Release Notes (2016.06.29)

by ClearEvent Support | Release Notes

This release includes numerous usability and stability fixes that include new role-based security features, branding, internet calendar support and more…

What’s New

Granular Security

• Event Owners can now control which areas of the Event Management Portal their organizing team may access.System access can be tailored for an individual on your team by assigning unique security role combinations. For example, you can restrict an individual on your organizing team to only view budget information by assigning them to the “Budget Manager” security role. You can combine as many roles as you like.
  • To assign security roles:
    1. Open the Event Manager App > Event Setup section > Admin tab.
    2. When inviting a new Event Administrator, click the +Invite button and choose the roles you wish to assign.
  • To modify existing assigned security roles:
    1. Open the Event Setup module and click on the Admin tab.
    2. Click the Roles button and choose the desired roles.
• You can modify security role assignments anytime afterwards by returning to the Event Manager App > Event Setup section > Admin tab.
• Important change for Organization Admins: If you are an Organization Administrator, and previously sent an Event License to another Event Administrator to allow them to create a new event, that Event Administrator will now need to explicitly assign you to one or more security roles in order for you to be able to access their event. To do this, ask the Event Administrator to assign you to one or more security roles in the Event Manager App > Event Setup section > Admin tab.

Custom Branding

• Add some pizzazz to your Event Portal with ClearEvent’s new branding capabilities!
• Go to Event Manager App > Branding section to upload a custom event logo and header background image to your Event Portal and Registration Forms. You can also change the accent colors and choose from a selection of high contrast accessibility colors.
• See how your selections will look on an active rendering of your Event Portal right there in the new Branding section.
• To modify branding:
  1. Note: Branding may only be modified by Event Managers assigned to the Event Owner or Event Admin security role.
  2. Go to the Event Manager App > Branding section.
  3. Upload a custom logo, background image or adjust the accent colors.
  4. Click the Save button to apply your changes.
  5. Click the View Live Event Portal button to open a new tab and preview your changes.
  6. Use the color pickers to select and apply new colors to the header text, buttons and menu text.
  7. Use the View Live Event Portal button to see your changes throughout the Event Portal and on your Registration Forms.

Event Rollover

• We’ve made enhancements to Event Rollover. There is now a summary of how event dates will be handled when the event is rolled over. We’ve also made some internal improvements to account for the new security roles.

General Usability Improvements

• We’ve added numerous improvements to the usability of ClearEvent. This is an ongoing process. If you notice something that could be improved or would make ClearEvent easier to use, please let us know. A good example of this is the newly introduced support for adding dates to your calendar which was suggested by a ClearEvent Customer. Thank you Amarpreet! Our goal is to develop software that you love to use!
• Added Support for saving dates to your calendar. Many date fields shown in ClearEvent now include a small clickable calendar symbol which allows the user to add the date or the date range to their calendar. This feature is included in the My Events list, the Event Portal, and in all your registration forms.
• ClearEvent Account phone fields have been renamed to “Phone” and “Mobile Phone” to better match user expectations.
• Budget Categories are now easier to add. New +Revenue Category and +Expense Category buttons have been added to the Budget section toolbar.
• The My Events list now has two tabs, one for current and upcoming events, the other for past events. When you rollover your event, you will see a listing in Past Events for your previous running of your event (for historical purposes) as well as a listing in Upcoming Events for the next running of your event.
• Looking for the link to share your Event Portal? Now you can simply go to the Event Manager App > Event Setup section > General tab. The link is available here and can be easily copied and pasted into your website and email or marketing materials. Note the link to your Event Portal is “evergreen”, meaning once you “roll your event over” for next time, the link to your Event Portal will continue to be usable. No need to update the places or communications where you have previously used the link.
• In the Event Manager App > Event Setup section > General tab, there is both an Event Summary and an Event Description field now. The Event Summary field value will appear with the listing of your event on the My Events page and allows up to 500 characters. The Event Description field value will appear on the Event Portal. It can now accept up to 5000 characters (or roughly 1-2 pages of text on smaller devices).
• As well as numerous smaller fixes and improvements throughout the ClearEvent application.

Registration Forms

• We’ve made a series of improvements to the Forms section. Some focus on making it easier to create and work with forms while other improvements make it easier for your participants to register with your event.
• Registration Forms listed in the Forms section now include the Participant Type under each form name for easy reference.
• Copy Forms! You can create a copy of a form with one click! Simply select the form you want to copy in the Forms section, and click the Copy Form button (which appears on the right side of the form you selected.) A new copy of the form will appear in the list. You can then edit the copy just like any other form.
• Automatically add your registrants to your Contacts list. Registrant contact details are now added to Contacts list by default. When a person registers for your event, their contact information will be added to Contacts. If you have a registration form where you do not want registrants to be added to contacts, simply uncheck the Add to Contacts check box in the Event Manager App > Forms section > Edit Form > Settings tab.
• You can now create “Private Forms” which will not be listed in the Event Portal. This allows events to open registration to a more limited set of attendees. To make a form private, uncheck the Show on Event Portal check box in the Event Manager App > Forms section > Edit Form > Publish tab.
• Publishing forms that include payments now requires payments to be set up for your event in the Payments module. This ensures that all registrants will be able to complete your form and complete their registration payment to your event.
• The Event Manager App > Forms section > Edit Form > Publish tab has been streamlined to make the buttons, fields and messages clearer.
• Deleting a field from a Form causes the field above to become selected. This makes it easier and quicker to make changes to your form.
• We’ve also made many small improvements to the form designer to make it easier to create and edit your forms.
• Let us know if you see any items you feel could be improved!

Performance

• These performance enhancements will help improve page load times in both the Event Portal and in the Event Manager App. We have optimized the amount of data that is loaded when you enter ClearEvent and reduced the information that is loaded when certain views are selected in ClearEvent.
• In general, you should find ClearEvent to be more responsive. As with all applications accessing data over the internet, some unrelated internet delays can occur from time to time.
• Please let us know how it is working for you.

Addresses and taxes

• Registration Forms which include payments will now automatically include registrant address fields from the registrants ClearEvent Account as a required field.
• This is needed by the event in order to determine the tax payable, if any, on the payment received by the event. The address information is available to events in the Event Manager App > Participants section > Participants tab > Participant Details tab. This information may also be exported by event administrators.
• NOTE: ClearEvent is not able to advise event organizers on tax matters. Please seek advise from your tax professional.

Release Notes (2016.05.18)

by ClearEvent Support | Release Notes

This release includes numerous usability and stability fixes for the Budget, Event, Forms, Jobs, Messages, Schedules, and Todos modules.

What’s New

Budget

• Reordering Budget Line Items: Corrected problems encountered in Budget when moving lines up or down to a different part of the budget

Event Setup

• In Event Setup, the list of Event Administrators is now sorted alphabetically.
• Corrected some minor problems with the way event contacts display on the Event Portal.

Registration

• Improved Event Registration Workflow: A new and improved event registration workflow and registration wizard is now available. Important details from your event is now shown on the ClearEvent Sign in / Sign up page. This helps registrants know they are in the right place to sign up for your awesome event. We’ve also combined “Sign up” and “Sign In” capabilities into a single, easy to use, page. So, regardless of whether or not your Registrants have a ClearEvent Account, getting registered for your event is simple and quick.
• New Multi-line Text Form Fields: You can now create text fields on your registration form that can capture multiple lines of input from your registrants. In the Form Designer, simply add a new Text field to your form and in the FIELD SETTINGS tab, select the Show multiple lines under the DISPLAY settings group and then choose how many lines you would like to capture. You’ll be able to see the how the field looks in the form preview area.
• Deleting Forms: Forms can now be deleted. To delete a form, open the Form Manage module, select a form and click on the Delete button. Deleting registration forms is uncommon because forms are typically reused from event to event. Nonetheless, if you have test forms or old forms you no longer need, you can now delete them to keep things nice and tidy.
• Display Forms on the Event Portal: Forms are now listed alphabetically in the Registration page and on the Dashboard.
• Forms automatically collect Email Address: When build your registration forms, you no longer need to ask for an email address from your registrants. Along with First Name and Last Name, you will automatically receive the the Email Address field from the registrants ClearEvent Account User Profile. You can also easily choose other fields from a registrants ClearEvent Account like (Mobile Phone, Other Phone, and Address).
• The “Id” form field setting has been renamed: A small improvement has been made when adding new fields to a form in the Form Editor. Field Short Name (Id) setting will be auto-focused to improve the form editing experience.
• Increased Form Description:
  The Form Description field has been doubled in size and now accepts up to 4000 characters of text that you can use to describe your form to your registrants.
• Enhanced closed form messages: When a Registrant attempts to access a registration form that is closed, the error messages shown to the registrant have been clarified. We now indicate if registration is not yet open or if registration has past.
• Auto-scroll to newly added form fields: When editing your forms, the selected field will now auto-scroll into view if it is not visible.
• Form layout improvements: Visual layout improvements have been made to the Registration Form screens. Namely, the ClearEvent Account User Profile section of the registration form is now displayed above the Participant Availability section. Additional layout improvements have been made to field validation errors on your registration form for things like required fields.
• Label no longer required on Form Field settings: On a Registration Form, fields no longer require the Label setting to be specified. We recommend you use this capability with caution, but you can now omit the Label (if you really really want to).
• Id form field setting renamed to Field Short Name (Id): On a Registration Form, we have renamed the “Id” field setting to “Field Short Name (Id)” to better clarify the intent of this field. You should use this field setting to give a short and meaningful name to your form field. Fields are used elsewhere in the ClearEvent system so uniquely identifying each of your form fields by filling in the Short Field Name (Id) setting is important.
• Form editing improvements: Numerous form editing stability improvements have been made to the Form Editor.

General

• Saving User Preferences and State: When working in various ClearEvent modules, we now remember and save user preferences and the state that the screen was in (on a device-by-device basis). We save filters, list sort order, selected tabs, etc. This makes you more productive if you find yourself always switching between modules.
• Website address formats: Clarified the help messages which display when invalid website urls are entered into the system.
• Scrolling improvements: Improved scrolling behavior for long lists or screens with scrollbars (like the Budget, Participants, the Form Designer, etc.)

Jobs

• Export Job Assignments to Excel: Job assignments can now be exported to excel in one easy step.
• Improve Job Assignment Status Indicators: The Job Assignment Status Indicator in the Job section list has been improved to consider cancelled participants in the progress indicator.
• Send Invite Event Admin Error: Corrected an intermittent error that is sometimes experienced when inviting new Event Administrators from the Event Manger App > Event Setup section > Admin tab.
• Stability: Corrected issue where rapidly switching between modules in the left navigation pane can cause “An unexpected error happened (Uncaught TypeError: Unable to process binding)”
• Stability: Corrected issue in the Event Portal > Messages page where participants visiting the Event Portal that have not signed in, are currently not be able to view Messages that have been shared as “Public”.
• Stability: Corrected issue where some users may experience a 500 Server Error" page when attempting to sign-in.

Messages

• Improved the search function in Messages to include the entire message body.

Schedules

• Fixed. Resolved an issue in the Event Manager App > Schedule section > Schedule Details editor where the schedule and location links were not clickable. It is now possible to click on the links and a new browser window will be opened and navigated to the specified links.
• Fixed. Corrected default date values for newly created Schedules which could cause save errors.
• Fixed. Corrected items in Schedule causing errors on Save.

Todos

• Added additional Rollover options to TODOs item details to include TODOs that won’t rollover and long-lead TODO’s that are for next event rather than the current event.
• Importing Todos: Importing Todo items has been improved to make all but the Description field in your import file optional. This greatly improves the effort required to import long lists of Todo items using excel and lists you may already have.

Release Notes (2016.04.28)

by ClearEvent Support | Release Notes

What’s New

Budget

• This release includes numerous usability and stability fixes for the Budget module.
• Navigation Key Improvements:
  • TAB: Use the TAB button to move forward through the category and budget line item fields on the budget.
  • SHIFT-TAB: Use SHIFT-TAB to move backwards through the category and budget line item fields on the budget.
  • ENTER: Pressing the ENTER key when editing a row will either select and begin editing the field in next budget line item, or if you are editing a value in a placeholder row, will add a new budget line item.
• Editing budget line items: The Description field for both Category and Budget line items is no longer required. This makes entering large amounts of data much easier. Use the ENTER key to rapidly add multiple items quickly without requiring a line item description.
• The Qty field now defaults to 1 (a more sensible default than 0) to allow you to quickly see how your category and budget totals are affected when adding new line items.
• Validation for the Qty and Unit Cost fields has been improved to prevent invalid values from being entered that cannot be saved. The Qty field only accepts positive numbers. The Unit Cost field accepts both positive and negative numbers in standard currency accounting format (e.g. “-29.99” or “29.99”).
• Saving your changes: A new Save icon will now be visible when editing any line item row. This makes it much more obvious how to save pending changes to a budget line item row. Other ways that you can save pending changes include pressing the TAB key until you move off to the next row, pressing the ENTER key to move to the next row, or clicking/tapping on any other row.
• Pending changes on a budget line item row are automatically saved when you navigate to another module or click the Refresh button.
• Discarding changes to a budget line item: Prior to saving changes you have made to a row, you can now press the ESC key while editing a budget line item to easily discard your changes. The budget line item will revert to the previously saved values.
• Exporting Budgets: When exporting your event budget to an Excel CSV file, the order of the line items now matches exactly with what you see in the Budget section. Empty categories are also not exported.
• Formatting Improvements: A number of small formatting and white-space improvements have been made to the budget module to make the budget easier to read.

Event Portal

• The list of published Registration Forms that is displayed on the Event Portal is now sorted by name to make forms easier to find.

Schedule Editing:

• When creating or editing a Schedule in the Event Manager App > Schedule section, a Section’s Name field is no longer required. If desired, you may leave the Section’s Name field blank, but it’s still best to give your Sections descriptive names whenever possible (e.g. ‘Main Stage’, ‘Saturday’, ‘Sunday’, etc…). When a Section with a blank Name is displayed on the Event Portal, the Section header will appear as a gray divider bar.

Release Notes (2016.04.03)

by ClearEvent Support | Release Notes

What’s New

General

• Performance Improvements & Bug Fixes: This release includes numerous performance improvements and bug fixes that resolve previous known issues to improve your experience with the ClearEvent platform.
• Usability Improvements: The first name of the currently logged in user is now shown beside the navigation drop down menu.
• Date/Time Picker Enhancements: You can now type dates like “3 Apr 2 PM” into the date/time picker fields and we’ll intelligently parse it into a the full date and time (for the current year). This saves you lots of time when entering dates into the system.

Event Setup

• In the Event Manager App > Event Setup section, the Event Contacts, Event Locations and Event Custom Fields Edit/Add Dialog windows have been updated to move the checkbox controls visibility on the Event Portal forward from the “Other” tab to the “Details” tab. This makes it easier to find and set the visibility for these items on the Event Portal.

Todos

• Todo Item Import: It is now possible to import existing Todo items from Excel (.csv format). In the toolbar, simply click the Import button to get started. You will be presented with an import wizard that will give you the ability to download a starter template. Save the starter template to your computer, open it and fill it in with your existing Todo items. You can copy paste from other Excel documents if needed. When finished, save your template and then simply choose “Select file…” from the Import todos dialog window to upload the file. The ability to import existing todo items makes it very easy to leverage lists from a previous event.
• Todo Item Export: It is now possible to export Todo items to Excel (.csv format). In the toolbar, simply click the Export button to get started. This is useful for customers wishing to analyze or print their Todo lists from Excel.
• Usability Improvement: Added a getting started message to the Todo module to assist users when setting up new lists of Todo items.

Schedules

• The Event Manager App > Schedules section > Sharing tab sharing options have been simplified to make it easier to select which participants a schedule should be shared with.