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Client Tools

Client Tools

Introduction

The BEMA Client Tools plugin allows you to manage custom code BEMA builds for you and other churches. This give us a seamless way to manage version updates, along with the tools to notify everyone of new features, additional content, and bug fixes.

This plugin assumes you are already a BEMA Support and / or Development Client. If you would like more information about becoming a BEMA Client, please contact the BEMA Software Services at (281) 600-1429.

Overview

Bundled into the Client Tools Plugin is a new BEMA Package Installer block that allows you to download several different packages to help enhance your Rock experience. We will dig deeper into what each package has to offer, all that has gone into it, and our roadmap later, but for now we’ll be talking through the documentation of these two different packages:

BEMA Standard Package – This package is available to all BEMA Support and Development clients, and contains a security audit, custom reports, and custom versions of stock Rock Blocks that are kept up to date with every Rock release and extend stock functionality to better suit your church’s needs.

BEMA Client Package – If you ever contract with us to develop code unique to your church, you’ll be able to download it as a BEMA Client Package. We ensure with every Rock release that these continue to work and will provide compatibility updates ready for you when you do upgrade.

SETUP

To start downloading BEMA Packages, you’ll need to configure the BEMA Package Installer with your Client Key.

Setting Up The Client Key

  1. On the top of your Rock General Settings Page, there will now be a hidden block called BEMA Package Installer

  2. Select whether you would like to download BEMA Standard Packages and / or BEMA Client Packages

  3. Enter your client key. If you do not already have a client key, contact BEMA to receive one.

 

 

  1. Hit Save.

  2. You are now ready to go! Whenever there is a new package available for download, you will see a prompt in the sidebar. Typically installing a new package will restart your website, which takes 2-10 minutes, so be prepared for that before hitting the Install button.



Standard Package features

Security Audit

Included in the Standard Package is a Security Audit block. This highly customizable block lists potential security issues on your website, along with suggestions on how to fix those security holes.

Custom Reports (Upcoming)

An upcoming feature exclusive to Support Clients included in our Standard Package will be a constantly updating collection of custom reports. A new page will be added under Tools > Reporting > BEMA Reports with a laundry list of reports for your use.

You can configure which reports you would like to use on the Admin Tools > Rock Settings > Configure BEMA Reports page.

 

Custom Rock Blocks

Also included in the Standard Package is a variety of custom versions of core Rock Blocks. These custom versions work exactly like stock blocks out of the box, but include additional features that can be toggled on and off according to your needs. Some examples of these include:

  • PledgeEntry

    • We’ve added a toggleable feature to allow the user to view and edit Pledge attribute values

  • Login

    • We’ve added a feature that allows you to require users in certain security roles to use a certain authentication provider

  • CommunicationEntryWizard

    • We’ve added a toggleable feature to mark emails as bulk communication by default

    • We’ve also added the ability to set a default category when selecting templates

  • And much more.

For further information on what additional options we offer, all custom blocks included in our Standard Package are stored on our Github, and contain detailed comments listing the additional features. We provide updated versions free of charge for every Rock release as of 1.9.4 that maintain parity with their stock versions.

Client Packages

Custom Code

For BEMA clients that require code custom to their church, we provide client packages tailored to them with migrations, DLLS, and custom rock blocks that they need. We track any and all changes to their code through our Github repo. These packages are managed and installed the same way that Client Packages are, but contain code too specific to be made available for all churches.

Technical Details

This section goes into further detail about how we deploy our client packages onto your server. We provide packages for every version of Rock from 1.9.4 onwards. In this documentation we’ll be using the 1.9.4 version to provide you with links.

BEMA Package Installer

To find the latest applicable package version available for download, the BEMA Package installer will send the following to our server:

  • Your client key

  • Your current Rock version

  • Your current Standard Package version

  • Your current Client Package version

Our server will then return the latest package version available for download for your current Rock version. This allows us to plan ahead and create packages for the latest version of Rock prior to you updating, so they’re ready for download as soon as you update.

Standard Package

Our standard package bundles together the following:

Client Package

Our client packages bundle together the following:

All code is stored publicly on our Repo.