Mobile Media Player
Two weeks ago we released an update to our mobile media player that plays all of your plan mp3s in succession! In the past, you had to manually navigate to each mp3, but now the mobile media player will automatically advance to the next mp3 when it finishes playing the current one. You can access the mobile media player from the button at the bottom of the Flow tab, or by going to any song and selecting an mp3.
Improved Attachment Types
Attachment types are used to link specific files to specific people. Instead of making you manually choose each person who can see a file, you tell Planning Center what types of files you have, and then link those types to positions. Any people you schedule to that position will see files of that attachment type
Attachment Types have been around for quite a while, but we've just made them much simpler to use. The biggest improvement is that they are intelligently assigned. When a Site Administrator creates a new Attachment Type, Planning Center looks for any Positions that are named similarly, and links them together. When any user creates a new Position or uploads a new file, matching Attachment Types are automatically linked.
We've also added Attachment Type Aliases to further improve the automatic linking. In addition to linking to an Attachment Type based on its name, it will also look at any Aliases. If you create an Attachment Type called "Document", and then add ".doc, .txt" in the Alias field, any new files containing "Document", ".doc" or ".txt" will be auto-linked to the Document Attachment Type.
To make setting up Attachment Types easier, we've added a new section to the Attachment Types page to enable or disable Attachment Types for any Service Type in your account from one place. Until Attachment Types are enabled for a Service Type, all files will be visible to all people in that Service Type.
We've updated this article in our online manual with step by step instructions on setting up and using Attachment Types. Also, we have a brand new video tutorial that shows you everything you need to know.
Attachment Types & Media Player
The final change we've made pertains to the Media Player (web & mobile) and Attachment Types. If you have Attachment Types enabled for your Service Type, the Media Player no longer loads files assigned to other Types. You can still manually play those other files (if you have permission) by clicking the blue arrow to expand the item and then hovering over the file and clicking the audio button. This should make the Media Player much more useful for users who can see all files, since your playlist will only include your files.
If you're at all underwhelmed by these updates because you don't use Attachment Types, no need to fret! We have some HUGE updates coming pretty soon that will be for everyone! Remember to follow us on Facebook and Twitter to stay up to date on the current news.