Connections Online August/September 2013 Newsletter
Section One: Announcements and Tips
Click to scroll to Section Two: Webinars
Even Though the Users Roundtable Registration Deadline has passed, we were able to secure two more rooms!
September 26-27 in Las Vegas
The Users Roundtable starts with a Kick-Off Dinner on Wednesday evening, September 25th
Agenda Highlights:
- · Highlighting Customer Awards for Performance
- · Performance Appraisal / Linking to Connections Online
- · New Functionality to Improve Accountability and “Stickiness” to Connections Online
- · Share a Best Practice / What’s Working Well
- · Security / Addressing Internal Security and Vendor Security
- · Using Related Links
- · New Reports and Enhancing Reporting Capability
- · Expanded Training and Help Available for New and Existing Users
- · New Features and Tips for Making the Most of the Application
- · MS Project Connector and Outlook Connector Updates
Networking:
Past attendees have said that they find the networking with other customers invaluable
Learn new and creative ways to incorporate Connections Online into your own process
Please contact Linda if you would like to attend – 800-395-1410 or lschmidt@cardwellgroup.com.
We are looking forward to seeing you there!
Connections Online New Process for 4.1 System Announcements
Although the Connections Online site has rarely been down, we have recently instituted a new process to quickly notify our clients if the site is down. If the site goes down and won’t be back up right away, we will post an announcement on our Forum under “System Announcement”. We will also post when it is back up following an outage. Also, when we update the site with a new feature, or new functionality, we will post that on the Forum “Announcements” or “System Announcement” – depending on the feature.
Users who would like to be automatically notified by email when the server is down, or when there are other updates, must subscribe to these Forums. To subscribe, simply go to these Forums link https://connectionsonline.zendesk.com/forums/384646-System-Announcements or https://connectionsonline.zendesk.com/forums/377724-Announcements and click on the “Subscribe” button in the upper right hand corner of this Forum (you may need to be logged in to Connections for the Subscribe button to show). You will then automatically receive an email with any update announcements posted on the forums.
You can also click on any of the other Forums and subscribe to the ones for which you want to stay informed of any new posts.
The New Activity Report
In the latest release of Connections Online 4.1, a new Activity Report was added. The Activity Report provides a comprehensive view of all activity within Connections Online. It answers some of the frequently asked questions such as "Who deleted this metric?" or "Who updated this dialog agenda?" The report shows activity in the system related to the viewed page. This includes page views, item creations, updates, deletes, logins and logouts, and security delegations.
Each page in the application has an Activity Report option located with the other reports on the right-hand side of the screen. In addition, the Individual tab offers a User Activity Report which shows site-wide activities for that individual. The Site Activity Report for Site Admins only shows all activity within the site.
What is on the Report?
Each entry in the Activity Log report includes:
- Object Name and Type - This is the item that was impacted by the activity. The only exceptions are for items that do not have their own page in the application such as related links, list items, basic roles and indicators, etc. The activities to these items will show up under their parent page with further detail in the Action as to what occurred.
- Action - Create, Update, Delete, Delegate, Login, Logout, and more. The actions shown are configurable in the Filter box at the top of the screen. By default, all actions are shown.
- Timestamp - The time the activity occurred in EST. The report has a date range filter at the top which defaults to the current day.
- User - The user who performed the activity. The user can be filtered by using the User drop-down at the top off the screen. The report defaults to showing all Users’ activities to which the current viewer has access.
These entries represent almost all actions that take place within Connections Online. They give users the ability to see what has happened and by whom. Please note that a viewer will only see items they have Read permissions to view.
Example Report for the Demonstration Financial Institution Organization
To see an example, click to the actual Announcement post: https://connectionsonline.zendesk.com/entries/25433467-The-New-Activity-Report
Filtering the Report
As previously noted, the report can be filtered by date, user, and actions. All of these filters are located at the top of the screen. The date and user filters will refresh the report immediately. The action filter requires a click to Apply after selecting or clearing the checkboxes for the actions to show or hide.
Sorting and Grouping the Report
The default sort order for the report is by Date/Time, descending. This allows the most recent items to be located first. The report can be sorted by Date/Time, Object, Type, and User. To sort, click the column header. Click again to sort in the opposite order. Click a third time to clear all sorting and return to the default.
The report can also be grouped. To group, drag the column header to group by, Date/Time, Object, Type, or User, into the grouping bar directly above the column headers, where it says "Drag Columns Here to Group". This can be seen in the sample report image above. An example of grouping by User is seen below. This report is showing two activities performed by user, bob-demo, and is sorted ascending by username.
When grouped, click the label ("User", in above) to change the order. To clear the grouping, click the "X" on the right of the grouping label. This will put the report back to a list format.
New Site-Wide Project Completed Filter
In our last update, we included a new filter on the projects list for every organization or department connection page. In an effort to speed up a few sites who had hundreds of completed projects, the list defaulted to only including completed projects if they were completed in the last 30 days. While that helped a handful of sites, many other sites didn't like the 30-day cut-off, so we immediately worked on finding a better solution. This update includes the first part of that solution.
The new ProjectCompletedFilter setting can be set for your entire site from the admin page under Site Settings. We have set this number to 30 by default, but it can be changed to:
- Any negative number to turn it off entirely and always show all completed projects
- Zero to hide all completed projects
- Any whole number greater than zero to set the number of days of completed projects to show
(like 60 days, 365 days, etc.)
Here, you will also notice a new TaskCompletedFilter setting. Currently, all completed tasks disappear after 30 days. In the next couple of weeks, we will also be updating that built-in, fixed number to instead use this setting.
Connections Online / System Announcement 7/8 4.1 Update
Much of this update is focused on speeding up our page and image downloads. This was done by minimizing the number of round-trip requests to the web server, compressing and caching as much as possible, and minimizing the size of files that aren't compressed and cached. Only script, stylesheet, and image files that are part of third-party controls that we use were left alone. In most cases, the new pages request half as many files (22 vs. 45) and around 118 KB less in non-cached files. For more information please see this link: https://connectionsonline.zendesk.com/entries/24737476-7-8-4-1-Update
Tips and Additional Help Documentation for the Month
Firefox - If the image isn’t showing for COL Login
- In the Firefox menu, go to Tools > Options
- On the Privacy tab, click the clear your recent history link
- Select the time frame you want the history removed
- Close Firefox – reopen and you should be able to login to Connections Online
Drag and Drop
- Drag over the bottom half of 4 to drop as 5
- Drag over 4 and hold SHIFT to drop as 4.1, or drag over the top half of 4.1 to drop as 4.1
- Drag over the bottom half of 4.1 to drop as 4.2
- Drag over 4.1 and hold SHIFT to drop as 4.1.1
Related Links
Newer browsers are dropping support for local file links due to security concerns. You can read more about it, including a workaround, in our Tips and Tricks article: https://connectionsonline.zendesk.com/entries/20460488-Related-Links
The recommended solution is to set up an internal web server for your documents or to use our new built-in feature in Connections Online 4.1 that allows uploading of documents. This feature is called Secure Sypher and is described in more detail here (additional cost for this feature through Secure Sypher): https://connectionsonline.zendesk.com/entries/23746006-Secure-Sypher-Related-Links-Site
Connections Online 4.1 Recorded Introductory Webinar
Use this link for a previously recorded webinar that is an introduction to Version 4.1 http://link.connectionsonline.net/COL-V4.1-Webinar. Use this link to print a copy of the Quick Reference Guide to Version 4.1 http://link.connectionsonline.net/Version-4-1-QRG.doc.
Client Care Notes
To view previous Connections Online Newsletters, go to http://www.connectionsonline.net/News/Newsletters.aspx
Monthly Calendar of Webinar Events Link
Click here to see our upcoming webinars or to register for a free training webinar.
Section Two: Webinars
Connections Online 4.1 Advanced Features Webinars
Tuesday, September 10th at 1:30 ET or Tuesday, October 8th at 1:30 ET
This 30-minute training webinar highlights advanced functionality of Connections Online 4.1 with Q&A.
Click here to register for September 10th
Click here to register for October 8th
Connections Online 4.1 Application Training Webinars
Thursday, September 12th at 1:30 ET or Thursday, October 10th at 1:30 ET
This 60-minute training webinar dives deeper into an overall “how to use” Connections Online 4.1.
Click here to register for September 12th
Click here to register for October 10th
Connections Online 4.1 Security Training Webinars
Tuesday, September 17th at 1:30 ET or Tuesday, October 15th at 1:30 ET
This 60-minute training webinar is for Site Administrators – setting security on the site page and throughout the application.
Click here to register for September 17th
Click here to register for October 15th
Past Educational Webinar Recordings For a listing of our past Educational Webinars, use this link: http://www.connectionsonline.net/news/events.aspx
Informational Webinar
If you know someone outside of your company who may be interested in learning more about Connections Online, we have an informational webinar scheduled on Wednesday, September 18th at 1:30 ET or Thursday, October 17th at 1:30 ET. Please pass this link on to them to register for the:
September 18th Webinar - https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/312121146
October 17th Webinar - https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/320013258
Connections Online
24481 Detroit Road, Suite 300
Cleveland, OH 44145
(440) 892-1410 or (800) 395-1410
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