Salsa Commons, a new common site for all organizations using the Salsa toolset whether through DemocracyInAction or anywhere else, debuted today. At the moment, what you'll see is a user manual, which is (in ascending order of importance):

• A massive update from the previous manual available, which had become dated in several key areas;
• An easily updatable wiki that will serve as a living document we can update and add to as we build;
• The kernel of a much larger project to build in other kinds of documentation, peer-to-peer knowledge sharing, and a panoply of other resources.

We've been talking about launching this vessel so long, it's sweet to smash the champagne. It comes with a new feedback address -- documentation at salsacommons.org. Tell us there, here, or anywhere what you think!

Read more (201 comments)

Salsa automatically generates a secure URL for pages involving monetary transactions - donations, paid events, storefronts, etc.  However, just because those pages' URLs begin with "https://" doesn't mean they are secure - if you are loading nonsecure files or images anywhere on the "secure" page, the whole page will become nonsecure.  This manifests through a "broken" lock symbol in Firefox, and through pop-ups or other warnings in IE. You don't want potential donors or supporters scared away because they think their transactions won't be secure - so what you can do?

1.  Find out which template your nonsecure-soon-to-be-secure page is using.  You can do this by looking at  the number after the /t/ in the page's URL - this is the template key - or checking  which template is highlighted on Step 1 of your page creation workflow.  If no template is highlighted or there is no /t/ in your URL, you're using your site's default template. To see a list of your templates, go to dashboard -> manage templates.

Read more (26 comments)

A great example of using Salsa's flexibility to customize a campaign headquarters' look and feel comes courtesy of Evolve Strategies. The setup in this case is by a consulting shop giving its client a one-screen overview of how its action is proceeding. You'll have to click the screenshot below to get the full effect: How'd they build it?

Read more (579 comments)

On the DIA Support listserv, a question about integrating YouTube with DemocracyInAction pages yielded this nifty Oceana action page with a YouTube embed. Nice pairing. Cameron explains the trick to making sure YouTube plays nicely with DIA:

When embedding YouTube in DIA, the thing to look out for is the WYSIWYG ["What You See Is What You Get" -- the word processor-like HTML editor used in e-mail blasts and on some user-facing pages. -ed.] editor. It has a tendency to mangle code, so I would suggest disabling it when adding the HTML provided by YouTube.

Read more (1 comment)

(Disclaimer:  We try to keep this blog, for the most part, of general interest as opposed to focused on particulars of using the DIA software.  This post is an exception.)

Want to store donations information with your DIA supporter record?

Want to import petition signers?

Want to create Group membership -- or the Groups themselves -- during an import?

When we set up new users on DemocracyInAction, we usually handle or assist imports of migrating data.  Plenty of DIA users never touch the importer after that, but it's actually one of the most potent features in our system.

Read more (1 comment)

Directories are one of our newer tools, and not that widely understood or adopted. In a nutshell, they allow you to offer your site visitors the ability to query parts of your database for certain types of information. (You control who they search for and how.)

So we were thrilled to see our resident lightning rods Codepink use it to support their now-ongoing TroopsHomeFast.

Read more (3 comments)