"Send a Message" Function on LCR

Discussions about the Leader and Clerk Resources on lds.org.
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russellhltn
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Re: "Send a Message" Function on LCR

#81

Post by russellhltn »

scgallafent wrote:You may be thinking of the demo that was done in a recent LDSTech broadcast.
Yes.

scgallafent wrote:That used one of our internal development instances that is not publicly accessible. The data for that demo was generated specifically for that broadcast.

Doing something like that would still require setting up a complete set of publicly-accessible systems (LCR, CMIS, CDOL, etc.) and then populating those systems with some kind of useful dummy data (wards, stakes, members, callings).
I'd suggest we're quickly reaching the point where the biggest "feature" missing from LCR is the ability of members to support each other.

The Meetinghouse Technology Roles and Responsibilities, 4.2 on the role of the STS says "Provides technology support for meetinghouse products, services, and policies to priesthood leaders, teachers, family history centers, and mission offices" That's pretty difficult in LCR's current form.

Some options to rectify that:
  • Suggest/Advocate use of screen sharing. (Time consuming to set up.)
  • A sandbox so others can see what screens for each calling looks like. (Cloning that development system.)
  • Help files that makes liberal use of screenshots with a section for each calling "group". (Maybe a good job for a tech-writer intern.)
I'm not picky, which one. I suspect that currently such things are seen as a distraction from getting everything envisioned from getting rolled out. But I think the peer-support issue needs will soon rise to the same need/priority as the actual coding of new features. There will always be turn over in callings, so this isn't just a "start up" issue.
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drepouille
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Re: "Send a Message" Function on LCR

#82

Post by drepouille »

Here is a long shot solution -- create a Helper mode for LCR, as we have in Family Tree. It's tricky because you would be giving the clerk (or STS) access to everything the leader he is helping can see, including confidential information. On the other hand, it is a better solution than giving the leader's username and password to the clerk (or STS).
Dana Repouille, Plattsmouth, Nebraska
tjabbott8971
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Re: "Send a Message" Function on LCR

#83

Post by tjabbott8971 »

Just interested in future functionality allowing "Send a Message" functionality being made available to an assigned calling or individual in the ward. We have many Church appropriate emails related to reminders from the stake, upcoming events, etc and would like to give our communications specialist access. Since this person is a "sister" we cannot see a way to grant access with the current access chart. Any plans to extend the functionality?

Of course cutting and pasting a few hundred emails into our current email client is fine, but we have noticed a crackdown from gmail and others preventing BCC lines to be used and rejecting them at a server level from being sent.

thanks for feedback
scgallafent
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Re: "Send a Message" Function on LCR

#84

Post by scgallafent »

We have talked about extending the messaging functionality to users beyond the current users. It is a logical improvement, but we haven't heard a firm resolution on if or when that will happen.
SamuelHuff
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Re: "Send a Message" Function on LCR

#85

Post by SamuelHuff »

scgallafent wrote:
mtwerner wrote:I'm a stake clerk and have been experiencing the same thing. However, it appears that everyone is still receiving the emails. I submitted feedback to the Church on the issue recently, but haven't heard back from anyone.
We saw that feedback. We just haven't been able to reproduce the issue in our test environment.
I figured it out!! I was getting the error from "Send A Message" because there were invalid email addresses on lds.org / MLS and the distribution list was so big. I broke it down ward by ward, branch by branch. Some ward/branches would send others wouldn't.

I went through the ward/branch ones that didn't send properly and broke it down into groups of 10ish email addresses. Some of those groups of 10 would send but there was one that didn't. I went through those one-by-one and found an email address that had a typo where the @ symbol was a " symbol. However the group of ten that got the error apparently still sent because I had myself on the distribution list.

So invalid email addresses are causing the error, regardless of the size of the distribution list. The size of the distribution list determines whether the members get the message or not (think it must time-out)?
scgallafent
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Re: "Send a Message" Function on LCR

#86

Post by scgallafent »

SamuelHuff wrote:I figured it out!! I was getting the error from "Send A Message" because there were invalid email addresses on lds.org / MLS and the distribution list was so big. I broke it down ward by ward, branch by branch. Some ward/branches would send others wouldn't.

I went through the ward/branch ones that didn't send properly and broke it down into groups of 10ish email addresses. Some of those groups of 10 would send but there was one that didn't. I went through those one-by-one and found an email address that had a typo where the @ symbol was a " symbol. However the group of ten that got the error apparently still sent because I had myself on the distribution list.

So invalid email addresses are causing the error, regardless of the size of the distribution list. The size of the distribution list determines whether the members get the message or not (think it must time-out)?
We have isolated the issue with invalid email addresses and deployed a fix to beta last week. I just checked and verified that the email address that was causing you problems is correctly flagged as invalid and ignored.
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sbradshaw
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Re: "Send a Message" Function on LCR

#87

Post by sbradshaw »

I just sent a message today to our stake (we're on the beta) and didn't get any errors. Thanks!
Samuel Bradshaw • If you desire to serve God, you are called to the work.
abc46
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Re: "Send a Message" Function on LCR

#88

Post by abc46 »

"Send a Message" has been working well for me for over a month in sending weekly ward emails. Today I noticed a different layout for the options for selecting who the email goes to. It also shows a "From" field that just lists my email address and not my name. After sending the message, I noticed that the emails that went out did not say they were from me, but rather "noreply". At the bottom of the email, it says that the email "was sent by null, whose calling is....". My correct email address is listed in the reply-to field, but I am wondering how to restore my name to the emails. Any ideas?
scgallafent
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Re: "Send a Message" Function on LCR

#89

Post by scgallafent »

abc46 wrote:"Send a Message" has been working well for me for over a month in sending weekly ward emails. Today I noticed a different layout for the options for selecting who the email goes to. It also shows a "From" field that just lists my email address and not my name. After sending the message, I noticed that the emails that went out did not say they were from me, but rather "noreply". At the bottom of the email, it says that the email "was sent by null, whose calling is....". My correct email address is listed in the reply-to field, but I am wondering how to restore my name to the emails. Any ideas?
It looks like something isn't playing nicely with the process that gets your member record to display that information. With this update, messaging gets your information from your membership record instead of your LDS Account. That resolves some of the issues we were seeing due to members having different email addresses on their membership record and LDS Account or an informal name as the display name on the LDS Account.

I can reproduce what you're seeing with your account, but didn't see the issue on several other accounts. It looks like it is something special about you. We will see what the logs show and get it fixed in the next update.

The message always comes from noreply@ldschurch.org, but it usually shows your name there. Since there is an error retrieving your name, it just shows the email address.

If you could get me the approximate date and time, that would help isolate it in the logs.
abc46
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Re: "Send a Message" Function on LCR

#90

Post by abc46 »

scgallafent wrote:
abc46 wrote:"Send a Message" has been working well for me for over a month in sending weekly ward emails. Today I noticed a different layout for the options for selecting who the email goes to. It also shows a "From" field that just lists my email address and not my name. After sending the message, I noticed that the emails that went out did not say they were from me, but rather "noreply". At the bottom of the email, it says that the email "was sent by null, whose calling is....". My correct email address is listed in the reply-to field, but I am wondering how to restore my name to the emails. Any ideas?
It looks like something isn't playing nicely with the process that gets your member record to display that information. With this update, messaging gets your information from your membership record instead of your LDS Account. That resolves some of the issues we were seeing due to members having different email addresses on their membership record and LDS Account or an informal name as the display name on the LDS Account.

I can reproduce what you're seeing with your account, but didn't see the issue on several other accounts. It looks like it is something special about you. We will see what the logs show and get it fixed in the next update.

The message always comes from noreply@ldschurch.org, but it usually shows your name there. Since there is an error retrieving your name, it just shows the email address.

If you could get me the approximate date and time, that would help isolate it in the logs.

Thanks. I sent the message at 8:27am Eastern this morning.

Looking at my member record, there is a "Preferred Name" field that is not populated. Perhaps it is looking in that field, and then not defaulting to the "Member Name" field when that field is empty. It doesn't appear that I can change my own Preferred Name online, but I'll try on Sunday. If this is the issue, then the Member Name field should probably be used as the backup when there is no Preferred Name.
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