Giving the web site a new look

Well, it was Memorial Day weekend, so we've been relaxing a bit with the family. What fun.

I decided to do a bit of sprucing up a bit on the web site since I had moved it to a new server and decided to change the look a bit. I had been using an old Front Page theme that I bought about 5 years ago (and have used on a bunch of simple web sites), so I decided to fool around and see what I came up with.

So, the web site has a somewhat new look. I also decided to fire up PaintShopPro (aka poor man's Photoshop) and put together a few graphics to use as section dividers.

I found a neat little script that would allow me to put "recent topics" from the discussion board on any page I wanted. That took about 3 minutes to install, and 3 more minutes to make pretty. www.phpbb.com has a lot of pretty easy tools that go with their discussion forum system.

It is surprisingly easy, if you will just follow the directions. Hopefully having some of the discussion topics on the main page will encourage people to explore a bit in the forums (not that there is much there yet!).

Website migration is done

Vitaly (WGM's webmeister) and I finished the setup of Donor Manager website on the new server. With a few small glitches that we were able to work out, everything went quite smoothly. There are still a few small issues to be addressed, but nothing major.

I checked the site stats and noticed that the Googlebot visited, right in the middle of the rebuilding of the site. Bummer.

I was also able to post 5.25 beta 5 which includes a more robust (and hopefully more crash resistant) updating routine. I've tested it on 3 computers and so far, so good. Version 5 must be a manual udpate, but I also posted a beta 6 so folks could test the one-click updating. If this works out, it will be a real help to the less technically oriented users.

The ability to do this was triggered by the same routine that powers the "Pack and Go" routine. It's amazing how getting one thing working will open the mind to the possibilities in other areas. And, of course, that's true in a lot of areas of life, I guess.

The new message board is up and running at the Donor Manager web site. I need to find a way to have the board email me when new postings occur, though. I know that option is there ... I just haven't found it yet.

Well, I'd better get ready to head to church: www.hanfield.org

One click program updating is here

For several versions, now, I've wanted to put in a "one click" solution to downloading program updates. Kind of like my Norton Anti-Virus.

Well, I figured out at least one way to do it, and I really like it. In the latest beta of 5.25 there is a new "check on line for updates" routine that goes (in the background) to the Donor Manager website, checks to see what the latest version is and compares is with the version running on the person's computer.

If they are up-to-date, they just get a "you are up to date" message. But, if there is an update available, it offers to download it (it takes about 10 seconds on my cable-modem hookup), then installs it and restarts the Donor Manager.

I've had some feedback from beta testers saying that it worked great, while a report of problems when doing it from behind a firewall. Hmmm. Gotta figure that one out. All in all, I'm very pleased with this feature. I think folks are really going to like it!

Back from a few days in Nashville / good progress on 5.25

I have been encouraging Beth to attend some type of conference for women in ministry, so she decided to attend the National Women in Ministry Association conference in Nashville this past week. So, we headed down to Nashville for the conference on Wednesday.

The conference was at the Gaylord Palms Opryland Resort (how's that for a short name!) and it was a beautiful place. While she was getting filled with great ideas and motivation for ministry, I was enjoying the very nice facilities, and getting a little programming in as well.

We both had a great time and headed back home Friday evening, getting back around 11:30.

I've had several great conversations via e-mail with Donor Manager users who have had some really great suggestions for future version. So far, the Pack and Go has received very positive feedback.

I must say some kind words about the people who help me with the program. I have been greatly encouraged by the many folks who contribute little bits of code, expertise in areas where I am clueless, and those who just drop short notes of encouragement.

I put a statistical tracker on the web site about 10 days ago (the same day I released the 5.24 update) and have been amazed at the traffic the site is getting. Far more than I had anticipated. I'm actively working on putting in a robust discussion board (the wonderful php based phpBB) to replace the rinky-dink one that is currently there. We'll probably move the whole web site to another hosting service soon (not that our current host hasn't done a great job, though) just to take advantage of some of the better deals out there in hosting. I'll wait to install the new board until then.

Wrapped up the first beta of 5.25

Beth's been attending a "National Women in Ministry Association" conference in Nashville and I've been working on getting the first beta of version 5.25 finished up.

The "pack and go" feature works great. At least for me. For people with more than one computer with DM data on it, this will be a real help. Sometime, though, I need to write a true "synchonization" routine that allows updates on both computers and synchronizes them with each other. That will be an interesting challenge.

I also wrote a routine I've been wanting to do for some time - automatic address updates based on address information in the contributions files. That will be a real time saver for those who are using the automatic give posting routines. While testing it, I've already found some address changes that I missed.

I put another small routine in as well to help WGM staff with a bit of their paperwork. At the end of their Homeland Ministry Assignment, WGM staff are supposed to analyze how they got their support ... how much from personal face to face meetings, how much from small group "home" meetings, how much from public services, mail appeals, phone calls, etc. This little routine helps figure that all out. Others may find it useful as well.... We'll see.

By the time I release 5.25 I hope to have support for Wycliffe Canada giving statements, and some new "rolling average" analysis that several have asked about. I've never done that before, but I can see where it might be useful.

The first try at a "Pack and Go" data transfer routine is done

I had a chance to finish up the first pass at a data transfer routine that makes it easy to transfer the Donor Manager data files from one computer to another. I've never found it difficult, but since my wife got her own computer, we've had a need for an easy way to transfer data from one computer to another to keep the two in synch. This little routine compresses all of the data files (and optionally your photo files) and puts them on a diskette (or diskettes if necessary), or on a USB Flash drive. We use the USB drive, and it's really great!

I ran into some snags getting the routine to work, though. I had downloaded a utility from the "Universal Thread" (a great on-line forum for Fox, .net, and other programmers), but it would corrupt the data files in certain circumstances (not good!). I sent off an email this morning to the developer of the compression routine (he had posted it over 2 years ago) and got a very nice note from him this afternoon with a new copy of the routine, with the bug fixed. Plus, he sent a very nice note and offered to help with some of the DM programming.

Since I've been working on this project, I've been impressed with the willingness of people to help. Just in the past few months, I've had incredible assistance from other programmers here at WGM, from New Tribes (Rodd Harris helped lick an elusive bug in the DM / Word envelope interface), plus a very patient team of beta testers who give feedback on new routines as they are still "works in progress."

I remember being involved in the Kenya Christian Computer User's Group for years in Nairobi. There was an incredible passion about helping one another, and just the sheer "joy of sharing." I've been a recipient of that lately, and it has been great!

So, now, what will I work on next? Probably a "rolling giving average" routine, an "e-mail people who gave this month" routine, and the "synch this stuff with Palm / Pocket PC" routines.

Got any suggestions? Let me know: john@donormanager.com.

Working on a "Pack and Go" feature for the next version

For some time now, I've wanted to put a "pack and go" feature in the program so that Beth (my wife) and I could more easily synchonize the data we have on our 2 computers. Well, I guess we have 2 now since she got a new laptop.

I'd really like to put a genuine "synch" feature where each computer reconciles changes made on the other one, but I'm not quite ready to tackle that one yet. What I want to do is make it really easy to move the data from one computer to another.

It's actually fairly easy right now... just copy the contents of the "data" folder from one computer to another, but I want to make it a "one click" operation, including compression so people who are still using diskettes can do it.

We use a cheap little USB Flash drive (got it for $ 10 at OfficeMax). Works like a champ!

I've found a nice open source (read: free) compression tool, but it doesn't generate industry standard "zip" files (my first choice). It uses the same technology, but a proprietary (sp) format. It works great! Maybe I'll put that in, and then put a link in for those who own WinZip. I dunno.

Either way, the beta of this should be done in a day or so. I fly this weekend to Florida to speak at a supporting church, so no doubt I'll have some time in the airport and on the plane to work on this.

Version 5.24 was released today

I was able to post the public version of 5.24 today. It has a number of nice enhancements to reports, an very nice quick find tool on the partner details screen, and (my favorite) a much quicker shutdown when you have not edited data.

The previous version would do a backup of your data whenever you quit the program. This version first of all checks to see if you changed anything. If you did make changes, then it goes ahead and does the backup. If you were just looking at data or running reports, then no data really changed, so the program just quits. Nice.

I've been really appreciative of the help of the beta testers. They have had some great ideas and have been very faithful to help test the program.

I've got a lot of ideas for the next version. And, real soon now, I want to take the program into Fox8. That will give me one feature I really want to have - easy screen resizing (which Fox 6 has, but is SLOW).