Arena Reference Guide

Arena Reference Guide
Table of Contents
Getting Started
Using the Edit Family Wizard..................................................................................... 3
Understanding Groups and their Structure .................................................................. 5
Using and Implementing Tags ................................................................................... 8
Creating and Promoting Events ............................................................................... 12
Contributions Application ........................................................................................ 14
Family Registrations .............................................................................................. 18
Develop and deploy new Security Roles and Logins.................................................... 22
Creating a New Check-In Theme ............................................................................. 27
Modifying XML Files for Custom Lists ........................................................................ 32
Implementing Your Arena Managed Web Site

Making Your Web Site Public ................................................................................... 38
Templates ............................................................................................................ 41
Page Structure ...................................................................................................... 42
Modules ............................................................................................................... 44
Arena Portals ........................................................................................................ 45
Security ............................................................................................................... 46
Setting up Site Navigation ...................................................................................... 47
Uses of the Advanced HTML Text Control .................................................................. 50
Using Redirects ..................................................................................................... 51
Using the Login / Logout Module ............................................................................. 53
Uses of Pages as Tabs control ................................................................................. 54
Web Site Features

Login Section ........................................................................................................ 55
Small Group Leader Toolbox ................................................................................... 57
Small Group Locator .............................................................................................. 60
Online Giving ........................................................................................................ 61
Event Calendar and Promotions ............................................................................... 63
Prayer Requests .................................................................................................... 65
Volunteer Opportunities ......................................................................................... 67
Personal and Business Classified Ads ....................................................................... 69
Arena Reference Guide, v.2007.2.13

E-Cards and E-Invitations ....................................................................................... 71
Polls .................................................................................................................... 74
Sports Monitor ...................................................................................................... 75
Online Newsletters................................................................................................. 76
Arena Reporting Manual

Lists .................................................................................................................... 79
Using the Report Grid from Query module ................................................................ 94
Reports ................................................................................................................ 97
Creating Reports using Report Builder .................................................................... 103
Creating a Stored Procedure for List Merge ............................................................. 128
Using Report Subscriptions ................................................................................... 130

Introduction
Welcome to Arena, the Power of Community 1
Arena is a church ministry system designed to empower your people and your ministries.
Arena achieves this by:
• Serving as an easy-to-use and centralized method (location?) for your members to
contribute (financially and physically) to ministries
• Keeping accessible, accurate, thorough, and integrated member records
• Organizing records by levels and layers of grouping schemes
• Tracking member’s physical and spiritual needs and activities
• Coordinating ministry events through promotions and Arena managed websites
• Providing an effective means of individual and mass communication
This makes Arena a true ChMS product. It focuses on communication, coordination,

connection, and creativity. The Arena philosophy is people oriented; it begins with the end
in mind. Don’t let people slip thru the cracks. Open the front door wider and close the back
door tight. Take advantage of every touch point with a “wow” experience. You are
empowered to invest more of your time and talent in the calling, less in the managing.
Arena puts the power at your fingertips.
Our Mission
Shelby Systems, Inc. exists to supply the information technology tools needed to help
ministries and other organizations around the world thrive. To meet this vision we strive to
provide the highest quality software, training, and support, while delivering superior service
to our customers, which can only be done by empowering employees through individualism
and teamwork, and providing a challenging and rewarding career.
Trademarks: Certain brand names and product names used in this article (publication) are trade names, service
marks, trademarks, or registered trademarks of their respective owners. Shelby Systems, Inc. is not affiliated or
associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this publication.
© 2006, 2007, 2008 Shelby Systems, Inc.

Introduction
Focus
The focus of the Arena Reference Guide is for a user at any level to have access to all the 2
necessary tools to operate Arena and the features provided for their church organization.
Working in conjunction with the Arena End-User Manual and the Arena Administration
Manual, this guidebook adds various Getting Started walkthroughs, a comprehensive guide
to building and using an Arena managed web site, and assist with using reporting both
inside Arena and out to create and edit reports.
The Arena Reference Guide can be divided into three sections: Getting Started,
Managing You Web Site, and Reporting. This is so that if a user only needs one part
they do not have to have the full guide.
Each section is available for free download at http://community.arenachms.com/downloads,
as well as the full version of the guide.

Getting Started
Getting Started 3
These walkthroughs are intended for general use within Arena, quick how-to’s of the more
complicated functions and capabilities of Arena. Please reference the Arena End User
Manual for additional assistance with each of these walkthroughs.
Using the Edit Family Wizard

The Edit Family Wizard provides the ability to add new families, update existing family
information, and separate family members. You may access the wizard by one of three
ways: the Add New Family section under the Membership area, the Family section on the
Person Details page, or the Address Information section on the Person Details page.
Adding New Members to Arena
Opening the Edit Family Wizard from under Membership in the Navigation bar allows you
to create a new individual record or a whole family all at once. Once opened, click the Add
New Person link for as many people that are in the family, and begin entering in the
individual’s information. Navigate using the various tabs until the information has been
added, and click Save. Names and Member Status are the only fields required before you
can save the family. Once saved, you will be directed to the Person Details screen of the
first adult in the family.
Modifying Existing Information
Modifying Families
When the members of a family have to be modified, open the Edit Family Wizard by
selecting the edit link in the Family area of the Person Details page for any family member.
This will open the Wizard with the current family information. You can now add or remove
family members.
If the new family member already exists in the Arena database, click the Add Existing
Person link at the bottom to open a Search screen where you can select the record. You
can also add a brand new record by using the same method as above, by clicking on the
Add New Person link. You may also use both methods of adding people at the same time.
For example, if you have two existing people in your database that have recently gotten
married, open to the husband’s Person Details screen and select the edit link under the
Family area. The wife already exists as a member in Arena, so click the Add Existing
Person link and locate her record to tie it to his family. If there is a new individual to add to
this family as well, then click the Add New Person link to create the new record.
Modifying Addresses
If a family changes their address, or has an alternate address, click the edit link in the
Address area of the Person Details page to make those changes. New addresses are
standardized when completing the wizard by clicking Finish.
Creating New Families from Existing Families

Getting Started
There will also be times when you will need to separate someone from an existing family
and create a new family for them. Arena considers a family to be a group of people 4
that live at the same address and are typically related. For example, when a child
moves away to college, you might want to separate them from his or her existing family,
since there is no way to have an individual with an address different from the rest of the
family. In the Edit Family Wizard, click the red icon next to the individuals name to
remove them from their existing family. Click Update when finished which will take you
back to the top Adult’s Person Detail page. You can maintain a relationship between the
removed person and their old family by adding a Relationship between a member of the
old family and the original person. For help with adding a Relationship between two people,
see the Viewing a Record section under Membership of the Arena End User Manual.
Now that the individual has been removed from their family, open their Person Detail record
and make any changes needed, such as new address or phone number.
Removing an individual from a family will not remove the record from the database. It only
separates them from their other family members.
Note: Edit rights are required to modify any information using the Edit Family
Wizard. Please refer to the Relationship section of the Arena End User manual within
viewing a Person Record for help in setting up a Relationship.

Getting Started
5
Understanding Groups and their Structure
The Groups section of Arena empowers users to customize and set up the group structures
to suit the needs of your church. Since these structures use multiple levels of hierarchy, the
Groups tool is flexible enough to handle any design of small groups.
How Groups are Built
Groups utilize a tier-based structure, where each level can have several lower levels, but
only one above. Each tier is called a “cluster level” and the bottom tier is always the “group
level”. Each cluster Level consists of group clusters. These together form a “group tree”. A
group tree can consist of any number of tiers. Figure 1 is an example structure of a group
tree for Sunday School:
Figure 1 - Group Tree Example
This example would not be a complete tree, but it demonstrates how the tier structure
works. There are three cluster levels and the group level. Each cluster level can have its
own name that fits your group tree. In this example, the root cluster level would be
Ministry, Level 1 would be Age Division, and Level 2 would be Grade/Generation. Sunday
School, Children, Youth, Adult, 7th Grade, 8th Grade, and 20s are all group clusters.

Getting Started
When determining the number of levels for a group tree, it is important to consider the
following: 6
• Reports - At what levels are reports most useful?
• Leaders - How many Leaders do you have and who are they responsible to? Are there
leaders for each level?
• Accountability - Who reports to whom?
• Growth - Where will this same Tree be in one year? In five years?
• Division - How are your Groups already divided out? The best starting point is what you
already have.
Once these decisions are made, the Arena Administrator would make the structural changes
to accommodate. Then the group clusters can be entered into Arena and the tree will take
shape.

Getting Started
7
Group Term Glossary
The following list of terms and their definitions that will help in understanding groups and
how groups are built:
Group Trees:
Cluster Level – The level of a group tree’s structure.
Group Cluster – The actual name of a section of a level in a group tree. Cluster levels
consist of these.
Group Level – The bottom tier of a group tree. Groups themselves are in this level.
Group Type – The type of a group, used in Add Registrations.
Small Group – The actual group itself.
Group Personnel:
Group Leader – The leader of a small group. The leader is not necessarily a group
member.
Group Member – A person enrolled in a group.
Group Role – The role of a group member.
Level Administrator – The administrator of a group cluster They will have full rights to all
levels below the level they administer. This is typically an employee of the church.
Level Leader – Functions the same as a level administrator, except this is typically a non-
employee.
Location – The group member or leader whose address is where a group meets.
Group Structure:
Cluster Type – The structure of a group tree, sets up how many levels a tree can have.
Group Category – The way of separating the different classifications of group trees.
Web Terms:
Group Leader Toolbox – The section of an Arena managed web site where group or level
leaders can administrate their groups, group personnel, and other group settings.
Small Group Locator – A feature for a user to determine and register for a small group
based on selected criteria.

Getting Started
8
Using and Implementing Tags
Tags are used as a way to group people together that have a common thread. Tags use a
hierarchal structure, same as groups, but there are some distinct differences. There is no
pre-determined structure, there are different types of tags, which each reflect different
data, and you can add people to any level of tag, to name the more important differences.
Tag Types
Arena has tags in four different categories:

• Personal Tags – Tags that are personal to the tag creator, use for sensitive
information.
• Ministry Tags – Most common tag, simple grouping of people.
• Serving Tags – Tags used for volunteer activities and needs.
• Event Tags – Tags for events sponsored by the church. People added to these tags are
called registrants.
Note: Due to their unique functionality, Event Tags are covered in a separate section
of this guide, in Creating and Promoting Events.
Each of these types has a specific use, and you should take care to fully evaluate which type
of tag should be used for each application.
Personal Tags
Personal tags are only visible to the user who creates them. This is both a useful tool and a
potential risk factor in their use, since it is the most secure of the three tag types. This
means that personal tags can contain sensitive information such as personal/marital
counseling or ‘problem’ members, personal information such as a personal prayer chain, or
connecting a confidential group of people together. However, since it can only be viewed by
the user who creates it, if a situation arises where other users might need to view the
members of a tag (e.g. a minister retires and his replacement might need access to this
information), the owner has to transfer ownership first. A simple rule of thumb when
deciding to use a personal tag is to consider if anyone could ever need to see this
information other than yourself; if so, consider a ministry tag or serving tag instead of a
personal tag.
Ministry Tags
Ministry tags are the most widely used tag type due to their versatility. Ministry tags can
represent nearly any grouping of people, from committees to prayer groups to deacons, or
even simple geographical grouping. Ministry tags can be used to record members of a
Sunday School group and their attendance, or mid-week Bible studies, or any of dozens of
other associations. Ministry tags are more or less a ‘catch-all’ category for tags since they
can be used for nearly any possible grouping.

Getting Started
Serving Tags 9
Serving tags represent volunteer needs, the volunteers themselves, and their qualifications
and activities. Serving tags help you make certain that the required number of people for
each ministry opportunity is met. Serving tags provide more detailed information about the
function tag members such as the time frame of the opportunity or the schedule the tag
members will be working under. Serving tags work best when reserved for activity-based
ministries such as a special events teams or an urban outreach group. Other ministries such
as Sunday Schools and prayer groups should be categorized by Ministry tags.
Key Concepts of Tags
Regardless of type, tags share several important attributes that are important to know
about so that you can plan your implementation of tags within your organization.
Organization
Tags are organized using a parent-child relationship, also commonly known as a tree view.
This hierarchal structure allows you to indicate sub-groups within a parent ministry (such as
separate door-to-door evangelism teams within your overall evangelism ministry). Each tag
can have no more than one parent, although each parent tag may have any number of child
tags who may each have their own child tags, and so on.
Security
Tag security can be used in many different ways for dozens of different functions. Upon
creation, a root-level (no parent) tag will only have security options for the creating user, so
it is important to manage who can create new tags and to make certain that they know to
add the proper security roles to each tag they create. The biggest security difference in root
and child tags is that a child tag will always inherit the security permissions of its parent tag
(note that while a child will inherit from its parent, any changes made to the child will not
affect the parent tag). This can be used to create a parent tag with certain security
permissions that will be the parent to all future tags to make certain those future tags
receive certain security rights.
You can also restrict certain permissions on tags so that only the proper users can view
anything related to that tag (such as the list of tags on a Person Details page). For an
example of this, see the Managing Security Roles through tags example below.
Presence
A user can be a member of any number of tags of any type at the same time, but they
cannot be a member of the same tag more than once. Tag members are specific to that tag,
they are not also considered to be members of its parent tags if they are only members of
the child tag.

Getting Started
10
Managing Security Roles through Tags
Due to the ability to synchronize a security role to several different grouping mechanisms in
Arena including tags, as the Arena Administrator you can use the Ministry tags system to
manage the security rights of all of your users very easily. To do this, you will need to
create a Ministry tag tree with View rights granted only to the roles you want to be able to
manage security (most likely only the Arena Administrator role itself) and a separate tag for
each security role, as shown below.
Figure 2 – Security Role Tag Structure example
Due to the cumulative nature of security roles, it is recommended to have the highest-level
tag have the least rights, and only grant the specific rights not covered by a higher level to
the security roles represented by tags lower in your tree. For example, you may want to
grant your staff members access to the Groups area so that they can manage the small
groups covered by their ministry area, so you would give those rights to the security role
synchronized to the “Staff Members” tag illustrated above. However, each ministry may
have separate group categories, so you may wish to grant access to those specific category
pages only to the associated small group role for the separate “…Ministry” tags from our
example above. Since a member of a child tag is not a member of its parent tag, in our
example above your youth ministers would have to be members of the Youth Ministry, Staff
Members, and Users tags to gain the security roles of all three.

Getting Started
11
Examples
Role Models and Problem Makers

As a senior youth pastor for your church, you want to keep track of any potential problem
people so that you can help minister directly to them by providing a role model. As this is a
personal list, which would not need to be shared with anyone, and could prove to be
sensitive information, you should create a personal tag for these troubled teens. A similar
list could be a counterpart containing particularly mature students you can count on to work
with you in helping these teens.
“Go Into All The World…”

As the Minister of Evangelism, you need to be able to keep track of all of your ministry’s
activities and members, yet keep them organized into separate sections. You have a local
week-to-week ministry consisting of several door-to-door evangelism teams and a shut-in
visitation team, as well as several other divisions. You can use Serving tags to set up
multiple levels to represent each of these ministries and teams, starting with a single
“Evangelism Ministry” tag at the top level, a “week-to-week” tag on the second level along
with other similar divisions, and separate team tags on the third level (with your week-to-
week tag as their parent) to organize each group of volunteers.
Figure 3 – Evangelism Ministry Tag Structure example
Each of these levels can also contain members who are either not yet assigned to a specific
group below that level or who can assist with any of the functions of the groups below
them. Each Serving tag can be set with different requirements and schedules to help in
coordinating their efforts to best minister according to their abilities.

Getting Started
12
Creating and Promoting Events
Events are setup and tracked in Arena using Event tags. Event tags allow you to maintain
the Event Calendar, the Online Registration options, monitor the registrants of the event,
and see the payment transactions made through Online Registrations. Event tags are
typically setup in a category method, where there is one Event tag for various types of
events, and the actual events are setup under that tag. For example, there may be an Event
tag called “Children Events”, and a tag beneath for “2008 Spring Carnival”.
Events are advertised and accessed within your Arena managed web site by Promoting the
Event on the site.
Creating an Event Tag

The first step in this process will be creating the Event tag. Navigate to the Tags section of
the Arena application, open Event Tags and create a new tag for your event. Your tags
may be setup as categories, so be sure to choose the appropriate category and create a
new tag there. All Event tags require filling out the Event Details tab, which contains dates
that the event will run to and from and detailed information that is specific to the event. The
Public Calendar Details tab must be filled out in order for the event to be displayed on
the calendar for your external web site. The Registrations tab is not required unless online
registrations and payments are desired. This tab has several sub-tabs, described below.
• Registration Details – This tab contains the setup information for the start and end
dates for Online Registrations for the event.
• Fields – This tab contains the setup for the fields that will be required or optional in the
registration process.
• Communication - Allows you to setup a confirmation message once the person has
completed the registration. Event reminders can also be set up that will send a reminder
to the registrant based on how many days before the event that you specify. E-Tickets
can also be set up to print for the event.
• Payments & Fees - Payments information is set up here for online payments for the
event.
• Discounts – This tab contains discounts that can be set up for the event.
• Labels - Allows you to customize some of the field descriptions that the user will see in
the online registration process.
At least one future Occurrence for the event must be set up is required so that a person
can register for the event on the web site, since a user actually registers for an occurrence,
and not the event itself.
Note: for further information on any of these areas please refer to the Event Tags
portion of the Arena End User Manual.

Getting Started
Creating a Promotion for the Event 13

To have an Event tag display on the web site calendar, a promotion must be created for the
Event. Promotions allow you to advertise the event in other places on the web site. Click the
Promote this Event button to direct you to the promotion setup page to create a
promotion for the event. This will automatically start the new promotion request process
and you now enter information from the owner of the event tag. You will need to fill out the
necessary fields and have the promotion approved in order for it to show on your web site.
By opening the request from the tag, the promotion is automatically linked to the Event tag.
You must choose a primary ministry from the drop-down box; the optional alternate
ministries are used for cross promotion. You will see Web, Bulletin, & Newsletter tabs in
the lower half of the screen. Only the Web tab is required for online Promotions.
• Web tab – The dates for these promotions must either match or start and end before
the actual event tag start and end dates. You can enter a summary image and
description, and a detail image and description. You can also enter an outside URL link
that can be accessed from the promotion. Check the Approved box on this tab in order
to make the promotion available in the Promotion modules.
• Bulletin tab – Arena does not create the actual bulletin; this information is kept in the
Bulletin Requests area as a reference for creating the actual paper bulletin. Choose the
bulletin date, the category, and enter a summary. You can add this bulletin request to
multiple bulletins with different (or the same) text by clicking Add Bulletin Request
again.
• Newsletter tab – Since Arena does not publish the actual newsletter, same as
Bulletins, this is mainly for keeping the information for the team that creates the actual
paper and/or electronic newsletter. Enter the date range of the promotion, and choose
whether to use the existing web summary or a different summary. Newsletter requests
that are set up here can be managed in the Newsletter Promotions area of the Arena
application.

Getting Started
Contributions Application 14
The Contributions application is used to quickly create and enter batches using a check
scanning machine, or manually entering non-cash or cash gifts. This application works in
tandem with Arena, but operates stand-alone to Arena.
Creating a Batch
1) Launch the application by double clicking the Arena Contributions executable on the
desktop.
2) Enter the batch date, the control amount, and give the batch a name.
3) Click Next to proceed to the Contribution entry screen.
Figure 1 – New Batch

Getting Started
15
Contribution Entry
If the gift type is Cash, skip steps 1-3.

1) Scan your check through the check-reading machine, such as the MagTek™ CrossCheck
Pro.
2) If the person has already been associated to the check number, the person’s information
will automatically populate as shown below.
Figure 2 – Contribution Entry
3) If there is not a record associated with a MICR number then you need to look the record
up using the person search. Click the Name button in the top-left corner to pull up the
person search screen.
4) You may search by first name, last name, a combination of both, or by person ID.
5) Highlight the person and click the Select button in the bottom-right corner to associate
the transit and account number to the person.
6) Enter the amount of the check and click the tab, which will allot the amount to the first
fund in your list. This is located on the right-hand side of the screen. If the amount
should go into another fund, then you will need to manually make this adjustment.
7) Click the Next button in the bottom-right to enter the contribution.
8) If the sum total of all entries exceeds that of the control amount that was initially
entered, there will be a negative difference amount alerting you to this.
Note: You will be able to complete the batch even if the amount is negative.

Getting Started
9) Once you have entered all contributions for this batch, click the Done button to proceed
to batch summary screen. 16
Batch Summary
1) The final screen shows a summary list of the contributions that were entered in this
batch. If you wish to delete or add contributions to this batch, click the corresponding
button located on the bottom portion of the screen, as shown below.
Figure 3 – Batch Summary
2) If you want to add a new batch, click the Add Batch button in the top left.
3) Click the Open Batches button to show the batch list screen. This screen shows any
batches that have not been finalized.
4) You may highlight a batch to Edit, Finalize, or Delete the Batch.

Getting Started
Undoing a Contribution Entry 17

If a contribution entry needs to be edited or removed, there are two methods of editing. If
the batch the gift entry is in has not been finalized, simply reopen the batch, locate the gift
entry, open it, and make the necessary changes. However, if the batch has been finalized,
the gift cannot be edited. A negative entry that reverses the gift must be entered into a
separate batch. A corrective entry can then be entered in the same batch but as a
separate contribution entry. Entries that have a negative balance should always include
a memo explaining why the entry is negative, such as “returned check #...” or “correcting
amount error”. This way, the statements will reflect the full history on the giver.

Getting Started
18
Family Registrations
Family Registrations, like Contributions, is a stand-alone application that works in
conjunction with Arena. Data entry personnel can use this program to quickly and easily add
or modify a person (or an entire family) in the Arena database without having to use Arena
to do so. Using Family Contributions to edit records has a few advantages in lieu of using
the Arena application:
• Arena is a web-based application, meaning from a user perspective, it functions similar
to Internet navigation. This means that each new screen of Arena has to load in a
similar manner as a web page. Because Family Registrations is workstation-based
application (or a client application), loading time between screens is virtually
instantaneous. This makes navigation between screens in the user interface much
quicker.
• The user interface of Family Registrations puts most of the important fields for a record
on one screen, preventing data entry personnel from navigation between multiple
screens to add or modify a record.
• The Arena program uses the Windows login to give access to users. This means that in
order to use Arena, a user must be set up in your Active Directory. However, the Family
Registrations requires a login created from within Arena. Therefore, it is an ideal
application to use to allow volunteers to do data entry work for your organization
without going through the hassle of setting them up as a new user on your network.
• The Family Registrations application has a built-in control that prevents data entry
personnel from accidently duplicating records.
Using Family Registrations
Family Registrations is designed to be easy to use for any level user. Once you launch the
Family Registrations application, a prompt will appear for you to log in. This will be an Arena
username and password. Once logged in, you can search for an existing family using the
Quick Search at the upper left, or click on the Add New Family at the lower left to enter in
the name, birthdate, and gender of a person or the entire family, all at once.

Getting Started
Adding a new family 19

When you click on the Add New Family button at the lower left, a new window will appear
allowing you to enter in the family information, as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2 - New Family
In the New Family screen, fill in the first and last name of the Head of House. Arena only
allows two adults in a family, and those must be of separate genders, so it is important to
enter the appropriate name in the corresponding line for the adults of a family. All other
individuals added to a family will be entered with the role of “Child”, but that can be
changed within their record in the Arena application. You must enter a birthdate and choose
a gender for each person. Once all the family members have been entered, scan or swipe a
check-in card for the family. The card ID number will show as the Assigned Card number for
that family. Click OK when done.
Note: Assigning a card is optional. If no card is entered, a popup will appear verifying
the save with no card when you click OK. New people are added with a default
member status, as defined in the Family Registrations configuration file.

Getting Started
Editing an Existing Family 20

Using the search options at the upper left will display a list of all families that meet the
criteria of the search. All names will appear with the last name in bold, followed by the first
name. In the event of a family, the first names will be listed in chronological order of age.
Double-click on the individual or family to open the Family Information screen.
Figure 2 – Family Information
Individual family members will display as separate tabs along the top of the screen in
chronological order by age; however, the first person entered into Arena (typically the Head
of House) will be the initial open tab. Click on any name to view the specific information
about that individual. Children’s names will show with their age.
Editing the home phone or address fields of an adult will place the same information on all
members of the family. All other fields are unique to the individual. All fields in the Family
Information screen are not user-defined, except for the area between Relationships and
Cards Assigned. This is a section where a set of record attributes can be edited. These
attributes must be within the same Attribute Group. Please refer to the Person Attributes
section in the Arena Administrator Manual for help with creating and using Attributes. The
attribute group is set in the Family Registrations configuration file.

Getting Started
Assigning a Check-In card

Check-In can use a barcode or magnetic stripe card to make it easy to select the correct 21
family. When viewing the Family Information screen for a family, simply scan the barcode or
swipe the stripe of the card at any time. This will enter the code in the Cards Assigned
section. All cards assigned to an individual will work for all members of a family. You can
have multiple cards, if desired. Card numbers can be removed by clicking on the number
and click the Unassign button.
Adding a Photo
While you can view an image on file for an individual, you cannot change the photo at this
time. Future versions of Arena will incorporate the ability to use a live camera to capture
images.

Getting Started
22
Develop and deploy new Security Roles and Logins
Arena uses the Security Roles section to determine what areas of Arena a user has
permission to access and perform tasks. Permissions are set for the various security roles
individually; therefore, adding a user to a role will grant that user the permissions assigned
to the role. This makes it much easier to maintain security as a whole since constant minute
tweaks to an individual’s security are no longer necessary. All that is required to change a
user’s permissions is change the role that user is a member of.
How Roles Work
Security roles work by first assigning the security role permissions to objects, then
assigning members to roles. When the user signs in, Arena will determine what role the
user is a member of and grant the appropriate access. If a user is attached to more than
one security role on the permissions stack, meaning that if one role grants view rights to a
page, and another role grants view rights to a different page, then the user can view both
pages.
Object Types
The various pieces of Arena that create the application as a whole are called “objects”, in
terms of security.
Below is a list and brief description of the objects that can be secured:
• Applications - Applications are external applications that integrate with Arena.
Currently, Contributions and Family Registrations are the only applications available.
• Attribute Groups – Attribute Groups are used to categorize your record attributes
together.
• Attributes – Attributes are a way of storing custom data in Person Details.
• Group Clusters – Group clusters are used to categorize and divide the structure of
small groups.
• Metrics – Metrics are a graphical way to display information about an individual or
group.
• Modules – Modules, or controls, are small interfaces for data entry and viewing for
specific functions.
• Pages – Pages are where all content is located for user interaction.
• Person Fields – Person fields are all fields in the Person Details screen.
• Person Notes – Person notes are notes entered in the Person Details screen.
• Portals – Portals are the access gateways to Arena content, and separate the various
Arena managed web sites from each other, including the primary application site.
• Reports – Reports are a way of viewing information about a selected group of people.
This object is about Lists (built-in Arena reports), not Microsoft™ Reporting Services
reports.
• Tags – Tags are divided in four types: Personal, Ministry, Serving, and Event (your titles
may vary), and are a method of grouping people together by a common trait.

Getting Started
Permission Types
Permission types are the various kinds of abilities allowed. View and edit are the most 23
common permission types; however, objects have different types of permissions, such as
“Edit Modules” or “Edit Registrations”. The specific permission types available are specific to
each object listed above.
Here is a brief description of all the permission types and what objects they are available
for:
• Approve (modules only) – Certain modules have “approve” functionality, such as
promotions, events, registrations, etc. In order for this information to be finalized and
appear on the Arena web site, the information must be approved by an Arena supervisor
that has “approve” permission. Users who do not have “approve” permissions will not
see the Approve link to finalize the event.
• Edit (all except applications) – Edit rights allow for editing the contents and/or details of
the object in question.
• Edit Modules (pages and reports only) – Editing modules allow for adding, deleting,
and editing the modules and their settings.
• Edit Notes (metrics only) – Edit Notes allows for adding, deleting, and editing notes in
metric details.
• Edit People (tags only) – Edit People allows for editing the tag member details.
• Edit Registration (tags only) – Edit Registrations allows for editing online registration
settings for event tags.
• Edit Security (all except portals) – Edit Security allows for editing of security
permissions.
• View (all) – View allows viewing the object in question.
Create a New Security Role
New security roles can be created by navigating in Arena to Administration > Security
Roles.
Arena will come installed with several security roles already created. Only the Arena
Administrators role will have any preset permissions, but you can add, copy, remove, or
edit any of the roles as necessary.
Note: The All Users and Arena Administrators roles cannot be deleted, and the
members of the All Users role cannot be modified.
To create a new security role, click the New Role icon. This creates a role at the top of
the role list called [New Role], ready to have its permissions set up.
Before setting the permissions of a role, it is important to determine what permissions to
which objects a role should have. Ask, “What parts of Arena should a user in this role be
able to view? To edit? How much control should a user have over the details of something?
Should a user in this role be able to add to the Arena managed web site?”
Questions of this nature will help a lot towards setting up permissions of the new role
properly. You can always edit a role once it has been created and implemented.

Getting Started
Editing a Security Role 24

Editing a security role can be done at any time by opening the details of the security role by
clicking on the role name link, then clicking the Edit Permissions button.
This will open a new window that shows what permissions are set and available for this
Role. This window is divided into tabs that group various security areas together.
Edit these permissions to allow the appropriate security as necessary to give the user the
correct level of access to Arena and its sections.
Note: For help with creating and editing security roles, please refer to the Security
Roles section of the Arena Administrator Manual.
Important Notes about Required Role Permissions

Certain permissions must be set for any role to function properly. The exact settings you
choose to have for your roles can vary, and what sections you want to have behind a login
or open to public view are up to you. However, there are certain sections that must have
specific permissions in order for Arena to function at all.
In order to access any part of Arena, the All Users role must have view rights to the Login
page setup for each portal. Also, the All Users role must have view and edit rights to the
User Login control set up on the login page. All Users is the only role that includes the
“Anonymous” username, meaning that the database does not have to know exactly who the
user is to show the content. This is why this role is required for the login page, since before
the user has logged in, the user is considered to be “Anonymous User”.
Any security role that can access any section of the Arena application itself needs to have
view rights to the Page Navigation module, located in the Left Content area of the Arena
ChMS template. Permissions for template modules are set in the Templates section under
Administration.
Any role that can access attendance information to view, modify, or enter attendance
information must have view rights to the Occurrence List and Occurrence Details pages
(and their respective modules), which are set up under Check-In.
Certain modules designed for use only in Arena managed web sites also require a login to
access:
• Group Leader Toolbox
• Prayer Session
• Online Giving

Getting Started
Add Users to Security Roles 25

Now that the security role has been created and the permissions are set, the next step is to
add existing users to the role. It is important to determine the method of adding users to
the role. Existing users can be added by one of two methods, direct or indirect.
Direct add means the user is added directly to the role itself, by opening the role and
adding a member manually.
Indirect add means the user is added to either a Tag or Active Directory Group. Roles
can by synced to any number of these, or a combination thereof. Adding a user to that
entity will then add them to the role by an Arena Automated Agent.
Note: For more about the Arena Automated Agents, please refer to the Agents
section of the Arena Administration Manual.
Adding New Online Users to Roles

There are two methods to add a new user to Arena via an Online Request. One method is by
e-mailing a request and the other is by directly adding themselves to the database. Which
option that is available to site visitors is determined by the module used on the New
Member Request page.
Note: For help in setting up Login pages and New Requests, please see the Setting
up Login Pages section of the Arena Web Site Guide.
The method that a user is added to the role from Online Requests is specific to how the
request was entered. If the request is via e-mail, then the new user will be added manually,
by whatever method the appropriate role calls for.
If the request directly adds the user to the database, then the method to add the user to
the role must be the indirect method. The New Member Request module has a setting of
Profile ID just for this purpose.
When the new user account is submitted, the user is added automatically to the designated
profile, or tag. This tag should be synced to a security role. That way, when a user is added
to the tag, they are also added as a member of the role via the Automated Agent.
It is strongly discouraged that Sync with Active Directory Group be the only sync source
used for a security role for online users, as this will result in being largely populated by
users who are not active in the Active Directory.

Getting Started
26
Add Login IDs to Users
The last part of deploying roles is assigning Login IDs to users. Users who created their
logins online have their login IDs assigned when the account is created, but existing users
will have to have their logins set for them.
Logins are set through the Security tab at the top of the Person Details screen. Search for
the person by using either the Quick Search or Person Search, and open that person’s
details. When you open the Security tab, you will see a section for logins. Click the
button to add a new Login ID.
The user can now log into Arena and access whatever sections their role or roles allow them
to see and work with.

Getting Started
27
Creating a New Check-In Theme
Arena is installed with two default Check-In themes. A theme controls the overall look of the
Check-In application, any text (including placement, appearance, and content), images,
sounds, and layout. This guide will cover how to create a new theme or modify an existing
one to best suit your needs.
Setup
The following step-by-step process will enable you to modify an existing theme.
1) Create a new folder in /Arena/Arena CheckIn/Themes with the new theme’s name.
Example: /Themes/childrenscheckin
2) Create the folder /Images as a subfolder under the new folder.
3) Copy the Style.css, ThemeSettings.xml, ThemeSettings.xsd, ThemeSettings.xss
files, and the /Sounds directory from /Themes/Arena to the new theme directory.
4) For each of the image files listed in Table 1, you have the option:
a. Create new image files, using the guide below
Note: The image dimensions listed are defaults from the Arena theme. If custom
images are created, the Style.css will need to be edited to accommodate the
different image sizes.
b. Copy the image files from the /Images folder of an existing theme and edit the
images as desired using any image editor. Be sure to retain the file types and file
names.
c. Copy the existing file as described and use the existing image.
Table 1 – Theme Images

1 2
Image File Name Image Page(s) Used On
Dimension
(Pixels) 1
action_button.png 172 x 77 Phone Lookup
action_button_down.png 172 x 77 Phone Lookup
action_button_change.png 190 x 77 Confirm name (Centralized only)
action_button_change_down.png 190 x 77 Confirm name (Centralized only)
action_button_check.png 190 x 77 Confirm name (Centralized), name
Family (Non-Centralized)

Getting Started
action_button_check.png 190 x 77 Confirm name (Centralized), name 28

Family (Non-Centralized)
back_button.png 125 x 100 Phone Lookup, Confirm name
(Centralized), name Family (Non-
Centralized/Centralized)
back_button_down.png 125 x 100 Phone Lookup, Confirm name
checkbox_blank.png 76 x 68 name Family (Non-Centralized)
checkbox_checked.png 76 x 68 name Family (Non-Centralized)
name_button.png 570 x 68 name Family (Non-
name_button_down.png 570 x 68 name Family (Non-
numeric_button.png 95 x 77 Phone Lookup
numeric_button_down.png 95 x 77 Phone Lookup
phone_button.png 346 x 56 Phone Lookup
phone_button_down.png 346 x 56 Phone Lookup
scroll_down.png 70 x 70 Phone Lookup, Confirm name
scroll_down_down.png 70 x 70 Phone Lookup, Confirm name
scroll_up.png 70 x 70 Phone Lookup, Confirm name
scroll_up_down.png 70 x 70 Phone Lookup, Confirm name

Getting Started
scrollbar.png 59 x 863 Phone Lookup, Confirm name 29

search_background.png 380 x 65 Phone Lookup
background.jpg 3 1024 x 768 Phone Lookup, Confirm name
Centralized/Centralized),
3
background_Welcome.jpg 1024 x 768 Welcome Screen
busy.gif 4 126 x 22 All Screens
error.gif 5 48 x 48 Error Screen
Note 1: These are the default values, defined in styles.css. These values can be changed so long as the
corresponding value in styles.css is changed to match, but some location references in styles.css are relative to
image sizes/locations and may need to be adjusted as well.
Note 2: The text displayed on each image/button in these locations is defined in ThemeSettings.xml.
Note 3: background.jpg and background_Welcome.jpg are JPEG files.
Note 4: busy.gif is an Animated GIF file.
Note 5: error.gif is a GIF file.

Getting Started
30
Add the Theme to the Database
1) As there is no user interface to add themes, so you need to directly access the ArenaDB
database, and in the comp_theme table, add a new line using the values listed in
Table 2.
Table 2 – comp_theme Row Values
Column Name Row Value

theme_id Automatically Assigned
theme_name Descriptive name, e.g. “Children’s
Theme”
theme_path Theme folder name, e.g.
“childrenscheckin”
date_created Today’s Date
date_modified Today’s Date
created_by Your User ID
modified_by Your User ID
default_theme False*
*Note: Only one value in the default_theme column may be True.
2) Refresh your Arena cache.
3) Edit the Style.css and the ThemeSettings.xml files to change fonts, colors, and text.
See Styles CSS Definitions for Arena Check In Kiosk Themes and ThemeSettingsXML
Definitions for Arena Check In Kiosk Themes technical documents, available on the
Arena Community Site, for more information.

Getting Started
Changing a Kiosk to a New Theme 31

Centralized Mode
Centralized mode is a setup option for a Check-In kiosk that allows for multiple
attendance types to be accessible at the same kiosk.
As centralized mode uses the kiosk default setting for its theme, the following will show how
to set the new theme for use in centralized mode.
1) Make certain the kiosk application is not running on the kiosk you wish to update.
2) Go to Check-In Kiosks and choose the kiosk you want to update to the new theme.
3) Click the Default Check-In Theme drop-down box and select the name of your new
theme.
4) Click Update, refresh your Arena cache, and restart the kiosk application on the specific
kiosk.
Non-Centralized Mode
Non-centralized mode is a setup option for a Check-In kiosk that only permits access to
one attendance type at that kiosk.
Non-centralized mode uses the Attendance Type Theme setting. Only one theme is used at
a kiosk in non-centralized mode.
1) Make certain the kiosk application is closed on the kiosk you wish to update.
2) Under Check-In Attendance Type Categories, click the Attendance Type
hyperlink on the category containing the type you wish to change.
3) Click on the Attendance Type desired.
4) Click on the Check-In Theme drop-down menu and change accordingly.
5) Click Update, refresh your Arena cache, and restart the kiosk application on the specific
kiosk.
Note: for more information on kioks modes, please see Appendix A, Check-In
Implementation, of the Arena End User guide.

Getting Started
32
Modifying XML Files for Custom Lists
Lists are used in Arena to generate a list of people and certain information about them
based on selected criteria. The criteria and the selectable fields to show in a List are
determined by an XML file. The particular file used for a list is determined by the option
selected when the list is first created.
By default, Arena installs four XML files: Person Report, Parent Report, Groups Report,
and Computer Report. Each of these has different fields for criteria and for selection.
These XML files are located in the Arena installation folder, in the \Content\XMLreports
subfolder. To begin editing, copy the report file to edit, and rename it.
The file can be edited in a program such as Microsoft Visual Studio. All examples will use the
Person_Report.xml as reference.
There are two types of sections in the XML file, Tables, and Criteria.
Tables
Table sections are how the XML file actually queries the data in the database. This section
contains the SQL join syntax for the tables. Each time a table is used that requires a specific
variable, such as core_person_attribute, it has to be joined with a unique Alias.
The tables are joined so that the fields located within the table can be used as available
options for the List.
Setup a Table Link

The general layout of a table setup is as follows:
<table name="<table name>" alias="<unique alias>"

required_tables="<referred table alias>" join="<join type>"
link="<alias>.<join field> = <referred alias>.<join field> and <any
filters>">
For example, joining the core_person_address would be as follows:
<table name="core_person_address" alias="PA" required_tables="P"

join="left outer" link="PA.person_id = p.person_id and
PA.primary_address = 1"/>
This means that the table core_person_address has an alias of “PA”, and is joining by a
left outer join onto “P” (which is core_person) by the person_id field, with a filter of the
primary_address field of core_person_address must equal “1”.
Note: The person_report.XML file start with core_person with an alias of “P”.

Getting Started
In standard SQL syntax, the previous example would represent:

33
LEFT OUTER JOIN core_person_address AS PA ON PA.person_id = P.person_id
AND PA.primary_address = 1
It is not necessary to have a field in the XML file for each table, for example,
core_person_address has no fields, and rather, it is used to link the core_person table to
core_address. So only the table is added, then the core_address table is added immediately
after.
It is common to have an additional qualifier added to the join script, as in the above
example, to show that the join only occurs given a specific set of circumstances. This is
important for adding person attributes.
Table Fields
Table fields represent the database fields for the actual data to either query against or
retrieve. The table fields also link to criteria and contain setup for display options. All table
fields in the XML file will show as a selectable field, and will list in the same order as in this
file. Table fields are essentially the “what” about the person listed. These fields have specific
data types that have to match the type of field in the database.
Types of Table Fields

There are seven types of fields for use within the XML file:
• Query – Query uses a SQL script to pull the available options for that field. This allows
the user to pull options from a different place than the table.
• Userlist – Userlist allows for hard coding the options in a checkbox format or drop-
down. This can range from yes/no to several options for one field. Whatever values are
set here will pull based on the numerical value in the field within the database.
• Lookup – Lookup types are for fields that reference a lookup from the core_lookup
table as the available values. These require the lookup_type_id as the type_qualifier
setting in the field string.
• Date – Dates are used specifically for date type fields.
• Varchar – Varchar fields represent an alpha-numeric, or text, value.
• Integer – Integer fields are for fields that only contain a whole positive number.
• Decimal – Decimal fields are for any numeric field.

Getting Started
Setup a Table Field link

The general layout of a table field is as follows: 34
<field name="<unique field reference>" display="<display name>" field="<field
name in table>" type="<type>" type_qualifier="<qualifer for type>"
dflt_column_type="<list column type>" dflt_text_format=""
dflt_horizontal_align="left" dflt_navigate_field_name="" dflt_navigate_url=""
dflt_navigate_target="_blank"/>
</table>
For example, below will join a date field from core_person_attribute into the list:
<field name="last_visit_date" display="Last Visit Date" field="datetime_value"

type="date" type_qualifier="range" dflt_column_type="boundcolumn"
dflt_text_format="{0:MM/dd/yy}" dflt_horizontal_align="left"
dflt_navigate_field_name="" dflt_navigate_url=""
dflt_navigate_target="_blank"/>
</table>
Field Type Setup and Options

Each type uses a type qualifier to actually setup the type for use in the list. Below are the
qualifier options and settings for each type:
• Query – For the query type, the type qualifier is the query script itself. This query can
only select two fields, the first is the value, and the second is text. These must be
aliased as [field_value] and [field_text], respectively. These values display as a
checkbox. Below is an example:
<field name="group_role_name" display="Small Group Role"

field="role_name" type="query" type_qualifier="select distinct('''' +
role_name + '''') as [field_value], role_name as [field_text] from
smgp_v_group_member_role where category_id = 1 order by field_text"
dflt_column_type="BoundColumn" dflt_text_format=""
dflt_horizontal_align="left" dflt_navigate_field_name=""
dflt_navigate_url="" dflt_navigate_target="_blank"/>
• Userlist – Userlist types create a list that returns a hardcoded value. The type qualifier
for this type is where those values and options are setup in a semicolon-delimited list.
The options themselves are <value>:<text>; etc. Userlists are best for any field that
has a true/false, 1 or 0, etc., for example, “1:Yes;0:No”. These values display as a
checkbox.
• Lookup – Lookup types require the Lookup Type ID of the lookup table as the type
qualifier. Each value in the lookup table will display as a checkbox field.
• Date – Date types have two options, either a set date or a date range. For a set date,
there is no type qualifier required. For the range of numbers, the type qualifier should
be “range”. These fields will display a calendar to pick the date.
• Varchar – For the varchar type, there is no type qualifier required. These fields show as
a text box.
• Integer – There are two options for integer types. Either the criteria requires a set
number (value = X) or a number range. For a set number, there is no type qualifier
required. For the range of numbers, the type qualifier should be “range”. These fields
show as a text box.
• Decimal – These function exactly as integers.
Any type that requires a function to generate the values, the function should be entered as
the field format with the functions’ required variables. These options are comma delimited.

Getting Started
Criteria
35
Criteria fields determine what fields are available for filters to generate the list of names for.
Criteria are essentially the “who”, determining who shows up in the list. The criteria fields
also set how a criterion is entered in the list setup.
For a field to show as criteria, it must be referenced as a table value. This is linked by the
field name value in the corresponding table field.
Criteria Options
As the criteria are linked to the table field, each field type has its options of criteria. Many
options link to a comparison list, which is also defined in the XML file at the bottom of the
file.
• Query, Userlist, or Lookup – For a single select option, only give this criterion a size.
A comparison list option can be chosen. For a multi-select option, enter a
display_type”checkbox_list”, which will display all the options as a series of checkboxes.
• Date, Integer, or Decimal – For a single date, only give this criteria a size, and a
comparison list is optional. For a range of dates, set the display_type=”range”, and
enter a size.
• Varchar – Only a size and comparison list are required for this type.
The “noprompt” field allows you to turn on or off the attribute name. A value of “false” in
the “noprompt” field will show the name.
Comparison Lists
There are two comparison lists to choose from, and those options are set at nearly the
bottom of the XML file. It is recommended not to change these values.
Default Fields to show

Under the comparison lists, are default settings. Fields can be added or removed to this list;
these will show regardless of selected fields.

Getting Started
36
Inserting Person Attributes
The most common modification to the XML files will be person attributes. To insert a person
attribute, you will need to know two things about that attribute; first, the Attribute ID
which you can get from the core_attribute table in the database, and second, the Type of
Attribute.
Arena has eight person attributes types:
• Integer (numerical, whole numbers only)
• String (varchar)
• Date
• Lookup (a drop-down appears with values set in lookups)
• Yes/No (a checkbox field)
• Decimal (numerical, but has decimals)
• Currency
• URL
Actual attribute values chosen for an individual are stored in the core_person_attribute
table. The core_person_attribute table has six fields:
• person_id
• attribute_id
• int_value (used for lookup, integer, and yes/no attributes)
• varchar_value (used for string attributes)
• datetime_value (used for date attributes)
• decimal_value (used for currency and decimal attributes)
Due to the nature of attributes, each time a separate attribute ID is desired to add, a unique
table join must be performed, since the table has to have a join filtered by the Attribute
ID.
Each table will then have one table field link, to whatever database field is tied to the
attribute type desired to add to the list.
Each type has unique settings:
• Integer – The field is int_value; the type qualifier is the Attribute ID for single select,
Range for multi-select. Criteria should reflect the option in the field.
• String – The field is varchar_value, the type qualifier is the Attribute ID. Criteria
should have a size and comparison list.
• Date – The field is date_time value, the type qualifier is the Attribute ID (or none) for
single select, Range for multi-select. The default text format will need to indicate this is
a date field by using {0:MM/dd/yy}. Criteria should reflect the table option.
• Lookup – The field is int_value, the type qualifier is the Lookup Type ID. Criteria
should use either a size and comparison list, or a checkbox_list setting.
• Yes/No – The field is int_value, the type qualifier must be Userlist. Valid values are 0
(for unchecked) and 1 (for checked). Never checked references do not show in this
table. Criteria should show checkbox_list as the display type.
• Decimal – The field is decimal_value, the type qualifier is either the Attribute ID or
Range, depending on the desired criteria options. Criteria should reflect the table
option.
• Currency – The field is decimal_value, the type qualifier is either the Attribute ID or
Range, depending on the desired criteria options. Criteria should reflect the table
option.
• URL – The field is varchar_value, the type qualifier is the Attribute ID. Criteria should
have a size and comparison List. The dflt_column_type should be “Hyperlink”.

Getting Started
Where to Add Custom Tables and Criteria

The Person Report XML file will have a section in it for placing the custom entries for both 37
tables and criteria. It can be found by looking for the section surrounded by the following
lines:



Insert your new table values in between these lines.

Closer to the bottom, you will see:



This is where you insert the criteria lines. Since there will already be a Custom Attributes
tab for your reports, this is where those will display.
If you make a change to the person_report.xml file, you will need to close and reopen Arena
in a new browser session to see the changes after you have saved the XML file.
Supplemental Help
There may be times when creating the new field that “escape characters” will be necessary.
These are used when specific characters are desired in the XML file that are used as SQL
functions, such as ampersands (&), quotes (‘), etc. The below chart shows what to enter in
the file depending on the desired character.
Table 1 - Supplemental
Desired Character Enter this Example Will show as

‘ (single quote) ' didn't didn’t
“ (double quote) " "Please" “Please”
\ (backslash) \\ \\ \
[new line] \n text1\ntext2 text1
text2
& (ampersand) & First&Last First&Last
< (less than) < 5<6 5<6
> (greater than) > 6>5 6>5

Managing Your Arena Web Site
Implementing Your Arena Managed Web Site 38

The heart of Arena is its ability to manage and control the content of multiple web sites. In
fact, the Arena application is a web site itself. An Arena web site consists of templates to
define the layout, CSS and image files to make the appearance, pages to create the
structure, modules to control the content, and security to set access permissions. These are
all established within Arena, and the content displayed is controlled by the data entered
through Arena. There are two ways of running an Arena web site, public (external) and
private (internal). Public sites are any web site accessible from an outside location, primarily
your church’s web site. Private sites include the Arena application site and any site under
construction.
Making Your Web Site Public

Public sites are defined by being accessible to visitors and members on the Internet. This
involves registering a domain name for your site and configuring it with your Domain Name
System (DNS) server to route users to the correct server on your network, as well as
opening the correct ports in your firewall for the site. Then you will need to configure
Internet Information Services (IIS) on your server to route web traffic to the correct files on
the server and configure the Host Headers in your IIS web site to route the proper domain
names to your Arena web site. Finally, you will need to configure your portal in Arena to
direct users to the correct pages for your web site. The majority of these tasks will need to
be completed by your network administrator before your Arena administrator can configure
your portal.
Network Administrator
Your network administrator will need to complete the following steps before you create and
configure your Arena portals (for more information on these topics, please contact your
network administrator):
1. Register a unique domain name with a DNS registry service and configure it to point to
your web server’s external IP address.
2. Open the required ports in your firewall (typically port 80 for HTTP and/or port 443 for
SSL).

3. Add a host header on your IIS web site, similar to the example shown below, for each
unique domain name that will be used for Arena. 39
Figure 1 – Host Headers
Arena Administrator
Your Arena administrator can configure multiple Arena portals to work with the same IIS
web site. Each unique domain must be entered in the host headers for this site (as shown
above) and the proper Default Domain values are entered in the portals (as shown below).
Note that while the full domain name including the sub-domain is used in the host header
values above (e.g. www.YourChurchOnline.com), only the primary domain name is used by
Arena and must be unique for each portal (e.g. YourChurchOnline.com).
Figure 2 – Portal List

40
Web Site Authentication
Web Sites set up in Microsoft Windows Internet Information Services (IIS) have two modes
of authentication, Windows and Forms. Windows authentication relies on a user having
access to the internal domain the web server is in, while forms rely on accessing the
database directly.
Typically, internal sites will use Windows authentication, while public sites will use forms.
This means for a user to access an internal site, the user must already exist in the domain
in order to validate against it. Attempting to access an Arena site that uses Windows
authentication while not using a computer already on the internal network will result in a
Windows popup, prompting the user to enter in a domain username and password. That
login will then be passed into Arena.
Accessing a forms site will open the Arena login page, unless the user first opens pages that
allow Anonymous access. As soon as the user attempts to access a page that Anonymous
cannot view, the user will be redirected to the Login page. The user will enter their login
name and password that ties to their record in the Arena database to continue in the site.
Once the login credentials are entered, Arena verifies what pages and controls the user has
permission to view, edit, and modify.
Forms authenticated logins have a timeout period, so a user may be asked to log back in
after a long period of inactivity. This is covered more extensively in Develop and Deploy
New Security Roles in the Getting Started guide.

41
Templates
Templates are the framework that defines the appearance and layout of your site by
establishing the content areas on a page. Templates for Arena are written in HTML inside of
an ASP.NET page, using a table-based architecture. Typically, the majority of a web site will
use the same template file; however, you may encounter a few pages you will want to use a
different template for a different look than the rest of your web site. Templates also contain
any images that you want to have on all pages using that template, such as a banner or
background image. Arena includes ten default templates that are used throughout the
application, and serve as excellent examples of a template’s structure.
Creating a New Template
Since creating a new template from scratch requires in-depth web design knowledge, you
can use the templates included with Arena as a reference and modify one to suit your
needs. Copy the file and edit the template as needed. While a great deal of a template’s
structure is made from HTML tags, the key elements of the template are the ASP.NET tags.
These ASP.NET tags are defined in the .CS code behind files provided with the Developer
SDK, so if you need to add any additional ASP.NET tags you will need to make the
modifications to those source files in an web page editor such as Visual Studio or
Dreamweaver and re-build the template files before using the tags in your HTML template.
Adding a Template to Arena
To use a template in a page, the template file must be added to Arena in the Module List.
There are two steps to adding the template file to Arena; first, copy your template file into
the Templates folder within the Arena directory. Next, navigate to the Administration
Templates page in the Arena application. Click the Add New Template link followed by
the Edit Details button to open the Template Details view where you can enter the URL of
your new template (e.g. ~\templates\new_template.ascx), as well as the name and a brief
description of the template.
After you click the Update button, you will see the various content areas of the new
template. These content areas will display as tabs at the top of the Template Details area.
You can now navigate through these areas and add modules to the content areas of the
template itself. These modules will display in its corresponding content area of that template
anywhere it is used in your website. Modules added directly to the template will not display
in the same content areas as any page using this template, and any modules added to these
content areas on the page will display below the template module.

42
Page Structure
The page structure is how Arena defines the layout and
navigation of your website. The page structure is referred
to as a page tree because it uses a hierarchy-type
structure consisting of a combination of parent pages and
child pages, which can be parent pages as well.
It is strongly recommended that as much of the page
structure for each site section that can be built is done before adding the associated
modules, as some of the required module settings may require the existence of other pages.
Inherited Attributes
When a page is created, it created as a child page of another page. That new page
automatically inherits the page settings, security settings, modules, and module settings of
the parent page. This can be used to your advantage when creating several pages by
placing any settings or modules on the first page, so that when the rest of the pages are
created, they will have the same module on them. Examples of this are navigation controls,
All Users security permissions, or CSS files. This inheritance only happens when a page is
created; meaning that any settings or any controls added after a page is created will not be
added to any other page.
For additional help in creating pages, please refer to the Pages section of the Arena
Administration Manual.
Visibility
Occasionally a page in your page structure may not need to be visible in the navigation of
the web site. Pages like this can be ‘hidden’ by deselecting the Display in Nav checkbox in
the Page Details of each specific page. Note that this is separate from a security option. A
user with proper security permissions can still navigate to these pages by redirects, saved
links, or other means but if they do not have the proper security permissions for the pages
they will be unable to access them by any means.
Importing/Exporting Pages
Arena allows you to import and export pages and their child pages, including any modules
that exist on those pages. This can be used to move pages from one portal to another or
even from one installation of Arena to another. These export files will retain the modules on
the exported page and any child pages, the tree structure of the exported page and its child
pages, and any page references (such as module settings) that are internal to the tree that
is begin imported.
For more information on how to import or export pages, see the Arena Administrator
Manual.

43
Required Pages
While your specific site design will be unique, several key pages are required for any Arena
web site to function.
Root Page
The Root page is the first page in the page tree, and serves to organize all of the pages for
your web site. As this is simply a container page, it should contain no modules. To create
this page (unlike other pages), you will need to first create it as a child of another page and
then change its parent to “Root” in the Page Details area.
Home Page
The Home page is the first page Arena will attempt to route a user to, and is the start page
for a web site. This page is typically the only child page of the Root page. The home page is
referenced by portal details and by navigation modules throughout your web site. The
modules on this page will vary depending on your particular needs for your web site, but will
typically include a Navigation bar to move throughout the rest of your site, Promotion
modules to display active promotions, and any number of Advanced HTML Text modules
to display the animations and any other static content not written into your template. Public
sites should have this page open to anonymous users.
Login Page
The last required page for a page tree is a Login page, which will contain the User Login
module to allow your web site to verify site visitors as Arena users, allowing them access to
secured areas of your web site as allowed by their specific security permissions. Your Login
page is selected in the portal details and is referenced by several modules.
The Login page may be accessed directly, or is automatically accessed by a user attempting
to view a page that anonymous users cannot view.
The All Users security role must be able to view your Login page, as all visitors count as
members of the All Users security role until they have passed through the Login page.
It is important to give view rights to the Login page to every security role with any
permission on this page tree, as certain modules may attempt to re-verify the identity of a
user by passing their login and password to the Login page.

44
Modules
As you navigate around the Arena application, you will see many different ways in which
you can interact with the data in your Arena database, each appearing as its own separate
piece. These separate pieces of the Arena application are called Modules. Modules are small
applications or ‘applets’ which can be stand-alone or operate in tandem with other modules.
These applets deal with a specific function of the Arena application in a highly specialized
method, allowing them to be very small and very efficient. This also allows you to place a
portion of the application virtually anywhere, from adding forms to various internal pages to
displaying information from your database on an external site.
For more information on Modules, refer to the Arena Administrator Manual.
Required Settings
Many modules will have settings that are required, and therefore must be set, before saving
the module settings. While these settings are the only necessary settings required for the
basic functionality of the module, be sure to review the other settings of the module to see
if any other functions or restrictions should be applied.
Additional Modules
While this guide only covers the required modules on each page, there are a number of
other modules that can be added to many pages on a web site. These modules can serve
utilitarian functions such as the Page Drop-down Menu module for navigation or the
Login/Logout module for secured sections of your web site. Static modules for displaying
information such as an Advance HTML Text module can be used to display a Flash
animation file or an image. Some optional modules can even be interactive, such as a Poll
Display Active in Category module to gain information from visitors to your web site. You
are encouraged to explore the available modules and place them as needed throughout your
website.
For a more detailed list of modules, refer to the Arena Administrator Manual.

45
Arena Portals
Arena allows you to set up multiple web sites though Portals. Each portal represents a
separate set of pages, modules, and security settings, which can allow users to access
information in your Arena database. Portals use the primary domain information from your
IIS web site host headers to direct web traffic from a particular domain to a specific web
site in Arena, such as your Arena managed web site or an external portal to the Arena
application. Typically, each page tree is represented by a unique portal, but multiple portals
can reference the same page tree.
Portal Separation
Since each portal has a separate set of security settings and rights, it is critical that no page
or module references a ‘target’ page or module in a different page tree. Should such a
reference seem necessary, copy the target page into the referencing page tree, and then
target that copy instead of the original.
Please refer to Importing/Exporting Pages in the Pages section of this document for more
information on copying pages.
Setting Up a New Portal
To create a new portal, follow these steps:

1) Go to Administration Portal List and click the Add Portal icon to bring up the Portal
Details view. The Portal ID will be “-1” at first, but is actually assigned once the portal is
updated.
2) Enter the portal name, title, description, and notes as needed.
3) Select the Default Page ID as the homepage created in the Pages area of Administration,
and the Login Page ID as the User Login page in the same page tree.
4) Enter the default domain as the domain name that users will be using to access this
portal, which cannot be the same as any other portal’s default domain value. Refer to
the Making Your Web Site Public section for more information.
5) Choose the Authentication type and click the Update button to finish.
For more information on Authentication types, please refer to the Portal Security section
later in this guide.
Upon creation, new portals have security rights for the All Users role to view the portal,
which is the only required permission setting.
For more detailed information on setting up a new portal, see the Arena Administrator
Manual.

46
Security
Portal Security
The portal is where the Authentication mode is set for a web site. This will determine if a
user has to enter a login to access any Arena managed web site, or if a user is logged in
automatically.
See the Web Site Authentication section of this guide for more information on Windows vs.
Forms Authentication modes.
Page/Module Security
Arena allows you to customize how the pages and modules are accessed and/or edited by
users in several different ways. The primary method is to use security roles to manage view
and edit rights to your web site’s pages and modules, and assign individual users to security
roles to manage them as a group. Alternatively, you can grant access to pages and modules
to specific users, for when you need a very small select group of individuals to have access
rights.
Publicly viewable areas of your web site must include the All Users security role with view
permissions. This is the only security role that permits Anonymous access, therefore
allowing users who have not logged in to view those pages. This means that the All Users
role cannot have permission to any areas of your web site, which is considered secured or
restricted. You will want to maintain at least one user or security role with edit rights to
every page, to update your web site in the future. This is reserved for Administration
roles.
It is important to remember that while a security role or individual may have view rights to
a module, they must also have view rights to that module’s page in order to see the
module’s contents.
For more information on security roles and page security, see the Arena Administrator
Manual.

47
Setting up Site Navigation
Arena can create your web site’s navigation bars for you, by just adding the appropriate
module to your site’s template. Since creating a new page will automatically inherit the
page settings, modules, and security of the parent page, we recommend using that to your
advantage. Setting up the navigation module on the first page means that you won’t have
to repeat the setup for each page that has a navigation bar. Making small changes (for
example, the homepage of the navigation) as you create your page layout will make this
process even easier, since you can set up the links appropriate to where the navigation bar
is located, and have it propagate into child pages correctly. Setting up multiple navigation
bars in different locations of your website allows a user to access the various sections of
your site with ease, and reveal certain other sections of your site depending on what section
the user is already in. This creates a consistent, yet still flexible, navigation throughout your
site.
Arena has three modules that can be used to create a navigation bar.
• Page Drop-down Menu
• Page Navigation
• Advanced HTML Text
Page Drop-down Menu

This module populates a navigation bar based on the page structure of your site. It utilizes
Arena’s page tree structure, meaning that the navigation bar will display a link for each
child page of the root page as set by the module’s setting. Pages are shown based on their
level in the page tree, meaning that one bar will show all the pages at the same tier level.
The page drop-down menu module also has a setting to display cascading levels, so you can
view a page and its child pages in the same navigation bar. This is revealed by hovering
over the corresponding page link. That link will expand, displaying the drill-down of the
pages below it. Based on the orientation of the navigation bar, as set in the module
settings, it will expand horizontally or vertically, as shown below.
Figure 3 – Drop-down Navigation

Figure 3b – Page Navigation
48
The above example is set to display horizontally, so it expands lower level pages vertically
down. The module is set where Homepage is the root of the navigation bar. Notice how
Poll Results and E-Card/E-Invite View are not in the navigation bar, yet are in the page
tree.
This module relies heavily on CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) for its appearance. The module
has optional settings for the overall appearance, hover appearance, top item appearance,
and other parts of the navigation bar. You can code all these options into one CSS file; it
will work by simply having that one file set as the CSS Class value in the module settings.

Page Navigation 49
The best example of the navigation bar this module generates is the Arena application itself.
This module also uses the page tree structure to create the content of the navigation bar;
based on the root page in the module settings, that page’s child pages are shown as
navigation links. The difference between how the page drop-down menu and page
navigation modules build their content is in how the child pages are displayed. The page
navigation module considers the first tier of child pages to be page groups, where each page
group expands to show its own child pages. Because of this, a page group will only display
when at least one child page of its own can be viewed by the user currently logged in.
However, from a programming perspective, the difference between the two modules is how
this navigation bar is actually coded into the web site. The page drop-down menu module is
created by HTML and rendered by a CSS file, while the Page Navigation is created by XML,
using an XSL transformation file to generate its appearance and layout.
Advanced HTML Text

The advanced HTML text module allows you to manually create a series of hyperlinks that,
given the proper formatting and layout, will build a navigation bar. This gives you total
control over the contents of the navigation, since you build it from the ground up,
regardless of the security settings or placement of a page in the page tree. You also have
total control over the name of the link since the link is not dependant on the name of the
page for its name.
However, since you cannot set security for this module’s contents, you must be careful
when setting up the links. It is important to ensure a user will not be able to navigate to a
restricted page.
Also, since the links setup in this control are not dynamic to the database, if a page is
moved, deleted, or a new page added, you have to also update the contents of the
navigation bar manually, else a user will encounter missing page errors.
Restricting Pages in Navigation

You can restrict certain pages that would normally show up in the navigation bar by two
methods. If a page’s Display in Nav setting is unchecked, the page is only accessible by
redirect, manual entry, bookmark, or hyperlink. You can also use a page’s security
permissions to prohibit a user from viewing a page, meaning that a page will only show in
the navigation for the specific users you allow.
Both of these methods only apply to the page drop-down menu and the page navigation
modules. Using security permissions with the advanced HTML text module would only
restrict a user from the entire module, you cannot restrict from a specific link inside the
module.

50
Uses of the Advanced HTML Text Control
The Advanced HTML Text control is the most versatile module in Arena. It can be used to
place informational text on a web page, insert an image or Macromedia Flash file, create
manual hyperlinks, create a navigation bar, or even simulate an entire web site and more.
The Advance HTML Text control module functions as a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What
You Get) editor, replacing any needed textbox with a Microsoft Word-like editor. This
enables a user at any technical level to edit content visually in an HTML format without
needing to know HTML. It also functions as a basic document manager, where users can
access and upload images, Macromedia Flash files, video files, standard documents, and
HTML template files.
Note: The file path the Document Manager saves to is based on settings in Arena’s
web.config file.
While in plain text mode, the Advanced HTML Text control module works very similar to
Microsoft Word, with text alignment, font options, and paragraph control. Clicking the <>
button to enter HTML mode, where HTML code can be entered directly. HTML 1.0 to 4.0
code can be entered. XHTML is not recommended and is not supported.
The Advanced HTML Text control module can also utilize I-frames. In fact, the entire module
itself is an I-frame for your web site. I-frames, or inline frames, create another frame inside
your web site that allows for embedding other HTML documents inside another. Standard I-
frame syntax applies to using this ability. For example, the following would add Arena’s
training seminar registration form:
<iframe src="http://www.arenachms.com/form/Seminar.aspx" frameBorder=0

width="100%" scrolling=no height=650></iframe>
JavaScripts can also be used to add some interactivity to your pages. For example, the
following embedded JavaScript swaps an image using the OnMouseOver and OnClick
events:
<img onmouseover="javascript:this.src='/images/regbutton_over.jpg';"
onclick="javascript:this.src='/images/regbutton_click.jpg';"
onmouseout="javascript:this.src='/images/regbutton.jpg';"
src="/images/regbutton.jpg" border=0>
Advanced HTML Text modules also allow you to input inline styles in your documents. For
example,
<td style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" vAlign=top> </td>
Inline styles are useful when you do not have access to an embedded CSS stylesheet. You
can add style elements to most HTML tags, affecting the appearance of your page. Any
settings made here will override all other CSS files referenced for the page it is on.

51
Using Redirects
Redirects are a very helpful tool to use in your Arena managed web sites. Redirects are
used for populating your navigation bars for easy movement within the site, for mirroring a
page for alternate viewing, or routing a user to a page that you may want a certain method
to access.
By automatically taking the user to a different page, the user is redirected simply by
viewing the page with the module on it. The Redirect module overrides all other modules
on the page, providing the user logged in can view the redirect module itself. The user
never actually sees the page the redirect control is on; instead, they are directly forwarded
to the intended destination. The destination page is set within the module itself.
Note: The proper syntax for the module setting is: ~/default.aspx?page=<pageid>
where the pageid is the number of the desired page.
Using a Redirect for Navigation

Depending on what section of your web site a user is in, the navigation links displayed may
be different based on the user’s location within the site. A good example of this is the Group
Leader Toolbox, where the navigation links are most likely specific to the Toolbox pages, not
the entire site in general. By using redirects, you can allow the user to navigate out of the
toolbox without having to use the “back” button of their internet browser repeatedly. This is
accomplished by creating a page at the same level as the other pages in this section.
Providing the page is viewable in the navigation bar for that section, placing a redirect
control on that page will take the user out of the section. A common use would be “Home”,
which should be a redirect back to your site’s homepage. Having this page within the
Toolbox shown in the Navigation bar means that a user has to only click once to get from
the Toolbox back to the homepage of your site.

Using a Redirect for Specific Users 52

It is possible to have a redirect control on a page but the redirect not execute. This would
be because the user cannot view the control itself. If the permissions of a security role
prohibit viewing of the redirect module, then a user in that role would see any other
modules their security permissions allow them to view on the same page, but not be
redirected.
This means that certain users will be forwarded to a different page via redirect, and other
users will remain on the same page and view that page’s content.
This can be useful if you want one page to show certain information to some people, but
other people go to a different page, but the users only see one page link. A good example of
this is promotions, where non-members see certain promotions but members could be
redirected to a different promotion page showing different promotions, both by clicking on
the same link.
Automatic Redirects
There are two instances where a user may be automatically redirected without the use of
the redirect module.
The first instance is when first accessing the site itself. Depending on which portal the user
is accessing, Arena will attempt to direct them to the portal’s default homepage. However, if
the user cannot view that page because of security, that causes the second instance of
automatic redirect. If a user attempts to access a page they cannot view, and have not
already been authenticated to the database, the user will be automatically forwarded to the
portal’s Login page and prompted to enter their login ID and password. The user will then
be forwarded back to the page they were originally attempting to view.
The result of this is that a user can bookmark a restricted page in your web site, and when
they attempt to access it again by using that bookmark, they will be redirected to first log
in. Once logged in, they will then be automatically forwarded to their original destination.
Please refer to the Portal List section of the Arena Administrator Manual for help with setting
up portals.

53
Using the Login / Logout Module
You may want to include an easy way for a visitor to your web site to log in without having
to locate the login page of the site. Alternatively, you may want to allow an authenticated
user the ability to log out of your web site with one click. The Login Logout module allows
you to place a dedicated link on a page allowing a user to do those actions.
The login/logout module uses the portal’s default Login page setting to work. This module
displays user-defined text or an image informing the user of their current login status. That
text or image is the link. The module settings allow you to set the text or image that
displays in both statuses, a setting for where the user is taken within the site after logging
in, and CSS setting. When the user logs out using this module, the user is automatically
directed to the portals default homepage.

54
Uses of Pages as Tabs control
The Pages as Tabs control is used as a consolidation tool allowing you may view several
pages in the same area on one page with the tabs view. For example, the Arena application
uses this on the Person Details page to show Individual Information, Security,
Contributions, and Prayer Requests.
Using the Pages as Tabs control
You can use the control to consolidate areas such as: the approval pages under Prayer
Requests, the promotion request pages under Promotions and any areas that you would like
to see displayed in a tabs format. The only exception to this rule would be that you cannot
set up pages that must have information passed through from another source to work such
setting up the Group Trees page and the Groups Details pages on the same tab. The group
detail page receives a group id pass through from the group trees page in order to pull up
the correct group.
Consolidating Prayer Approval pages using Pages as Tabs

You can use the Pages as Tabs control to consolidate the prayer approval pages in the
Prayer area of the Arena application. Use the following steps to create a new page and
setup the module:
• Add a new page to your Prayer section in the Arena application and make it visible.
• Add the Pages as Tabs module on the page and click the Add… link to also add the
Approve Requests, Approve Answers, and the Approve Comments pages.
Now when you go to this page under the Prayer section in the Arena application it should
look similar to what you see below:
Figure 4 – Prayers on Pages as Tabs

Web Site Features 55

This section of the Web guide is for building and using various features that Arena enables
for your Arena managed web site.
Login Section
The Login page is one of the required pages for any
portal and page tree. While only the Login page itself is
required, there are also three optional pages: New
Login Request, Request Information, and User
Confirmation. When you set up a public web site there
may be some areas of the site that you want to restrict
access, requiring a login to view. These pages handle
that need as well as the option to set up a new login,
request a forgotten password, or change your personal
information.
Member Login
The Member Login page is the actual page a user enters their information to validate their
identity. The only module required for this page is the User Login module. This module has
one required setting, the redirect, set this value to a Homepage page. Depending on what
additional pages are desired for the Login section, set the pages appropriately for New
Account or Request Information.
The Login page must allow the All Users security role access to View the page and View
and Edit the module.
Note: To disable the login request and request information options, leave the
CreateAccountPage and SendAccountInfoPage settings blank.
New Login Request Page

A New Login Request page with either the HTML E-mail Form module, which requires an
administrator to create the login manually (but helps prevent duplicates), or the New
Account Request module which allows the user to create their own login.
If the New Account Request module is used, a tag must be set up that is synchronized to a
security role with permissions to the web site so that as new users are added to the tag,
they are automatically granted web site access. For more information on tags see the Arena
End User Manual, and for information on security roles see the Arena Administration
Manual.

Request Information Page 56

The Request Information page allows a user to have their login info sent to their e-mail
address if they forget it. This page uses the Request Login Information module. The
redirect should be set to the Member Login page.
User Confirmation Page

The User Confirmation page displays a user’s personal information and allows the user to
update that information directly to the database. Any known information about the user will
be shown. Any changes are committed to the database when the user clicks the OK button.
This page uses the User Confirmation module, and requires a Member Status and a
redirect.
This page can be accessed directly after logging in by setting the User Login control’s
redirect setting to:
“~/default.aspx?page=<page number>” (where <page number> is the page ID

number of your User Confirmation page)
and the User Confirmation module’s redirect setting to the site’s Home page.

57
Small Group Leader Toolbox
The Small Group Leader Toolbox is one of the most powerful tools available on your Arena-
managed website. With it, your group leaders can manage the members of their groups.
They can use it to send e-mails to the members of their groups, to add new members to
their groups, or to administer the personal information of their members.
Implementing the Small Group Leader Toolbox
Arena’s Small Group Leader Toolbox consists of everything

a group leader will need to maintain the information about
their group and its membership. The primary components
are the Group Leader Toolbox, Add Member Request,
Registration Details, View Small Groups, Person Details,
Person Update, Occurrence Detail, Area Details, and
Communications pages. The optional components are the
Home, Member Homepage, Your Small Groups, and Small
Group Locator, and Group Roster pages. The pages are
setup this way so that navigation in this section has its own
content, using the Group Leader Toolbox page as the root
page.
Group Leader Toolbox

The Group Leader Toolbox page displays the details of the
group or groups the user is a leader of, and allows the user
to select the specific group he wants to administer. This
page should be located in a secure area of your web site,
and should be visible in navigation (or linked to by a hard-
coded link). This page uses the Group List module with
Public Site set to True, the proper Category ID specified,
and your View Small Groups page selected as your Group
Detail Page setting.
Add Member Request

The Add Member Request page is used if the leader does
not have permissions to add members directly to their
group. Instead, the Add Member Request page is a form
the leader will fill out that is sent to a designated e-mail
address (either a staff member or a volunteer) who will
then manually add the member to that leader’s group. This
page should be located as a child of your Group Leader
Toolbox page, and should be visible in navigation if this
method will be used. It uses the HTML Email Form module with the From and Recipient e-
mail addresses selected, the instructions to be displayed at the top of the e-mail entered,
the e-mail’s Subject line entered, and the HTML formatted form data entered in the Details
area of the module settings.

View Small Groups

Once a user selects a small group on the Group Leader Toolbox page they are sent to the 58
View Small Groups page where they can view and administer all of the details of the group
including the membership and occurrences/scheduling. This page should be a child page of
your Group Leader Toolbox page and should be hidden in navigation, as it requires a specific
group ID to be passed to it. This page uses three modules, all with the Public Site module
setting set to true. The first module, Small Group Details, will need to select your external
Person Details page. The second module, Pending Registrations, will need to select your
Registration Details page. The third module, Small Group Tab Control, will need to select
the Area Details page, the Default Occurrence Type ID, the Occurrence Details page, and
the Registration Details page. Several other module settings can be selected on these
modules for additional functionality, but are not required.
Registration Details
When a leader selects one of the pending registrants listed on the View Small Groups page,
he is directed to the Registration Details screen where he can view the registrant’s
selections and then match them to a group. This page should be a child page of your View
Small Groups page and should be hidden in navigation, as it requires a registration ID be
passed to it. It requires the Registration Details module with your View Small Groups
page selected as the Cluster page and the Area Details page selected.
Person Details
If a leader selects a current member of the group, the Person Details page is used to display
the selected member’s personal information. This page should be a child page of your View
Small Groups page and should be hidden in navigation. This page uses the Person Details
module with the Public Site setting set to True. An important note to remember is that all
Person Details modules will follow the same field security settings, as set in the
Administration are of the Arena application, so long as the Secure Fields module setting is
set to true.
Person Update
When your Group Leader's security role does not include rights to edit the Person Details
page directly, they will need to use the Person Update page to make any changes or
corrections to the information of their group’s members. This page is linked from the Person
Details page by selecting it in the Person Details module settings. It should be a child page
of your View Small Groups page and hidden in navigation. It uses the HTML Email Form
with the From and Recipient e-mail addresses selected, the Instructions to be displayed at
the top of the e-mail entered, the e-mail’s Subject line entered, and the HTML formatted
form data entered in the Details area of the module settings.

Group Roster 59
Clicking the Display Detailed Roster button on the View Small Groups page will direct the
user to the Group Roster page which displays the members of the group with details such as
their pictures, addresses, and phone numbers. This page should be a child page of your
View Small Groups page and should be hidden in navigation. It uses the Small Group
Roster module which has no required module settings, and is an optional page.
Occurrence Detail
When the leader selects a specific occurrence from the Occurrences tab of the View Small
Groups page the Occurrence Detail page will show them the specifics of that particular
occurrence, such as the start and end times and location. This page should be a child page
of your View Small Groups page and should be hidden in navigation. This page requires the
Occurrence Details module with the Public Site setting set to True and the Area Detail,
Event Detail, Group Detail, Occurrence Type, and Profile Detail pages selected.
Area Details
While internally, this page displays geographic information about the group and its
members, in the Small Group Leader Toolbox this page is simply a required module setting
for the Small Group Tab Control on your Group Leader Toolbox page. This page should be a
child page of your Group Leader Toolbox page and should be hidden in navigation. It
requires the Area Details module with your small group Category ID entered, your external
Person Details page selected, and your View Small Groups page selected as the Area List
page.
Communications
A group leader may need to send e-mail messages to their group members and can do so
by selecting the e-mail link from the View Small Groups page. The link will take them to the
Communications page where they can enter the e-mail and send it to the selected
members. This page should be a child page of your Group Leader Toolbox page and should
be hidden in navigation. It uses the Mail Merge module which has no required settings.
Home, Member Homepage, Your Small Groups, and Small Group Locator
These pages are all redirects for easier navigation around your site, and are not required.
Each page only has the Redirect module on it, which points to its corresponding page.
• Home – redirects a user back to the web site homepage.
• Member Homepage – redirects a user back to the Member homepage.
• Your Small Groups – redirects a Group Leader back to their list of Groups from Group
details.
• Small Group Locator – redirects a user to the Small Group Locator.

Small Group Locator 60
The Small Group Locator allows visitors to your web site to locate a small group within
your organization that will best fit their needs based on criteria such as meeting day, age
range, proximity, and many others. Once the user has entered their preferences, the Small
Group Locator finds the closest matches and displays them for the user to select from. The
user can then fill out a form to send an e-mail to the leader of that small group indicating
their desire to join the small group, at which point the leader will need to register the user
for their small group.
Implementing a Small Group Locator
The Small Group Locator is a single Page with the Small

Group Locator module set for the Category ID of the group
category that visitors should be allowed to choose from and a
redirect page to send the visitor to when they complete the e-
mail form (for which you can optionally create a specific page
with an Advanced HTML Text module containing a “Thank you for your submission”
message).

61
Online Giving
In the modern age of paperless banking and online finance management many of your
members may wish to do their regular tithing or recurring offerings online, and Arena’s
Online Giving area allows them to accomplish that. There are a number of steps to setting
up online giving even before creating the pages on your web site which are covered in detail
in the Contributions Manual section of the Arena End User and Arena Administration Guides;
however the outline of these steps will be covered below.
Setting up Payment Gateways
All online giving transactions are processed through a Payment Gateway, making these the
key component of your online giving system. Currently Arena supports gateway accounts
with Payment Data Systems, or PDS. To set up a Payment Gateway account with PDS,
contact your Arena Client Service Representative.
Once you have received your account information from PDS, you will need to create your
gateways by following the steps below:
1) In the Arena application, go to Administration Payment Gateways and click the

Add New Gateway Account button to open the New Account page.
2) Enter a title for this account so that you can reference it later.
3) Select PDS as your Payment Processor, and select your Process (Credit Card or ACH for
e-checks).
4) Enter the Merchant Account, Username, Password, and Gateway URL provided by PDS.
5) (optional) Enter a Log File path and adjust the processing time to a more convenient
time for your servers
6) Click Update to finish.
You will need to repeat these steps to set up any other gateway accounts (such as an ACH
account if you have only set up your Credit Card account).
Set Up Giving Funds
If Arena is set up to work in tandem with Shelby Systems software, your funds will come
from purposes already existing in Shelby v5 Contributions. Otherwise, funds are setup
within Fund Management under the Contributions section of Arena. At least one fund must
be set up prior to starting Online Giving. For information on setting up new Giving Funds,
please refer to the Contributions section of the Arena End User manual.

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Online Giving on Your Web Site
To allow your members to use Online Giving on your

Arena managed web site, you will need to create four
pages: Online Giving, My Repeating Payments, My
Contributions, and My Contribution Detail.
Online Giving
The Online Giving page is the primary interface
between your members and your online Contributions
system. It is a step-by-step process which allows your
members to confirm their personal information and
add or monitor their online gifts. This page should be
located in a secure section of your web site and should
be visible in navigation. It uses the Repeating Payment Wizard module which requires
the My Contributions and My Repeating Payments pages as well as a page for redirecting
the user to if they click the Cancel button. You will also need to specify your Payment
Gateways for Credit Card and ACH when you have them set up. The wizard can be setup for
allowing Recurring Gifts or single, on-time entries only.
My Repeating Payments
To view their existing Repeating Payments a user will navigate to the My Repeating
Payments page, which displays the user’s current active giving profiles and allows them to
edit or delete them. This page should be located as a child page of your Online Giving page
and should be visible in navigation. It uses the My Repeating Payments module with your
Online Giving page selected as the Repeating Payment Wizard setting.
My Contributions
My Contributions is a historical list of the user’s gifts and contributions given through your
online giving system. This page should be located as a child page of your Online Giving page
and should be visible in navigation. It requires the Contribution List module with your my
Contribution Detail page selected and the Public Site value set to True.
My Contribution Detail
When a user selects one of their historical contributions from the My Contributions page,
they are directed to the My Contribution Detail page with an in-depth view of that specific
contribution. This page should be located as a child page of your My Contributions page and
should be hidden in navigation. It uses the Contribution Detail module with your external
Person Details page selected (see the Small Group Leader Toolbox for details on this page)
and the Public Site value set to True.

63
Event Calendar and Promotions
The active parts of your church’s ministries are the events you host for your membership.
These events can be anything from a mission trip to a foreign country to a monthly birthday
party for your Single Adults ministry. The key to the success of these events and the
resulting growth and development of your membership is Promoting the Event, a function
which is accomplished on your Arena managed web site through Online Promotions. For
information on creating Event tags and setting up Promotions, see the Arena End User
Manual and the Arena Getting Started Guide.
Implementing Events Online
To implement the Event Calendar and

Promotions on a web site, several pages are
required: the core Events page, a Monthly
Calendar, Promotion Details, Event Details, five
Event Registration pages, and the Credit Card
Verification Explanation page.
Events
The Events page is the user’s primary access
point to your events and promotion details. It
displays a listing of current events and allows
users to navigate through to the details and
registration areas for each event. This page
does not require a secure login so it can be
placed directly under your Home page, and
should be visible in navigation. It uses the
Event Week View module with your Event
Details page selected.
Monthly Calendar
The Monthly Calendar page displays all of the
events in the current month in a calendar
format, allowing users to click on those event
titles to view the details of each event
promotion. Site users can also use this page to
browse through other month’s events. This
page should be located as a child page of your Events page, and requires the Event
Calendar module with the Event Details page selected. You can choose to display this page
in navigation if you wish to allow users to browse to it, or you can hide it in navigation and
use a manual hyperlink or a redirect module to access it.

Promotion Details 64
When a promotion not tied to an event tag is selected from any promotion display, the
details of that promotion will be displayed on the Promotion Details page. The primary
difference from the Event Details page is that a user cannot register for non-event
promotions like they can for event promotions. This page should be a child page of your
Events page and should be hidden in navigation. This page uses the Promotion Detail
Display module, which has no required settings.
Event Details
If a user selects a promotion that is tied to a specific event tag from any promotion display
module, they are directed the details of the Event. This page allows the user to register for
the event or add it to their Outlook calendar. Just like the Promotion Details page, this page
should be a child page of your Events page and should also be hidden in navigation. This
page uses the Event Details module with the Event Registration Page 1 and User
Confirmation pages selected. Note that this page requires the User Confirmation page,
making the User Confirmation page no longer optional.
Event Registration Pages

The five Event Registration Pages create the step by step process that allows a user to
register for an event online. They are very similar in their setup and should all be located as
child pages of your Event Details page and hidden in navigation. Each module will be
located on the page of the same name (e.g. the Event Registrations – Page 1 module will be
located on the Event Registrations Page 1 page).
• Event Registration – Page 1 module will require you to select the Login page, Event
Registration Page 2, and Event Registration Page 3.
• Event Registration – Page 2 module requires you to select the Event Registration
Page 1 and the Event Registration Page 3.
• Event Registration – Page 3 module will require you to select the Event Registration
Page 1, Event Registration Page 2, and Event Registration Page 4 pages.
• Event Registration – Page 4 module requires you to select the Event Registration
Page 1, Event Registration Page 3, Event Registration Page 5, and a default Member
Status value for members who add themselves to the database by this process. The
Credit Card Verification Explanation page can be selected optionally as the CIN page.
• Event Registration – Page 5 module only requires you to select the Event
Registrations Page 1.
Credit Card Verification Explanation

When a user chooses to register for an event online and pay any registration fees using a
credit card, they will need to enter the Card Identification Number (or CIN) printed on the
back of their card. The specific location of this value and its purpose can be confusing to
some users, so you can use this page to clarify any questions they might have about their
CIN. This page should be a child page of your Event Details page and should be hidden in
navigation. It uses the Advanced HTML Text module which you will need to set up with
your own information. We recommend including an image showing the specific area of the
back of a credit card as is commonly seen on online shopping sites.

Prayer Requests
65
The Prayer Request section of an Arena web site is a set of tools designed to assist your
members in their personal prayer life. This is accomplished by providing an easy and
accessible method for your members to submit their prayer requests, giving them a secured
and ordered means of browsing active requests to follow up on them and submit comments
or answers, and providing a way to bring your membership closer together by helping make
them more aware of other’s needs.
For example, a member’s spouse has been injured and is unable to work or pick up the
family’s children after school. This need could be submitted through your organization’s
online Prayer Request system, where your other members will be able to pray for them and
minister to them in a coordinated manner through services such as meals or childcare as
they feel lead, all while communicating with each other about the prayer request through
your Prayer Session system.
Implementing the Online Prayer Request System
An online Prayer Request system on an Arena managed web

site consists of the initial Prayer Request Submission system
which allows members and visitors to submit their requests to
your organization for approval (for more information on
approving requests, please refer to the Prayer section of the
Arena End User Manual), the Prayer Lists page to display the
prayer requests so that prayer warriors can know who they
need to specifically pray for and for what purpose, and the
Prayer Session module allows prayer warriors to select a
specific need and view a listing of fellow members asking for
prayer in that need.
Prayer Request Submissions

The Prayer Request Submission page is a simple form for members and visitors to submit
prayer requests to your organization. It should be placed on your web site in a non-secured
area (for the use of visitors as well as members) and requires one page with the Prayer
Web Request module. You will need to set a default Content Category and default Source
(typically “Web site”) and optionally you can select the default Prayer Category.
Prayer Lists
A Prayer List displays the list of current prayers. It can be set to include only active,
approved requests, or any status. These lists can help your prayer warriors to remember
particular prayer needs by showing current requests, or they can act as a testimony by
showing answered prayers. Prayer Lists may include sensitive or private information, so it is
advisable to place it inside a secured area of your web site such as a centralized Members
section. Each list requires a single page with the Prayer List module. The Content Category
and Source settings are necessary, as in the Prayer Request Submission module above, and
set the Status to A for Approved requests, D for Expired requests, or C for requests still
awaiting approval and any other statuses (please refer to the Prayer section of the Arena
End User Manual for more information on prayer request status).

Prayer Session
A Prayer Session page allows your prayer warriors to select one or more categories of 66
prayer requests and then view each active and approved request within the selected
categories with the option to add a comment. This feature is used as a method to ensure
that every request is viewed by at least one person and to submit any information from
follow-up contacts or similar ministry activities. The Prayer Session requires a single page
with the Prayer Session module, which requires no further settings.
Prayer Calendar
Optionally, Prayer Calendars can be used to allow your Intercessory Prayer ministry to
schedule specific prayer-related events in a separate area of your web site from your
organization’s other ministry events. They are in essence identical to a normal Event
Calendar, but they specifically display events or promotions from the Prayer Topic Area. To
set up a Prayer Calendar, you will need to create a single page containing the Event
Calendar module, with the Detail Page set to the Event Details page associated with your
primary Event Calendar, and the Topic Areas set to the Prayer Topic Area ID (789 by
default) and any other Topic Area IDs you wish to display on this calendar.

67
Volunteer Opportunities
The Volunteer Opportunities section allows members on your site to actively browse your
organization’s ministry opportunities (recorded as Serving tags) and register for the ones
that fit their abilities or schedule. This takes the majority of the work of staffing these
ministries with volunteers off of your shoulders and helps make your membership more
aware of the opportunities they have to help your church’s ministries.
Implementing Volunteer Opportunities
To make use of the Volunteer Opportunity area of

Arena on your web site, the following pages are
required: Volunteer Opportunities, Volunteer Results,
Volunteer Details, and Add Tag Members.
Volunteer Opportunities
The Volunteer Opportunities page will be the primary
way your members will browse through the available
serving tags by selecting from certain criteria and then
browsing the results to select the ministry or ministries they would like to serve in. This
page should be located behind a secured area of your web site and displayed in the normal
navigation. It will need the Serving Opportunity Search module with the Volunteer
Details and Volunteer Results pages selected.
Volunteer Results
Once a member has selected their search criteria and begun their search, they will be
redirected to the Volunteer Results page to display the results of their search, where they
can select the tags they are interested in. This page will need to be a child page of the
Volunteer Opportunities page and because it requires a search criteria input it should be
hidden from navigation. It also uses the Serving Opportunity Search module, but you
should only select the Volunteer Details page as this is the Volunteer Results page.
Volunteer Details
When a member selects a serving tag from the results of their search, they are transferred
to the Volunteer Details page where they can review the details, experience requirements,
schedule, and contact info specified for the selected tag, as well as join the tag or request
more information on the ministry opportunity. This page should also be a child page of the
Volunteer Opportunities page and should not be displayed in navigation. The Serving
Opportunity Details module will need to be added to this page, with the Add Tag Member
page (see below) and the User Confirmation page (see the optional Login pages under Page
Structure above) selected.

Add Tag Member 68

After the member selects the tag they want to join, they will be sent to the User
Confirmation page where they can update their information and then they will go to the Add
Tag Member page which will automatically add them to the selected serving tag with a
specific Source and Status. This page should be a child of the Volunteer Details page and
also not displayed in navigation. It requires the Profile Member Add module with a default
Source and default Status selected, both of which will be applied to all members joining the
tag from this page.

69
Personal and Business Classified Ads
When your members are looking to help fill a specific need of other members or they have a
special need of their own, an online Classified Ad system is an excellent way for you to help
them meet that need. Needs such as a new or used vehicle, an available service such as
babysitting or a Christian CPA, or job openings and résumés can all be posted on a
Classified Ad system and then filled by your members without any additional work on your
part.
Classified Ad Content Categories
The Classified Ads system can be separated into multiple content categories to better
separate different types of listings. By default, Arena comes with two content categories:
Classifieds and Business Directory. These values are defined in the classified type lookup
table and the individual listing categories (e.g. “Automotive”, “Clothing/Accessories”) are
defined in the Classified Category lookup table, both found in the Lookups area of the
Administration section of the Arena application (see the Arena Administrator Manual for
more information on Lookups). You can add additional content categories and listing
categories in these tables, but the method for adding them to your website remains the
same.
Setting Up Online Classified Ads
Arena’s online Classified Ads system consists of three

parts as illustrated below: the core Classified Ads
page, Classified Ad Details, and Classified Ad Entry.
Note that you will need to create a unique set of all
three of these pages for each content category.
Classified Ads
The Classified Ads page is the initial page your members will see when they navigate to this
area of your web site. It shows the classified listing categories with a sum of the number of
items in each, a link to add a new posting, and a special list of recent additions. This page
must be placed behind a secure login, and it will need to be visible in navigation. It requires
the Classified Categories module with the Classified Ad Details and Classified Ad Entry
pages selected, as well as the classified type (classified content category) and Arena
Content Category ID selected.
Classified Ad Details
When a user clicks on a listing category they are moved to the Classified Ad Details page
which shows them the details of all classified ads in this category. This page should be a
child page of the Classified Ads page and hidden in navigation. It uses the Classified
Category Details module with the same content category selected as the parent Classified
Ads page and the Classified Ad Entry page selected as the Edit page.
Classified Ad Entry
When a user selects the Add a Posting link on the Classified Ads or Details pages they come
to this page which displays the user’s existing classified ads and a button to add a new item.

Once they click the Add Item button, they can then fill out the form that displays to add the
item to their classified ads listing. Just like the Classified Ads Details page, this page should 70
be a child page of the Classified Ads page and hidden in navigation. It requires the
Classified Entry module with the classified type (classified content category) and Arena
Content Category ID selected just like the parent Classified Ads page.

71
E-Cards and E-Invitations
By using online E-cards and E-invites your web site visitors can provide a friendly and
personal link between themselves, your church, and other members or visitors. This can
greatly increase the ministry range of your church by providing a contact point for members
and visitors all around the world. The process for creating and sending an e-card or e-invite
is very similar to the process for a physical card or invitation. First, the card or invite must
be created. Then it can be distributed for selection to be sent it to friends and family.
Finally, the recipient opens the card and receives the message. These same steps are
followed for Arena’s e-cards and e-invites as outlined below. Note that these steps are the
same for e-cards and e-invites, just substitute the relevant name as needed.
Creating E-Cards and E-Invites
Before an E-Card of E-Invitation can be used on your web site, one must be created within
the Arena Application first. Follow the steps below to create a new e-card or e-invite, follow
these steps:
1) In the Arena application, go to Web Content E-Cards and click the Add New E-
Card button to open the New E-Card page.
2) Enter the title, select the maximum message size, and select the source and preview
image files to be used as the background for the e-card.
3) Optionally you can select the Content Category for this e-card, but this will require
additional organization settings. For more information on required organization settings
for e-cards and e-invites, see the Arena Administrator Manual.
4) Specify the type of the image files selected in step 2 above as the Format as well as the
Card Size, type, and Category for the card. These values are defined as lookup values,
found in the Arena application under Administration Lookups.
5) Select the Start and End Dates for this message to be available for visitors to select.
6) Enter any sort of additional message as the Supporting Text. Note that this text can
include HTML code, and thus can contain additional content. For assistance with HTML
code, contact your Web Developer.
7) Once you have completed the e-card, click the Save button to finish.

E-Cards and E-Invites on Your Web Site 72

Once an e-card or e-invite has been created, you need to
make it available on your website for visitors to send to
their friends and family. To do this, you will need to
create three pages: E-Cards, Create E-Card, and E-Card /
E-Invite View. Optionally you can also create an E-Card
Thank You page to let users know their e-cards have
been sent. Note that this guide shows you how to set up
e-cards but you can follow the same steps except where
noted for e-invites.
E-Cards
The main E-Cards page is where a user can browse
through a listing of the e-cards you have created and
made available and select one to send to a friend or
relative. While it is not required that this page be located
behind a secure login, due to the fact that sending these
e-cards uses internal e-mail settings you are advised to
place this page in a secure section of your web site. It
should also be visible in navigation. This page uses the E-
Card Category List module with your Create E-Card page selected as the Card Entry Page
setting, and you will need to enter the card type ID found in the card type lookup table for
the type you wish to use (e-card or e-invite). For more information on lookup tables, see
the Arena Administrator Manual.
Create E-Card
Once a user selects an e-card to send, the Create E-Card page allows the user to specify the
sender, the recipient, their e-mail addresses, and a brief personal message to be displayed
along with the e-card’s own message. This page should be a child page of your E-Cards
page, and it should be hidden in navigation. It uses the E-Card Message Entry module
with your E-Card Thank You page as the Redirect page value.
E-Card Thank You

After a user sends their e-card, you may wish to display a brief message thanking them for
using your e-card service by using the E-Card Thank You page. This page should be a child
page of your E-Cards page and should be hidden in navigation. It uses the Advance HTML
Text module, which has no required settings. Note that you can use the same Thank You
page for both e-cards and e-invites if you wish to.

E-Card / E-Invite View 73

When the recipient opens the link in their e-mail, they are directed to the E-Card / E-Invite
View page where they can view their specific card or invite. This page should be located as a
child of your Home page (where it should not require a login) and should be hidden in
navigation. You may wish to create a custom template for this page either to remove all
other elements and just show the e-card or e-invite or to adjust your normal navigation and
content areas to fit around the e-card or e-invite properly. This page uses the E-Card
Display module which has no required settings.

74
Polls
Unlike most of the modules you might use on your web site which function to transmit
information from your organization to your membership, Polls allow your membership to
communicate back to you on a broad range of topics. A poll can be on a broad subject such
as a favorite season, or it can narrow so much as to ask an opinion of a guest speaker, or
anything in between. A minister could use a poll to ask the member’s preference on where
to travel to for a fall retreat, or he could ask how many people would make use of or
volunteer for a new ministry opportunity. The possibilities are nearly endless.
Implementing Your Polls
To begin using Arena’s polls, you first need to create

the poll itself in the Web Content Polls area (see
the Arena End User Manual for more information on
creating polls). You’ll need to know the poll ID from
your poll for when you create the Poll on your external
web site.
On your external web site, you will need to create a Poll
Results page with the Poll Results Graph module, which
has no required settings. This page should be hidden
from basic navigation as it must be passed an ID from the poll itself, and should be created
as a child of your Home page.
Now you can place a poll on to nearly any page on your web site using the Poll Display
Active in Category module, with the proper Poll Category ID and Poll Results Page settings
from above.
One special exception to note is using polls in your e-mail subscription newsletters. Because
e-mails limit the HTML code allowed, you will need to use the Poll Display Newsletter
module with the same settings listed above.

75
Sports Monitor
An Arena managed web site can include a Sports Monitor which allows visitors to your web
site to view the game schedule, season statistics, and team rosters of your organization’s
sports ministries.
Implementing a Sports Monitor
Arena’s Sports Monitor system consists of three pages as shown below: Team Listing, Team
Details, and Team Statistics. Note that for each separate sport category or “root cluster”
you will need a distinct Team List module and Team Stats module set to the proper root
cluster value, which can either be on the same page as your existing Team List and Team
Stats modules or on separate pages. The same Team Details page and modules can be used
for any number of sport categories.
Team Listing
The Team Listing page is used to navigate through the various
divisions and teams within the specified League. When a user
clicks on a team name in this view, they move to the Team
Details page outlined below. It will require a Team List module
with the Team Detail Page selected and a Root Cluster ID setting
of the GroupClusterID value of the league-level group for this
sport category.
Team Details
The Team Details page will display the details of a team including practice day, roster,
announcements/description, and their game schedule. It uses the Team Details module
with a Season selected from the Sports Seasons lookup found in the Administration section
of Arena (for more information on lookups, see the Arena Administrator Manual).
Team Statistics
The Team Statistics page displays the team names, their win/loss/tie count, their win
percentage, and the number of games played and games remaining for each team. This
page uses the Team Stats module with a specific Season (from the same lookup as used
on the Team Details page above), Starting Cluster ID (again, the same Group_Cluster_ID as
on both of the previous pages), and Team Detail page selected.

76
Online Newsletters
Online Newsletters can be used to communicate with your membership and your staff in
many different ways. They can be used to cover a broad range of topics, or narrowly
focused on a specific ministry or department. For example, an Electronic Magazine (or E-
zine) could be a broad ranging church bulletin that is e-mailed to the entire membership
each week to promote events during that week, containing articles from numerous internal
and external sources. Or a newsletter could be a small document containing blog entries
and articles written by the missionaries your church supports and e-mailed to the specific
members who give to their mission needs.
Depending on the specific purpose of the Newsletter, you may wish to deploy it behind a
secured login page, such as in a Members section. Alternatively, you may want to make
your newsletter public and allow public subscription by non-members. In either case the
implementation follows the same process, just from a different parent page.
Implementing an Online Newsletter
To fully implement a newsletter for your church you will need three key elements: an
internal source for the newsletter’s articles, a section on your external Arena managed web
site for each newsletter, and the Send Newsletter automated agent.
The internal source will be the Newsletter page found under Web Content Newsletters
in the Arena application. This area can manage several different newsletters or e-zines,
unlike the other two elements below. The details of using this area of Arena are covered in
the Arena End-User Manual.
A newsletter section will need to be created on your external web site for each newsletter as
outlined below. This is the outward-facing side of your newsletter, where users will view
each volume and article of your newsletter, as well as manage their subscription to the
newsletter and search the newsletter’s archives. Each of your newsletters or e-zines will
need a separate set of these pages, as the module settings for each page require you to
specify a single newsletter ID.
The Send Newsletter agent is Arena’s method of distributing your newsletter, and can be
configured to send a periodic e-mail to the subscribers of a specific newsletter at a
designated time interval such as weekly or monthly. Just like the pages on your external
site, each Send Newsletter agent is configured for a single newsletter ID, so you will need to
create a unique copy of the entry in the ~/Arena ChMS/Agents/jobs.config file for each
additional newsletter you publish. For more information on the Send Newsletter automation
agent, see the Arena Administrator Manual.

77
Newsletters on Your Arena Managed Web Site
The web site implementation of a newsletter on your

Arena managed web site requires a total of four
pages: the core Newsletter page, Newsletter Articles,
Article Print, and Newsletter Archives. If you are
planning to distribute your newsletter by e-mail, you
will also need to create three more pages:
Newsletter Subscription, Newsletter Unsubscribe,
and Newsletter E-mail. Each of these pages will be
required for each newsletter you wish to publish.
Newsletter
The Newsletter page will be the primary page visitors
to your web site and subscribers will see which will
display a title summary of Newsletter articles the
user can select from. On this page you will need a
Newsletter Volume Summary module with the
Articles page selected and a Newsletter ID setting
matching the desired ID number. This Page is the
only one of the Newsletter structure that should be visible in navigation.
Newsletter Articles
The Newsletter Articles page will display an individual article as well as the archive search
tool to allow the visitor to browse through previous volumes and articles of your Newsletter.
On this page you will need to add a Newsletter Archive module with the Archives Page
and this Articles page selected for their respective settings, and a Newsletter ID setting
matching the desired ID number. You will also need to add a Newsletter Article Display
module with the Article Print page selected as the Printer Page.
Article Print
The Article Print page is designed to show just the article selected with no additional menus
or fields to allow for a ‘clean’ printing of the article. On this you will need a Newsletter
Article Display module with no further settings. You will need to remove any navigation
bars or any other inherited modules from this page.
Newsletter Archives
On the Newsletter Archives Page users can view the results of an Archive search with links
to the resulting articles. You will need a Newsletter Archive module with empty Archive
Results Page setting (as this is the results page) and the Articles page selected, and a
Newsletter ID setting matching the desired ID number.
Newsletter Subscribe
The Newsletter Subscription page is used by visitors to subscribe to your newsletter. It will
need a Newsletter Subscribe module with the desired Newsletter ID setting. This page
will also need to be set to Display in Nav, and could even be located on the same level as
the root Newsletter.

Newsletter Unsubscribe
The Unsubscribe page will need a Newsletter Unsubscribe module which requires no 78
settings, and is used by a subscriber to remove their subscription by clicking on the
Unsubscribe link in the e-mail they receive. The agent will add this link, personalized for
each subscriber, wherever you add the merge code ‘’ to your
newsletter e-mail template.
Newsletter Email
The Newsletter E-mail page is not required unless you will be publishing your Newsletter by
subscription. It is rather unique in that it is configured nearly identical to the Newsletter
Page, but it will require its own template specifically designed to display in e-mails (thus a
simplified HTML code). When you create your Newsletter internally, you will need to enter
the external URL for this page as the Publish Point for the newsletter. This is the actual page
that the subscriber receives in their e-mail. This page, depending on how the Newsletter is
created, will use the Advanced HTML Text module.

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Arena Reporting Manual 79

There are several ways to retrieve data from within Arena. The first, and easiest way, is by
using Lists. Lists enable a user to enter certain parameters about people and choose
specific fields to show about those people and receive a “list” of those people that match the
criteria chosen. However, lists can only do this. While this is suitable for the majority of
reporting needs, Arena also uses Microsoft Report Services to handle more advanced
reporting. Accessed within Arena wherever the Reports page exists, Report Services has
the flexibility to setup and lay out a report in any way, using any criteria and design,
including headers, footers, images, and alternative formats. If the data is in the Arena
database, you can report on it using Report Services.
This section of the Arena Reference Guide will cover using and creating Lists and modifying
Lists for custom criteria and formats. Also covered are using and creating Reports within
Arena, creating stored procedures for new reports using Database level queries, and
using Report Subscriptions for automatically putting reports into people’s hands.
Lists
Lists are used in Arena to generate a list of people and certain information about them
based on selected criteria. Lists are used in several places throughout Arena, primarily in
Membership. Once the list displays the names, the results can be merged into existing
documents, Report Services reports, or e-mailed as a group.
Follow the steps below to create a new Member List:
1) Click on Membership in the main menu.
2) Scroll down and click on Lists.
3) Click the Add link to create a list, or if lists already exist click the Add List icon to
create another.
4) Type the report name on the first screen. Choose the appropriate Report Type. The
type is directly associated to an XML file located on the web server, and determines the
available criteria and selectable fields.
5) Enter a description, if desired.
6) Click the Next button.

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Criteria 80
Choose the criteria for the list to filter by. Ask yourself, “Whom do I want on this list?” This
answer will help you pick the criteria.
There are eight sections of options for the list criteria; basic, extended, advanced,
personality, small group, tags, sports and calling campaign. Each section is outlined below.
Note: Since many of the fields in Membership are customizable, your List screens
may have different options.
Field Types:
Although there are many fields available for searching, there are a limited number of field
types used. Each field type has unique search qualities. The field types will be listed here
with the attributes needed to help understand their function:
• Alpha-numeric:
These fields allow text values.

Figure 1 – Alpha-numeric field example
Alpha-numeric Criteria options:

o Equal to – must be an exact match
o Not equal to – must not include the character anywhere in the field
o Starts with – the field must start with this character
o Contains – can contain this character anywhere in the field
o Does Not Contain – must not contain this character anywhere in the field
o Is Blank – the field does not contain a character
o Is Not Blank – the field contains any character

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• Numeric:
81
These fields allow only numerical values.
Figure 2a – Numeric field example
Numeric Criteria Options:

Numeric criteria display in a range format.
Figure 2b – Numeric Criteria
Returns those between and including 20

and 40
Returns those 18 and older
• Check Boxes:
These fields allow you to choose criteria to match a single option on a person.
Figure 3a – Check Box example
Place a checkmark in the box of the selection desired. Leaving all blank will select
records regardless of this criteria option. Check as many options as necessary to select
the correct records.

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• Multi-Level Check Boxes:

82
Figure 3b – Multi-Level check box example
Placing a checkmark in a checkbox will search for people in that area of sports and
check all levels under that sport. Click the + sign to expand and continue with selecting
or deselecting on each level.
You can change the green checkmark to a red “X” by clicking the checkmark again.
The red “X” is searching for people who are not in a small group.
There is no filter for the section if the checkbox is left blank.
• Dates:
These fields allow only date values.

Figure 4 – Date example
Enter the dates, or click the calendar icons, to find the records needed. The dates are
inclusive. Look at the numeric section above for example of field usage. Some of the
dates will have other unique fields that allow specific searches, like the “Last Weekend”
field included with the First, Second, and Third visit dates.

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• Drop-down Arrow List:

83
Figure 5 – Drop-Down example
To select a value that is already set up in Arena, click on the drop-down arrow and
select the desired value.
Basic Criteria
Figure 6 – List Selection Criteria
• Names: First Name, Nick Name, and Last Name are alpha-numeric fields. Title is a
drop-down field.
• Age: If you put a checkmark in the Include Null Values checkbox, the list will include
those people who do not have a birthday/age in Arena.
• Gender: Place a checkmark in the Gender field to limit records with the specified
gender.
• Marital Status: Check the box next to the marital status needed for this list.
• Member Status: Check the box next to the member status needed for this list. This
field is in the Personal Information section of Membership.
• Record Status: The record status automatically defaults to active. This criterion will
select from the Member Status field in the Personal Information section of
Membership.
• Family Role: Check the box next to the family role needed for this list. This field is
in the Family section of Membership.
• Region: The region looks at the postal code of the home address. It does not mean
the person has to be in a small group in that region.

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Extended Criteria
Figure 7a – List Extended Criteria 84
• E-Mail: Use this alpha-numeric criterion to find an email address in the system. It
searches the first email address on a person’s record that is active.
Figure 7b – Extended Criteria in Lists
• Birthdate: Enter the date range desired to select the birthdates. The “Include Null
Values” will include records that do not have birthdates. Use the Birth Month and
Birthdate fields to limit the search to only those whose birthdate falls on a certain month
or day.
Figure 7c – Extended Criteria in Lists
• Adults in Family: Enter a numeric value to work with the drop list.
• Children in Family: Enter a numeric value to work with the drop list.
• Use these criteria to select a record according to the number of family types in a
family.
• Volunteer App, Background Check, Name Tag, and Food Handler: all examples
of person attributes that have been added to Arena and now can be searched.
• Serving Status: Place a check in the “Is Serving” checkbox to return anyone who
serves one hour or more per week.
• Serving Hours: If you need to search for people who may have .5 hours or more.

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Advanced Criteria
Figure 8a – Advanced Criteria in Lists 85
• How Member Joined: Use this checkbox to specify which How Members Joined criteria
to use select records.
• First, Second, and Third Visit: Enter the date to select record by the times and dates
they visited the church. Click the Last Weekend checkbox to not have to enter a date,
but just look at the last weekend dates.
• Baptism Date: Search by baptism date.
Figure 8b – Advanced Criteria in Lists
• Main/Home, Cell, and Business Phone: Search the database by phone number to
select the correct records.\
Figure 8c – Advanced Criteria in Lists
• Distance From Church: This criterion allow you to search on “distance from your
church.” The distance is calculated in miles.
• Street Address, Address Line 2, City, State, and Zip Code: Use any of these fields
or a combination to search the database for address information.

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Personality Criteria
86
Figure 9a – Personality Criteria in Lists
• Spiritual Gifts: Place a checkmark by the gift or gifts needed for this selection.
Figure 9b – Spiritual Gifts

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• DISC Scores: Enter the range of numbers needed to identify the records needed. This
can be configured either as a specific value or a range. 87
Figure 9c – DISC scores
Small Group Criteria

Each of the items in this list will be unique to your Group Tree configurations.
Figure 10 – Small Group Criteria in Lists
Small Groups Section:

Placing a checkmark in a checkbox will search for people in a small group and check
all levels under that group. Click the + sign to expand and continue with selecting or
deselecting on each level.
The red “X” is searching for people who are not in a small group.
Blank box: There is no filter for the section if the checkbox is left blank.

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Tag Criteria 88
Figure 11 – Tag Criteria in Lists
Selecting Tags:
Place a checkmark in a checkbox to search for people in that tag and check all levels
under that tag. Click the + sign to expand and continue with selecting or deselecting on
each level.
The red “X” is searching for people who are not in a tag.
Note: If you are looking for people who are serving, do not use the tag criteria to
find them, as the run time on the list will be much longer. Use the Serving Hours
option under the Extended Criteria tab.

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Sports Criteria 89
Figure 12 – Sports Criteria in Lists
Choosing a Sports Team:

Placing a checkmark in a checkbox will search for people in that area of sports
and check all levels under that sport. Click the + sign to expand and continue with
selecting or deselecting on each level.
You can change the green checkmark to a red “X” by clicking the checkmark
again. The red “X” is searching for people who are not in a small group.
Campaign Criteria
The options here will depend on your Campaigns.

Figure 13 – Campaign Criteria in Lists
Place a checkmark in the appropriate box(es).

After all the necessary criteria has been selected for the list, click the Next button.

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90
Field Selection
Once the criteria to establish who should display in the list is chosen, select what
information fields to display. For example, whole Name, Address and Email will default
under Selected Fields. If you do not want one of those on your list, highlight it and move it
back to the Available Fields using the back arrow.
Figure 14 – Selectable Fields in Lists
Click on a field from the Available Fields column and use the single arrow to move it to the
Selected Fields column. You can order your selected fields in any order by using the up and
down arrows to the right of the Selected Fields column.
When you are done selecting fields for your report, click the Next button.

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Field Details 91
Figure 15 – Field Details in Lists
The field detail screen will list each field that will appear on your report. For each field,
choose the heading name, alignment, and any advanced options that need to be set.
When you have completed the field details, click the Next button.
Sorting
Figure 16 – Sorting in Lists
The sort option will default to sort by last name and then first name. Click Add for more
sorting options.
When you have chosen the sort option you want, click the Next button. You will then come
to the summary page. Click Finish to run your list.

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Summary 92
Figure 17 – List summary
The SQL query created by the criteria chosen during the previous steps can be displayed
from this screen. Click the Display SQL Query link to display the query.
After you have chosen the criteria for the list, click the Next button.

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Completed List 93
Available Merge Documents
You can choose to merge the list of people into any of the documents listed. Use the drop-
down arrow to view the options, highlight your choice, click View then open or save. You
may also choose to send an email to the people selected, perform a Microsoft Word ©
mail merge, or export the data to Microsoft Excel © .
Available Reports
The results of your list can also be merged into an existing report layout. One example
would be a Birthday Report. Choose Birthday from the drop-down feature of Available
Reports. Your results will be displayed in the pre-formatted layout of Arena’s birthday report
including fields such as Name and Birthdate. This would be accomplished by an Arena
Administrator. More reports can be added to this list by using the Report Registrations
process. Please reference the Report Registrations section of the Arena Administration
Manual for more information.
Figure 18 – List Results
Print List
You can choose to print the list by clicking on the Print This Page icon on the top right.
This will only print records that are displayed on the screen. If you have more than one
page in your report; change the number in the Page Size box to a higher number, click on
the Refresh button, then print.
Edit List
Click on Edit Report, located below the print option at the top right corner of the Report
Page to edit the list. This link will take you back to the first screen of creating a list.

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94
Using the Report Grid from Query module
The Report Grid from Query module is another tool for reporting in Arena perfect for
users with SQL querying knowledge and database access, but who lack the knowledge to
use Microsoft Visual Studio to create the report design. The Report Grid from Query
module uses a SQL query script to retrieve the data for display. The results are shown as a
list, then sorted and organized based on the clauses and commands built in the query.
Reports accessed by this module will be open to anyone who can view the page based on
their security permissions. Therefore, take care to ensure that the query used to create the
report does not retrieve any sensitive data that is undesired to be viewed by those
accessing the module. Security for editing the query is discussed below.
There are two ways of tying a SQL query into this module. One is by entering the query into
the module settings under the Query setting. However, this method restricts the query
length, so may not be suitable for more elaborate query scripts. The other method, which
has no length restrictions to the query, is to build the query as a Stored Procedure and
reference the procedure in the Query setting instead.
Step 1 – Write the Query
The first step, regardless of how it is referenced in Arena, is to build the query script. Only
SELECT queries can be used as the Report Grid from Query module is not capable of
modifying data. Arena can read any type of SELECT query, including SELECT COUNT(),
SELECT DISTINCT(), etc. If the query can run in SQL Management Studio, it can be run in
Arena by the Report Grid from Query module. There is no restriction on the number of
returns or columns; however, the results in Arena will reduce the column lengths to fit all
the columns on screen.
Note: This column reduction also occurs when printing the screen, so all the columns
will fir on the print page. For queries with several columns, Landscape orientation
may be preferred.
Step 2 – Convert the Query to a Stored Procedure (optional)
If the query exceeds 1,490 characters (with spaces and returns), then convert it to a stored
procedure. However, any query can be converted into a stored procedure. Stored
procedures are queries that are saved in a database and are run by executing the procedure
name, instead of the query itself.

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Create the Stored Procedure 95

To convert a query from a regular script to a stored procedure, follow these steps:
1) Open SQL management studio and expand the SQL server in the Object Explorer.
2) Expand Databases by clicking on the “+” sign, and then expand the desired database
(in this case ArenaDB) and then expand Programmability.
3) Right-click on Stored Procedures and select New Stored Procedure… .
This will open a template for a new stored procedure. Most of the default text can be
removed, the only necessary text is:
SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO
CREATE PROCEDURE <Procedure_Name>
AS
Replace <Procedure_Name> with the name of the stored procedure. Procedure names must
begin with dbo.cust_ to avoid loss during upgrades of the Arena software. An example of a
stored procedure name is “dbo.cust_rept_grouplist” (without quotes). This would mean that
the CREATE line of the stored procedure reads as follows:
CREATE PROCEDURE dbo.cust_rept_grouplist
Enter in the query script after AS on a new line, preferably skipping a line. The end result,
using the same example, would read as follows:
SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO
CREATE PROCEDURE dbo.cust_rept_grouplist
AS
SELECT group_id, group_name

FROM dbo.smgp_group
WHERE group_name <> ''
ORDER BY group_name

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Save the Stored Procedure 96

Once the query has been entered, click the Execute button to create the procedure into the
database. Refresh the database by right-clicking on the database and select Refresh to
view the procedure in the list of stored procedures.
Note: If the stored procedure is modified later, notice that “CREATE” will be changed
to read as “ALTER”. Do not change this text. Once modifications are made to the
query, simply execute again; this will commit the change to the stored procedure.
Creating again without changing the procedure name would cause the execute
command to fail.
Step 3 – Tie the Query into Arena
Create the Report Page
Now that the query and the optional stored procedure exists, the next step is to get the
query accessible from Arena. First, create the page in which the report will display. In
Arena, navigate to Administration > Pages and add the new page where desired. If the
necessary access permissions have already been determined, add the appropriate persons
and security roles to the page’s security.
Add the Report Grid from Query Module
Once the page is created, click on the desired Content Area tab for the page, and click
Add. This adds the Advanced HTML Text control module. Click on the hyperlink for that
module, which opens the module settings. Change the module to Report Grid from
Query by using the drop-down menu and selecting it from the list.
Enter the Module Settings
Parameters - If the query calls for any parameters (@person, etc.), enter the default
values for them in the Parameters field. Since parameters filter the report, this is used to
allow the same query in different places but retrieve different results. The query itself can
also have its own filters, but these must be modified in a query editor program, such as
Microsoft SQL Management Studio.
Query - Enter the query (or stored procedure name) into the Query field.
Suppress Columns – If the results should hide certain columns that the query would
normally show, enter the column header here to hide them. This is also useful when the
query is used in different places to show different results.
Click OK when done.
Step 4 – Run the Query
The page for the query report should now be in the navigation bar, wherever it was placed
in Page Hierarchy. To run the query, all that has to be done is open the page. The report
displays on screen, with an Export to Excel button at the bottom of the list and a Print
button at the top of the screen.

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Reports
97
Producing a report in Arena can be accomplished in several ways. It can be as simple as
clicking on Reports in Arena, selecting the pre-designed report and printing. It can also be
as advanced as writing a query on the database and creating your own report, and many
levels in between. The purpose of this document is to show several methods of creating and
running a report, and a brief description of the tools you will use.
The types of report setups covered are:
• Running a predefined report in Arena
• Creating a custom list, and printing or exporting the results
• Running the Report Builder from within Arena
• Open an existing report from Arena in SQL 2005 Reporting Services to edit
• Open a new report in SQL 2005 Reporting Services
Running a Predefined Report in Arena
Reports
There are several reports included by default with Arena upon installation. These are pre-
designed reports that are ready to run at any time. An example of the report list is below.
Figure 19 – Membership Reports
Most reports have user-selected parameters which filter the results and limits number of
records the report will display. The next section will list the report name, the different fields
and a brief description of what information should be entered into the fields for the default
reports installed with Arena.

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Active Adults 98
Figure 20a – Active Adult Parameter
This field is the Member Status field that is found on the person’s Membership record. It
limits the selection to the Member Status selected.
Figure 20b – Active Adult Parameter Value
The drop-down list shows all of the options available to limit the output.
Figure 20c – Active Adult Parameter Options
Anniversary
These parameters return records limited by the anniversary date and the number of years
the couple have been married. The Years Married field is calculated from the Anniversary
Date and the system date on your server.
Figure 21 – Anniversary Parameters
Any time a calendar icon displays, a small calendar will popup allowing you to select the
appropriate date.

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Birthdays 99
Like the anniversary report, these parameters return records limited by date of birth. The
lower boxes limit the results by age of the person. The age is calculated from the Birthday
field and the system date on your server.
Figure 22 – Birthday Parameters
First Time Visitors

First time visitors are those who have a date in the First Visit field on the Visit Dates listed
in the Person Activity page. Use the parameters to limit the date range for the report.
Figure 23 – First Time Visitor Parameter
Head of Household
This parameter limits the records to those of a selected Member Status.
Figure 24a – Head of Household Parameter
Figure 24b – Member Status Parameter Options
Members
This parameter is for limiting the results by Member Status. If Select All is chosen, all
records will be returned and will be grouped by Member Status.
Figure 25 – Members Parameter

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Membership by Status 100

This field limits the report by Member Status.
Figure 26 – Membership by Status Parameter
Membership Chart By Status

There are no user-selected options for this report, it provides a full list of members.
New Members
This date range references the Date Received field in the Member Path section of the Person
page.
Figure 27 – New Members Parameter
Personal Activity Meter

Use the parameter to select a person’s name from the list to see the graph of the person’s
Personal Activity Meter (Health Meter).
Figure 28 – Personal Activity Meter Parameter

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101
Report Options
Once the report has run by clicking the View Report button, several options are available
for viewing or printing the report. You can refresh the results if the parameters were
changed by clicking the View Report button again.
Navigating Through the Pages

Figure 29a – Page Navigation
Use the First, Previous, Next, and Last page arrows to move between the pages of the
report. The desired page number can also be entered manually. The number listed after the
box is the total number of pages in the report. These are the number of display pages, not
necessarily printer pages.
Zoom
Figure 29b - Zoom
Type in or select the percent of zoom to see the desired amount of information.
Find/Next
Figure 29c - Find
Type in the information you would like to search for in this document and click Find. The
text when found will be highlighted, as in the example below.
Figure 29d – Find results

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Printing 102
Figure 29e - Printing
Once the selected report has been generated, select the format to export, if desired. This
creates a file to be opened and printed in a multitude of programs.
Figure 29f – Printing Format Options
Refresh and Print

Figure 29g – Refresh and Print
Click the Refresh button to rerun the report.

Click the Print button to send the information to the selected printer.
Hide Criteria
Figure 29h – Hide criteria
Click this arrow to hide the selection parameters on the report.

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103
Creating Reports using Report Builder
The full way to create or modify a report is to create or edit the report in Microsoft Visual
Studio (also known as Microsoft Business Intelligence Development Studio) This has the
most options, but is the most difficult to use. Reports created in this application must be
deployed or uploaded into Report Services. An easier method to creating or editing reports
is by using the Report Builder. The Report Builder can be accessed from both Arena and
the Microsoft Report Services interface. A module setting in the Report Viewer page is
required for the Report Builder link to be available. This would be set up by an Arena
administrator.
Below is the necessary module setting to show the Report Builder link in Reports.
Figure 30a – Report Viewer module settings
Figure 30b – Report Builder Link
This is where the Report Builder is located in Report Manager. The Report Manager is
accessed via a web-browser by typing Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. into a web
browser.

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Figure 31 – Report Builder Link in Reporting Services
104
Once you click the Report Builder in either location, the opening screen will pop up.
Figure 32 – Report Builder Opening Screen
The report builder requires a data source called a Model. Arena provides a model called
Arena Person Model. It includes all the primary information related to an individual’s
personal record. Additional models could be created using Visual Studio and deployed to the
Report Manager. For this example, we will use the Arena Person Model.
There are three Report Layouts; Table, Matrix, and Chart.

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Table
This is a widely used format. It only includes rows. You drag the fields from the list and 105
place them in the order you need to display and print them.
Figure 33 – Table Report Example

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Matrix 106
This format creates a table and is useful for analyzing numbers. It includes rows and
columns.
Figure 34 – Matrix Report Example

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Chart 107
This format creates a chart based on the information you select. It also is a good numeric
analysis tool. It includes series and categories and provides a graphical representation to
the results.
Figure 35 – Chart Report Example
We will use the table layout for this example. Select Table and Click OK.

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You should now be on design screen.

108
Figure 36 – Report Builder Designer
On the left hand side of the screen, you see a Box titled, “Entities”. These are the different
field groupings that are available from the data used in the Arena Person Model. As you click
on an entity, the fields associated with that entity show in the box labeled, “fields”. Once
you select a field from an entity, you will notice that the entity selections change.
To understand how to use entities, let’s take these two examples:
Example 1: I want a list of all the adult singles, their phone number and the group where
they are entered.
Start by selecting the Person List entity and choose the name and phone number. Then,
select the Group entity and choose the group name.

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Example 2: I want a list of all the groups for adult singles, the person’s name and phone
number. 109
Start by selecting the Small Groups entity, and choose the group name. Then, select the
Person Lists entity and choose name and phone number.
These examples illustrate how the purpose of the report would determine which entity
would be the first selected.
Certain field names have access to additional fields related to the field type. By clicking on
the X next to the field, you can view these additional fields. For example, date fields have
six additional summary fields that can be used in the report. Date fields and numeric fields
have this additional functionality.
Figure 37 – Additional Date fields

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Formulas 110
Fields that require a formula can be added by clicking on the New Field icon.
This is the New Field input screen. You can use an arithmetic function to add, subtract, or
apply other functions to display fields together. This will create a field that does not exist in
the database.
Figure 38 – Define Formula screen

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Adding Fields to the report to print 111

Highlight the entity that includes the fields needed on the report. Drag the field from the
Field box into the Drag and Drop Column Field box.
Figure 39a – Column Field
Drag additional fields to one side of the existing fields or the other based on how you wish
the report to look. You can resize the cells by clicking in the grid and dragging the border to
the desired width.
Figure 39b – Changing the Column Field Width
Add all the fields to the box in the order you want to print. You can reorder the fields by
clicking on the field names and dragging it to the desired location. You will notice a blue
bold line that indicates on which side of an existing field it will locate the field you are
moving.

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Format the cells 112

Use the right mouse to click in the title bar above the cell and select format. Cell alignment,
format, borders, and shading can be modified here.
Figure 40 – Cell Formatting
Add a Title to the Report

Figure 41 – Report Title Field
Click in the “Click to add title” box to type a title on the first page of the report.

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Filter the results of the report 113

Click on the Filter icon to limit the results of the report to a specified group.
The Filter Data screen comes appears, as shown in figure 42a:
Figure 42a – Filter Data Options
Drag the field that you want to limit the report by from the Fields box into the large box on
the right. Figure 42b uses the City field as an example.
Figure 42b – Filter Example
You can then use the drop-down arrow to select a value from this field.

Arena Reporting
Click Equals to bring up the options for operators:

• Not 114
• Is empty
• Equals
• In a List
• Greater than
• Greater than or equals
• Less than
• Less than or equals
• From…To
Add each additional field needed to limit the results.

The New Group option changes the Boolean operators:
• All of
• Any of
• None of
• Not All of
Click OK when once all selections are made.
Prompt for Fields

You can enable a field Prompt by right click on the field name in the Filter Data window
and selecting “Prompt”. There will now be a prompt to enter a value from the field. The
report will include only the values entered in the field. This makes one report usable by a
variety of departments.

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Sort and Group 115

Click the Sort and Group icon.
This tool allows the sorting of the data and the grouping by page breaks. Click the drop-
down arrow beside the Sort by field to select the field for the first sort. Click the radio
button for Ascending or Descending. Repeat for any additional sorts desired. You can only
sort by the fields selected to print on the report.
Figure 43 – Sort Options
Click the check box for Page Breaks between groups and to activate the Grouping Tool.
You can then select:
• Also break before first group
• Also break after last group
• Also break before first group and after last group

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Run the report 116

Click the Run Report icon to process your report.
Figure 44 – Report Results
Once the report has run, you can:
• Print the results to a printer
• Click on Design Report and edit the report

• Click on Save (under File or the Save icon) so that this report can be opened in Report
Services. The report will be available in Report Services and in Arena
Reports.
• Click the Save icon with the drop-down arrow beside it to Export these types of
files:
• XML file with report data
• CSV File
• TIFF File
• Acrobat (PDF) file
• Web Archive
• Excel

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117
Create a new Report in Reporting Services
This section will walk you through creating custom reports in SQL Server Business
Intelligence Development Studio.
Create a New Report Project

You can either create a new report in an existing project, or create an entirely new project.
Existing projects should only be used if the Data Source is the same for each report.
Existing projects are listed in the Recent Projects list, click on to open it. The steps below
list how to create a new project.
1) Open the Microsoft SQL Server Business Intelligence Studio from the report server.
2) Click File>New>Project in the top left hand corner. This opens the New Project
window, shown in Figure 45
3) Highlight Report Server Project Wizard in the Templates window.
4) Enter a Solution Name.
Click OK when done.
Figure 45 – New Project

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New projects require at least one Data Source. Follow the steps below to create a new Data
Source. 118
1) Next, create a new data source. Most likely this will be “ArenaDB”.
2) Then select the type, which should be Microsoft SQL Server.
Figure 46a – Report Wizard Data Source

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3) Fill in the Connection String box or click the Edit button to open Connection Properties
wizard. The Data Source will be Microsoft SQL Server and choose your SQL server 119
name from the drop-down box. Click the Use Windows Authentication in the “Log on
to the server” box. In the “Connect to a Database” box, use the drop-down box to select
ArenaDB.
Figure 46b – Data Source Connection String Wizard
Click OK to finish the Connection Properties wizard and enter the Connection String
automatically.
4) Check Make this a Shared Datasource so that the same Data Source can be used by
multiple reports.
Click Next to proceed.

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Create a New Report 120

The Report Wizard has now created the Project, and will proceed to create the initial
Report for the project by opening the Report Wizard. Follow the steps to create a report.
1) Click the Query Builder button to create a Report Level query in a wizard, type a SQL
query into the query string box, or enter a Stored Procedure name.
Note: Reports that use a SQL Query in the report to generate results have a “Report
Level Query”, reports that use a Stored Procedure have a “Database Level
Query”. Please see “Creating a Stored Procedure” for assistance in creating a Stored
Procedure for a report.
Figure 47a – Designing the Query

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2) Select the report type (Tabular or Matrix). The Tabular selection is shown as Figure
47b. 121
Figure 47b – Tabular Report Design
• Page - Places a page break if there is a field chosen and sort it from top to bottom.
• Group Groups the information based on the fields chosen and sort it from top to
bottom.
• Details will list the chosen fields from top to bottom and display the information from
left to right.

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The Matrix design section is shown as Figure 47c.

Figure 47c – Matrix Report Design
122
• Page - Places a page break if there is a field chosen and sort it from top to bottom.
• Columns - Displays the fields selected across the top and will show the selected fields in
order from top to bottom . (Output is similar to an Excel Spreadsheet)
• Rows - Displays the fields selected going down the left hand side of the page. These
fields will show in top to bottom order of fields selected. (Output is similar to an Excel
Spreadsheet)
• Details - Lists in top to bottom order of the fields selected.
Once all desired fields are selected, click Next to proceed.

Arena Reporting
3) Choose the Table Style. This is primarily for color options, and is changeable in the
Layout Tab of the Report Designer. 123
Figure 48a – Table Style

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Click Next to proceed once you have made a style selection.

Figure 49 – Deployment Location
124
4) Choose the Deployment location of the report. This is the URL to the website for
Microsoft Report Services’ Index view. It will be similar to:
http://yourreportservername/reportserver
5) Choose a deployment folder. This folder must be set up in Report Services.
6) Enter a name for the report on the next screen and review the information to make sure
that everything is correct. Once the setup information has been verified, either choose
the Preview Report box or click Finish.

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Once you have previewed the report and it is to satisfaction, right-click the report in the
Solution Explorer at the top right and select Deploy. This will compile the report and send 125
it specified in the Deployment Location.
Figure 50 – Solution Explorer
Go into Arena under your specified section and click Reports. The report should be listed
under the appropriate folder. Click the name of the report to run it.

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126
Open Existing Reports in Report Services
The predefined reports in Arena are stored in the Arena database. Before you can edit a
report in Report Services, it has to be saved as a file that can be opened and edited. Follow
these steps to accomplish this.
Open Report Manager and save the report

1) Browse to the Report Manager website. It is typically:
http://yourreportservername/reports
2) Browse to the tab where the report is located.
3) Click the Show Details button on the right side of the screen.
4) Click the Edit icon next to the report name.
5) Click the Edit option under Report Definition. This will open a dialog box
to Open, Save, or Cancel. Choose to Save this file.
Figure 51 – Save the Report File
If you select Open, then the report will open as a XML document in Microsoft Visual Studio
and you can edit the text of the document. This requires some expertise in the use of
XML document and language.
If you select Save, it will ask for a location to save the RDL (Report Definition Language)
file. Take note of the file name and location.
Now the report can be opened into Microsoft Visual Studio as a Report.

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Create a project 127

A project is required to create or edit a Report. To create a project, open Microsoft Visual
Studio, and create a new Project by clicking File, New, and New Project.
1) In the templates window, select Report Server Project.

2) Enter a Solution name, and click OK.
3) Right-click on the Shared Data Sources folder and select Add New Shared Data
Source. Follow the wizard to create a data source for this project.
You can now add a Report file to this project.
Adding a Report to a Project

In the Solution Explorer window, right-click on the Reports folder, hover your cursor over
Add>, and choose Add Existing Item.
Browse to the location of the RDL file that you saved in the earlier step and select it.
Double click on the report name when it appears in the Solution Explorer window
Edit the report

Now that the report is open in SQL 2005 Visual Studio, almost anything can be edited. The
query, layout, field format, fields, or fonts can be changed. When finished editing, save the
file. Rename the file if you wish to keep the original file, or overwrite it if you do not want to
keep the original report.
Note: Arena Support does not support editing and designing reports in Visual Studio.
Your Client Services Representative may be able to provide some assistance, but
please consult with a certified Report Services trainer or representative for the best
assistance.
Make the report available from within Arena

Locate the file name in the Solution Explorer window
Right click on the file name
Select Deploy from the menu
If the Deployment Location it is not set, set this in the Project Properties by clicking on
Project in the File Menu, and selecting the Report Properties.
You can now find the newly edited report under Report Manager, or from within Arena.
Reports can also be located in the My Documents folder on your hard drive, in the Visual
Studio 2005 > Projects folder. Saved RDL files can be uploaded into Report Services by
selecting the File Upload button in the Report Manager.

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128
Creating a Stored Procedure for List Merge
Stored procedures are used for Database level query Reports, and for any report that is
intended for use by List merges. Please refer to the Report Registration section of the
Arena Administration Manual for help on using reports in Lists as merge destinations.
Follow the steps below to create a Stored Procedure in SQL 2005
1) Open Microsoft SQL 2005 Management Studio.
2) Expand Databases -> ArenaDB, and the Programmability folder.
3) Right-click on the Stored Procedures folder and select Create New Stored Procedure.
You will have to sign into SQL again.
4) Edit the default text in the query window to read as:
set ANSI_NULLS ON
set QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO
CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[cust_example name]
@ExecutionID int= -1
AS
IF (@ExecutionID= -1)
SQL Select Query
ELSE
SQL Select Query again, except insert:
INNER JOIN rept_execution_data A ON [link queried table, must have a
person_id field] = A.data_id
insert at end of Query Stmt
AND A.execution_id = @ExecutionID
The dbo.cust_example name will be the name of the procedure. This is referenced in the
dataset of the report in Visual Studio, tying the report layout to the query string.
“A” is an alias. It is not necessary, other than to make it easier to write the statement.
Anything in RED text is user-defined
Anything in GREEN text is not placed into statement
Anything in BLACK text must be placed into statement
Note: All stored procedures created custom in your Arena Database must start with
“cust_”, else will be overridden by updating the Arena software.

Arena Reporting
An example: The following creates a stored procedure called dbo.rprt_Test2. This query will
pull person IDs, First Names, Last Names, and Birthdates: 129
set ANSI_NULLS ON
set QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO
CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[cust_rprt_Test2]
@ExecutionID int = -1
AS
IF (@ExecutionID= -1)
SELECT person_id,
first_name,
last_name,
birth_date
FROM dbo.core_person
WHERE person_id IS NOT NULL
ELSE
SELECT person_id,
first_name,
last_name,
birth_date
FROM dbo.core_person
INNER JOIN rept_execution_data A ON core_person.person_id =
A.data_id
WHERE person_id IS NOT NULL
AND A.execution_id = @ExecutionID
You can highlight just your query to ensure that it executes properly and returns the correct
values. Execute the entire statement to create the stored procedure.
You will have to close the Stored Procedures folder and refresh the DB to get the SP to show
in the list. Modify the procedure to change it later. To save the changes to the procedure,
execute it again. Note that once the procedure is created, the “CREATE PROCEDURE” text
now displays as “ALTER PROCEDURE”.

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130
Using Report Subscriptions
Reports created in Microsoft Visual Studio and opened in Microsoft Report Services can be e-
mailed to a specified recipient or recipients using a feature called Subscriptions. A report
can also be scheduled to run and be placed on a shared drive on your network using the
same feature.
User Rights
In order for subscriptions to run, a generic user must have rights for the report Data
Source. This should already be setup during initial installation of Arena, however, follow the
steps below to ensure this is set up properly.
1) Navigate to your report services at http://localhost/reports. (paths used in this
document are for example purposes, your path may be different, check with your IT
department for your specific path).
2) Click on Data Sources.
3) Select and open the ArenaDB data source.
4) On the General Tab, under “Connect Using” select Credentials stored securely in the
Report Server.
5) You can enter a new user record in reporting services for this purpose, or use one that
was added during installation. The user name would be (servername)\arenareports
and the password is arenaRS2005. It is case sensitive.
Note: Passwords are blanked out for security purposes.
6) Check the box for “Use as Windows Credentials when connecting to the data source.”
Now that this is complete, you can set up a Subscription for any report in Report Services.

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131
Setting up a Subscription
Subscriptions can be configured for any report that is uploaded to reporting services.
Follow the steps below to create a new subscription.
1) Navigate to report services at http://localhost/reports.

2) Browse through the folders until you locate the desired report and open the report.
3) The following tabs will display: View, Properties, History, and Subscriptions, click on the
Subscriptions tab.
Figure 52 – Subscriptions Tab
Click the New Subscription link. This will open the Subscription setup screen, shown in
Figure 53.

Arena Reporting
Figure 53 – Subscription Setup
132
4) Choose the preferred delivery method in the drop-down menu; E-Mail or Windows File
Share. Fill in the fields required for the chosen method. For the E-mail delivery option,
enter the e-mail addresses of the recipients, the Carbon Copy recipients, and the Blind
Carbon Copy recipients.
i) Enter a subject for the email. This field can use the @Reportname parameter to
insert the report name dynamically as well as the time the report was run with
the @ExecutionTime parameter. These are the only two variables available for
this function.

Arena Reporting
For the Windows File Share delivery option, make sure the correct user permissions are set
for the folder where the report is to be created. This is important so the report server can 133
create the report, but also for the appropriate users to be able to view it.
Choose the render format:
• XML File with Report Data – delivers the file in an XML format for viewing on a web
page.
• CSV (Comma Delimited) – delivers the report in a text document.
• TIFF (image) – delivers the report as an image file.
• Acrobat – delivers the report as a non-editable document.
• Web Archive – delivers the report as an HTML page.
• Excel – delivers the report in a spreadsheet which can then be edited.
Choose the Priority and enter any additional comments.
Once all the delivery options are set, enter the Report Processing options.

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134
Subscribed Report Processing
The Processing determines when the report will be run and sent, and places values for any
Parameter Variables in the report.
Figure 54 – Processing Options
Click OK when all the options are set. Your report will now be delivered automatically at the
next scheduled time.
Understanding and using this tool will make communication and information sharing much
more timely and dependable in your organization.

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Arena Reference Guide

Implementing Your Arena Managed Web Site

Web Site Features

Arena Reference Guide, v.2007.2.13

Arena Reporting Manual

Arena Reference Guide, v.2007.2.13

Welcome to Arena, the Power of Community 1

This makes Arena a true ChMS product. It focuses on communication, coordination,

© 2006, 2007, 2008 Shelby Systems, Inc.

Arena Reference Guide, v.2007.2.13

Arena Reference Guide, v.2007.2.13

Using the Edit Family Wizard

Adding New Members to Arena

Modifying Existing Information

Creating New Families from Existing Families

Arena Reference Guide, v.2007.2.13

Arena Reference Guide, v.2007.2.13

How Groups are Built

Arena Reference Guide, v.2007.2.13

Arena Reference Guide, v.2007.2.13

Arena Reference Guide, v.2007.2.13

Arena has tags in four different categories:

Arena Reference Guide, v.2007.2.13

Key Concepts of Tags

Arena Reference Guide, v.2007.2.13

Arena Reference Guide, v.2007.2.13

Role Models and Problem Makers

“Go Into All The World…”

Arena Reference Guide, v.2007.2.13

Creating an Event Tag

Arena Reference Guide, v.2007.2.13

Creating a Promotion for the Event 13

Arena Reference Guide, v.2007.2.13

Figure 1 – New Batch

Arena Reference Guide, v.2007.2.13

If the gift type is Cash, skip steps 1-3.

Figure 2 – Contribution Entry

Arena Reference Guide, v.2007.2.13

Figure 3 – Batch Summary

Arena Reference Guide, v.2007.2.13

Undoing a Contribution Entry 17

Arena Reference Guide, v.2007.2.13

Using Family Registrations

Arena Reference Guide, v.2007.2.13

Adding a new family 19

Arena Reference Guide, v.2007.2.13

Editing an Existing Family 20

Arena Reference Guide, v.2007.2.13

Assigning a Check-In card

Arena Reference Guide, v.2007.2.13

How Roles Work

Arena Reference Guide, v.2007.2.13

Create a New Security Role

Arena Reference Guide, v.2007.2.13

Editing a Security Role 24

Important Notes about Required Role Permissions

Arena Reference Guide, v.2007.2.13

Add Users to Security Roles 25

Adding New Online Users to Roles

Arena Reference Guide, v.2007.2.13

Arena Reference Guide, v.2007.2.13

Table 1 – Theme Images

Arena Reference Guide, v.2007.2.13

action_button_check.png 190 x 77 Confirm name (Centralized), name 28

<td style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" vAlign=top> </td>