Options:

Policy Options

collect company address

Should a company's address be included in the information collected from companies?

This allows administration to collect mailing information for companies. This information can also be tracked in a separate off-line database, as Kavi Members does not currently support any way to distinguish between different company branches with a single address.

Forms Affected

All add and edit company forms

Recommended Setting

All organization types = 'YES'

collect company image

Should a company's image or logo be included in the information collected from companies?

Company images can be displayed on rosters, in company directories and in Kavi® Showcase profiles. Graphics files are rather large and consume system resources for transfer and storage, so if none of these features are in use, this option should be set to 'NO'.

Forms Affected

All add and edit company forms

Recommended Setting

None, this is entirely discretionary

collect person address

Should a user's address be included in the information collected from users?

Users can be sensitive about sharing their mailing address with organizations. However, if address is not collected here, a separate database must be maintained if the organization wishes to send traditional mailings to users.

Forms Affected

All add and edit user forms

Recommended Setting

• Company-based organizations = 'NO'

• Individual-based or Mixed organizations = 'YES'

collect user image

Should a user's image or logo be included in the information collected from users?

User images (or "head shots") can be displayed on rosters and in user directories and are only useful if rosters and directories are installed.

Forms Affected

All add and edit user forms

Recommended Setting

None, this is entirely discretionary.

company add user

Should a company be able to add a user?

Allowing company representatives to add new users can save organization administrators a lot of time and hassle. However, email domain restrictions are not enforced in this area, leaving who is added as a user to the company's discretion. Setting this option to 'YES' for an Individual-based or Mixed organization could allow users who are not valid members to be added to the database, and should be avoided.

This option is now available in the Company Administrator Access section of the Set Organizational Properties tool.

Forms Affected

Company tools — Add a User

Recommended Setting

• Company-based organizations = 'YES'

• Individual-basted or Mixed organizations = 'NO'

company change name

Should a company be able to change its own name?

Setting this to 'YES' can make things easier for organization administrators when a company splits or goes through a corporate identity crisis. However, it does open up potential problems with organization dues, as a company administrator may change a company name without paying new dues for what may essentially be a new company.

This option is now available in the Company Administrator Access section of the Set Organizational Properties tool.

Forms Affected

Company administrator tools — Edit a Company. Changes company name from a viewable to an editable field.

Recommended Setting

• Company-based organizations = 'NO'

• Individual-based or Mixed organizations = 'YES'

company change url

Should a company be able to change its own URL?

Some organizations are concerned that a company administrator may change this URL to something inappropriate. The URL can be used to link the company from a public roster or marketplace.

This option is now available in the Company Administrator Access section of the Set Organizational Properties tool.

Forms Affected

Company administrator's edit company. Changes company URL from a viewable to an editable field.

Recommended Setting

• Company-based organizations = 'NO'

• Individual-based or Mixed organizations = 'YES'

display user roster

This option has been integrated into Kavi Members.

encrypt passwords

Should passwords be encrypted?

Set this to 'YES' to store passwords in a more secure, encrypted format. This option can be set through Set Organizational Properties.

Forms Affected

All Change Username and Password pages. If this is 'YES', they will be displayed as [Encrypted]. If this is 'NO', passwords are shown in plain text.

Recommended Setting

All organization types = 'YES'

public email errors

Should an error be displayed to users who enter an unknown email address when requesting information through public interfaces?

If this option is set to 'YES', Kavi Members will alert any user who enters an unknown email address via a public user form by displaying an error.

Forms Affected

All public user forms. This will add an error message to be displayed when a user enters an unknown email address.

Recommended Setting

This is a privacy and security setting that should be set based on the sensitivity of the organization. Setting this option to 'Yes' will make the public password help and similar forms easier to use, resulting in fewer complaints from users and less support for the administrator. A 'Yes' setting will result in errors telling users that they can't get a password because of a typo or because their account is inactive.

However, these friendly errors could be used to determine whether a particular email address is in the organization's database, potentially allowing a malicious snooper to gain access to information about the organization's users. For organizations prizing security above usability, set this option to 'No'. If this option is set to 'No', the Password Help and similar forms will always appear to have succeeded. Any error encountered will be sent by email to the email address entered in the form. Unfortunately, if this email address was typed incorrectly, the end user will not receive a password, and will not understand why it was not received.

request home phone

Should users be prompted for a home phone?

Users can be sensitive about sharing their home phone number with organizations. If this option is set to 'YES', make sure that there is a comprehensive Privacy Policy available on the site to explain how personal information will be used.

Forms Affected

All add and edit user forms, company roster. This will add a non-required field to collect home phone data below the work phone.

Recommended Setting

All organization types = 'NO'

request second email

Should users be prompted for a secondary email address?

This address can be collected purely as an administrative convenience in case the primary address fails.

Forms Affected

All add and edit user forms

Recommended Setting

All organization types = 'NO'

require primary email

Should users be required to enter a primary email?

If your organization's site allows users to sign up without providing an email address, your organization will not be able to send these users any automated communications from Kavi Members, such as password links or renewal reminders. A member without an email address can participate in online membership activities, but will have to be given a password by the administrator, and cannot participate in any email groups.

Forms Affected

All add and edit user forms

Recommended Setting

All organization types = 'YES'

require work phone

Should a user's work phone be a required field?

Many organizations and companies conduct business primarily by email and do not provide a phone with a direct dial number for every member of their organization. In these cases, users required to supply a work phone in order to sign up may enter fake data in the work phone field. On the other hand, setting this option to 'YES' is the only way to force a user to enter a phone contact (although it cannot ensure that they will enter a real phone number).

Forms Affected

All add and edit user forms, company roster. This will make the work phone field required and will give the user an error if they try to leave it blank.

Recommended Setting

All organization types = 'NO'

track nonmembers

Should nonmembers be tracked for this organization?

Set this option to configure whether nonmembers will be tracked in the Kavi Members database or not. Your organization's definition of nonmembers may be different than the definition used by Kavi Members. If your organization wants to track any users that fall into the Kavi Members definition of 'nonmember', this option should be set to 'YES'.

Forms Affected

This option determines whether or not information on nonmembers will be stored in the Kavi Members database, so it primarily affects back-end functionality. If this option is set to 'NO', the 'nonmember' type will not appear as an option when setting 'Purpose' for searches, etc.

Recommended Setting

All organization types = 'YES'

unique accepted domains

Should accepted domains for a company (including subdomains) be unique? For more information, see Unique accepted domains in the Concepts document on Accepted Domains.

Forms Affected

None. This option affects back-end functionality.

Recommended Setting

All organization types = 'YES'

user change company

Should users be able to change their company when editing their account information?

Setting this to 'YES' removes a layer of oversight for those organizations that want to ensure all users are employed by member companies. On the other hand, there are benefits to allowing users to update their company to reflect job changes or correct previous input errors.

Forms Affected

User's Edit Account Info

Recommended Setting

• Company-based organizations = 'NO'

• Individual-based or Mixed organizations = 'YES'

Configuration Options

max image height

The maximum allowed height of a company logo or user image (in pixels).

max image width

The maximum allowed width of a company logo or user image (in pixels).