Experience.FellowshipOne.com

1) Does anyone know a work-around or a hack to simply make an existing account weblink enabled.

Yes, you can use our application program interface called Data Exchange to mass export all your adult (14 yrs. and up) member records. Then you will create user name, password, and optionally challenge question for each individual record. It's required that you create unique WebLink user names (a good example would be to use email address as the user name). Using Data Exchange, you can mass import your changes.

You can locate Data Exchange documentation in two places: 1) click the question mark icon in the upper-right corner of any Fellowship One page and then click the "Show" link to expand the table of contents. Click the Admin and Working with Data Exchange books in the table of contents. 2) Click the Community link in the upper-right corner of Fellowship One and then click the Dev tab. A link to the Data Exchange document is available toward the bottom of the page.

You will need to determine the best means for communicating the user name and password with your members.

By using this option, if the end user forgets the password, he will not be able to request a new password using WebLink because he will not know the answer to the challenge question. However, you can create a custom password recovery page. Ask for WebLink user ID. Behind the scenes, you will use Data Exchange's  GetIndividual to query for the individual record. Next, generate a temporary password and insert it into the record using Data Exchange's UpdateIndividual. We recommend sending this in an email to the email address on record for that user rather than displaying it on the screen.

2) Does anyone know a work-around or a hack to set up and manage user ID and passwords on existing accounts.

You can do this by creating your own customized version of WebLink's "Create Account" form. Be sure to use the required fields on WebLink's Create Account page as a reference. The programmatic steps you will implement are:

1. Check for existing web user ID using Data Exchange's GetIndividual. If no results return, the WebLink user name is free to be used.
2. If web user ID is available, use Data Exchange's GetIndividualCollect to query for the individual's existing record. You can use any of the items collected on your custom create account form to query by. We recommend using a combination of name, address, and communication value. The results will return the existing record that matches along with an encrypted individual code.
3. Use Data Exchange's UpdateIndividual to insert the web user name, password, challenge question, and question answer into the existing record by including the encrypted individual code.
4. If no match is found in step 2, then you will use UpdateIndividual to create a new record by leaving the individual code null.
   

An example of a customized Create Account form can be found on lifechurch.tv. Click the "Register" button in the upper-right corner.