AlumniOnline Reunion Website User Guide

Table of Contents

Features

  • Easily Create a full featured reunion website for your class, school, family or military organization
  • Automatically generates menu links, pages, message categories and custom profile fields
  • Supports Advanced Custom Fields (ACF), WP Simple Shopping Cart and most gallery plugins
  • Optional read only public viewing without requiring registration
  • Option to disable classmate options to use site for any type of reunion
  • Includes a classmate or member search
  • Missing classmate list to allow users to assist in the search for missing friends
  • In memoriam page
  • Custom field support on member profiles
  • Message board with optional photo gallery support
  • Reunion posts
  • Reunion RSVP with support custom fields and online payments using Stripe of PayPal
  • Option to export member list and reunion RSVPs
  • View photo, video and yearbook attachments in one place
  • YouTube Channel Integration

Basic Plugin Setup

When activated, AlumniOnline Reunion Website creates the necessary pages, post types and menu links, sets the default role to “AlumniOnline Reunion Website User” and provides the necessary permissions to use the features of the website. The following steps should be completed to install the plugin on your website:

  1. Install and activate the plugin from the plugin page.
  2. Click on the Basic Settings tab.
  3. Set the main menu value under the “Settings” tab on this page.
  4. Review or change the default message board page.
  5. Review or change the default member search page.
  6. Enable “Anyone can register” on the General Settings page.
  7. To allow users to upload profile pictures instead of using Gravatar, install the One User Avatar plugin and enable the following settings:
    1. Allow Contributors & Subscribers to upload avatars
    2. Always use the browser file uploader to upload avatars
    3. Allow users to edit avatars

The premium plugin includes many more features, including: reunion posts with option to rsvp and submit payments, memorial page to post lost friends, option to post missing classmates and search features on the member list.

Pro Plugin Setup

  1. Install and activate the plugin from the plugin page.
  2. Enter the license key under the License Key tab.
  3. Click on the Pro Settings tab.
  4. Review or change the default media page.
  5. If desired, enter a comma seperated list of terms to display on the media page.
  6. If desired, install the Free Youtube Playlist Player plugin to add support for Youtube videos in the media gallery. Once installed, enter your Youtube channel id on the setting page. Complete instructions can be found in the user guide.
  7. If desired, enable the option to allow public users to view the message board and member search options.
  8. Add any additional custom fields to member profile and missing member posts. The following fields are provided by default: class, start year, end year.
  9. If the website will be used for something other than a class reunion website, enable the disable classmate references option.
  10. If desired, disable photo gallery options on the message board.
  11. Install the Free ACF plugin.
  12. Add any additional custom fields to be used on the RSVP form. The following fields are provided by default: number of attendees, userid, members name, names of any additional guests and comments or requests.
  13. To enable optional online ticket payments, install the WP Simple Shopping Cart plugin.
  14. Review or change additional settings as desired.

Adding Custom Fields

Custom fields may be added to member profile pages as well as missing member and RSVP forms in the pro version. All custom fields must be prefixed with “alumnionline_”.

The ACF plugin will make the process of adding custom fields much easier and is required for reunion RSVPs.

 The pro plugin provides an option to easily generate custom fields for missing members, member profiles and Reunion RSVPs. 

Missing Classmates - Pro Plugin Only

The missing classmates section allows administrators to list classmates that have not yet been located and/or notified of an upcoming reunion. Missing classmates may be tagged with a custom status for tracking and members may post comments to assist in locating missing classmates. Two default status are included: “unknown” and “deceased”. The default category slugs should NOT be renamed. Deceased classmates are displayed in the In Memoriam section. WordPress users may also be marked as deceased using the “Deceased User” role which will mark the account as inactive but still display the user in the classmate list.

The missing classmates post type supports an unlimited number of text format, custom fields.

The following fields are provided by default: 

  • alumnionline_class
  • alumnionline_start_year
  • alumnionline_end_year

Additional fields may be added on the settings page as necessary. 

In Memoriam - Pro Plugin Only

The In Memoriam section is included in the pro version only and allows users to filter the classmate/member list to show members that are deceased. Deceased members may be added in the missing members area and then tagged with the “Deceased” category or if the member is a registered member of the website, their role may be changed to “Deceased User” which will mark the account as inactive but still display the user in the classmate list as deceased.

Planning a Reunion

While reunion planning can be done in the basic version the pro plugin will save you a great deal of time by automatically generating an RSVP form and displaying online ticketing options.

To plan a reunion:

  1. Post a message in the message board and tag it with the “Reunion” category.
  2. Since the message board only provides text formatting options, edit the post in the WordPress editor to provide more details about the reunion. 
  3. If using the pro plugin, to display an RSVP form on the post, place a check mark next to the “Display RSVP form at the bottom of the post”. This option requires the Free Advanced Custom Fields Plugin to be installed.
  4. In the pro version, enter a ticket price and currency symbol and optional PayPal payment button embed code to enable online ticketing. You may also install the Free WP Simple Shopping Cart Plugin which provides additional payment options (Stripe or PayPal are supported).
  5. When a payment is received reunion planners can mark the payment status by editing the RSVP record under ALL RSVPs and marking it as paid.
  6. The pro version includes an export option on the ALL RSVPs page to allow reunion planners to download a spreadsheet of reunion attendees. 

Enabling Online Ticket Payments - Pro Plugin Only

Complete the following steps to enable online ticket payments for a specific reunion.

  1. If desired, install the free WP Simple Shopping Cart Plugin and configure the desired payment processer, Stripe or PayPal
  2. Create a reunion post on your message board.
  3. Edit the post in the WordPress editor to enable the RSVP form, add a ticket price, currency and optional PayPal button code.
  4. Update the post.

Once a user submits an rsvp form they will be prompted to complete the online payment.

Adding YouTube videos to Media Page

Youtube channel feeds require the free YouTube Playlist Player plugin. To display a youtube feed under the video category:

  1. Install and activate the YouTube Playlist Player plugin.
  2. Access the Google API dashboard.
  3. Select the desired projects using the project selector at the top of the page or create a new one if applicable.
  4. Choose Enable APIs & Services.
  5. Search for and select “YouTube Data API v3”.
  6. Choose “Enable”.
  7. Choose “Credentials”.
  8. Choose “Create Credentials”.
  9. Select “API Key”.
  10. Copy the API Key and paste it into the Youtube API field under the YouTube Playlist Player settings.
  11. Go to Youtube and locate your Youtube Channel id which can be found in the url when viewing your Youtube channel.
  12. Copy the channel id and paste it under the AlumniOnline Reunion Website pro settings in the Youtube channel id field.
  13. Optionally, locate the video ids of one or more videos that you would like to display and enter each one seperated by a comma in the Youtube video id field. Videos are displayed in the order listed with the first video the default video.
  14. Optionally, set the number of videos to be displayed from your channel on the plugin settings page.

Display Thumbnail Images of Year Book PDF Files

When displaying yearbook attachments in the media gallery a PDF icon is displayed. To display the first page of the PDF as the thumbnail install and generate thumbnails using the free PDF Thumbnail Generator plugin. 

This plugin requires that the webserver have the PHP ImageMagick and Ghostscript modules installed and enabled. 

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