Feature Updates 06/05/2023
NEW OnlineGiving.org > MinistryPlatform > Additional Layer of Automatic Donation Record Checking Added
We're pleased to announce the OnlineGiving.org MinistryPlatform integration has been enhanced with an additional automatic donation record-checking layer as a scheduled redundant fallback to the built-in automatic donation retry and donation checker. OnlineGiving.org's internal ChMS monitoring has found an uptick over the last few months in lowered MinistryPlatform API availability, resulting in more MP donations needing to be resubmitted due to intermittent upstream MP server issues outside the realm of OnlineGiving.org control.
It's important to note that all OnlineGiving.org ChMS integrations, including MinistryPlatform, are designed to record using our advanced background queuing technology designed to automatically retry MP recordings when they fail upstream with an incremental delay. If the external ChMS API fails to record a record, that recording is automatically queued again for retry and for up to 12 hours with an increasing delay between retries.
However, even with this retry scenario, scenarios can exist in which the external MP server has extended low availability, and the recording is left for manual review (after multiple automatic retries) and resubmission via the OnlineGiving.org control panel. Fortunately, the OnlineGiving.org control panel makes this process easy by clicking an "MP Pending" filter and then clicking a single button to bulk resubmit any transactions pending recording.
This update combats this additional upstream low availability by adding an additional automatic retry and checking process to OnlineGiving.org MinistryPlatform integration. Moving forward, OnlineGiving.org will automatically queue any MP donation or payment completed in the previous two days for recording checking. This new layer allows all MP transactions (donations or payments) completed from within OnlineGiving.org to be checked and double-checked on a rolling 2-day basis.
We hope our church administrators will find this new process helps aid in reducing the number of MP recordings that need manual resubmission due to repeat upstream low availability of MP servers.
Please note the church requires no action to take advantage of this feature as it's now enabled by default for all OnlineGiving.org MinistryPlatform customers.
Related FAQ:
Do we need to reach out to MP support for any reason regarding this feature?
No, it's important to note this update does not imply a bug in MinistryPlatform causing low availability. MP Server's low availability can be caused by many different reasons, such as low resources, firewall blocking, confirmation adjustments, and much more. We are not implying there is any need to reach out to MP.
Why does OnlineGiving.org use a push model for recording ChMS records?
OnlineGiving.org uses a cutting-edge push model of recording, which allows our platform to queue and monitor record recording into external systems. This is useful as it allows the integration to live in a centralized platform which makes it easy for enhancements and maintenance. The push model also allows for OnlineGiving.org to retro-push transaction history into the external systems should those external systems have a gap in data due to outages, attacks, or point-in-time recoveries. Unlike other giving vendors, OnlineGiving.org can save the day by having an external archive that has the ability to push in transaction history on an ongoing and retro-active timeline giving peace of mind to church finance teams.
UPDATE OnlineGiving.org > MinistryPlatform > MP Payment Receipts > Invoice Totals Removed
An update is now live that removes the MP Invoice Totals from the Invoice summary on the successful MP payments email receipt. A scenario existed in which an MP server may not have yet recorded payment against an invoice before OnlineGiving.org sends the MP invoice receipt causing the invoice totals (balance due, etc.) to be not up to date. Since the exact timing of the MP Payment recording is outside of OnlineGiving.org's control, we have removed the total invoice information from the bottom of the MP Payment email receipt to avoid any further confusion to end users.