Congregant Authentication

We've gathered lots of feedback on the way staff users and congregants log in to MinistryPlatform. Now, we've rolled out some exciting changes!

Login screens with your custom branding.

• All MinistryPlatform authentication screens have been white-labeled so it isn't a jarring experience for congregants who are coming from your church website. But here's the part you'll really be excited about... You can add your CSS to these screens (Log In, Reset Password, and Sign Up). That way, when users –especially congregants– interact with MinistryPlatform through your church website, they'll know they're still in the right place.

  • Note that Professional Services will not offer this customization as a paid solution. However, we can provide a sample stylesheet and some documentation that you can start from. Check out Customize Platform Branding to see what can be customized and steps on how to do it!
  • You may need to update your logo. With the new white label, the MinistryPlatform header background is now white. You may need to change the default image on your Domain record so that your logo doesn't disappear into the background.

    

Direct links for account management.

• When a congregant needs to sign up or reset their password, you can send them a link that skips the Log In screen and takes them exactly where they need to go. This also works for third party applications that MinistryPlatform integrates with, so congregants can more easily navigate between products that your church uses. Bonus: We clarified the instructions on the Sign Up and Reset Password screens to provide more guidance!

  • To direct people to create an account, append "ministryplatformapi/oauth/create" to your Platform URL. For example: https://ministryplatform.net/ministryplatformapi/oauth/create
  • To direct people to reset their password, append "ministryplatformapi/oauth/reset" to your Platform URL. For example: https://ministryplatform.net/ministryplatformapi/oauth/reset

Streamlined and more secure verification.

• Previously, if someone signed up or reset their password, they received an email or text with a link. But, many email and phone carriers block messages with URLs. Now, account verification messages contain a code instead of a link, and users enter the code in the same screen where they sent it from. This guarantees that they'll receive the message and it's much less cumbersome when working on a mobile device!
• As part of this change, we'll add new email templates to your instance and update your Domain record. The new templates are called "(NEW) Finishing Setting Up Your User Account for {church name}..." and "(NEW) Password Reset for {church name} Account...". If you use custom branding in these emails, you'll be able to copy HTML from your old templates into the new ones.
• Speaking of codes, users can now log in using a one-time code. This is helpful if they forget their password and don't want to reset it right now. On the Log In screen, they click Get One-time Code to send a code to their email address or mobile phone number on file.

More control over your users' verification options.

• You may be in a situation where you don't want MinistryPlatform to send any texts for account verification, password recovery, one-time code logins, and multi-factor authentication. Now, you can disable texting for these things without affecting texts sent from the New Message Tool and other areas of the Platform.

  • On your Domain record, there's a new field called Disable SMS for Account Management that you can set to Yes if needed.

Power Automate

• Admins: To help you maintain a reliable and secure authentication flow, we're implementing a rotating refresh token. This way, you can obtain new access tokens without requiring re-authentication. Keep an access token alive indefinitely by requesting the token pair within the refresh lifecycle. It's best practice to keep the lifecycles low (less than 10 minutes) for maximum security, while not impacting your application's lifetime. These are configurable on the API Clients page.

Navigation Menu

• The Basic and Advanced navigation menus have gotten a face-lift, like highlight on hover and color scheme.
• Want a handy new keyboard shortcut that also helps you work more efficiently? You can open a page in a new browser tab! Hold down the Ctrl key (Windows) or the Command key (Mac), and click the page in the navigation menu.
• Can't remember whether a page lives under System Lookups or Lookup Values? Now you can search the Advanced navigation menu and find exactly what you're looking for in no time!

  

Audiences

• Now, you can add the same filter (with different parameters) to the same record. For example, you may want to create a Group Participation filter with a Group ID Filter Parameter. Then, add the filter again on the same audience with a different Group ID for the new Filter Parameter. For more on filtering, see Audiences.

Auto Create and Update Pledges

• We enhanced our routines so that now pledge totals can be automatically increased to match donation totals. When activated, this routine increases the total of the pledge to match the sum of all donation distributions assigned to the pledge in the last 90 days.
• You can control the date range via a new configuration setting - SSRS, AssignIncrementPledgeDays. Please keep in mind that increasing the number of days may affect performance.
• Any pledge changes made due to this routine will be recorded as a pledge adjustment with an adjustment type of Auto Increase.

Charts

• When your doughnut and pie charts have data points in the double digits, a legend now displays in the expanded view so it's easier to read. Just click the chart settings icon !

  

Domain Records

• Over the years, many fields have been added to the Domain record – it's about time we organized it! Now, you can find fields grouped under relevant sections such as Details, Integrations, various configurations, and so on.

Images Resized

• To help improve PocketPlatform and MinistryPlatform performance, if an image is added to the Platform that is larger than 1200px, we automatically resize it to 1200px when it's saved.

Impersonation

• If you've ever been impersonating a user when the phone rings, you know how easy it can be to forget that you're logged in as another person. Now, you can more clearly see when you're impersonating and more easily stop impersonating when you need to.

  

Passwords

• You can determine password requirements for your users, including the complexity of the password they create; that is, what you require in a password, such as the length, numbers, special characters, and so on. On your Domain record, the Password Complexity Expression now supports JSON format. This is easier to work with than the old Regular Expression (RegEx) format. For more details and steps to set your password complexity, see Password Requirements.
• Because of this change, your users will be able to see the password requirements as they're creating or updating a password, instead of after they've already tried to enter one!

  

Sacraments

• In Catholic instances, the Holy Orders sacrament record now includes a field for Ordination Type. You can track the hierarchical level of ordination attained by the bishop, deacon, or priest.
• There's a new view available on the Dioceses/Districts page called "Sacraments Completed". In this view, you can see the total number of sacraments that have been recorded in any parish within each diocese/district.
• There's a new view available on the All Sacraments page called "Fix: Potential Duplicate Sacraments". In this view, you can identify those who have more than one sacrament of the same type.

  

Campaigns

• Some dioceses and top-level organizations set up fundraising campaigns that return a portion of funds to parishes or churches. Now, you can specify the percent shared for both up-to-goal and over-goal amounts on Campaign Goal records.
  Note: These fields are visible in Catholic instances by default and can be enabled for non-Catholic instances.
• On the Campaign Goal Summary page, the All Records view now shows all campaigns, not just your active ones. We added a new Active Campaigns view, which is now the default view for this page.
• On the Campaign Goal Summary page, we changed the Write-Offs column to be called Adjustments. It now includes any increases that are made during the Auto Increase routine.
• Fixed an issue where the Pledged column was not subtracting write-offs from the original pledge amount.

Time Data Types

• We now globalize Time data types. Previously, we only globalized DateTime data types. This means that users will now see times, such as the Group Meeting Time, in their time zone.

Tool and Report Descriptions

• Not sure which tool or report is the right one for your task? Now, you can hover over an item in the Tools or Reports menu to view a helpful description.

Writing Assistant

• Do you know about the Writing Assistant we introduced in December? (If not, read all about it here.) Now, it's available for the Event Description field so your events can sound as compelling as they are!

Coming Soon

• A new Help Center! (Yep, it's where you are now) We're rolling our knowledge base into a fully-functioning Help Center. You will have one place that you can count on for how-to articles, video libraries, links to Support, and more. Look for communication from us on March 25.
• Volunteer management! We added schema to support future volunteer features, including tables for Schedules, Schedule Roles, and Schedule Participants.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue in the New Message tool where the Send button did not activate when a page was in list layout and the subject was entered first.
• Fixed an issue where the New Message tool did not default to the current selection when launched from a selection of records.
• Fixed an issue where changing the position of a chart on the dashboard did not change the position on a mobile device.
• Fixed an issue where the Recent Records panel was not displaying the records that were recently accessed.