Matt

You’ve probably already noticed that something looks a little different in our community today. As part of our ongoing community improvements, we’ve performed some housekeeping to streamline the forum structure, make more distinction between areas and open up a few areas to guests and friends. The big visual change is that we now have four separate areas: support, community, marketplace and developers. It should hopefully be clear what each section does, but let's go through a few examples. Support This area is where you can leave feedback on existing features, help shape Invision Community’s future by suggesting new functionality and also where you can get quick support from fellow Invision Community owners and our team. Starting today, you can post in the Help & Support forum to get help from our team. If you’re unsure what a feature does, or think you’ve spotted an issue that needs our help, then you’re welcome to start a topic. Of course, if you want private support, then you are welcome to create a ticket in the client area as normal. Community Even the most seasoned community manager needs a little help from time to time. This section is the place to ask about strategy, to blow off steam in the lounge or to ask for fellow owners to help with support requirements outside of official support, such as configuring servers, databases and so on. Marketplace Our Marketplace brings hundreds of new features, themes, language translations and plug-ins to your Invision Community. If you need support or have a request for something you’ve purchased from the Marketplace, drop into the forums here. Developers Invision Community is blessed with a strong developer community extending the rich functionality of Invision Community. If you’re looking to develop an idea for Invision Community, these forums will let you connect with our development team to answer questions as well as get help from other marketplace authors. Other Changes There are a few other changes of note that I’d like to go through. Firstly, ‘Visitors’ (that is a registered member without an active license) are now ‘Friends’. Who doesn’t need new friends? Guests and Friends can now view the official support forums, but cannot post a new support request or reply to existing ones. We’ve merged ‘General Chat’ in with the Client Lounge to form ‘The Community Managers’ Lounge’. This is still a perk for active customers and the topics are not viewable unless you have an active license. Finally, we’ve gone through and spruced up some of the forum rules, descriptions and custom error messages. I hope these changes make it easier to find what you need and get a little help when you need it.

What is Zapier? Zapier is a no-code solution to connect your Invision Community with other apps, such as Mailchimp, Google Docs, Facebook, Twitter and more. It allows you to trigger actions when new content is added to your Invision Community, and allows Invision Community to trigger actions when other apps receive data. For example, you may choose to add a newly registered member to a Mailchimp list, or send an alert to Slack when a topic is added in a specific forum. This guide will take you through the simple steps of setting up Zapier and your Invision Community and look at creating your first action. Setting up your first Zap The first thing you will need to do is register an account with Zapier. Once you are logged in, you can either search for "Invision Community" or head there directly with this link to view which triggers and actions are available. Searching for Invision Community Invision Community at Zapier Let's set up a test Zap. For this test Zap, we're just going to populate a Google Sheets spreadsheed with new post information. The first step is to search for Google Sheets in the "Do more with Invision Community" section. Scroll down until you see the section where you can select the trigger for Invision Community and action for Google Sheets. Finding Google Sheets Once you have chosen your two apps (Invision Community and Google Sheets) your can choose which action to take. Each time a post is added, add a new Google Sheets row You'll get a little preview of what the Zap will do. Click through the "Get Started" button. The first step is to connect your Invision Community. It's time to connect your Invision Community Clicking "Connect" will load a new window asking for your community URL and API key. The connection window Enter the URL as requested. The API key is located in your AdminCP > System > Community Enhancements > Zapier. Zapier in the Community Enhancements section. Locating Zapier in your Admin CP Clicking Enable shows the URL and key. The Zapier URL and API key Paste these details into the connection window. Entering the details, then hit "Yes Continue" Success! Now ensure you click the radio button to select this community. Select this newly connected community On the next screen, you can choose the criteria for allowing this post content to be shared with Google Sheets. I've chosen to only allow visible posts to be shared The next step is to go through the set up flow with Google Sheets. This flow is very similar to the the flow when setting up Invision Community. Authenticating with Google Once you have both apps connected, you can choose which spreadsheet to use. Selecting a spreadsheet Then, you can select which data to send across. I'm choosing to send the author's display name, the date and time of the post, the post URL and the post HTML content. Select the data you want to share You get a chance to name the Google Sheet columns differently from what's suggested. The final preview To test the Zap, Zapier pulls a post so you can see if the integration is successful. The Zap test Hitting "Send test" should result in success! You'll get a chance to look at the new spreadsheet. The magic of Zapier If it all looks good, proceed and ensure the workflow is enabled. And there we have it! Each time a post is made on the community, Zapier will send that across to the Google Sheet.

I'm thrilled to introduce the newest member of team Invision Community. You may recognise Jordan from his photo as he's been an active member of our community as BreatheHeavy. Jordan has been running his site BreatheHeavy.com using Invision Community for nearly a decade. Jordan's official title is "Community Advocate" which means that he will be working very closely with our community to guide and curate feedback, assist with support questions, to help educate and inform and to bring you news of the latest developments being cooked up by our development team. Jordan says: Your feedback, ideas and questions matter. I've spent the last decade discovering what it means to be a community leader in my own Invision Powered community, BreatheHeavy. Community building is an ongoing journey that's taught me invaluable lessons, namely the importance of absorbing feedback from the community then taking decisive action. I'm excited and honored to share that insight with the Invision Community. My new role is designed to shed light on what Invision Community members (that's you!) want and share it with the team. I'm looking forward to getting to know you! We're very excited to start a new chapter within Invision Community to improve communication, engage more Invision Community owners and make the most of the excellent feedback we receive. You'll be seeing more of Jordan on the forums in the coming days.