Updates for McKinley 4.0Below is a summary of the updates for this version. Documented the new ability to search by name on the check-in screens. Updated Attendance Analysis chapter to Attendance Analytics, discussing Chart and Attendees modes. Added new Cancel Checkout option on the Check-in Manager. Documented the new Device Manager screens. Documented the process to add a picture to a custom label. Updated the steps to close the Windows check-in client. Updates for McKinley 1.0No updates made.Updates for McKinley 2.0No updates made.Updates for McKinley 3.0Below is a summary of the updates for this version. Added tip about using the Labelary website when creating custom labels. Clarified how the first visit icon is determined for check-in labels. Updates for McKinley 5.0Below is a summary of the updates for this version. Documented the new check-in configuration screen and the settings that are now available. Documented the new 'Family' check-in type. Added information on setting up Attendance Analytics for group types other than check-in. Documented location thresholds. Updates for McKinley 6.0Below is a summary of the updates for this version. Added information on the new check-in label editor. Added information about new check-in area configuration options (Hide Photos, Prevent Inactive People, and Prevent Duplicate Check-in). Added Additional Check-in Options chapter Clarified Search Type field callout information of the Settings screenship in the Setting It All Up chapter. Added Note regarding Welcome screen and keyboard wedge technology in the Walkthroughs chapter. Added note regarding barcodes and the Welcome screen to the Additional Check-In Options chapter. Updates for McKinley 7.0Below is a summary of the updates for this version. Updated Attendance Analytics screenshots and callouts. Added Configuring Attendance Reporting Block Settings section to Attendance Analytics chapter. Added Rapid Attendance Entry chapter. Added Search by Code option in the Check-in Manager chapter. Added Note regarding Welcome screen and keyboard wedge technology in the Walkthroughs chapter. Added note regarding barcodes and the Welcome screen to the Additional Check-In Options chapter. Added note in Beyond Children's Check-In referencing the advanced ability to print labels for groups of a type that doesn't print labels. Added Label Field Type for Group Attributes section to the Appendix - Advanced Options chapter. Updated/corrected IP Address callout in Kiosk Configuration screen in Kiosks chapter. Added Family Pre-Registration section to First Time Registration chapter. Added Group Specific Attendance Analytics options in Attendance Analytics chapter. Updates for McKinley 8.0Below is a summary of the updates for this version. Added Family Pre-Registration section to First Time Registration chapter. Added Group Specific Attendance Analytics options in Attendance Analytics chapter. Updated age range configuration documentation in Setting It All Up chapter. Added a section about texting parents from the Check-in Manager page (you're going to love this!) Updates for McKinley 9.0Below is a summary of the updates for this version. Added Label Reprinting Feature Added Person Attribute Settings Updated Check-In Kiosk iPad Application information Added iPad Bluetooth printing information Updates for McKinley 10.0Below is a summary of the updates for this version. Added new features and capabilities to Rapid Attendance Entry Added Attendance Self Entry which lets attendees easily record their attendance and the attendance of anyone participating with them Updates for McKinley 11.0 New Check-in Themes A new Rock Job will automatically reopen closed rooms for the next service Added a new Mobile Check-in feature that allows for contactless mobile-friendly check-in Added automatic check-in label cutting features Updates for McKinley 12.0Below is a summary of the updates for this version. Check-in sound effects can be customized directly inside of theme folders Many additions and updates to Check-in Manager let room attendants open and close rooms, mark a person as 'Present' in the room, cancel check-in, and more A new Lava template in the check-in configuration allows administrators to customize the text on the buttons that list each person during check-in Header Text settings give you control of the headings that appear for nearly every step of the check-in process Added a new advanced configuration option to control whether or not the Ability Level Selection should be shown during check-in. Updates for McKinley 13.0Below is a summary of the updates for this version. The Family Pre-Registration block has a new setting for allowing a person to set their communication preference A campus value can be passed to the Family Pre-Registration block using the campus Id or GUID as a URL parameter When a check-in results in a person completing an achievement, a celebration is shown to recognize the accomplishment QR code scanning is now supported when using the Rock Windows Check-in Client or a web browser for check-in Locations can be automatically selected during check-in based on new Location Selection Strategy options in the check-in configuration Updates for McKinley 14.0 Below is a summary of the updates for this version. A new security verb controls who is able to delete attendance from the Check-in Manager Roster Check-out can now be enabled only for the kiosk or only for Check-in Manager, or for both The Check-in Manager Roster can now be filtered by schedule Updates for McKinley 15.0No updates made.Updates for McKinley 16.0Below is a summary of the updates for this version. You can now filter by Check-in Area when using the Schedule Builder in Check-in Configuration If enabled in block settings, you can edit a person's check-in and check-out date/time in Check-in Manager Check-in registration handles people with no schedule or only one schedule more efficiently Welcome Attendance data is the backbone of any organization's information strategy. Not only can it provide safety and security to the children who attend your events, it also provides a window into each person's ongoing relationship with your organization. As you read through this guide and start to think about configuring check-in for your organization, you'll realize the system has a ton of flexibility. Keep in mind that the downside of flexibility is complexity. To keep it simple, consider using the out-of-the-box configuration as much as possible, renaming locations, groups and service times as needed. As you get more comfortable with Rock, you can dive deeper into some of the more complex configurations. Types of Check-In Computer-based check-in systems have been in use for over a decade. Over the years these systems have developed into three basic categories. We'll discuss each category below, listing their pros and cons as well as giving you details on how Rock can be configured for each category. Centralized Self-Service Check-In With the centralized self-service model, attendees check themselves in at a main kiosk that serves multiple areas and rooms. Pros: Once people are familiar with the system, they become comfortable and efficient with the check-in process Does not require as many volunteers Cons: Can be somewhat intimidating for first-time guests Decentralized Check-In Decentralized check-in places a kiosk in every room where check-in is required. Pros: Attendees get to visually select the room (considering the teacher and students in the room) Can be fast since you don’t need to select the location and there are smaller lines due to the greater number of kiosks Cons: Higher equipment costs due to the number of kiosks and printers needed Families with multiple kids of different ages need to go through the check-in process more than once Increased support costs due to the number of kiosks required Centralized Attended Check-In In this model, attendees walk up to a kiosk that is manned by a volunteer who performs the check-in process for the guest. Hang In There: Rock does not have an attended check-in solution configured out-of-the-box. A third-party plug-in is coming soon from NewSpring Church that will enable this form of check-in. Pros: Good experience for first-time guests Cons: After the first check-in many people may prefer to do the process themselves Must have a volunteer for each kiosk Can be slower since there is an added communication layer Walkthroughs Enough talk! We realize some of you are from Missouri, the "Show Me State," so let's see what the Rock check-in process actually looks like. Administration Screen Check-in Administration Screen The first screen you come to when you launch the check-in is the administration screen. From this screen you can configure the check-in session by selecting: Kiosk type Check-in areas Check-in theme The selections you make on this screen will be remembered for future sessions. Welcome Screen Welcome Screen This is the waiting screen your guests will see when they walk up to the kiosk to check in. 3, 2, 1: If no check-in locations are currently active, you will see a countdown for the opening time. Phone Number Entry Phone Number Entry Screen This screen allows guests to enter their phone numbers. Only four digits are required to perform the search. Since entering the last four digits reduces check-in time, you may want to share this tip with your guests. Prefer to Search By Name? While searching by phone number works for most organizations you may want to search by name instead. If so we have you covered. There is a block setting on this page that allows you to switch the search type to 'By Name'. To enable this follow these steps: From the internal site navigate to Admin Tools > CMS Settings > Page Map. Navigate the tree to 'Checkin' then 'Search'. Click on the icon to bring up the block settings on the Search block. There is a block setting for 'Name Search' vs 'Phone Search'. There is also an option that allows you to search by name and phone at the same time. When using either the 'By Name' or 'By Name and Phone' search option you will need access to an external keyboard or external on screen keyboard. Family Search Results Family Results Screen This screen will list the families that match the phone number you entered. Select the family you wish to check in. Family Member Selection Family Member Screen You will now see a list of family members who match the filtering criteria for the groups you are checking into. For example, if you are checking into the teen area, you will only see the family members in those age ranges. If there is only one person who matches the filtering criteria, this screen will be bypassed. Area Selection Area Selection Screen This screen lists the check-in areas that are valid for the individual you selected on the previous screen. This screen will only display if the childs age spans the groups in multiple areas. With proper use of grades this screen will rarely be displayed. Group Selection Group Selection Screen This screen lists the check-in groups that are valid for the individual you selected on the previous screen. Like that screen, if only one group is valid, this screen will be skipped. Location Selection Location Selection Screen The location screen will list all open locations for the group you selected on the previous screen. If only one location is available, this screen will be bypassed. Scheduled Time Selection Time Selection Screen This screen allows you to pick the times you are checking into. You can pick a single time or more than one. If only one time is available, this screen will also be skipped. Skipping Screens: As you can see, many of the screens will be skipped over if there is only one selection. That would mean that if a family only has one teen, they would only have to enter the phone number and select their family. All the rest of the screens would be skipped and their label(s) would print. This makes check-in very quick and simple. Learning the Lingo Before we get too far into describing how the check-in process works in Rock, let's talk about vocabulary. Feel free to revisit this section as you go through the manual to clarify the meanings of these terms. Term Definition Group This is the classification unit that a person checks into. A newborn would be checked into the Infants group while a second-grader would be checked into the Grades 2-3 group. Note that these are just examples. You can easily customize your groups. Deeper Knowledge – While classification units are called groups, and they are actual Rock groups under the hood, individuals are not added as group members when they check in, since their relationship with the group is not permanent. Areas You'll probably have several groups that individuals can check into. Areas allow you to organize your groups into collections of similar groups. Example areas in the default configuration include: Nursery/Preschool, Elementary, Jr High and High School. For those who like to know how things work under the hood, areas are simply Rock group types. For everyone else, it’s ok... just keep the hood closed. Sub-Areas If needed you can create sub-areas, which act as a hierarchy of areas. Even though Rock allows it, we'd strongly encourage you to keep your structure simple. (Some of the largest organizations using Rock do so without the need of sub-areas.) Locations If a group is what someone checks into, the location is where. In most cases this will be a room. This makes sense for larger organizations that might have multiple rooms for each group. Service Schedule Groups tell us what, locations say where and the schedule gives us when. Starting to understand the structure? Again, this makes sense if you consider that most churches have multiple services. Labels In most check-in scenarios, you'll want to print out some form of label or tag. These might be used for a nametag or a check-in/check-out token. Rock allows you to print as many (or few) labels as you like. It's also easy to customize these labels to your liking. Kiosk A kiosk is the device that is used to process the check-in. Printer The printer is what prints the labels. Rock allows you to configure where and how these labels get printed. More on that later... Types of Customization We've mentioned several times that Rock lets you customize the check-in process in some powerful ways. Here are some details on the different ways you can customize the system and the level of effort needed for each. Type Level of Effort Description Area, Group and Schedule Structure Easy In all likelihood no two organizations will have the same area, group and schedule for their check-in. Rock's check-in configuration tools make these changes a simple process. Labels Easy/Moderate Depending on the type of customization required, labels can be easy or a bit tricky. Most of this depends on the level of graphics required for your labels. Read below for a deeper discussion about how to modify the labels. Look and Feel Moderate While Rock ships with several different check-in themes, you can add your own with some basic knowledge of HTML/CSS and some LESS Workflow Process Difficult (but possible) Rock's check-in process runs on top of the workflow engine. The check-in workflow handles actions like selecting the families from the phone number provided and selecting rooms that match the family member selected. Each step of the check-in process is controlled by a workflow activity or action. You can customize this to do things like room balance based on last name or family address. These types of changes do require deep knowledge of the workflow engine and possibly the writing of custom code. The out-of-the-box workflow is based on over 30 years of joint check-in experience of first-hand work with lots of churches. It should fit the needs of all but a few churches. If you feel that you are one of the few churches that need something different, you might confirm that the reasoning is based on strategy not preference. If it's strategic in nature, you might consider engaging a Rock consultant to assist you with the configuration and custom coding. Sample Configurations Before we get much further, let's stop and take a look at two different check-in configurations. The first is for our fictitious Rock Solid Church. It's also the default check-in configuration that ships with Rock. The second is a sample configuration for a larger church, Boulder Solid Church, that has two campuses. This second option will give you some ideas about how things can be changed. Rock Solid Church Configuration Default Configuration Points of Interest Note how Jr High and High School have their own areas with only a single check-in group in each one. This is a preference. You could combine them into a single Youth Area and put both groups in it. In this case Rock Solid Church has broken them out for reporting reasons. Pay close attention to the age ranges in the groups. Notice how they are fairly wide. Wider ranges tend to work better because they give you some leeway in unique family edge cases. Also note that the age ranges overlap. It's important that there are no gaps in the age ranges. This church has decided to use a centralized kiosk for check-in. They have also defined a printer device for this kiosk. For simplicity's sake, we are not showing the mapping of the check-in schedule (service times) to the various locations (rooms). Keep in mind that each location can determine which service times it's available for. Boulder Solid Church Configuration Default Configuration Points of Interest Notice that Boulder Solid Church has two campuses they call North and South. These two campuses can share the same check-in group, with each location (campus > room) being attached to the group. This is true even if the two campuses have different service times. Note how the North campus has two rooms (Bobcats & Turtles) for their K-1 group. By using schedules they can configure check-in to only use the second Turtle room for their most popular services. This church has configured a second kiosk in Rock that is dedicated to their youth ministry. You might be questioning the strategy of a church this size only using two check-in kiosks for the whole church. You'll learn later that a kiosk, as defined in Rock, is a configuration template that can be used by multiple physical machines. You've probably noticed that this configuration has more areas and groups. In some cases, like the kids' area, this configuration is the best fit for the structure of the buildings. In the teen area, it's more for reporting reasons since the youth are all in the same large room. Planning Your Configuration Before jumping into the configuration of the check-in system, it's important to take a step back and do some planning. No matter how well you know your organization's structure in your head, it's critical that you get it all down on paper. This will help you get the configuration done right the first time and reduce the chance for error. Be sure to consider the following: What groups will you be checking into? Are they broken down by age, ability or grade? How are these groups organized into areas? What rooms/locations are used for each group? Do these locations vary by: Day of the week (e.g. Saturday vs. Sunday) Service times Will you have special events (think Christmas, Easter, etc.) that will impact your normal configuration? If so briefly write out how these will differ. If you have multiple campuses, how does this change by campus? Consistent Configuration: We strongly encourage multi-site organizations to select just one area/group configuration as a standard. This will greatly simplify the attendance reporting and configuration. Of course, locations and schedules will need to be specific to the campus, but do try to keep the groups and areas consistent. Use the answers above to complete the Check-in Configuration Worksheet. Setting It All Up With your configuration all documented (You did document it right?), let's jump in and start configuring check-in for your organization. Simple Sample: Keep in mind that a sample configuration is already present at installation. Feel free to modify these settings, adding new items as needed. Service Times Let's start with something simple by configuring our service times. You'll use the values on this list later in the check-in configuration. They are used to help determine which services are active at any given time. Editing A Schedule 1 Schedule Menu Tree Shows hierarchical list of schedules defined in Rock. 2 Schedule Name The name to use for the schedule item. 3 Description A brief description of what the schedule refers to and how it will be used. 4 Check-in Start/End Times The times check-in will start (before the scheduled time) and end (after the scheduled time). 5 Reoccurrence Pattern Definition of how often the schedule will reoccur. Configure your service times for check-in under Admin Tools > Check-in Configuration > Schedules > Service Times. Modify and, if needed, add additional services times to this list. If you have multiple campuses with different times, add each unique start time to this list. If two campuses share the same start time, you should only add it once. Be sure to set the correct check-in start and end times in the configuration. The sample values start check-in 30 minutes before each service starts and end 30 minutes after the start. Adjust these values to fit the needs of your organization. Click Edit Schedule to set the day, time and reoccurrence settings. Schedule Builder Take Exception: If you ever have an exception to the schedule (for instance, if you will not have Saturday services on Easter), you can set an exclusion on the Edit Schedule screen. Locations Next, let’s configure the locations where our children meet. Location Details Navigate to Admin Tools > Check-in Configuration > Named Locations. Start by renaming the top-level campus. Next enter each building on your campus. Finally, add locations (or modify the existing ones) for each room that will need to be set up for check-in. Areas and Groups Rock comes with several pre-configured check-in areas. Most organizations should be able to simply tweak what is already there using the following steps. Check-in Configurator Navigate to the check-in configuration screen Admin Tools > Check-in Configuration > Check-in Configuration. Select Groups / Locations for the Weekly Service Check-in Area. Now you'll see the sample configuration for check-in. Use the worksheet you completed in the section above. Modify the check-in areas to meet your organization's structure. If your structure is vastly different, you may want to check with other Rock organizations to ensure that you're on the right track. To help make areas stand out, you'll notice that their headings have a blue top border. Once you have your areas configured, move down to the groups under each area. You'll notice that groups have a green top border. For each area, configure the groups that are needed for your organization. For each group, consider and configure each of these items: Age Ranges: These are the ages of kids who should be allowed to check in to the group. You'll want these ranges to overlap a little to allow different abilities and grades to check in appropriately. Grades: For groups that are based on grades, you'll want to enter the valid grades for the group. Locations: Select all of the locations where this group will be held. For multi-site organizations, you can use a single group to cover all campuses by selecting the locations on each campus. Next, go back to each area and select the labels you want to print for the groups in these areas. More information on configuring labels can be found below. Finally, click the Save button at the bottom of the screen. Location Schedules Now that we have many of the details covered, we can schedule the locations and their availability. This allows you to configure the check-in to only allow certain rooms to be used at specific times. First head to Admin Tools > Check-in Configuration > Check-in Configuration. Select the Schedule button for the Weekly Service Check-in Area. Now you'll see a large grid. Each combination of location/group will have a row, while each possible schedule time will have a column. To make configuration easier, you may wish to filter the locations by a specific campus or building. Check the check box for each schedule time when you wish to allow check-in for the specific location/group. Don’t forget to click the Save button at the bottom of the screen. All About Labels Out-of-the-box, Rock comes with a standard set of labels for use with check-in. There are two different types of labels: plain-text and icon-based. The icon-based labels, while more attractive, require that you install a specific font on each of your printers. This really isn’t hard (we walk you through it below), but some organizations may want to keep it simple and stick with the plain-text labels. Each of these labels is discussed below, with some notes on their usage. Label Description Sample Child Label (Plain Text): This is the label that will be placed on the child. This is a plain-text version that does not require installing the rockcheckin.ttf font on each printer. Child Label (Icons): This is an icon version of the child check-in label. Note Label: This label highlights any allergy or legal notes as well as providing a place for writing custom notes. Parent Label: This is the label that will be handed to the parents at check-in to be used as a token for checking the child out. Name Tag: This label can be used as a name tag for volunteer or event check-in. A Note On First Visit The first visit check-in flag will display if it's the child's first time checking into a group of any type. The flag does not look at the 'First Visit' person attribute, instead it solely uses group attendance data. Kiosks Kiosks are the devices that are used to complete the check-in process. Setting up kiosks allows you to customize the configuration of check-in for a specific device or set of devices. This is helpful if, for example, you have a set of kiosks in your youth area and only want them used for the services in that area. The two main configuration points for the kiosk are: Locations: Kiosks are assigned to allow check-in for selected locations. Printing: Kiosks also help manage how and where printing takes place. See the Printing section for more options for label printing. Configuring Kiosks You can manage your check-in kiosks under Admin Tools > Check-in Configuration > Devices. Keep in mind that Rock supports multiple types of devices. Check-in kiosks are just one type. (You’ll soon see that printers are also configured here.) When the check-in system starts up, it shows a list of kiosks so the attendant can select which kiosk configuration to use. It's also helpful to know that when you define a check-in kiosk configuration, it can be used on multiple physical machines at the same time. That means that when you define a check-in kiosk for use in your youth building, that definition can be used for each check-in computer in that area. Think of these configuration definitions as kiosk templates, not physical machines. Whether you are adding a new kiosk or editing an existing one, you'll use the screen below to manage the configuration. Kiosk Configuration 1 Name The name is used at check-in startup to select the configuration to use for that session. 2 Description A brief description documents the details of the configuration. 3 IP Address This field is not currently implemented for check-in kiosks but other devices like printers also use it. 4 Point/Geo-fence This allows you to define the latitude/longitude and geo-fence of the kiosk device. This is currently not used by the kiosk device type but will be used in the future to support applications like cellphone based check-in. 5 Print Settings These three settings define how printing will work. Be sure to read more in the Printing section. Print Using: Tells the kiosk how to determine which printer to use. Device Printer: Uses the printer defined in the Printer setting below Location Printer: Uses the printer defined for the location Group Type: Uses the print logic defined by the group type Printer: If you selected Device Printer above, you will need to select a printer to print to. Print From: While the previous two settings helped define where to print to, this setting determines where to print from. Client: This is the best option, but it assumes that you will be using the iPad application or Windows application. If you are running the check-in inside a web-browser you won’t be able to print from the client. Server: With this option, the printing will be done from the web server. This requires the web server to be on the same network as the printer. If you are hosting Rock on an external webhost, printing from the server will not be an option. 6 Locations This setting allows you to define which locations the kiosk is serving. This will limit the location options that are displayed to the guest. For centralized check-in you will want to enable all locations. Since locations are hierarchical in nature (they have parent and child locations), you can select a parent location and all of its children will also be automatically selected. Locations Locations configure where individuals can check in. Think of them like buildings or rooms for your check-in. Locations are tied to check-in groups and enabled through schedules. Let's take a look at an example to see how they work. Sample Configuration The diagram above shows a configuration for a large church's Three Year Olds check-in group. As you can see, the church has two campuses it calls North and South and each of these campuses has multiple locations (aka rooms) for their three-year-olds. Based on attendance patterns, all of these rooms are not needed during all services. In this configuration, the Crickets Room is not set up to be used during the second service of the day. Editing Locations Locations are edited under Admin Tools > Check-in Configuration > Named Locations. Locations are hierarchical in nature, so build them out to match the structure of your buildings. A configuration from the diagram above is show below. Named Locations Scheduling Locations Scheduling when locations are going to be used is configured under Admin Tools > Check-in Configuration > Schedules. Opening / Closing Locations We've seen how we can enable or disable a location based on a schedule. Each location also has an open/closed state. Say for instance you want the Bears Room to be used for your 9:00 am service, but need to be able to close it if it reaches capacity. Once it reaches capacity, you can close the room from the Check-in Manager (more info on this below) and it will no longer be available as an option for check-in. Printing As we mentioned in the Welcome section, Rock's check-in is very flexible. That is especially true when it comes to printing. What printer you print to and where the printing takes place (client or server) is completely customizable. While this is very powerful, it can be a bit confusing. To help get you started, we have outlined a simple approach that should work for most organizations. We'll also dive a little deeper for those who want more options. A Simple Approach to Printing The recommended approach to printing is to always print from the client using the printer defined on the client. While this is a simple approach, it should meet the needs of most organizations. We recommend that you use either the iPad or Windows client for running the check-in. On your check-in kiosk configuration set the Print Using setting to Device, leave the Printer setting blank and choose Client for the Print From setting. See the Kiosk section for more on these settings. Then configure the iPad/Windows application to print to a specific printer. Diving Deeper Into Printing Ok, so the simple approach doesn't work. Never fear, we have many more options for you. When we break down the printing process, there are two bits of information that need to be determined: where to print and how to print. Let's look at each in detail. Where to Print The flowchart below breaks down the logic of how Rock determines where to print the check-in labels. Determining Where To Print 1 If using the iPad or Windows application, you can set a printer override that diverts all printing to the printer you define on the client. 2 If the kiosk device’s Print Using is set to Device Printer, the printer defined by the kiosk device will be used. These settings can be found under Admin Tools > Check-in Configuration > Devices. 3 If the Print Using is set to Location, then the printer defined by the group's location will be used. The location's printer is defined under Admin Tools > Check-in Configuration > Named Locations. 4 Finally, if the Print Using is set to Group Type, then the Print Using setting of the Group Type will be considered. This setting can be configured to get the print device from the Location or the Kiosk Device. This is set under Admin Tools > General Settings > Group Types. Quick Shortcut: This all seems a bit complex. You might be wondering why all this is needed. If you want to get creative, these features will allow you to customize label printing so that some groups print at the device and other groups print inside the actual room. Remember to keep it simple. You can define the printer on the kiosk and forget the chart above. It'll be there when you need it. How to Print Determining how to print is much easier than figuring out where to print. You can print either from the server or the client. This is determined on the kiosk configuration under Admin Tools > Check-in Configuration > Devices. But wait, there are a couple of considerations for each of these options: Client: To be able to print from the client you must use either the iPad or Windows applications. Server: To print from the server you must be sure that the server is on the same network as the printers. If you are hosting Rock externally, you won’t be able to print from the server. Allergies and Legal Notes Watching over someone else's child is a big responsibility and knowing specific details about a child's allergies or legal situations is especially important. Rock lets you easily set these details on a child's record and have them displayed at check-in. Here's how. Setting Allergy and Legal Notes To set an allergy or legal note on a child' record, first bring up their Person Profile page in Rock and click on the Extended Attributes tab. There you will see a section of attributes labeled Childhood Information. Click the icon to edit the values for allergies and legal attributes. Note To Self: The text you enter for these attributes will print on the child's note label (see below), so keep the message short and appropriate for volunteers to view. Viewing Notes at Check-in The notes you enter above will be displayed at check-in in two ways. On the Child Label you'll see a notation that the child has an allergy or legal note in the system. The notation will be in the form of a letter ("A" for Allegy or "L" for Legal) or an icon, depending on the label used. This label will be worn by the child and does not show the details of the allergy or legal note, for reasons of privacy. Child Label The note label will print the complete note entered above for the benefit of the volunteer assisting with child check-in. Note Label Ability Levels We've already seen that you can filter groups by age ranges and grades. There's one more criterion you can use - ability levels. It's common for infants and preschoolers to stay in certain rooms until they achieve a special milestone activity like crawling or potty training. Rock can help you track and select these levels within the check-in process. Let’s see how it works. Ability Level Walkthrough 1 Intial Level Set The first time a child who matches the age range of ability levels checks-in they will be asked which ability-level they meet. 2 Ability Level Set When the parent selects the ability level for their child it will be stored in the Ability Level person attribute on their Person Profile. Feel free to update their level here if needed in the future. 3 Subsequent Check-ins Future check-ins will display their current ability and fade out previous levels. Parents can update the setting at any time. They can even select from the previous levels if needed. How Ability Levels Are Stored Ability levels are simply a person attribute that can be used as a filter to select a check-in group. If you go to the Extended Attributes tab of a Person Profile page you’ll see the Ability Level attribute in the Childhood Information section. This is the attribute that will be considered when filtering groups. Rock comes with three ability levels configured: Infant, Crawling or Walking and Potty Trained. You saw in the walk-through above that an individual, or more likely their parents, could update this ability level during each check-in. You can also change the ability level behind the scenes on the Person Profile page. Configuring Ability Levels Not all check-in groups care about ability levels. Once you leave the preschool area they aren't that useful. Imagine the responses you'd get if you asked high school students if they were potty trained! To enable ability levels, first you need to set your check-in area (in the case of the default configuration that would be Nursery) to inherit from Check-in by Ability Level under Admin Tools > Check-in > Check-in Configuration > Groups and Locations. This will tell all the groups in this area that they can define an ability level. Once an area has been configured to inherit from Check-in by Ability Level you'll see that the groups assigned to that area now have an Ability Level setting. This will be the filter that is used to present to the individual during check-in. Ability Level Configuration 1 Inherit From Set the group's Inherit From property to Ability Level to enable the check-in for ability levels. 2 Select Ability Level Next set the groups ability level. When Ability Levels Are Shown Due to the potential awkwardness of the ability level selection with older children you might be wondering when the selection screen is shown. This screen is only shown when the following criteria are met: The kiosk is configured to check-in for an area that inherits from Check-in Ability Levels The individual being checked in matches the age ranges of the groups with ability levels. Adding Ability Levels Adding additional ability levels is a simple process. But, you should refrain from adding too many levels because it can confuse your guests. To edit or add levels simply edit the Ability Level Defined Type Admin Tools > Check-in > Ability Levels. Warning: The order of the levels is very important. The order that they are shown in the Defined Type is the order they will be given on the check-in screens. First Time Registration When new people show up for the first time, you'll need to enter them into the system before they can check in. The best way to enter these families is under People > New Family. New Family If you are using a paper registration card and then entering the data into the system keep in mind that you don't need to enter all of the data right away. You only need to enter these six key points to get started: Parents' names Children’s names Children’s birth dates Children’s grades (if in grade school) Phone numbers Allergies and legal notes You can enter other contact information like addresses and emails later. This really helps speed up the registration process for first time guests. Important: It's critical that you enter a child's birthdate before the family attempts to check in. Without a birthdate none of the age filters will work. Also, if you've configured your check-in groups to filter on grade, it's highly recommended that you enter those right away also. If you don't, it will fall back to using age, but the grade is usually a better (read: narrower) filter. Self-Service Coming Soon: The New Family screen does not allow you to enter phone numbers and allergy/legal notes. This must be done on the Person Profile screen. We hope to add specific registration screens soon to streamline the entry process and even allow a self-service capability. Stay tuned. Check-In Manager It's critical for growing organizations to be able to view check-in data in real-time and react by opening and closing locations in response. Rock provides a check-in management site that gives your staff a dashboard of live check-in data and lets them respond to needs as they occur in real-time. The check-in manager can be loaded from the address http://[your-rock-server]/checkinmanager. On this initial screen you'll be asked to select a check-in configuration type. Check-in Manager 1 Campus Selector Selects the campus for the data view. 2 Attendance Chart Shows real-time check-in counts for the last two hours. On the home screen the count is for all of the areas and groups defined for the check-in configuration type selected. As you drill down through the areas and groups, the counts will reflect the area or group selected. 3 Person Search Allows you to search for a specific person and view their recent check-in information. 4 Check-in Areas A list of check-in areas with counts. Selecting one of these will drill down to show sub-areas and groups. Check-in Manager Screenflow 1 The check-in manager home screen as shown above. 2 On the next screen we have drill-down to view groups under the Nursery/Preschool area. 3 This screen lists the locations under the Crawlers/Walkers group. From here you can open or close the location. 4 The details of the Kittens room. From this screen you can also open or close the room and even see all the children checked into the location. You'll also notice a 'Cancel Check-out' button next to each name. This is useful if you need to remove a child from a room. Closing a Room: When you close a room using the check-in manager it can take up to 60 seconds for the room to show closed on the kiosks. Kiosks poll for configuration updates every 60 seconds or whenever they return to the welcome screen. We plan to make these configuration updates in real-time soon. Searching For Individuals Check-in Manager Search 1 Shows a list of matching individual search results. Next to the name is the last time the individual checked into a group in this check-in configuration type. 2 Selecting an individual will show their most recent check-in dates. It will also show a list of family members and phone numbers tied to the individual. 3 In this case, selecting a parent allows us to get their contact information in a snap. Clicking their phone number will even dial your cell phone for you. Wow! Device Manager While you can manage many aspects of a kiosk device from the Check-in Manager you can also mange the device from the actual kiosk. Below we'll discuss the various capabilities of these features. Logging In To access the Device Kiosk simply press the gear icon at the bottom right of the main check-in screen. This will bring up the screen below. Device Manager Authenication From this screen you can get a quick view of the counts for rooms configured to this kiosk. You can also enter your PIN to access the device manager. You can setup new PINs on a person's Person Profile screen. Device Manager Once you're in the device manager you will see the screen below. This screen allows you to open/close rooms that have been configured for this kiosk. It also allows you to Override a child. This simply means that you can check-in a child to a room without considering the rooms age or grade ranges. When you select the Override button you will see the standard Search screen. Everything will operate the same, but the rooms configured age and grade ranges will be ignored. Device Manager Authenication Schedule Locations From the main screen above you can also choose the Schedule Locations button. This screen allows you to alter the room schedules. This is normally done in the Rock Admin screens ( Admin Tools > Check-in > Check-in Configuration > Schedules) but you can also enable / disable the schedules for the kiosks configured rooms here too. Device Manager Authenication Attendance Analytics While there are a number of ways to access attendance data using Data Views and SQL reports, Rock also provides powerful analytics capabilities that you can access from Tools > Reporting > Attendance Analytics. This powerful tool should be able to answer any question you throw at it. Let's see what's possible. This block operates in two modes: Chart and Attendees. Chart Mode When in chart mode, the analytics block will report back the count of the attendees who match the criteria you've provided. This is great when you're looking for numbers for a specific weekend or viewing attendance over time. Chart Mode 1 Attendance Type The first step you must do is to select the type of attendance that you'd like to report. Most often you'll probably be interested in check-in data so select Weekend Service Check-in Area. 2 Date Range The most important criteria you will provide is the date range. This date range picker is very powerful and allows you to select many different types of date ranges. To help reduce confusion, the label above it shows the exact dates that are currently being used for the filter. 3 Group By Setting This determines how the attendance data should be grouped for the graph. Typically this will be by week, but you many want to get a monthly or yearly graph too. 4 Campuses If your church has multiple campuses, you can select the one you're currently interested in. 5 Groups Next you can filter which check-in groups (usually age ranges) you'd like to view in your analysis. 6 Limit By Data View This is an advanced setting that allows you to apply even more filter options to your criteria. For instance, let's say you only want to report on girls. You could easily make a data view with this gender filter and then use it here to only show girls. 7 Update Since the block has to crunch through a ton of data to show its results, the graph will only refresh when you process the Update button. 8 Graph By Sometimes you may want to only see one series on your graph (the Total option) but other times you'd like to see multiple series. This setting allows you to configure what types of series you'd like to see. 9 Graph Yep...this is the graph. 10 Show Data Sometimes you want a pretty picture, other times you need raw data. The good news is that you can have both! Attendee Mode Now that you see how you can see how to get numbers, let's look at how you can see the individuals who make them up. Clicking the Attendees button will hide the graph and show you the individuals behind the data. Much of the block works in the same way as the graph mode, but here are a few of the differences. Attendee Mode 1 Filter The filter allows you to show all the attendees or special attendees. We discuss these filters in detail below. 2 Return Type Sometimes you want the attendees (usually children) but other times you want to convert the list to the parents (or children) of the attendees. 3 Columns If you look carefully, you'll notice that the number and types of columns change based on your criteria. Normally you'll see a column for each week in the date range with a checkmark if they attended that week. If you select to Group By month or year however, it will show a column for that period type instead. Filters By Visit Many times you'll want to filter out only the first-time visitors. That's easy! Just use the By Visit filter. You can select from the first to fifth visits. Filter By Visit Note that the date range is important to this filter. It will show anyone who has had a first visit during the provided range. You'll also notice a No visit option at the end. This will show members of the selected groups that did not attend at all during the selected date range. Keep in mind though that children are not members of most weekend service groups. This option is more for small groups or service groups that children are members of. Ministry Idea: Hopefully you're already seeing that this filter provides an easy way to send emails or letters to parents of first-time visitors. Pattern Sometimes you want to find kids who have stopped coming or maybe who come often. The pattern filter can help with either case. Filter By Pattern As you can see, you can filter by certain attendance and non-attendance patterns. Final Pieces We have two final quick items to mention, both of which can be found at the top of the block. Check-In Detail This button will take you to the attendance data that drives this tool. This allows you to make any edits to the data. Help We've provided a lot of built-in help to this block to assist you in remembering all of these details. When in doubt, open this panel up. Printers Rock's check-in requires the use of specific Zebra printers. Rock has been tested on the following models: GX420d While it's possible that other Zebra models could work (technically any model that supports printing via ZPL should work) we have only tested with the models above. We recommend that when purchasing these Zebra printers, you get ones with built-in Ethernet ports. This allows you to print from either the server or the iPad application. If you currently have models that do not have Ethernet ports, you can make them work but you will need to use the Windows client to enable printing via USB. Other Printer Vendors: Although we could add support for other print vendors in the future, we currently support only Zebras. Based on our long experience with check-in systems, we feel that they are the best option. While purchase price can be more expensive than other makes, you'll find that their total cost of ownership will be less over time. Zebras are built to last for many years and their labels can be purchased for much less than other vendors. (The difference in labels alone can make up for the difference in printer price in less than one year.) Defining Printers in Rock For Simplified Printing: If you are using the simplified printer setup where you are printing from the client and specifying the printer in the iPad or Windows application, you do not need to define the printers in Rock. To add printers in Rock for selection when configuring locations, group-types or kiosks, follow the steps below: Navigate to the Devices page under Admin Tools > Check-in Configuration > Devices. Select a printer device to edit or add a new printer. From the device details screen: Give your printer a name. Provide the IP address for your printer. Select the device type of . Printer Details Now that your printers are defined, you can configure them to be used on either locations Admin Settings > Check-in Configuration > Named Locations or kiosks Admin Settings > Check-in Configuration > Devices. Check-In Relationships There will be times when you'll want to allow individuals outside of a family to check in children. Rock allows you to add relationships between individuals just to make this easy. Known Relationships From a Person Profile page, you can define Known Relationships. The Allow Check In relationship allows you to grant check-in rights to a person outside of a child's immediate family. To add a known relationship to an individual, follow these steps: Go to the Person Profile page for the child. Click the [+] button on the Known Relationship block. Select the Relationship Type of Allow Check-in by. Select the person who should be allowed to check the child in. Click the Save button. After following these steps, anyone in the family of the person you selected will now be allowed to check in the child. Adding Check-in Abilities to Other Known Relationships Rock ships with several other Known Relationships like grandparent, step-parent, etc. Out-of-the-box these relationships do not have check-in rights applied to them. You can easily change that behavior though by following the steps below: Navigate to Admin Tools > General Settings > Group Types > Known Relationships. Select the role you would like to add check-in capabilities to. Check the Can Check-in checkbox. Click the Save button on the role dialog and then Save again on the Group Type screen. Check-In Kiosk Options The easiest way to run Rock's check-in system is to simply open a web browser on a desktop or tablet and navigate to http://[yourserver]/checkin. Rock also provides a native iPad application and Windows application. Let's break down the different strengths of these three platforms Platform Print From Server Local Network Printing Local USB Printing Notes Browser-Based X The easiest method for running check-in, but all printing must be done from the server. (This will only work if your server is on the same network as the printers.) iPad Application X X This application is available for free from the Apple App Store. The application provides a simple tablet interface to the Rock check-in system. It also allows you to print directly from the iPad to a networked printer, allowing the server to be hosted remotely. Windows Application X X X The Windows check-in application can be downloaded from Admin Tools > Power Tools > External Applications. This application allows you to print to a USB-connected printer as well as network-based printers. Externally Hosted Servers: If your Rock server is hosted outside your organization, you will need to use either the iPad application or Windows application to enable local printing. iPad Application While the normal check-in screens run really well in mobile Safari, we have created a native iPad application to host the check-in experience. This application can be downloaded for free from the Apple App Store. The application hosts the same Rock check-in screens hosted on your Rock server but also adds the ability to print straight from the iPad to your network-connected printers. The application can also cache the labels, which increases check-in performance. Configuration After installing the application from the App Store and running it for the first time, you'll be prompted to enter the address of the check-in pages you want to use for the application. For most organizations this will be http://[your-rock-server]/checkin. iPad Configuration Navigating Complex Configurations: Organizations with multiple check-in configurations might want to point to a simple navigation page that allows the user to select the check-in configuration on load. Once you provide this address, all subsequent launches will load this address on startup. If you want to modify this address later, or access advanced configuration settings, you can select Settings on your iPad and scroll down to the Rock Check-in application settings. From there you can adjust the following configurations. Setting Description Check-in Address This is the initial page that will load when the application launches. Enabling Label Caching This will cache the loading of check-in labels. This keeps them from being downloaded on each check-in. Cache Duration This determines how often the labels will be re-downloaded. The cache can also be expired by stopping the application and restarting. Printer Override This setting has the effect of always printing from the iPad to the printer IP address you provide in this setting. Windows Client If you're planning on running the check-in kiosk on a PC platform, the Windows Client provides a simple and powerful hosting experience. The client application can be downloaded from your Rock install under Admin Tools > Power Tools > External Applications. Configuration After running the setup application, you'll have a Rock Check-in icon in your Start Menu and desktop. When you launch the application you'll see the setting screen. Unlike the iPad application you'll see this screen on every launch, but the settings you select will be remembered for you. Below is a summary of these settings. First Middle Initial Check-in Address This is the initial page that will load when the application launches. Enabling Label Caching This will cache the loading of check-in labels. This keeps them from being downloaded on each check-in. Cache Duration This determines how often the labels will be re-downloaded. The cache can also be expired by stopping the application and restarting. Printer Override This setting has the effect of always printing from the iPad to the printer IP address you provide in this setting. Printer List Under the Printer Override setting you will see a list of local printers configured in Windows. This allows you to print directly to a USB printer. Closing the Windows Client After pressing the Start button, the check-in application will load the initial check-in screen. When you are ready to exit, simply press in the upper left of the screen 6 times seconds to close the application. This will have the effect of closing the check-in application. URL Parameters By specifying additional parameters in the URL of the check-in site it's possible to pass additional information or override the default behaviour of check-in. For example, if your check-in is located at examplechurch.com/checkin, you could use the url examplechurch.com/checkin/2/18,19 to load the kiosk with the id of 2 and the group types with the id of 18 and 19. This is really useful if you have specific devices which only ever load the same configuration. It's also possible to override the theme by appending a ?theme parameter to the end of your address, for example examplechurch.com/checkin?theme=CheckinBlueCrystal. These parameters are configured using Routes which you can learn more about in the Designing and Building Websites Using Rock guide. Going Deeper With Areas We've already spent some time on areas in the earlier configuration but let's dig a little deeper. By now you know that areas are a way of categorizing your check-in groups. They also help to: Define which tags will be printed when checking into any of the groups assigned to the area. Provide configuration templates by setting the group type for the check-in groups. (More on this in a minute.) Structure attendance reporting. How Areas Assist With Configuration The check-in system is a rich pairing of Rock's workflow engine and groups system. Under the hood, Areas are really just Group Types while check-in groups are, well, Groups. Before continuing on with this section we highly recommend you stop and read the Rock Your Groups guide to get a solid background on Rock's group capabilities, paying special attention to the Group Types section. Don't worry we'll wait... Now that you have a good understanding of groups and group types let's continue. Since check-in areas determine the group types for their groups, you can configure attributes for the groups by modifying the area group type. That's a mouthful, but it will make more sense when you look at the group types under Admin Tools > General Settings > Group Types. Here you'll see each of the areas you've defined using the check-in configuration screens. Click on them and you'll see some familiar attributes like Age Range and Grade Range. The check-in configuration screens are really a simplified group type and group editor especially designed for check-in. You could do all of the configuration using the normal group type editor and group viewer, but it would be much more difficult. Using Group Type Inheritance Imagine what a pain it would be to have to add attributes like Age Range to every new check-in group you created. Make one typo and your check-in might break. That's where group type inheritance comes to your aid. You'll notice that there are some pre-configured group types called Check-in by Age, Check-in by Grade and Check-in by Ability Level. From their names you can probably guess what each one does. If you're sharp (and we know that you are) you may have also noticed that these group types have a purpose defined as Check-in Filter. A group type’s Purpose is really just a way of telling you what it's used for. In this case, giving a group type the purpose of Check-in Filter helps Rock know when to show it on certain screens. Nothing magic - we promise. Now you can start to see how check-in is knitted together behind the scenes. You might be thinking, "I get the inheritance but what if I need a group to inherit from more than one group type?" Brilliant! We have that same problem, too. You might notice that groups like Jr High have a need for both the Age Range attribute AND the Grade Range attribute. But, a group type can inherit from only one group type. From your reading in the Rock Your Groups guide, you should remember the concept of group type hierarchies. In this case, both the Check-in by Grade and Check-in by Ability Level inherit from Check-in by Age. So areas that inherit from them get the attributes from both. This complicated behind-the-scenes concept really serves to keep it simple for you. Check-In Test Area You may have noticed an area called Check-in Test Area. This area is used to help you test your kiosk configuration and label printing. Since most areas and groups are only configured to allow check-in during certain schedules, they aren't that helpful for testing. The Check-in Test Area is configured to be available all the time. Themes Rock ships with two different check-in themes. One has an adventure look and the other has an outdoors/park feel. Rock Check-in Themes Change That Logo That Rock logo on the Blue Crystal theme isn't there to promote Rock, it's there to give you one file change to add your own logo. You can change which theme is active two different ways: You can select the theme to use during each check-in session on the check-in admin page that is displayed when you first start the check-in process at http:///checkin. You can temporarily change the theme by appending '?theme=' in the address of your browser on a check-in page. This is a good solution when you'd like to support multiple check-in themes with a simple configuration. Creating New Themes While standard themes might work for many organizations, some may wish to create a custom theme. This is pretty simple if you have some web design experience. Follow the steps below: Download our Photoshop PSD check-in theme design template from: http://storage.rockrms.com/resources/Check-in-Template-v1_0_0.psd Edit this template by: Changing the background to an image of your choosing. It should be a retina-sized image (2696 x 2048). Changing the colors on the assets (buttons, headers, etc.) to suit your needs and compliment your background colors. Hiding the assets layer and saving the background to your desktop as background@2x.jpg. Re-sizing the file to 50% and saving this to your desktop as background.jpg. Go to the RockWeb\Themes\ folder on your server (or better yet - development environment) and make the following edits: Make a copy of the existing CheckinPark\ theme folder (along with its subfolders). Overwrite the two background images in the \Assets\Images\ folder with the ones you created earlier. Edit the \CSS\checkin-theme.less and change the fonts and colors of the named assets (the things you colored in the PSD) found in the Variables section of the file. If you need additional styling, put your changes in the Custom Overrides section of the file. Compile your Less into CSS. Now you’re ready to test your theme by appending '?theme=' to the address of one of your check-in pages. Installing Fonts On Zebra Printers If you want to use custom fonts or icons instead of plain text on your labels, you'll need to install the necessary font files on each printer used for check-in. To get started, you'll need to install the Zebra Designer software. This is a free program that will help you manage your zebra printers and create labels. See the Creating Custom Labels chapter for more information on installing this software. After installing the Zebra Designer software, follow the steps outlined in the video Downloading fonts to the printer on this link: http://www.zebra.com/us/en/products-services/software/zebralink/zebra-designer.html#mainpartabscontainer_71ac=tutorials This tutorial will walk you through the process step by step. Be sure to pause the video as you go. Icon Fonts Rock has created a specific icon font just for check-in labels. You can download this font from: http://storage.rockrms.com/resources/rockcheckin.ttfs. This font applies specific FontAwesome icons to the same merge fields used by the plain-text labels. You can create a similar font file for your custom needs at: http://fontello.com/. Timesaving Tip Note that when using the Zebra Fonts and Graphics Downloader application, you will be given the option to either Download all characters or Download selected characters. It is critical that you choose Download Selected Characters, and then select the rockcheckin font with a 26pt size. (If the rockcheckin font doesn't show up in the list, it just means you haven't copied it to your fonts directory on that machine.) Go ahead and select all characters in the font... you never know when you might need a special icon on a future label! If you're wondering why you can't just choose Download all characters in the first place, it's because this option does NOT allow you to choose the size (26pt) and you will end up with a 100pt font in your printer, be unable to move it properly, and you'll waste a day or two figuring this out. Don't ask us how we know this. You're welcome. Creating Custom Labels You can create your own labels for check-in with the free Zebra Designer software. Once you've created the labels, you can upload them to Rock and apply them to various check-in areas. Let's walk through that process step-by-step. Installing Zebra Designer ZebraDesigner is a WYSIWYG design tool for designing ZPL formated labels. While Zebra has several different versions of the software the free ZebraDesigner has everything you'll need to make labels. Don't Go Pro: The 'Pro' version doesn’t have any additional features that are needed for creating check-in labels. It only adds capabilities like embedding RFID codes. Download the ZebraDesigner Software. Run the setup, selecting all of the defaults. Launch the application. The first time it's run, it will ask you to install a ZDesigner print driver. Select the Add Printer button to add this driver. Walk through the wizard steps until you reach the Select Printer screen. Here, select the printer model you'll be working with. We use the GX 420d or the LP 2844-Z. Next, you'll need to pick the port where the printer is attached. While it's easier to select a printer connected through USB, connecting to one via IP would allow it to also be used from Rock. To connect it via IP, first get the IP address of the printer (press and hold the feed button until it flashes once, then release. A network configuration label should be printed that lists the printer’s IP.) Next, press the Add Port... button and type in the IP address in both the Port Name and IP Address Field. Finally, press OK. Select this new port and click Next. Double check that the Launch installation of Zebra Font Downloader Setup Wizard is checked and click Next. Walk through the setup wizard. Congratulations! You did it! The ZebraDesigner is now installed. You should now be able to open the program, select a default label and print it to the printer you configured. For more information, consider reading the ZebraDesign User Guide. Creating Your First Basic Label Follow the steps below to create a simple check-in label. We'll talk about more advanced features in just a bit: Open ZebraDesigner. Create a new blank label by selecting File > New from the menu. You can skip the Select Stock screen if you'd like. (This option is to select the type of sticker you are using. Like selecting a paper weight/finish for a regular printer.) On the Page Size screen, enter the size of your labels (often 4x2). Select the print orientation of your label on the Label Layout screen. (It might seem counter-intuitive, but you need to select the portrait orientation. Trust us, we went through stacks of labels figuring this out.) Finally, enter your label canvas width (4x2) and click Finish. You should now have a blank label. Add a text field to the label with the following: Fixed text Your church name Font set to Zebra and sized to 18pt Add an additional text field to the label with: Variable text Font 'Zebra 0' and sized to 24pt Variable type Keyboard input from second screen Prompt of Nick Name Max size of 24 Value is required Format is Alphanumeric No prefix or suffix text Print your label to the printer to see the result. Save your label as a .lbl file for future edits. When complete, create the ZPL file (It will export with the extension of .prn.) for the label by enabling Print to File on the print screen. When the prompts come up for the variable data, enter the Rock merge field (in this case NickName). When you click Print, the save dialog will be displayed. Open Rock Check-in Label page under Admin Tools > Check-in Configuration > Check-in Labels. Add the check-in label. Once you upload the ZPL file (.prn) you should see the merge field opens display with the text field you created. Link the NickName to the Nick Name merge field and delete the field that contains your church's name. Your simple label is now ready to be used in Rock. To use it, follow the steps below: Open up the check-in configurator Admin Tools > Check-in Configuration > Check-in Configuration. Determine the check-in configuration type you want to add it to (e.g. Weekly Service Check-in Area) and select the Groups / Locations button. Expand the check-in area you want to add the new label to. Click the [+] button to add the label Click the Save button to complete the configuration. Your new label should now print at the completion of each check-in for that area. Merge Fields You might be wondering where that merge field came from and what others are available for your use. If so, we like the way you think! Merge fields are created as Defined Values under Admin Tools > Check-in > Label Merge Fields. There you will see all of the merge fields currently set up. Pretty much everything you see on the labels is a merge field. You'll also see that merge fields are simple fragments of Liquid matched to a keyword. For instance the Birthday Icon merge field is simply: {% if Person.DaysToBirthday <= 7="" %}b{%="" endif="" %}=""> This liquid looks at the birthdate of the person checking in and if it's within seven days it prints the letter 'B' (or a birthday present icon). You can see a list of all of the fields available for you to use in your Liquid by pressing the Show/Hide Merge Fields button of the defined type. #mindblown Adding a Person Photo If you need a photo in your nametag, you can use your newly-aquired custom label knowledge to make it happen. Just follow the steps below: As described in the last section, add a new Label Merge Field with a value of Person Photo and a MergeField containing "{{ Person | ZebraPhoto }}" While editing your custom label's ZPL file (.prn), add a new line with the keyword PHOTO as seen in this snippet. ... ^LL812.8 PHOTO ^XZ ... Specify the X,Y placement of the photo in your label design file with the ^FO Field Origin command and a ^XG (Recall Graphic) name and extension with an exact value of "LOGO.PNG" as seen in this sample snippet: ... ^FO25,68^XGE:LOGO.PNG,1,1^FS ... Lastly, when you upload your new check-in label's ZPL file (.prn) into Rock, link the PHOTO to the Person Photo merge field. The photo of the person checking in should now appear on the label nametag when they check in. You can find more details on the ZebraPhoto Lava filter described in the Person section of the Lava documentation. Best Practices and Lessons Learned Creating labels is easy using the ZebraDesigner software. Below are a few best practices to help you create the highest quality labels: When you're working with images, be sure to make the image the exact size you want on the label (do not stretch it larger or smaller). The best way to achieve this is to create the label first in Photoshop. Set your Photoshop file to be the same size in inches as your label with a DPI of 203. If you adjust the image size in the Zebra Designer you’ll get a bad case of the jaggies (a pixelated look). Only use embedded printer fonts. These fonts are noted with a small printer icon in the ZebraDesigner font picker. If you would like to use a different font be sure to upload it to the printer. (Note: You’ll need to do this to each printer that will be used in the check-in process.) For instructions on how to do this, see the section Installing Fonts on Zebra Printers. Using normal TrueType fonts, noted with a 'TT' next to them, will not work. Think of them as the forbidden fruit. Zebra puts them there to tempt you, but they lead to the shame of ugly labels. When creating new labels you might try using the Labelary website. It allows you to view your label as your make changes. Beyond Children's Check-in While much of this document has focused on using check-in for childcare activities, Rock is capable of much more. Below we'll discuss a few ideas on how to extend check-in: Serving Groups Serving groups are one of the pre-configured group types in Rock. There are many benefits to having people check in when they serve. To help you gather that data, we've configured the serving groups to allow check-in. All you need to do is provide two settings for each group to help Rock know where and when to allow check-in. Let's take a look at how to do this. Configuring Serving Groups For Checkin 1 1. Edit the group from People > Group Viewer. 3 2. Expand the Meeting Details panel and click the button if no location has been set, or the button if one has. 2 Select a Location for the meeting spot. This will be used to help determine which kiosk device should handle the check-in. It’s best to choose a broad location (like a campus instead of a specific room), because this allows your group to be visible to the check-in kiosk without a lot of extra configuration. See how we're saving you all this time? 3 Select a Schedule to determine when the check-in should be active. Voila! Your serving group is now ready for checking in. Double Check: Make sure that the check-in kiosk you are using is configured for the location you chose for the group. Configuring New Group Types for Check-in Now that you've seen the power of the dark-side how serving groups can check in, we bet you're wondering how to configure other group types for check-in. Just follow these steps. Configuring A New Group Type For Check-in 1 Edit your group type under Admin Tools > General Settings > Group Types. 3 Configure the Location Selection Modes to use Named Locations. 2 Make sure Enable Location Schedules is enabled. 3 Add the Location Type of Meeting Location. Once enabled, you'll still need to add the meeting details just like we illustrated in the Serving Groups section above. Well done. You are now a check-in whiz. You can properly configure check-in for any group type.