Arena Public Forum - Recent Threads

scam alert

ErikP — Tue, 03 Jun 2025 22:27:27 GMT

We get the "the pastor urgently needs a bunch of $500 apple gift cards for a widow" all the time, but today we got a new one.

Someone picked an elder from our website, created an email address with his name, added his picture and name to the account to help it look even more legit, then used this new/fake account to contact a couple staff members and say "this is my new email address, please update the main database ... oh, and can you also send me a new church directory as a pdf."

Fortunately, I caught wind of it before they actually got anything, but that was a close one. I was starting to help with the directory thing when I started to sense red flags. At that point, I picked up the phone and called the elder. They did not have a new email address.

I had heard about another church that went through a similar thing where the scammer used the fake email to reset their database login. This is why I have chosen to lock down the email field in Arena. I would like to figure out a way to only lock down it down if the record is for a person with high database privileges, but until then I've decided only a couple of us can edit emails. And the incident today confirmed why.

Emails not sending through Arena using GMail

doug.bochmann — Wed, 23 Apr 2025 19:44:35 GMT

Anyone else having issues where emails sent from within Arena are not being sent using Gmail settings? The last successful email was sent back on April 13, 2025. Username and password have not changed since we started using Arena over 5 years ago.

After looking at the email.txt file in administrator/file browser, this is what we see.

{ 14:30:15.107 }---- aspNetEmail 4.0.0.57 [Wednesday, April 23, 2025] -----
{ 14:30:15.107 }.NET Version [4.0.30319.42000]
{ 14:30:15.107 }Opening mail server connection.
{ 14:30:15.123 }Checking for PopBeforeSmtp.
{ 14:30:15.123 }Attempting connection to smtp.gmail.com.
{ 14:30:15.139 }Connecting to mail server [smtp.gmail.com] .
{ 14:30:15.154 }SSL Object Version: [Unable to detect SSL Version Number]
{ 14:30:15.154 }Server [smtp.gmail.com] is not an IP address. Performing DNS resolution.
{ 14:30:15.170 }Server [smtp.gmail.com] resolved to IP address 172.253.63.109
{ 14:30:15.186 }Connected to smtp.gmail.com with a timeout of 20000ms.
{ 14:30:15.201 }Remote port: 587
{ 14:30:15.217 }220 smtp.gmail.com ESMTP 6a1803df08f44-6f2c2b32599sm74060416d6.59 - gsmtp
{ 14:30:15.232 }EHLO SSPRDCW01
{ 14:30:15.248 }250-smtp.gmail.com at your service, [104.45.151.193]
250-SIZE 35882577
250-8BITMIME
250-STARTTLS
250-ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES
250-PIPELINING
250-CHUNKING
250 SMTPUTF8
{ 14:30:15.264 }Server does not support the DSN extension. The DeliveryNotification property will be ignored.
{ 14:30:15.279 }STARTTLS
{ 14:30:15.296 }220 2.0.0 Ready to start TLS
{ 14:30:15.312 }Starting TLS session.
{ 14:30:15.359 }TLS session started.
{ 14:30:15.359 }EHLO SSPRDCW01
{ 14:30:15.390 }250-smtp.gmail.com at your service, [104.45.151.193]
250-SIZE 35882577
250-8BITMIME
250-AUTH LOGIN PLAIN XOAUTH2 PLAIN-CLIENTTOKEN OAUTHBEARER XOAUTH
250-ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES
250-PIPELINING
250-CHUNKING
250 SMTPUTF8
{ 14:30:15.390 }Server does not support the DSN extension. The DeliveryNotification property will be ignored.
{ 14:30:15.406 }AUTH LOGIN
{ 14:30:15.437 }334 VXNlcm5hbWU6
{ 14:30:15.437 }ZG9ub3RyZXBseUBlY2FpbnRlcm5hdGlvbmFsLm9yZw==
{ 14:30:15.468 }334 UGFzc3dvcmQ6
{ 14:30:15.468 }SWFDZTc4ODE=
{ 14:30:15.610 }535-5.7.8 Username and Password not accepted. For more information, go to
535 5.7.8 support.google.com/.../ 6a1803df08f44-6f2c2b32599sm74060416d6.59 - gsmtp
{ 14:30:15.625 }ExpectedReplyCode = 235
ActualReplyCode = 535
Message = [Additional Help:Authentication failed. Check your username and/or password.535-5.7.8 Username and Password not accepted. For more information, go to
535 5.7.8 https://support.google.com/mail/?p=BadCredentials 6a1803df08f44-6f2c2b32599sm74060416d6.59 - gsmtp
]
Data = System.Collections.ListDictionaryInternal
InnerException =
TargetSite = Boolean ⁯‫⁬⁪‫‍⁪‫⁫‭⁪‬‪‪‌‬‬‌‫⁬⁭‌⁭‍‌‪‌⁪‭‌‪‎⁭⁯⁫‍‎⁮‭‮(System.String)
StackTrace = at aspNetEmail.EmailMessage.⁯‫⁬⁪‫‍⁪‫⁫‭⁪‬‪‪‌‬‬‌‫⁬⁭‌⁭‍‌‪‌⁪‭‌‪‎⁭⁯⁫‍‎⁮‭‮(String )
at aspNetEmail.EmailMessage.⁯‌⁪⁯⁬⁯‭⁭⁫‏‫‪‍‭⁫‪⁮‭⁯‮⁪‏‮‬⁪‫‬⁮‮⁮⁮‍‌⁯‏⁬‮()
HelpLink =
Source = aspNetEmail
HResult = -2146233088
{ 14:30:15.641 }Message = Unable to connect to mail server(s). Please specify a valid mail server, server properties, or check your network connection.
Data = System.Collections.ListDictionaryInternal
InnerException =
TargetSite = Void ⁯‌⁪⁯⁬⁯‭⁭⁫‏‫‪‍‭⁫‪⁮‭⁯‮⁪‏‮‬⁪‫‬⁮‮⁮⁮‍‌⁯‏⁬‮()
StackTrace = at aspNetEmail.EmailMessage.⁯‌⁪⁯⁬⁯‭⁭⁫‏‫‪‍‭⁫‪⁮‭⁯‮⁪‏‮‬⁪‫‬⁮‮⁮⁮‍‌⁯‏⁬‮()
at aspNetEmail.EmailMessage.Send(Boolean openMailServerConnection, Boolean closeMailServerConnection)
HelpLink =
Source = aspNetEmail
HResult = -2146233088

Same-Sex Family Issue

cdillabough — Thu, 21 Nov 2024 23:37:39 GMT

What solution is available to be able to add two people of the same sex as married adults in the same family? Currently, when we try to add a wife to a female profile we get the error message "A family can only have one female adult." Please advise.

Snowbird List

Billy Hucker — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 20:12:01 GMT

Hello all,

Does anyone have a good way to get a listing of snowbirds (People who have a different winter/summer address)?

I did a list getting everyone we have record of the months they "migrate" between addresses, and I know that list is not long enough. I am also going to ad in an OR with those who live in Arizona or Florida to see if that list is closer.

Is there a way to pull more than just the primary address? Can I pull multiple addresses for individuals at once? Should I be tracking snowbirds a different way?

Thanks' for the help!

Kids Check-In Kiosks Printing issues

yadixg — Sun, 27 Oct 2024 15:04:29 GMT

Is anyone having issues not having families show up during check in to get their kids labels printed? This Sunday morning, our kiosks are up and running but not one single family can check in because we get this error: “We are sorry but there are currently not any classes available for x family’”

Does anyone know how to fix this issue? PLEASE. I still have one more service to go. :(

Restoring Groups in Group Trees

cdillabough — Wed, 04 Sep 2024 23:23:36 GMT

We created our annual list of groups and their members. Afterward, we realized that we didn't create the groups in their respective buckets. We had two tiers such as:

YEAR
- Committees
- Task Force
- Exempt Committee

When we realized the mistake, I figured it would be easy enough to create the buckets and then move the groups. The Committees bucket had most of the groups so I renamed that one and moved it up a level. When I did that, I could no longer see all the groups anyomre.

How can I find the groups and move them into the respective bucket?

Mass Calling Though Arena/another platform

Billy Hucker — Mon, 25 Mar 2024 17:47:46 GMT

We would like to start doing some mass calling for our upcoming church membership census and for other large events. Is there a module in arena that we would be able to send a recorded message from our pastor or another staff member to a list of people? If not is there another service you would recommend?

Thanks

Sub-events

Nick Hilbelink — Sat, 04 Nov 2023 16:17:23 GMT

Is it possible to have someone register for multiple sub-events?

Custom Amount for Event Tag

Billy Hucker — Fri, 22 Sep 2023 15:31:45 GMT

I am trying to set up an event where we would like to give regrestrants the option to donate a custom amount to help cover the costs. How would I go about setting that up?

Texting a Parent

JustFlyRC — Fri, 23 Jun 2023 13:55:11 GMT

We are looking for a solution that allows us to send a text message to a parent when their child is misbehaving. It would ideal if we could put in the child's person_id and have it figure out the right phone number. Is anyone doing this Arena or a third party application?

Arena memes

ErikP — Wed, 26 Apr 2023 20:19:02 GMT

One of our staff members just made these and shared them with the rest of the staff. Thought you might enjoy.

Metric Error

Billy Hucker — Tue, 04 Apr 2023 17:50:53 GMT

I just got metric up and running last week now I am getting an error that says "Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'length')". Any ideas or is this something better handled by support?

Skills & Talents Person Attributes

Billy Hucker — Thu, 23 Mar 2023 18:18:21 GMT

We are looking to use the Skills and talents person attribute to track volunteer interests and skills.Is there an easy way to input this or a way members could input their own through the member portal?

iCalendar/ RSS feed into Calendar

Billy Hucker — Tue, 20 Dec 2022 17:52:40 GMT

Is there a way to have a iCalendar or RSS feed go into the calendar on the Member Responsive portal? Or would it be easier to integrate a different calendar outside of the existing one?

SQL luid

JustFlyRC — Wed, 07 Dec 2022 21:07:37 GMT

I have taken over reporting for our church. I see luid ids mentioned a lot. For example

core_profile_member.status_luid IN ('12479', '12639', '255', '12640')

core_family_member.role_luid = '29'

Is there any way to find out what this luid ids represent?

Person Import Requirements

Billy Hucker — Tue, 15 Nov 2022 22:20:54 GMT

Hello,

I have been having issues importing a csv into arena. Are there required columns? Is there a certain csv format that I need? Is there anything else I need to be aware of when importing in people from a csv?

Thanks

Policy with dealing with children of Divorced Parents

Billy Hucker — Thu, 10 Nov 2022 14:38:41 GMT

Just curious if anyone had a policy or procedure on how to handle children of divorced parents.

Thanks

Advanced HTML Text Module Not Display After Login

MichaelA — Thu, 07 Jul 2022 16:42:09 GMT

Group, I am trying to hide a page advanced HTML Text Module after login or hide it from rights - registered user. Any suggestions?

Application is members responsive portal page for rights-All users to see instructions or notes before login and then NOT see those instructions after login as rights-registered users. I am not sure if this is can be controlled though security but assume so.

Thank you,

Michael

Address Country defaulting to Afghanistan

colmstead — Wed, 02 Mar 2022 13:38:29 GMT

Yesterday when I updated an address I noticed the country defaulted to Afghanistan instead of the United States. I did a few more addresses and found the same thing. I gave it overnight to see if it was just a fluke yesterday but this morning it is the same.

Is anyone else experiencing this? How can I fix it?

Vulnerability - Apache - Java log4j

colmstead — Tue, 14 Dec 2021 22:24:10 GMT

Our IT company sent an email today with a notice for a vulnerability that affects a "significant amount of software". Apache has released a patch for it. Is this something used in Arena? If yes, how do we make sure it gets patched?

The email we got states:

Apache announced vulnerabilities related to a Java logging package log4j, which is used in a significant amount of software. The severity of this issue has been given a CRITICAL severity range with base score of 10. The details of the vulnerabilities can be found here: CVE-2021-44228. These vulnerabilities can be exploited by malicious actors.

Apache has released a patch and it should be updated immediately, however most of the impacted software will need to incorporate the fix into their patching process in order to address the vulnerability. If you are using Apache log4j locally, patch immediately.

Envelope Numbers

gshoffice — Mon, 01 Nov 2021 19:06:46 GMT

Good Afternoon,

When adding a new member, where do I go to enter their envelope number that I have assigned them.

Thank you.

Jill Witkowski

Mysterious Event Registration Glitches

randolph_c — Wed, 20 Oct 2021 14:35:47 GMT

Hello there,

Has anybody else who is using Arena seen people be able to register for events without selecting sub-events, without making payments, or making duplicate payments? There have been quite a few people who've encountered one or multiple of these issues while registering via our public website. We're using the WebControls variants of the modules, and are on Arena 2400.2.100.38805.

To date, I have not been able to replicate the issue, and I've stress tested those pages every way I can think. To me, the registration system seems pretty rock solid. Any thoughts on the matter would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Kind Regards,

Cameron Randolph

Event Tag - Owner Notification

mmartin — Thu, 07 Oct 2021 14:09:27 GMT

Is there a way to add multiple "Owners" on an event tag? We have some events where multiple people should be notified when someone registers. I know I could add the additional individuals to the 'CC' or BCC' fields in the Event Registration Notification system email but this would result in those individuals receiving notifications for all events which is not necessary or desired.

Mitch

Group Tier Level

Cathlene H. — Thu, 23 Sep 2021 18:34:07 GMT

Hi All,

My Group tree has a "Book Study". I want to list individual studies by title and then the participants in each individual study. But as it is set up, "Book Study" is set up with two tiers which is one more than I want/need. How do I change this?

System Emails request for Event Registration Notification

colmstead — Thu, 19 Aug 2021 20:05:06 GMT

The merge fields for the Event Registration Notification system email do not include one for the sub event name. Could that be added? It would be very helpful!

Currently, the only merge fields are: ##EventId##, ##EventName##, ##Registrants##, ##RegistrationGuid##, ##RegistrationId##