New in this release
Sphere 9.4.3.4 (December 2013)
The following client-facing changes were implemented:
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
An issue that caused Sphere to remove certain Friends Asking Friends sponsorship level quantities so they
were not available from event websites or Bookkeeping is fixed.
An issue that caused fundraising thermometers on Friends Asking Friends company pages to display
incorrect totals is fixed.
An issue that prevented certain Friends Asking Friends participants from being deleted in Manage
Initiative Records is fixed. Previously, you could not remove company leader records from events when
leaders were registered in multiple events and teams were associated with their records in the other
events.
An issue that caused the Country field in the Billing section of multiple and family registration forms to not
use the default values specified under Control > Administration > Organization Setup > View/Edit Org Info
and Contacts > Database Management > Field Management > Assign Default Fields is fixed.
Logout links no longer appear on forms that use the autofill feature because they cause errors. Instead,
logged in users must now click the logout link in the website's navigation to register or donate on behalf of
other users.
An issue that caused Friends Asking Friends donation forms to intermittently refresh and remove field
entries is fixed.
An issue that caused Sphere to send simple instead of advanced confirmations after pending Friends
Asking Friends gifts were confirmed is fixed.
An issue that caused registration payment installments to appear incorrectly in Friends Asking Friends
People: All Initiative Contacts reports is fixed.
An issue that prevented Friends Asking Friends registrants from removing the Do not mail and Do not
Email options when they edited their profiles in My Headquarters is fixed.
An issue that caused the address verification settings on forms to allow credit card payments when users
entered incorrect address information is fixed.
An issue that caused The Raiser's Edge Sphere Connector to import state information from The Raiser's
Edge into the Province field in Sphere is fixed.
Initiatives in Sphere accounts that use Blackbaud payment services to process payments in currencies
other than United States and Canadian dollars were flagged for deactivation on January 1, 2014.
Note: To reactivate payment features in the initiatives, configure and use custom payment processors or
contact Blackbaud Support to change the type of currency the account accepts.
l
l
An issue that prevented the Team Approach - Sphere Connector from merging new Sphere supporter
records with existing Team Approach records is fixed.
An issue that prevented Friends Asking Friends participants from using the autofill option for family and
multiple registrations and then linking to social media accounts with the social media login feature is fixed.
Sphere 9.4.3.3 (November 2013)
The following client-facing changes were implemented:
l
l
l
An issue that caused custom and multi-language footers to not appear on Friends Asking Friends
password reset pages is fixed.
An issue that caused Friends Asking Friends events to generate incorrect Facebook links is fixed. Sphere
generated the incorrect links when participants attempted to share their personal pages from the View
Personal Page tab in their participant headquarters.
The Raiser's Edge Sphere Connector now suppresses profile updates when changes to Friends Asking
Friends participant records do not result in new profile data exports. Previously, all changes to participant
records triggered profile updates.
Note: The first batch of Friends Asking Friends participant records you synchronize after this release will
include profile updates. Sphere suppresses profile updates for subsequent synchronizations that do not
include profile changes.
l
l
l
l
l
An issue that caused blank white screens to intermittently appear after Friends Asking Friends participants
logged into their headquarters is fixed.
Random split mailings you duplicate use a new process to copy recipient queries. Previously, if you did not
edit and save the queries after duplication, then mailings created in different virtual accounts were sent to
incorrect recipients.
An issue that prevented Friends Asking Friends participants from using the autofill option during
registration and then linking to social media accounts with the social media login feature is fixed.
An issue that caused information about Friends Asking Friends committee members with merged records
to appear incorrectly in reports is fixed.
Friends Asking Friends participant headquarters no longer accept HTML and Javascript in fields on the
personal, team, family, and group/company pages. The program now automatically removes the code
and displays the content as text. The change prevents users from entering malicious scripts on event
pages.
Note: Pages created before the change continue to display any HTML and Javascript that was added to
them.
l
l
l
l
An issue that prevented the Facebook Like button and comments from appearing on Friends Asking
Friends personal, family, and general donation pages is fixed.
Now when ACH transactions appear on bank statements, they include the soft descriptor text from
Sphere. The change helps donors identify the organizations that received their funds. Also, the program
now automatically checks for duplicate transactions before batches are submitted for processing to
prevent double charging donors.
An issue that prevented users from submitting gifts from Control > Batch Entry > Gifts after they edited
fund information is fixed.
An issue that caused Friends Asking Friends sponsorship values to appear incorrectly in committee
reports and Manage Initiative Records after they were received is fixed.
Sphere 9.4.3.2.1
The following client-facing changes were implemented:
l
An issue that prevented users from saving changes in Gala, Game, and Derby events is fixed.
Sphere 9.4.3.2 (October 2013)
The following client-facing changes were implemented:
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
An issue that prevented certain Friends Asking Friends sponsorship levels from appearing as options on
the Single Sponsorship Entry Form in Bookkeeping, and their sponsorship quantities from displaying on
websites is fixed.
Now when Friends Asking Friends registrants and donors share the news about their registrations,
donations, and other event highlights to their social networks, an image and updated link text appears
below the message. The new details specify the event and participant from which the sharing originated.
For example, if a donor shares after donating from a participant's fundraising page, the event name,
participant image, and name appear. Previously, only a link with the text General Donation appeared
below the message.
An issue that caused custom messages to appear for each page in a multiple registration form is fixed. The
messages appeared when they were entered in the Section Note field under Communities > Special Events
> Friends Asking Friends > Kintera Thon > [Highlight the event] > Website Info > Customize Forms >
[Registration Form name] > Fields Order and Label Text > Personalized Web Page Link Fields.
New mobile options appear for Friends Asking Friends under Communities > Special Events > Friends
Asking Friends > Kintera Thon > [Highlight the event] > Website Info > Website Features > Detect and
forward Mobile Devices to Mobile Donation Form. The options enable you to select whether to use the
event's donation levels or mobile specific levels on forms. Donation level amounts appear as buttons on
mobile phones to make them easier for users to select. Previously, mobile forms used default donation
levels.
An updated configuration process to integrate Twitter feeds on Friends Asking Friends event websites is
available. Now you create a Twitter widget and add the HTML code Twitter generates to the Website
Features section of the event. For detailed information about how to create the widget and add the code
to the event, see the Configure a Twitter widget and Configure social media website features topics in the
Sphere Friends Asking Friends Guide.
The main login page now appears when users click the sign in option at the top of Friends Asking Friends
websites that use friendly URLs and the essential design templates. Previously, the social sign-in window
that appeared did not allow users to log into the site.
A data discrepancy that allowed Friends Asking Friends participants in certain events to select deleted
images from the standard image library is fixed.
An issue that caused Friends Asking Friends team pages to display default images and videos on team
pages after captains added their own content is fixed. The issue occurred when captains did not select an
image or video from the standard library.
An issue that caused the autofill option on Friends Asking Friends registration forms to ignore registrant
team selections and prevented the use of the social media login option is fixed.
An issue that caused blank values for matching gifts from organizations in the Donor Reference column of
donation reports is fixed.
The start and end dates that appear in the Display Option section under Content > Content Management
System > [Highlight the site] > Manage Website > Content Management [tab] > Site Structure > [Select a
tool] > Advanced [tab] now extend to 2033. Previously the maximum start and end year was 2013.
A typo that appeared on the Sphere error log page is fixed.
l
l
l
l
An issue in Friends Asking Friends committee member recruitment dashboards that caused organizational
contact names to appear as company names is fixed.
An issue that prevented Friends Asking Friends websites from accepting ACH payments with the Allow
Multiple Registrations per Transaction feature is fixed.
The help text in the Sphere administrative pages that explains the time it takes to process ACH payments
now specifies bank processing may take 4-7 business days. Previously, the text indicated ACH payments
required up to one business day to process.
A new Generate a matching gift donor report help topic is available in the Sphere Friends Asking Friends
Guide.
Sphere 9.4.3.1.1 (September 2013)
The following client-facing changes were implemented:
l
Updates were made to reduce intermittent website slowness and latency issues.
Sphere 9.4.3.1 (September 2013)
The following client-facing changes were implemented:
l
l
Out of date help files that appeared in Friends Asking Friends personal headquarters were replaced with
new instructions.
The Sphere unexpected error message is now more concise than the previous version and includes
instructions for users to submit details to Customer Support.
l
HTML code that appeared on the confirmation page after users requested password resets is removed.
l
An issue that caused inconsistent data to appear in the Emails Sent field of the Registrant Report is fixed.
l
l
l
l
l
l
CAPTCHA was added to the Custom Friends Asking Friends Spread the Word web feature to prevent the
forms from being used for spam. Prior to the change, the number of emails participants could send from
Custom Friends Asking Friends events was five. The number is now increased to 50.
Updates were made throughout Sphere to increase the amount of time the program processes data
requests before error messages appear.
You can now use the Connect API to read from and write to custom organizational fields between parent
and child accounts. You create custom organizational fields in Contacts > Database Management > Field
Management > Manage Custom Fields.
An issue that caused the Join Team link in Friends Asking Friends essential design templates to exceed
team member registration limits is fixed.
An issue that caused Friends Asking Friends friendly URL subdomains to appear in the Edit Friendly URL
field is fixed.
Additional reports available under Control, now respect virtual account settings when users select the
option to email results. Previously, the emailed reports showed results from all virtual accounts instead of
the ones users were logged into. The change applies to these reports:
o
Control > Reports > People > Donor Report
o
Control > Reports > Billing > Donor Designation Details
o
Control > Reports > People > Registrant Report
o
Control > Reports > People > All Contacts Report
o
Control > Reports > Money > Revenue from All Development Initiatives
o
Control > Reports > Money > Goal vs. Actual
o
Control > Reports > Money > Online vs Offline Results
o
Control > Reports > Money > All Team Reports
Sphere 9.4.3.0.2 (September 2013)
The following client-facing changes were implemented:
l
Onscreen confirmations for ACH payments in Friends Asking Friendsnow include pending processed
payment amounts and text to explain they may require four to seven business days to process.
Sphere 9.4.3.0.1 (August 2013)
The following client-facing changes were implemented:
l
l
l
An issue that caused Friends Asking Friends participants to upload images and video twice in their
participant headquarters is fixed.
An issue with the Participant Detail report that caused incorrect values in the Personalized Story field is
fixed. The report appears under Communities > Special Events > Friends Asking Friends > Kintera Thon >
[Highlight the event] > Reports > [Run quick report] > People: All Participants.
A warning message was added for Friends Asking Friends to inform participants that the program autogenerates friendly URLs when the Friendly URL field is blank on the Profile Form.
Sphere 9.4.3 Release (August 2013)
Release version:
9.4.3
Release type:
Feature Maintenance
Product Changes
The following client-facing changes were implemented in this release:
l
l
Improved Friends Asking Friends map option
Participant Headquarters email enhancements
l
New Event Email Template recipient queries
l
The Raiser's Edge Sphere Connector enhancements
The following client-facing change was implemented in the 9.4.2.1 Hotfix:
l
The Raiser's Edge Sphere Connector soft credit option removal
Improved Friends Asking Friends Map Option
Where:
l
l
Communities > Special Events > Friends Asking Friends > Kintera Thon > [Highlight the event] >Website
Info > Event Information
Event page > Event Information
You can now embed event location map images in Friends Asking Friends event websites. The new Embed Map
Code field appears in the Event Information section of the Webinfo Checklist and adds a map image from a
website you choose to the event site's Event Information page. Previously, you could only select an option to
add a Mapquest link to an event site and open the map in a new browser. The change helps users view the event
location map directly from the event site.
To include a map image, enter the address of the event location in a map website. From the page that includes
the map, copy the embed code the website generates and paste it into the field. If necessary, you can change the
HTML to increase or decrease the zoom setting provided by the map website.
To only include a link to the map website, instead of an image of the map, enter the link in the field in http://
format.
For existing active events, a Mapquest image of the event location is automatically populated on the website.
Note: For more information, see the "Configure event information" topic in the online Help.
Participant Headquarters Email Enhancements
Where:
l
l
Communities > Special Events > Friends Asking Friends > Kintera Thon > [Highlight the event] > Website
Info > Email Center Templates
Event page > Main Login > Email [tab]
When you configure Friends Asking Friends events, you can now add up to 20 email templates for participants to
use when they send messages to friends and family. Previously, the limit was six. Templates are available from
the Email Center Templates section of the Webinfo Checklist.
From the Email tab of the Participant Headquarters, event registrants can now send emails to 100 contacts at a
time and select whether to append links to their personal, team, and group fundraising pages. Previously, the
limit was 30 and participants could not specify the links to add to messages. Before the change, the program only
added links to team pages from email messages team captains sent. Now, team members can add team page
links to their messages. Also, when participants save messages for future use, a new Save as Template button
now appears next to the Preview Email and Send Email buttons. The option previously appeared next to the
Template field and was often overlooked by participants.
Note: For information about email templates, see the "Set up an E-mail template for a Thon event site" topic in
the online Help.
New Event Email Template Recipient Queries
Where:
l
Communications > Event Email Templates > [Highlight the campaign] > Manage > [Mailing name] >
Receivers
Updated recipient queries are available for Event Email Templates. Now when you query for event participants,
you can filter the results by whether they raised money online or offline. You can also query for participants who
raised a specified number of donations online or offline. Both queries are available for current and previous event
participants.
Tip: We recommend you review the recipient criteria for scheduled template mailings created before August 13,
2013, to ensure they are sent to the intended supporters.
Previously, you could only query for event participants who raised a specified amount of money. The change
allows you to better target your email messages.
Note: For information about Event Email Templates, see the "Create an Event Email Template campaign" topic
in the online Help.
The Raiser's Edge Sphere Connector Enhancements
Where:
l
Control > Administration > Connector Sync > Admin [tab]
l
Contacts > Individuals > [Highlight the record] > Manage Contact > Interactions [tab] > Activities [tab]
l
Contacts > Organizations > [Highlight the record] > Manage Contact > Interactions [tab] > Activities [tab]
Now when you export participant gifts from Sphere to The Raiser's Edge, you can indicate that event participants
are gift solicitors. The new Participant Sponsors option allows you to link event participants to the constituents,
known as participant sponsors, who donate toward their fundraising efforts. When you select the Participant
Sponsors option under the Admin tab on the Connector Sync page, the program selects the Is a solicitor
checkbox on participant constituent records in The Raiser's Edge. The program also inserts participant names in
the Solicitor field on participant sponsor gift records. The change enables you to better track constituent gift
sources in The Raiser's Edge.
In Sphere, participant names now appear on donor supporter records in the new Participant Supporter column
under Contacts > Individuals [or Organizations] > [Highlight the record] > Manage Contact > Interactions [tab] >
Activities [tab].
Note: For information about gift exports from Sphere to The Raiser's Edge, see the "Exporting Gifts from Sphere
to The Raiser's Edge" topic in the online Help.
The Raiser's Edge Sphere Connector Soft Credit Option Removal
The Raiser's Edge Sphere Connector feature to create soft credits between donors and the event participants
they support was removed in the 9.4.2.1 Hotfix. The feature was initially released in the Blackbaud Sphere 9.4.2
release, but after receiving feedback, the Blackbaud Sphere team re-evaluated the feature. In the 9.4.3 release,
the enhancement to indicate event participants are gift solicitors improves upon the previously released
solution.