A few weeks ago we deployed VolunteerHub v4.2.4310 which contains a number of updates. Many of these were the direct result of your suggestions (thank you!), and some were behind-the-scenes improvements that allow us to provide smaller, more frequent updates in the future. This post details some of the more significant changes.

Complete rewrite of our email-generation system

Many of you expressed that you wanted VolunteerHub to generate confirmations, reminders, and thank-you emails that included more data fields, unsubscribe links, better deliverability, and so on. This update delivers all of these, and there are more email-related improvements coming in the near future.

Simplified activation of email address verification feature

Email address verification prevents new users from signing in until their email addresses have been verified. When this feature is activated, VolunteerHub sends each new user an email containing a hyperlink that, when clicked, verifies the email was received successfully. Enabling this feature traditionally required contacting VolunteerHub support, but many of you felt this was overly complicated so we’ve reimplemented it in a much simpler way. Now you can enable email verification by following these simple steps:

  1. Navigate to the Setup / Organization tab, scroll to the bottom, and check the radio button that says “Verify new users’ email addresses before allowing them to log in.”
  2. Click the “Save Organization” button.

 

 

 

 

Once enabled, new users will see the following message when they complete the User Registration Wizard:

If you encounter a user who is unable to complete the email verification for whatever reason, you can manually verify the address by following these steps:

  1. Navigate to the user’s account and click on the “Edit” tab.
  2. Check the “Verified” box next to their email address.
  3. Click “Save User.”

Higher security password reminders

Previously, when users requested password reminders we sent an email containing their usernames and passwords.

Now our password reminder email contains a special hyperlink that allows the user to reset his password directly on our website.

Embeddable schedule gadget

Many of you have requested a way to show your event schedule directly within your organization’s website. Now we offer an embeddable, customizable web gadget that allows you to do exactly this. To embed the web gadget, just follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to the Setup / Embed tab.
  2. If desired, modify the height and width of the web gadget and click the “Update” button.
  3. Copy the HTML provided in the box below the sample gadget and paste it into your website.

Improved reports

Many of the reports, particularly the User Roster report, have been reformatted and optimized for better performance. We’re working on further reporting improvements that will be unveiled in the near future.

Added Name field to form questions

Previously, the only way to identify a form question was by its Prompt, which has no length limit and can potentially contain rich text formatting (HTML). This was problematic on reports, where there usually isn’t enough room for lengthy or formatted prompts. To address the problem we’ve added a new Name field, visible only to administrators, which allows you to designate a short, easy-to-remember name for each form question that is more suitable for reports.

(In the screenshot above, the Prompt field is long and contains HTML while the Name field is short and to the point.)

Note that we used the Prompt to set the initial value for the Name field, so you may need to revise the Name for better readability in some cases. To do this, follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to the Setup / User Form tab.
  2. Click the “Edit” button next to the Form Question you want to revise.
  3. Modify the Name field as desired.
  4. Click the “Save Question” button.

Higher performance

As our service continues to grow (we’re now tracking almost 500,000 volunteers, 425,000 events, and over 1M event registrations), we continue to maintain performance, reliability, and security as our top priorities. With this update you should see improved response times as you navigate and interact with the system.

Other improvements

We’ve been very hard at work in other areas of our business as well!

  1. There’s a new online Administrator’s Guide that’s being continuously updated based on your feedback and as new features are introduced.
  2. We also have a brand-new marketing site as well as a Facebook page, a Linked In page, and a Twitter feed.
  3. We introduced a new email newsletter, VolunteerHub Administrator Notes, specifically tailored for VolunteerHub administrators, and a short new limited-focus email newsletter, VolunteerHub Connect.