While our engineering and product teams were busy building the features that launched on Tuesday, the education team built out material to explain how to use it all. Here's an overview of the 11 new HOWTOs and 3 new videos.
- Keep track of relationships
- Use paths
- Create goals
- Upgrade from followups and contact types
- Default paths
- Manage control panel users
- Expanded custom field documentation
How to keep track of relationships - this overview of the People section will give you a sense of how paths tie together all of the other features of your people database.
How to use paths - this HOWTO covers every aspect of paths, from editing default paths to create them from scratch, adding someone to a path manually or automatically or via batch update, paths in a profile (including resurrecting accidentally deleted paths), the incredible new path view, logging interaction on a path, and filtering paths.
If you prefer learning via video, Kevin Coleman boiled the information down into a fifteen minute video. (Hey, biggest upgrade ever - can't expect the explanation to conform to the less than 5 minute internet standard.)
How to create goals - Goals are front and center when you open your control panel, providing a great snapshot of your organization's health.
Upgrade from followups and contact types to paths - for current customers, the first step in the upgrade process is to select a new plan. Until December 31, 2015 you can lock in all the new features for up to two years using your current pricing plan. Once you've sorted out getting access to paths and goals, the next step is removing followups and contact types from your nation. If you haven't been using those features, this will be done automatically. Otherwise, you'll need to remove them to gain complete access to the new features. This HOWTO walks you through the process of transforming a contact type into a path and path steps. Then it explains how to migrate open followups to placing people on path steps.
Understand default paths - based on features enabled in your nation, specific paths will be created automatically. These paths can help guide you through incorporating NationBuilder into your workflow. You can edit every step of these paths and you can delete them entirely. These paths are built from our experience working to grow communities. We welcome your feedback! Please leave comments on the HOWTO to help us refine the process moving forward.
How to manage control panel users - three HOWTOs were combined and expanded to create this new guide to control panel users. This includes inviting someone to have access to the control panel, definitions of the permissions available -- including a clear explanation of permissions only available to admins, and how to create / edit permission sets. Please note that we are planning on expanding permissions so that when a path step or path is assigned to a control panel user, that assignment gives the control panel user access to the person's profile.
Expanded custom field documentation - every customer on a new pricing plan can have custom fields enabled in their nation. Given that this feature remains a bit complicated to implement, we felt it was important to expand the support information available. And please remember, NationBuilder Architects can help fully implement custom fields on your website and in email blasts.
- Introduction to custom fields - we ask that everyone interested in enabling custom fields read this introduction, so that you understand the breadth and complexity of the feature.
- How to create custom people fields - how to create custom people fields in the Settings section, add them to a particular profile, import them, and filter for them.
- How to create custom donation fields - when to create custom donation fields, how to create them in the Settings section, add them to a donation record, import them, and filter them.
- How to request custom people fields on webpages - Custom people fields can be requested on most action pages. The code examples in this HOWTO can be copied directly onto a signup page. There are also instructions for editing the code to place it on other action pages.
- How to request custom donation fields on donation pages - By default, all custom donation fields are requested on new donation pages. This HOWTO explains how you can refine that request to specific types of custom donation fields. Custom donation fields can only be requested on donation pages and their values cannot be displayed on a webpage.
- Including custom people fields in email blast - An expansion of our liquid in email HOWTO.
Please let us know if any of our support information is confusing! Your feedback is invaluable to improving our writing / filming.
Watch this space - more education resources are coming soon!
