Recent News
Text Messaging Support Added!
Posted By: phillb2 on 10/24/11
Brothers,
View Thread | # of Replies: 0
After starting the ZAX Portal, there was one piece of functionality that most chapters wanted to have that would help them increase communication: chapter wide text messages.
Today, I've launched the first iteration of the ZAX Portal's text messaging system. Now, officers have the ability to send up to 5 chapter-wide text messages a day to either all actives, or all other officers. I hope to expand these options even further after we give this system some testing.
This system can be found in the Officer CP from the link labeled "Send Chapter Wide Text Message". From there, the officer can select who they would like the texts to be sent out to and the actual message. The officers will also see which of their actives have not enabled text messaging for their account yet.
By default, all accounts have text messaging disabled. This was one of my concerns in regards to security and giving brothers more control over their accounts. A brother must enable their account to receive text messages by confirming their phone number. This is easily accomplished by going to your "My Account" tab, clicking on the "Enable Text Messages" button on the right hand side, and following the instructions.
Therefore, if any chapters wish to utilize chapter-wide text messages, they first must get their brothers to enable their accounts.
If people believe this program should be opt-out instead of opt-in then I'm willing to talk it over.
Please remember, that while sending these text messages comes at no cost to the chapter, an individual user's standard text plans still apply. Sending frivolous text messages will look poorly upon the officer sending the texts out.
If you guys have any questions, please let me know either here or by sending me an email at webmaster@zaxportal.com.
Thanks and in ZAX,
BayCommunity Bulletin + Active Threads on Dashboard
Posted By: phillb2 on 09/22/11
Brothers,
View Thread | # of Replies: 0
To further increase the interaction amongst Zetas across the nation, I've implemented the first of many features to come.
I'd like to introduce the Community Bulletin Board. My hope for this particular subforum, which is automatically displayed on every chapter's Dashboard, is that it will be used by chapters who want to spread some news about what's going on with their Zeta. Did you just accept new associate members? Make a thread and introduce them. Did you select a date for initiation and would like to extend an invitation to other chapters to join? Post a new thread with people's contact information. Is your chapter running a special event that could use exposure or donations? See if other chapters would be willing to help out.
I hope to expand this functionality from just nation-wide postings to be also regionally based.
I've also implemented a most recent threads listing underneath the bulletin board. I hope to increase the amount of discussion going on between brothers, regardless of physical location from one another.
Here's a screenshot of what the Dashboard now looks like, but check it out for yourself and let me know what you think.
Thanks and in ZAX,
BayChapter Documents + Widget
Posted By: phillb2 on 08/24/11
Greetings Brothers,
View Thread | # of Replies: 3
Going off of a suggestion from brother Nate Nahmias, I've gone ahead and added a chapter document management tool. This will allow chapters to have their own private directory of files that they can easily share with everyone in their chapter.
Documents can currently only be uploaded by officers in their Officer CP tabs.
I've also enabled the ability for chapters to display their chapters most recent documents on the dashboard with links to the various categories associated with the documents. This setting is turned off by default. To enable it on your dashboard, please goto the settings section in the Admin CP.
Currently, you can upload Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and several types of images (jpeg, png, gif).
This may still be a little rough around the edges, but we can definitely add some more customizable settings to spruce things up a bit. Please feel free to let me know what you think.
In ZAX,
Bay[New Feature] Itemized Financial Accounts
Posted By: phillb2 on 03/28/11
Brothers,
View Thread | # of Replies: 1
I'd like to announce the release of the Itemized Financial Account system for the ZAX Portal. Previously, the chapter's High Tau could only update a brother on their overall account balance; this is no longer the case.
High Tau's can now keep a brother's account completely up to date via their Officer CP. I've uploaded two videos that give you a good way to see how the system works:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFod0__fjEI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0g180KPA_s
I've also added the option to display the brother's balance and line items on their dashboard. By default, every chapter has this option enabled. If you'd like to disable it, you will find its setting in the Admin CP, under the settings link.
Here are some more features that I will implement soon:
- Emailing the individual brother a "register" of their account.
- Sending out "bills". With the click of a button, the High Tau can send out bills to all actives when money is due.
- Integrating the line items with budget items.
- Import in previous financial data from Quicken
- More?
I'd love to have any feedback on this. Please tell your chapter's High Tau's about this, and see if they'd be interested in utilizing this system.
In ZAX,
Bay[New Feature] House Meeting Attendance
Posted By: phillb2 on 02/17/11
Back on the 14th, I had asked on Facebook if anyone would be interested in Chapter (House) Meeting attendance functionality for the chapter's High Gamma.
View Thread | # of Replies: 0
Today I found that I had some extra time, and was able to implement a pretty straight forward system.
Here you can view the High Gamma's page that has a new link labeled "House Meeting Attendance". Starting a new meeting to take attendance for is simply done by clicking on its respective button. The Gamma is also presented with a listing of previous meetings, statistics on the total numbers who were absent or excused, and the ability to click on its date to go in and edit any of the attendance.
After entering into the meeting attendance, the Gamma will see a pretty straight forward table that lists all of the current active brothers in the chapter, with their Zeta number and a field next to their name.
As the High Gamma is reading off the names for attendance, he can either input 'a' for absent, 'e' for exused, or leave it black for present. By simply pressing tab, the Gamma will move on to the next brother in the list. Everything is automatically updated!
This is similiar to the way we currently take attendance at Epsilon-Eta; however, if your chapter takes attendance differently, please let me know and we could probably create multiple methods and allow you to choose.
Please let me know what you think! There's a lot that we can add to this to flush it out even further.
In ZAX,
Bay[New Feature] Fines & Pluses Implemented
Posted By: Bay Phillips on 01/31/11
One of the main goals of the ZAX Portal is to help a chapter's High Zeta officers increase the transparency of the chapter's operations. Today I've implemented what I hope will be a feature that will help people to be informed.
View Thread | # of Replies: 2
The Fines & Pluses system is managed by the Tau and is displayed on the brother's Dashboard on the top. The brother is presented with each fine/plus that they have their account, and the total monetary amount from everything. It's a pretty simple display; however, we can flush it out further if anyone has any good ideas.
The backend for all of this is pretty straightforward too. The Tau puts a label to a fine/plus, the officer that it relates to and the "weighting" for that specific fine/plus. If someone is fined $10 for each fine, one would put in -10. If it's a plus, a reward, you'd put in a positive number in.
Once the fine is added, the Tau can then increase/decrease the number of the fine/plus for each brother.
What do you guys think?[New Feature] Calendar Email Reminders
Posted By: phillb2 on 01/28/11
Hi everyone,
View Thread | # of Replies: 1
One of the most useful features of the ZAX Portal is the ability to have your calendars readily available to all of your brothers. The current limitation was that once an event was posted, it was up to the individual brother to view the calendar.
Here at RPI, I had implemented an email reminder system that would email our lists at 5AM and 5PM with the upcoming events for that day. It's been extremely helpful in keeping our brothers up to date automatically. Up until just now, it was hardcoded into the system and only available to use at EH. I'd like to announce the introduction of the Event Reminder system which now expands that functionality to everyone.
All you have to do is log in to your ZAX Portal account, click on the Admin CP, and click on the "Event Reminder" link. You will then be taken to the page that will list any current reminders you have set, and the ability to add a new reminder. A reminder can be broken down into three parts:
1. Type in the email addresses you'd like to send the emails to with a new line after each
2. Select at what hour to send the email out. Currently, you only send out emails at the top of every hour.
3. Select which of your calendars that you've specified to email out.
Give the system a try and let me know what you think!Event Posting Permissions Added
Posted By: Bay Phillips on 01/26/11
Greetings everyone.
View Thread | # of Replies: 0
One of the main concerns that has come up in the past was the ability for every brother to post events onto calendars which are potentially public. I've therefore gone ahead and added a little extra functionality into the calendar system that allows each chapter to manage whether or not every brother can add events for a specific calendar, or if it should be limited to officers only.
By default, all preexisting calendars are set so that anyone can add an event. If you would like to change that setting for a specific calendar, simply go to the Admin CP tab after logging in, clicking on the Calendars/Google Accounts link, and changing the setting labeled "Who can post?". It will look something like this.
Please let me know if you have any feedback or if we can expand upon this even further.
In ZAX,
BayOfficer Budget Management
Posted By: Bay Phillips on 01/25/11
Yesterday I was asked to implement a budget management system on the Portal by our new High Zeta. I was able to create a very simple and straightforward UI that displays each officer and their remaining budget. It looks like this.
View Thread | # of Replies: 0
In order to change these values, the High Tau simply has to log in and go to their Officer CP, and click on the "Officer Budgets" link. They'll then be presented with an input for each officer.
As of right now, this information can only be seen by officers. Do we think this should be displayed on the Dashboard as well?Brother Balances & Rushee Attendance
Posted By: Bay Phillips on 01/17/11
Over this past weekend I had some time to work on some functionality that was missing from the Portal: Brother's financial balances and easy rushee event attendance management.
View Thread | # of Replies: 0
The first item, the brother balances, allows the High Tau to easily keep each brother updated on their financial standing. To update a brother's current balance, the High Tau simply clicks on the "Brother Balances" link in their Officer CP. They're than presented with a very simple table that looks like this.
Straight forward, right? The brother's balance is then displayed underneath the "Welcome" message on every page. What's interesting about all of this, is that this is an area we can greatly expand upon.
The other change I implemented was for an easier way for the High Delta to manage rushee attendance to rush events. Similar to the Brother Balances functionality, the Rushee Attendance can be found in the High Delta's Officer CP. It looks something like this.
Let me know what you all think!Holiday Update
Posted By: Bay Phillips on 12/23/10
Hi all,
View Thread | # of Replies: 0
I hope everyone's semester ended well and everyone is enjoying a much deserved break. I just wanted to update everyone to let you all know that ZAX Portal is still alive and kicking.
We've had a couple new chapters register and I'm currently working with another brother on bringing more functionality to the Portal. Definitely stay tuned and I'll do my best to keep everyone updated as things progress.
I'd like to wish everyone a (belated) happy Hanukkah, merry Christmas and a happy New Year.
In ZAX,
BayExport Directory to Google Contacts
Posted By: Bay Phillips on 10/29/10
I received a request to allow your chapter's directory to be importable into your Google Contacts (used for Gmail, Calendar etc). The directory previously had the ability to be exported into a very basic CSV file, but didn't import properly into Google Contacts.
View Thread | # of Replies: 0
After some fiddling around and a fair amount of trial and error, I was able to get the proper formatting for the file and now our actives directory can be completely imported into your Google Contacts.
Simply click the "Google Contacts" file on your Chapter Directory and save it onto your computer. Once that's done, follow this tutorial to import it and you're all set!
Please let me know if there are any questions or comments. I'm always looking to see how we can integrate our Portal data with the rest of what we do.All Chapters Directory, New Chapter Settings
Posted By: Bay Phillips on 10/25/10
One of the things that I hoped to achieve by launching the ZAX Portal for all active chapters was to connect everyone and provide a place for us to share information and collaborate. Today, after receiving some feedback and a request from a chapter's admin, I've added what I'm calling the All Chapters Directory.
View Thread | # of Replies: 2
This directory can be accessed by clicking on the "Directory" tab once you've logged in, and then selected the "All Chapters" link. Here's a screenshot of it:
http://www.zaxportal.com/images/previews...isting.png
As you can see, it's extremely easy to view all of the chapters, and sorting by any of the columns can be done automatically without leaving the page. By clicking on an individual zeta, you'll be taken to the Chapter listing page.
http://www.zaxportal.com/images/previews...hapter.png
Here you can view any of the contact information for the individual chapter, as well as their actives listing.
I've also added five new settings in the Admin CP for us to better describe our settings. Phone number, Address, City, State and Website URL will allow all of our chapters to stay in better touch with each other.
So what does everyone think? There's a lot more we can do with this as this is only a start.New Rush Page Design
Posted By: Bay Phillips on 10/07/10
As I had mentioned earlier, the Rush page needed a new retooling as it was quite old and didn't function as well as it could have.
You can view the new design by going to your Rush page in the Portal, or by clicking here.
So what has exactly changed?
- Brand new design that is more aesthetically pleasing
- Search functionality that allows you to find the specific rushee more easily
- You can sort the rushees by name, number of comments, number of events attended or by the most recent comment posted. All of this can be done by simply clicking on the respective header item.
- Comments are posted from most recent to oldest so that you don't have to see content you've already seen.
I'd love to hear some feedback from you guys. What do you think?
Just a note: There is a current bug when browsing the Rush page in Internet Explorer that prevents the rushee's information from being viewed when first clicked. The problem goes away when you click on the rushee again, but I'm looking into a way to fix it. I will update this post/thread when it's resolved. View Thread | # of Replies: 2ZAX Portal Todo List
Posted By: Bay Phillips on 10/05/10
In an effort to keep you all updated on what I'm currently working on in regards to the ZAX Portal, I'm going to create this thread and update it as work progresses.
Here's what I have on my agenda:- Redesign the Rush Page
- Implement a stand-alone Rush Attendance page for the High Delta
- Better committee functionality including emailing specific committees
If you could please let me know what you'd like to see in the poll attached to this thread it'd be greatly appreciated. View Thread | # of Replies: 3Requested Your Chapter Recently? Please Read
Posted By: Bay Phillips on 09/22/10
I noticed that I stopped getting notifications of accounts being created the other day. After some digging around and some debugging, I found out what was going wrong and fixed the issues. That means that I am unaware of anyone that requested to have their chapter added to the ZAX Portal in the past day or two.
View Thread | # of Replies: 0
If you submitted a request and have not heard back from me, please resubmit your chapter's information. Once I get the notification, I will add you ASAP and get you up and running. I apologize for any inconvenience that it may have caused.Facebook Group
Posted By: Bay Phillips on 09/17/10
I've gone ahead and created an open Facebook group for the ZAX Portal. You can view it here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/ZAX-Portal...589?ref=ts
View Thread | # of Replies: 3
Please invite any and all brothers you may know so that we can spread the word and get more chapters signed up.
*Update on 9/20*
I've created a Facebook page (different) from a Group to use instead. I've updated the link above, but it can now be liked!Updates and News
Posted By: Bay Phillips on 09/16/10
In an effort to further integrate the community forums into the rest of the ZAX Portal, I've now configured the front page to display the most recent threads from this "News / Updates" forum. I believe this will be a great way to get new information out to the public/non-registered people as well as registered brothers that are using the ZAX Portal already.
View Thread | # of Replies: 1
This also means that people can easily comment and reply to the news, and the front page will also show that there's been a discussion on them. Let me know what you guys think.
Forums - Display Name
Posted By: Bay Phillips on 09/13/10
One of the requests was to have your posts displayed with your name, instead of your username that you log in. I thought it would have been easier to do; however, there was no clear cut way. I've been doing my best to get it done, but there are one thing that will just have to be:
View Thread | # of Replies: 0
Any threads created before now will still be displayed as being created by the username, not the display name.
Other than that, I'm working on getting the rest of the places to display our names instead. If you run into anything not working in the forums, it's probably because I'm working on something.ZAX Portal has been launched!
Posted By: phillb2 on 09/08/10
Welcome to the grand opening of the ZAX Portal. As you can see, there are plenty of things that are left to be worked out; however, we're making good progress and will keep everyone updated on the things to come.
View Thread | # of Replies: 0
Please keep in mind that we're just starting out and there will be some rough edges. The potential for increased collaboration amongst all of the zetas is something that is worth the work. We'll be doing our best to add new chapters when they contact us in order to get people up and running. There will also start to be tutorials posted on the community forums on how to use the Portal software.