document, and the parts that relate to the end user will be separated into the End User's Manual. The Reference Guide will be included in the Administrator's Guide as an appendix, and can also be separated into it's own document.

The Training department is responsible for Arena documentation and we welcome your feedback!

Arena Featured in Shelby's Latest Podcast

mtwhite — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 17:38:00 GMT

I had the pleasure of being interviewed for this month's Shelby Podcast. Take a few minutes and listen for a little insight into our future plans and as always, we'd love your feedback.

International Shelby Conference 2009

BeccaG — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 20:57:00 GMT

Shelby Systems' event team just published a press release about the recent Shelby Systems user conference held in Dallas.

"In the opening session Anthony Coppedge, church media consultant and passionate "Technology Evangelist,” set the tone of Building Community with his presentation on “The Reason Your Church Must Twitter.” The presentation was based on his recently released book of the same name..."

Read the full press release in the Shelby Systems press room.

Small Group Networking App

mtwhite — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 13:37:00 GMT

In the Real Estate world the mantra is 'location, location, location", in the world of small groups it's "communication, communication, communication". With that goal in mind Arena is launching a Small Group Networking tool to foster relationships and community within your church's small groups. Given the amount of interaction within social networks including Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, it's only natural that a church would wish to integrate those same fundamental aspects into their ChMS.

With a 'High Touch High Tech" philosophy our new tool will enable each member of a small group to stay in touch with fellow group members. After much research and many conversations, our developers have created an application with a simple interface along with an intuitive user experience.

ArenaChMS will release the Small Group Networking portal with the next version of Arena.

Check back for more details and features.

Building a Web Site in Arena

BeccaG — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 19:53:00 GMT

Our friends at WebMedley are sharing a blog series on how to build a template in Arena:

“When beginning your first template, there are a few requirements that we'll need to get out of the way. If you're a developer level Arena client, then the first thing you'll need is the Arena SDK from the Arena Community site. While this is not a requirement in the sense that you "can't build a template without it", you should use the SDK as it allows you to make mistakes without the whole world seeing it on your production server. I doubt your tech folks are going to let you go "commando" on a live server anyway, but I'll save you an awkward conversation. Use the SDK.

If you're not a developer level client, you can still modify the .ascx and .ascx.cs files..." Read the rest.

And this year's "Man In The Arena" award goes to...

BeccaG — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 21:24:00 GMT

Our congratulations goes out to David Turner!

David's many contributions have been a wonderful asset to The Community. He was awarded today during the Arena Developer Roundtable, held in Dallas, TX. This roundtable was held in conjunction with the annual International Shelby Conference.

The Man In The Arena award goes to one person each year who has made an indelible contribution to the Arena project. The community of users, developers and partners are changed in a positive way due to the contributions of this recipient.

Did you know...?
One of the key inspirations for the name given to Arena (and thus the award) was the following speech:

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."

- Theodore Roosevelt (excerpt from a speech delivered in Paris, 1910)

Shelby Systems First Church Software Provider Approved for CEU Credits

mikejarrell — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 18:55:00 GMT

MAY 29 2009, CORDOVA, TN – Shelby Systems, Inc. has become the first church software provider to be approved for the National Association of Church Business Administration’s (NACBA) National Registered Continuing Education Provider (NRCEP) Program. “The program is a premier, comprehensive, continuing education program related to administration in the local church. It is designed to enhance the ongoing professional development of NACBA members and other ministry professionals, through the offering of quality learning experiences,” said Phill Martin, Deputy Chief Executive Officer at NACBA.

As the first Registered Continuing Education Provider, all Shelby Systems’ workshops and the majority of classes at the International Shelby Conference have been approved by NACBA for Continuing Education Units (CEU). CEUs are required certification or renewal of certification as a Fellow in Church Business Administration (FCBA).

The addition of CEU credits is an enhancement to Shelby Systems’ continuing education program, a program offering Continuing Professional Education (CPE) credits for those renewing their CPA.

Shelby Systems, located in Cordova, Tennessee, provides management software designed for faith-based organizations such as churches, denominational headquarters, and other non-profit groups. The company currently serves over 9,000 customers in more than 40 countries.

Marketing Contact:
Rebecca H. Greer, MarCom Manager
800.877.0222

Training and Education Contact:
Bill Ballou, Training Manager
800.654.1605

Computable Knowledge

BeccaG — Thu, 21 May 2009 17:41:00 GMT

Recently, I shared in a management meeting my theory of the "age" we're beginning to experience. It will have more to do with beauty and meaning, less to do with "information."

We've been in the information age, a period where information is more and more accessible (not so much quantifiable, but that's another topic for another day...) The amazing increase of information accessibility has resulted in an information overload, of sorts. Without the ability to more easily and accurately sort, quantify, and most importantly, DERIVE MEANING from the information at-hand, we're likely to see a quick backlash of resistance against the technology.

One project that may prevent this backlash is Wolfram Alpha. This knowledge engine project has caught quite a few channels lately. I would consider this project to be experimenting with the "sort" issue I mentioned before. How do you see this kind of project fitting into your ministry needs?