PayPal Security Updates = move to new hosting

PayPal have made security updates which will be enforced from 30 June 2017. These changes require higher security than is offered by Kiwihosting. Due to this, all clubs using PayPal will need to be upgraded to the new hosting prior to 30 June.

All new sites created in the last 6 months have already been set up on the new hosting, and several clubs have already been migrated. I will be having conversations with the remaining clubs over the next few weeks to discuss costs and schedule in the move at a time which suits.

The new hosting is provided by WebRes, and will give a better and more reliable email system, better up time, should be faster, and they also provide a better level of support to me, meaning I get more control over what changes I can make, and also they respond faster to questions / issues.

If you have any questions, or want to discuss moving your site ASAP please get in contact.

Upgrade Available - 2017.01

The first upgrade of 2017 is here. And with the new year, the version numbering has been updated. The first 4 digits in the version will now be the year, with the second two digits indicating the number of the release during that year.

New Features & Enhancements

• Booking - Copy function for Booking Openings and Periods (CS-185, Brindabella)
• Booking - Show day name as well as date on Manage and My Bookings (CS-180, Iwikau)
• Booking - Add gender to Manage Booking page (CS-182, Iwikau)
• Booking - Add ShowDueDateBookingInvoice parameter so can set differently for bookings and other invoices (CS-172, KAC)
• Booking - Add Send Invoice link to Manage Bookings page (CS-175, KAC)
• Booking - Add Guest Dietary Requirements (CS-171, KAC)
• Financial - Update CBA to use SHA256 (CS-156, Brindabella)
• Financial - Enable additional fields for Message area on Contact Members page to show more invoice and booking info in emails (CS-173, KAC)
• Financial - Ability to select a template when emailing invoices from Invoice page (CS-174, KAC)
• General - Add scaling info to enable future use of mobile stylesheets (CS-178, Waikato)
• Report - Additional filters on Invoices Summary Report (CS-176, KAC)
• Report - New report to show all Accepted bookings where people are not allocated to beds (CS-177, KAC)

Fixes

• Booking - Adding people when not all staying same nights causes all people already in booking to be accepted (CS-141, Brindabella)
• Booking - Incorrectly gets status based on age when AllowGetRateFromAge parameter is set to false, but some statuses have the getRateFromAge value set (CS-98, Gore Hill)
• Booking - Doesn't change last night when add extra nights (therefore adding guests only adds for first night) (CS-188, Iwikau)
• Booking - Bed list incorrect when BunkListMemberShowAllocation = false (CS-184, Iwikau)
• Financial - Change manual invoice line causes financials to be incorrect (CS-187, Iwikau)
• Financial - Test changing BookingPaymentModel param (CS-191, Taki)

Upgrade Available - 11.10

As always let me know if you want an upgrade!

New Features

• Booking - add option to booking openings to restrict number of non-members that can be booked in on each booking
• Booking - add ability to select people to email by booking lodge and dates when choose PDF & Email Booking from Bed List

Minor Enhancements

• Booking - add new FreezePeriod and FreezePeriodStartDay parameters 
• Booking - update CancellationPeriodFreezeAll parameter to CancellationPeriodAllowChanges
• Booking - add option to search to find only those bookings with an amount still owing
• Booking - add description field for Booking Openings
• Report - add booking created date to booking reports

Fixes

• Booking - resolve issue when updating a booking causes incorrect amounts to be refunded

PayPal Security Updates

PayPal are making investments and improvements to their infrastructure over the next few months. Some clubs will have received emails from PayPal notifying them of this. I am currently investigating changes that may need to be made as a result of PayPal's updates. Once I have determined what is required I will let you know.

Note that if Club System updates are required, there is a chance that all clubs who use PayPal will be required to upgrade to the latest version in order for PayPal to continue to work - I will let you know as soon as possible if this is the case so we can set plans in place for this to happen.

More info (technical) can be found here: https://www.paypal-knowledge.com/infocenter/index?page=content&widgetview=true&id=FAQ1913&viewlocale=en_US

Let me know if you have any queries, otherwise watch this space for further details.

Upgrade Available - 11.05

Ok, so we skipped a few releases there... it's been a busy few months with new clubs coming on, and lots of little tweaks and fixes.

Apologies to all those who have requested an upgrade over the last little while. We've had a few issues which I wanted to get resolved before making the releases available to all. We are now good to go, so I will be starting to upgrade you over the coming weeks. As always, please let me know if you want to be upgraded, and if you have any specific requests as to when.

New Features

• Booking - add option to booking openings to restrict number of non-members that can be booked in on each booking
• Booking - add ability to select people to email by booking lodge and dates when choose PDF & Email Booking from Bed List

Minor Enhancements

• Booking - simplify Booking Opening and Booking Periods error messages
• Booking - add expired as option to booking search so can find expired bookings
• General - add start & end date fields to locker allocations (controlled by LockerAllocationsShowDate parameter)
• General - add parameter to set date and time so can easily test booking openings (TestDateTime parameter)
• General - when using Contact Members, change to sends to family master first, so if not sneding duplicates, then family master is person in family who receives email
• Membership - move email address closer to top of profile
• Membership - add secondary email field, and cc to this when using Contact Members 
• Membership - add Website URL, Fax, Skills, Occupation, Date Joined, Date Resigned, Secondary Email to MembershipProfileFields parameter so can turn off
• Membership - increase password max length to 16

Fixes

• Bookings - fix to hold bed once timer starts
• Bookings - fix for expiring bookings when get booking openings or booking periods error
• Bookings - fix to only return my bookings when search with booking ID on my bookings page
• Bookings - resolve issue with confirmation emails not being received
• Bookings - fix error when booking officer tries to continue a booking after an error
• Bookigns - remove In Progress bookigns from waitlisted / requested count on availability and bed list
• Financial - fix to only return my invoices when search with booking ID on my invoices page
• General - fix redirect loop when member with secure level = public tries to log in
• General - enforce change password when use Forgotten Password functionality
• Report - resolve error in transaction report when have dollar value longer than 5 digits

December 2015 Update

In this update:

• New hosting available 
• Bed list screen
• Latest version

Merry Christmas! 

I hope you are all enjoying the silly season, and here's an early present for you - the first of the updates I'm planning to keep you in the know on what's happening in the world of Club System. I'm hoping to get them out at least quarterly, but let's see how we go.

New Hosting Available

I have been researching an alternate host for Club System sites for the past few months, and have found Webres Solutions. This company out of Melbourne can provide a lot more power, reliability and speed than the current Kiwihosting solution, and the support to date has been outstanding.

All new Club System sites created in the latter half of this year have been set up on the new hosting, and have provided a good test and shakeout of the new service. I'm now looking to start moving existing sites across.

Of course, the additional benefits come with extra cost, so for those who want to move there will be a small increase in your yearly fee, as well as a one off cost to cover the move. Those that are happy with the existing solution are more than welcome to stay there for the time being.

Please get in contact if you are interested in finding out more, especially those in the Southern Hemisphere who would like to upgrade in the off season.

Bed List Screen

Check out the photo below of the screen up at Icicles Ski Club. This screen has a real time version of their bed list, as well as weather updates and other important information. Let me know if you are interested in discussing what's involved to get one of these up in your lodge.

Latest Version

The latest version is v10.04, which has some exciting new features you can check out in the earlier blog post here. Things are pretty busy in the lead up to Christmas, but I will be happy to upgrade anyone who would like it in the new year - just let me know.

Until the Next Time...

That's it for the first update - I hope it's been useful! Have a wonderful Christmas and New Year.

Upgrade Available - 10.04

New Features

• Booking - add guests gender field (controlled by ShowGuestGender  param)
• Booking - add ability to set max number of nights a member is  allowed to book in any booking period
• Booking - add ability to set which day of the week the first night in a booking can be (booking openings)
• Booking - add booking periods to staggered booking periods - so  can set opening dates for particular booking periods (controlled by  CheckBookingPeriodForBookingOpening parameter)
• Booking - disable all interactions (including cancelling) during  disabled booking period
• Booking - show requested and held beds (when using SYB) on bunk  list and availability
• General - ability to add all members in a membership status to a  new work party
• General - Add work party fields to contact member form 
• Financial - add CBA payments

Fixes & Minor Enhancements

• Booking - remove booking fee and any other invoice lines when  expire a booking
• Financial - update so invoices switch to over due based on  overdue date, not invoicesduewithin parameter
• Financial - changes for authorize.net URL
• Financial - after committee transferring money, when click view  financial summary link takes to members own view, not committee view of  that member
• Financial - when save a status, need to update a fee, not  delete, as if delete then doesn't recognise already have generated an  invoice for that member and fee
• General - Icicles specific tasks to generate work party fees,  MYOB invoices & member reports and generate balancing work parties
• General - members lists in dual select boxes are not in  alphabetical order
• General - rename staggered booking periods to booking opening  periods (to remove confusion)

As always, let me know when your club is ready to upgrade either by email, or leave a comment below.