I - Introduction
This document describes the Association Subscribers Manager's subscribers database operations.
It describes how to open, save, send and modify a subscribers database.
See also http://www.associationsubscribersmanager.org for more information.
II - Version
This document's version is 1.0 and describes version 3.0 of Association Subscribers Manager.
III - What is the subscribers database
The subscribers database is a file [1] that contains all data related to an association's subscribers. This include personal informations like names (first, last and maiden if relevant), address, email, phone number. This also includes informations related to subscribers' activities within your association like activities, dues, status of some important informations. Finally, this file also includes federal informations, like the license number.
This file is the core database (or "list") of one's association's subscribers. Given this fact, user is greatly encouraged to know the location of its databases files.
IV - Create a new database
Create a new database is very simple, and there is 2 ways to do it. The first one is to clic on the "File" -> "New" menu. The other one is to clic on the shortcut action button in the toolbar, this button looks like this :
Both of those actions will empty the subscribers view, and Association Subscribers Manager is now ready for you to enter new subscribers or import some from old databases.
V - Save a database
Saving a database can be done by 2 ways (as for create a new one). The first is to clic on the "File" menu and then on "Save" or "Save as...". The difference between "Save" and "Save as..." is that in the second case you will be asked for the place where to save the subscribers' database and for the name of this database. In the "Save" case you will be asked for those informations only in the case you just create a new database.
The second way to save a database is to clic on shortcuts icons in the toolbar. They looks like that :
VI - Open/load a database
As for previous operations, loading a subscribers database can be done by using the "File" menu or by using the toolbar. For the "File" menu, clic on "File" and then on "Open". You can also clic on the icon in the toolbar.
In both case, a new windows will pop up to ask you for the file to open. Association Subscribers Manager can open 2 type of file. Those ending with a ".adb" extension are the latest subscribers database format, and the oldest one ending with a ".xml" extension. By default, the pop up window shows the ".adb" ones. You can make it shows the ".xml" ones by selecting the "Old XML database" filter.
VII - Modify a database
Modify a database may means at least three things : add or remove subscribers from the database, and edit subscribers informations. To add a subscribers you can clic on the icon in the toolbar. You can also clic on the "Subscriber" menu and clic on "Add subscriber".
To remove subscribers, you can clic on the icon or use the "Subscriber" -> "Remove subscriber" menu. Alternatively you can also use the Remove subscriber on the edit zone on the right. This button looks like this :
To edit subscribers informations you can process by two ways. The first is to directly edit informations in the main view. The main view is the list on the left which contains (and list) all subscribers in an association. To edit informations directly in the main view you just have to double clic on the value you want to modify. The cell will become editable with an editor adapted to the value you want to edit. This mechanism is called "in-place edition". Here is an example with the birth date :
The other way is to clic on the "Edit subscriber" button, the right panel will change from a display zone to an edit zone :
When the editor mode is activated you can freely modify all informations about the subscriber.
VIII - Send a database
If there is more than one person working on an association it might be convenient to send the database to each others. Association Subscribers Manager can do this natively. To do so, clic on the "Action" menu and then on "send database by email".
An email sending window will appear pre-filled with some informations like a default email message (you can modify it), a default subject (that you can modify too), the database as attachement and the list of the association's board members emails.
A subscribers' database contains all required informations about the association's activities, the federation which apply and some more informations. This means when a database is sent, it is sent with all mandatory informations.
IX - Other interesting documentation
More documentation can be find on the Association Subscribers Manager's website, particularly video tutorials can be found on it. Those video tutorials covers point that are not in this document.
[1] For advanced users (information not needed to use Association Subscribers Manager) : the subscribers database is actually a XML file.