[Steven Zahm]

RE: I usually do the updates from the Dashboard/WordPress Updates page.

Yes, that is the page that I am referring to.

RE: thanks very much for the amazing support, as always!

Thanks!

If you have a moment, I would truly appreciate a review as they really do make a difference.

https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/connections/reviews/

Thanks in advance for your time!

[Steven Zahm]

Ok, was able to track down and correct the update bug where selecting the plugin update to update on the Updates admin page and clicking the Update Plugins button would still display the update even though the update was installed. The next Connections update will correct this.

If you have experienced this issue in any other the ways in which a plugin can be updated, please let me know.

[Steven Zahm]

I’ve looked into this both on your site and my test site. There seems to be only one scenario were I was able to replicate this.

On the Updates admin page (under the Dashboard admin page). If I check the box beside the update and click the Update Plugins button. The plugin update will not be recognized, oven though it has actually been updated.

In testing I also tested updating using the following methods:

• Clicking the View version details link on the Updates admin page and then clicking the Install Update Now button in the popup.
• Clicking the View version details link on the Plugins admin page and then clicking the Install Update Now button in the popup.
• Clicking the update now link on the Plugins admin page.
• Checking the checkbox next to the update on the Plugins admin page and choosing the Update option from the Bulk Actions.

None of the above methods produced the issue.

Is this you experience? The method where I was able to produce the issue, is this how you update plugins? If not, could you explain which method you update plugins so I can continue to try to reproduce it.

[Steven Zahm]

@ Sue

RE: I have instances where there are multiple cell phone or email addresses entered for a particular entry. These show up fine when displaying the directory, but when I export the data, only the first cell phone or email address is included in the file.

Yes, I believe this is correct. What you need to do is use the phone and/or email export tools in addition to the “All” tool. You can use Excel with a VLOOKUP formula to “link” the data. (I thin VLOOKUP is the correct function, its been awhile since I’ve built such formulas in Excel).

The reason is it is exceedingly difficult to export relational data from a database into a single “flat” CSV file. This is, for example, why WP does not export its data as a CSV file. (Yes, you can find plugins to do this, but, they do not export all the data.) It is a trade off that has to be made in order to make the exported data accessible. Ideally you would want the file exported as an XML (which can be structured to capture relational data) file but that is not an accessible file format that most will not be able to work with.

RE: we would like to exclude the year and only collect the month and day in each of those fields. If I change the date format in the Settings area, leaving off the “, Y” currently in the default setting, will this work? Or is this setting only used to format the display of a date?

You will have to enter a year when adding the date. It does not need to be the real year, but it will have to be a valid past year. Then you can use the display date format option to not display the year.

The year needs captured so date based queries can be performed such as those for upcoming birthdays and anniversaries.

When I’ve setup directories for churches I’ve used a common date such as 1900 or 1970 to capture “unknown” years. That way they were easily distinguished from “real” dates in the “raw” data when we had to work from it.

Hope this helps!

[Steven Zahm]

@ Jonathan

Here’s a link to a tutorial on how to print your directory using Word 2016. This is a pretty technical tutorial using some pretty advanced features in Word.

If you want it to display like it does on the website, then the best/easiest solution is to use the web browsers ability to save a page as a PDF.

In the past I have researched the possibility of adding such a feature into Connections but the various available solutions are not workable at scale.

• PHP only solutions are very server resource intensive and for more complex documents do not yield great results. But, due to the amount of server resources required to run these libraries, they will simply fail to run reliably on inexpensive shared web hosts.
• There are solutions available which run native on the server, but, these require the user to install server software. This is a non starter in most web hosting environments.
• Lastly, here is the possibility to use 3rd party services, these can be expensive and would require sending your directory data over the wire to that service provider. For many the cost and privacy concerns make this a non viable solution as well.

I do hope my answer helps!

[Steven Zahm]

@ David

Just a quick follow up to see if you are good to go and imports are working as expected or not.

[Steven Zahm]

This reply has been marked as private.

[Steven Zahm]

@ Kelly

What are you trying to update specifically? Connections, one of its addons like a template or extension?

What are the errors you are seeing?

[Steven Zahm]

Apologies for the trouble! It appears there was an issue with the update file. I’ve corrected this and Form should now update.

In regards to the update occurring twice, I’ve never seen that before. I would like to investigate to ensure there is no bugs in the update code. Could you please create a temp admin account using this plugin:

https://wordpress.org/plugins/temporary-login-without-password/

Reply back, as a private reply, with the login link.

Thanks!

[Steven Zahm]

@ Jennifer

RE: Is there a way to tie them together

Sorry, no, there is not currently a way to connect the two. That said, assuming PMP has the necessary hooks it might be possible to feed the initial registration into a new Connections entry and link that user to the entry. Then you could use Form and Link Connections addons to allow the user to manage their entry. And if the membership expires, unlist the linked entry. Again, this assumes that PMP has the necessary hooks.

If such a connector interests you, please contact me using the Contact link at the very bottom of the page and we can work out the details and then provide you with a quote.

Hope this helps!

[Author]

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