Knowledge Base

With the RescueGroups.org Web Site, Data Management, Voice Mail, and other services (other than the Pet Adoption Portal which is completely free!) you can find your invoices by going to Services > RescueGroups.org > Accounting/Invoices.  You can view/print your invoice, or email it to someone so they can print it themselves.

We accept two forms of payment: Check and PayPal.  If you'd like to pay by credit card you can do so by using PayPal.

To view your invoices, follow the appropriate instructions depending on which RescueGroups.org service you are using:

To view and pay your invoices using the Manage interface:

• Go to https://manage.rescuegroups.org
• Login using your RescueGroups.org user name and password
• Go to Services > Account Administration in the menu
• Click the Invoices link
• Click the PayPal button to add your balance to your cart
• Checkout using PayPal

To view your invoices using your RescueGroups.org Website:

• Go to your RescueGroups.org website
• Click My Rescue or Login
• Login using your RescueGroups.org user name and password
• Click Services > RescueGroups.org > Accounting/Invoices
• Click the PayPal button to add your balance to your cart
• Checkout using PayPal

To view your invoices using your RescueGroups.org Data Management or Voice Mail services, use the instructions for the Manage interface above.

Often times, when pasting in your animal descriptions from outside sources, such as emails, Microsoft Word, or others, formatting can be pasted in along with the text of the descriptions.  This can be frustrating to deal with or even cause unexpected results when viewing you animals on the pet adoption listing sites or even your own website.

There are a couple tools built into the Animal Description Editor that may prevent this or help "clean" you descriptions up for you.

If pasting in your descriptions from an outside source, such as an email or Microsoft Word, and you would like to preserve as much formatting as possible,  you could try the "Paste in from Word" tool built into the description editor.  The "Paste in from Word" button is on the editor's toolbar, and looks like a briefcase with a W on it. 
That should remove most of the unwanted formatting or code while leaving the basic formatting in tact.

If that doesn't resolve your issues or if you do not want formatting at all, use the "Paste in as Plain Text" button the editor's toolbar to paste it in with NO formatting, (it looks like a brief case with a T on it).

If you have pets added that have unwanted formatting or code in their descriptions and want to get rid of it, follow the following steps:

Edit the pet.
In the description editor, click the Select All button on the editor's toolbar, (it looks like the letter "a" with lines behind it).
Right click the selected text and click Copy, or press CTRL-C to copy the selected text.
Click the Paste as Plain Text button on the editor's toolbar.
In the Paste as Plain Text dialog that pops up, paste in the copied text.
Click Insert at the bottom of the Paste as Plain Text dialog to overwrite the selected text with the plain text.
Save the pet.

If you still have problems with your animals' descriptions or need help, don't forget you can open a support ticket: http://www.rescuegroups.org/support

There is a new feature on the Management Interface, http://manage.rescuegroups.org, that you can use to export your data to a CSV file.

You can do this from any "datatable".  In this example, we will reference your Animals List.

To do this, go to Animals > Animals List in the menu.
Then click on the datatable icon next to Views.
Name your view and select the fields you would like to appear in this view.  You can use the up/down gray arrows to reorder the fields. 
Save the view.

You can now bring up this view whenever you would like.

Once you load your view, in the Options drop down on the right, you can choose to export this view to CSV.

Here is some more information on views.
http://www.rescuegroups.org/userguide/views

If you are using the new Management Interface:

To assign a role to an existing user login account go to:
Contacts >User Login Accounts
Find the contact/user login account in your list of users.
Click on their User Name to view the User Login Account.
Click the Roles link at the top of the page.
From there, you can add/remove security roles for that user.

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If you are using the Website Service or Data Management Service Interfaces:

Go to Contacts > Contacts Admin in the admin menu.
Find the contact in your list and click their name to go to the Contact's page.
On the Contact's page, under Web Site Permissions, you can add/remove security roles for that user.

From the Management Interface

Click My Settings in the upper right corner.
Click Username & Password at the top of the User Options page.
Enter your new username if you would like to change it.
Enter your current password and new password to change your password.
Click Save Settings.

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From the Pet Adoption Portal

Click on User Account Info on the menu.

To change your username, enter a new username.
Click Change Username.

To change your password, enter your current password and a new password.
Click Save New Password.

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From the Website Interface

Go to the My Rescue page.  (You should be taken there when you log in.  If already logged in and there is no My Rescue link in your site's menu, go to <<your website>>/myrescue/).

To change your username, click Username at the top of the page.
Enter you new username.
Click Change Username.

To change your password, click Password at the top of the page.
Enter your current password and new password.
Click Change Password.

If you can't find a specific pet in your adoptable pet list on one of the adoption listing websites you may want to check the following:

• Is the animal marked as a courtesy listing?  If so, have you disabled courtesy listing exports?
• If the pet is missing from Petfinder, Pets 911 or Adopt-a-Pet.com, is the account for that website selected for the animal?

We will ask during the Setup Wizard for the specific information we need to enable all of your adoption listing web site uploads.

If you do not already have an account with Petfinder or Adopt-a-Pet.com, you need to sign-up with them before we can start to upload to them, and before you can start to use the Petfinder Sync App.

We do NOT need your Adopt-a-Pet.com account information and we would prefer if you did not send us any auto-upload information from Adopt-a-Pet.com because it may cause confusion.

If you already have an account with them we will find it and configure it correctly.  A duplicate account will not be created.

Each of the adoption listing web sites take different amounts of time to update.  Here's what we have noticed:

Petfinder: 30-60 minutes average for the animals and pictures to appear in the admin pet list.  Up to 24 hours for pictures to be visible to the public.*

Adopt-a-Pet.com: 2-3 hours average for animal data and picture updates

Pets 911: 1 hour average for animal data and picture updates

* Please note that the delays with Petfinder are equivalent to what you would experience when updating Petfinder manually.  Also, at times Petfinder caches old information on the public web page which may appear to delay the updates.  Be sure to refresh the pet list to view the latest pet information and pictures, and to use the pet list troubleshooter here on this support web site if you are experiencing any issues.

No, you don't need to do anything to cause your animals to be updated on the adoption listing web sites.  When you add or edit a pet the update will happen automatically.

Petfinder does not give us the capability to upload "contacts" for pets on Petfinder.  Therefore, all pets on Petfinder will show the main contact information.

We don't add pets from Petfinder or from your web site.  You must add animals directly on your RescueGroups.org web site in order for them to be added on the adoption listing web sites.  We do offer to add your animals for you during your initial setup, however we do not add animals for you on an ongoing basis.

Locations and caregivers are two separate functions.

You can use the Locations link to set up the location. Then for each pet you want identified with that location, go to the pet's Portal listing and select the correct location from the dropdown menu for that field. Please note that Petfinder and Adoptapet.com DO NOT accept zip code/location data from us.

To get a contact person's info to show up above a pet's description: Make sure your foster caregiver is listed under Volunteers, with at least the first 2 boxes checked for that person's listing (Fosters Animals and Contact Info is Public). Then visit your Options page and pick which fields you want to be public for your contacts.  Finally, edit the pets' listings on the Portal to reflect that Foster/Caretaker.

When you first start with your RescueGroups.org web site you must enable the species that you support.  Go to the Animals > Options > General Options page and enable each of the species that you will be adding to your web site.

For some fields, like the animal description, you may want to perform a spell check.

The easiest way to do this is with a spell checker installed on your computer. There are several spell checkers that are available for free.

One example is ieSpell. You can read about ieSpell and download it here:

http://www.iespell.com/

Once ieSpell is installed on your computer, you can click the spell check button (looks like "abc" with a checkmark) to spell check the description you have entered.

Some web browsers, like FireFox, support spell check right out of the box.  We would recommend that you use FireFox.  FireFox is completely supported by our services.

http://mozilla.com

If you need to remove a volunteer from your service you can do so yourself by going to the Volunteers link on the Portal or Contacts on the Data Management or Web Site service.

However, if you need to remove the only person with administrative permissions to your service, you will need to submit a Change of Authority letter.

Change of Authority is a simple letter to RescueGroups.org requesting that we make a change to the Responsible Party for your organization's account. The Responsible Party will initially be the person or persons who requested that the site be created (completed the Sign Up Form).

Please E-mail this letter to info@RescueGroups.org as an attachment to request this change AND you MUST send the letter via postal mail on organization letterhead for the change to be considered permanent.

Include the following:

Current Responsible Party
New Responsible Party
Reason for Change
Contact Information for the Organization and Responsible Party

Our address is:
RescueGroups.org
P.O. Box 1245
Bowie, MD 20718-1245

The first step to updating your organization's contact information is to update your information in your RescueGroups.org service.

If you are using the Pet Adoption Portal:

Go to Portal Setup and click Edit Contact Information

If you are using the RescueGroups.org Web Site or Data Management Service:

Go to Services > Organization Contact Info

Next, you'll need to update your organization's contact information on Pets 911, Adopt-a-Pet.com and/or Petfinder.  To do that, login directly to those sites.  If you do not have your login account information for those sites, you should contact them directly.

You can find Adopt-a-Pet.com's contact information here: http://www.adoptapet.com/public/contact_us/index.html

Pets 911's information can be found here: http://www.pets911.com/contact-pets-911

The other adoption listing web sites (DogTime.com, PetBond.com, etc) receive your contact information through either our API service, or through one of the other adoption listing web sites.

If you have a new volunteer or staff member you might want to give them access to your RescueGroups.org service.

If you are using the new Management Interface:

If a Contact Record doesn't exist for the volunteer, Go to Contacts > Add a Contact
Enter the person's basic contact information including email address
Click Save Contact.

Once a Contact exists, go to Contacts > Contacts Home.
In your list of contacts, click the Contact's name to go to view their details.
On the Contact's page, click the User Login Accounts link at the top of the page.
Click the Add icon on the list of User Login Accounts for that contact.

On the user registration page, verify that the contact information is correct.

Enter a Username.
Select Volunteer for Registration Type.
Click Register User.

Once complete, the contact will receive an email notification of their registration with their username and a temporary password.

You will be taken to the User Login Account page for that user.
Click the Roles link at the top of the page to add the appropriate security roles for that user.

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If you are using the Pet Adoption Portal:

Go to Volunteers
Click Add a Volunteer
Enter the person's information
Select Grant Access to the Portal
Enter a user name
Click Add Volunteer

The new staff/volunteer will receive an email with their user name and password, and when they login they will be able to manage your pet list on the Portal.

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If you are using the Website Service Interface:

If the contact doesn't exist, Go to Contacts > Add a Contact
Enter the person's basic contact information including email address
Click Save Contact
On the Contact's page, under Web Site Permissions, click the Register link.
On the user registration page, verify that the contact information is correct.
Enter a username.
Click Register User.
Once complete, the contact will receive an email notification of their registration with their user name and password
Then, on the Contact's page, add the appropriate roles under Web Site Permissions

If registering an existing contact, find the contact in your mail contact list.
Click on the contact's name to view their details.
On the Contact's page, under Web Site Permissions, click the Register link.
On the user registration page, verify that the contact information is correct.
Enter a username.
Click Register User.
Once complete, the contact will receive an email notification of their registration with their user name and password
Then, on the Contact's page, add the appropriate roles under Web Site Permissions

Be sure that you are entering the user name and password exactly as they appear in your password email.  The password is case sensitive, which means you need to enter it using the same capitalization as is used in the email you received.  If you recently reset your password make sure you are using the correct password to login.  Once you reset your password you previous password will no longer work.

Although we don't have a demo service for you to use, we'd be happy to walk you through a demo at your convenience.  Please contact us through our web site to schedule a demo.

http://www.rescuegroups.org/contact

We do provide a 3-month trial for our Data Management and Web Site services.  The Pet Adoption Portal is completely free.  Our other services, including Voice Mail, Email and Domain Name services do not include a free trial.

Your trial will begin when your account is created.  You can cancel at any time during the trial.

Each pet can have up to 4 pictures on the Pet Adoption Portal.  You can select pictures to upload when you are adding or editing a pet.

When uploading a picture, be sure it is in JPG format.  You can tell if it is a JPG by looking at the file extension (the filename).  It should end in “.JPG.”  If it's not in JPG format our system will convert it to JPG for you.

Most digital cameras save the image as a JPG, although you may need to read your camera’s owner’s manual to be sure it is configured correctly.

If the picture is not a JPG (perhaps it’s a GIF or BMP), you can edit the image and save it as one of the formats we accept.  Here are instructions on how to do this in Windows:

1. Right click on the photo and choose Edit (the picture should open in Microsoft Paint).
2. Under File, choose Save As.
3. Change type to Jpeg or Jpg.
4. Click Save.
5. Upload the new Jpeg or Jpg image to the Portal.

RescueGroups.org Sponsorship service is available to qualified organizations.  All applications are approved by the RescueGroups.org Board of Directors.  Only organizations who truly cannot afford the service fee ($100/year for Web Site, $75/year for Data Management) will be approved.

Minimum requirements:

•  Non-profit 501(c)(3)
•  Low income

If you are in the process of receiving your 501(c)(3) exempt status, you can include a copy of the application in place of the determination letter requested on the Sponsorship application.

You can find the Sponsorship application in the Downloads section of the RescueGroups.org website.

As explained on the application, the following documents are required: 501(c)(3) determination letter, financial summary, most recent 990ez, list of organization principals, vet reference information, brief organization and mission summary.

See section 7.2 of the Pet Adoption Portal User Guide for more information on the Send to Accounts field.

The Send to Accounts section of an animal will list all of your export accounts.  You can select which accounts should receive the current animal information.  If you unselect one of the accounts, the animal will be removed from that account.

In addition to enabling Sponsorships under Animals > Options > General Options, you also need to enable the "Allow Sponsorships" option for each animal.  Once you enable that option on the animal they will appear in the Animal drop down on the Add a Sponsorship page.

Depending on the Status of the animal (available, adopted, hold, pending, etc) you may need to change your pet list to include that status.  By default, only your available pets are listed.  You can change your pet list by selecting one of the statuses in the Show drop down and clicking Go!

The RescueGroups.org Web Site and Data Management services include a Do Not Adopt (DNA) list.  Each organization can mark Contacts as Do Not Adopt, and optionally share their DNA list.

To mark a Contact as Do Not Adopt, edit the contact by going to Contacts > Contact Admin.  Find the contact in the list and edit that contact.  Select the checkbox for Do Not Adopt and save the contact.

If you would like to share your organization's DNA list with other RescueGroups.org organizations, go to Feature Options (Features > Feature Options) and enable the option, "Share your organization's Do Not Adopt list (from Contacts)."

If you find that your drop downs are no longer working you should check to be sure that you haven't enable (or recently installed) any software that would block JavaScript.  Programs like Norton or McAfee Internet Security can be configured to block JavaScript, and that would prevent the drop down boxes from populating correctly.

Yes!  Of course we are, because that's in the best interest of the adoptable animals.  We are constantly contacting new organizations and web sites to see if they would like to accept animal data from us.  If you know of a web site that would benefit from our adoptable pet listings, please contact us, and we'll contact them.  It wouldn't hurt if you emailed them to let them know about us as well!

How are videos handled by the Pet Adoption Portal service and the RescueGroups.org Web Site and Data Management services?

The RescueGroups.org services handle two methods of adding videos to your animals:

Option #1: Upload a video directly to RescueGroups.org

If you upload a video file directly to your RescueGroups.org service we are able to store the file and upload it to other services as necessary.  We will upload the video for you to YouTube because some of the adoption listing web sites (Adopt-a-Pet.com specifically) supports only YouTube video URLs.

The following video formats are supported for upload to RescueGroups.org: .MPG/.MPEG, .3GP, .AVI, .MOV

Option #2: Add a video URL from YouTube to the animal

If you upload the video to YouTube and then add the video URL to the animal the YouTube URL will be uploaded to Adopt-a-Pet.com and embedded in the animal's description for all other adoption listing web sites.  A YouTube URL will NOT trigger the pet's video icon on Petfinder.

To find an inactive or deleted contact in Contacts Admin you can enable the option to display inactive contacts in the list.  That option is in Feature Options (Features > Options).  Once you enable that option you'll see your inactive contacts in the contacts list and you can edit them like any other contact.  You'll notice that inactive contacts have a (i) next to their name.

The email concerning verifying your contact information is sent out by our domain name vendor.  If the information is correct, you can delete the email.  If any of the information has changed, please open a support ticket and we will update the domain name contact information for you.

If you need to change any information in the domain name registration like email address, mailing address or phone number, please open a support ticket with RescueGroups.org support.  We will update the domain name registration for you.

You may realize that the domain name has old contact information if you receive an email from our domain name vendor with the subject "Reminder to verify the accuracy of Whois data for (domain name)."

To transfer a domain name you already own with another registrar to RescueGroups.org:

1. Verify that it has been more than 60 days since you registered or last transferred the domain name.  A domain name can not be transferred within 60 days of registration or its last transfer.

2. Verify that the domain is unlocked (secure mode is disabled).  This is typically represented by Status: OK in the domain name's whois information.

3. Verify that privacy is disabled on the domain (email address in step #4 should be a real person's address).

4. Verify that you have access to the email address specified in the "Admin Email" portion of the domain registration. You can find this information by using a whois tool like Allwhois.com.  If you do not have access to the email account, you should either contact someone who does (and will forward emails received to you) or change the email on the domain name.

5. Verify that you have the correct domain transfer authorization code.

Each domain name registrar has a different way to retrieve the Transfer Authorization Code.  Here's a web page that describes how to get the code from some of the most common registrars.

Once you have verified and collected the information from the above steps, go to Services > Domain Names and click Transfer a Domain Name.

Please contact us if you need help with the transfer.

To make your existing domain name work with your RescueGroups.org web site you have two options:

1. Transfer the domain name to RescueGroups.org

Please refer to the knowledge base article about transferring domain names to RescueGroups.org.  We strongly recommend that you transfer your domain name to us for the following reasons:

A. One fewer bill to worry about.  We invoice the domain name service on the same invoice as your other services.

B. We are able to handle the technical aspects of the domain name.  Otherwise, we need to contact you if anything needs to change in the domain name.

2. Update the domain name to use the RescueGroups.org name servers

If you want to leave the domain name registered where it is, you can simple update the name servers on the domain name.  If you chose this option, do the following:

A. Add the domain name on the Services > Domain Names page.

B. Update the name servers on the domain name to the following:

dns1.rescuegroups.org
dns2.rescuegroups.org

C. Wait 24 hours for complete propagation of the new settings and for your domain name to start pointing to your RescueGroups.org web site.

If you need help updating or transferring your domain name please contact us.

Yes, you can.  The email client setup information is on the Services > Email Services > Email Mailboxes page.  The configuration is different for each organization, but is typically mail.domainname.com (like mail.animalfriends.org).  The POP and IMAP ports are default (110 and 143 respectively).

Also, for outgoing email, you'll need to use SMTP on either port 25 or 2525.  You'll need to enable SMTP authentication, and use your regular email account user name and password (the same one you use for incoming).

By default, RoundCube marks a message for deletion rather than just deleting the message. It will also do this when you move a message, (creates a copy of the message where you move it and marks the original for deletion.)

So you will see below the folder list on the left, if you click on Inbox for example, a "Compact" link. Clicking that will actually "purge" or permanently delete the messages marked for deletion or moved.

When in the trash folder, there is also an empty link that will permanently delete the messages from Trash.

If you want to change this default behavior,

• click the "Personal Settings" link in the top right corner. 
• Under "Server Settings", uncheck the box, "Flag the message for deletion instead of delete".
• Click "Save" in the bottom left. 

Now when you delete a message, it will be deleted for good.

Although we don't have a demo service for you to use, we'd be happy to walk you through a demo at your convenience.  Please contact us through our web site to schedule a demo.

http://www.rescuegroups.org/contact

We do provide a 3-month trial for our Data Management and Web Site services.  The Pet Adoption Portal is completely free.  Our other services, including Voice Mail, Email and Domain Name services do not include a free trial.

Your trial will begin when your account is created.  You can cancel at any time during the trial.

Question: How long does the entire Portal setup process take?

It can take as little as a few hours; on the average it takes a few days.  Getting set up on the Portal is an interactive process with you, the rescue.  The Setup Wizard makes setup fast and easy, so you can be up and running the same day.  Doing so does require that you respond in a timely manner to our email requests, such as when we ask you to verify that your pet list looks correct on the Portal.  We cannot enable your automatic updates until you verify your pet list.

Question: In the Setup Wizard you ask from where to add my animals to the Portal pet list.  What does this mean?
 
You can add your pets to the Portal yourself if you wish, and let us know when you finish.  Or, we are happy to add your pets to the Portal for you, from some existing pet list anywhere on the internet.  This is for the initial setup of your account only.  Please note that once your account is set up on the Portal, you are responsible for updating your Portal pet list.  In turn, the Portal updates the pet adoption web sites for you.

Question: Do I need to already have accounts with the adoption listing websites when I start using the Portal?

The only adoption listing websites that currently require you to sign-up with them directly are Adopt-a-Pet.com and Petfinder.  Please register your organization directly with those two websites.  All of the other adoption listing websites will be configured for you without any additional action on your part.

Question: I already have accounts on the other sites -- will I now have two accounts?

No, when we set up your automatic updates, we will match up your Portal account and your existing account on the other sites.

Question: Will you be asking me for any additional information to set up accounts with PETS911.com or Adopt-a-Pet.com?

No.  We do not need any additional information from you to set up the automatic updates.  Even if you already have accounts with them, you do not need to give us your existing account information.

Question: How long does it take after I verify my Portal pet list for the pet adoption web sites to have my listings from the Portal?

It generally takes about 2-3 business days for all the accounts to get completely set up and running.  There is nothing additional you need to do to make this happen.

Question: What sites do you update, and can I choose from those?

Here is a link to the sites we update:  https://www.rescuegroups.org/adoptionwebsites  And yes, you can absolutely opt-out of any sites you wish.

Question: When I make a change to my pet list after my account is completely set up, is there anything extra I need to do to update the other sites?

No, the other sites will be updated automatically after you make a change to your pet list (once everything is setup).  All you need to do is update the Portal pet list!

Question: When you enable the automatic updates, will my pets change on the other sites?

That depends upon if your existing pet lists on the other sites are complete and up to date.  When we enable your automatic updates, the pet lists on the pet adoption web sites will match what you have on the Portal (within the restrictions of what data each web site accepts).  Assuming your Portal pet list is the same as the other sites, the public won't notice a difference in your pet list.  However, since the animal ID numbers will change on the other sites, any links to those animals will no longer work.

Question: Will my pets appear the same to the public after my automatic updates are enabled?

The public will not be able to tell that your animals have been updated by the Portal instead of being added manually.  However, there are a couple things that may work a little differently than expected, including: The pet list may appear to the public in a different order, and currently, Pets911.com lists only one photo from each adoptable pet listed on the Portal.

We will ask during the Setup Wizard for the specific information we need to enable all of your adoption listing web site uploads.

If you do not already have an account with Petfinder or Adopt-a-Pet.com, you need to sign-up with them before we can start to upload to them, and before you can start to use the Petfinder Sync App.

We do NOT need your Adopt-a-Pet.com account information and we would prefer if you did not send us any auto-upload information from Adopt-a-Pet.com because it may cause confusion.

If you already have an account with them we will find it and configure it correctly.  A duplicate account will not be created.

Before we will enable the uploads for Petfinder, Adopt-a-Pet.com or Pets 911 you must first verify that your pet list on the Pet Adoption Portal is accurate and correct.  We do this so that you will not lose any information.  When we enable the uploads to the other sites there is a possibility that the pet listings on the other sites will be removed and replaced with the listings from the Pet Adoption Portal.  That's why it's critical that the most accurate and complete information be on the Portal.

To verify your pet list, click Pet List on the menu.  Change the list to view All animals (Active and Adopted) and visually review each animal to be sure it is accurate.  If ALL of the information is correct, all animals are listed, and the descriptions were added correctly, go to the Setup page and click the link to Verify your pet list.

No, you don't need to do anything to cause your animals to be updated on the adoption listing web sites.  When you add or edit a pet the update will happen automatically.

From the Management Interface

Click My Settings in the upper right corner.
Click Username & Password at the top of the User Options page.
Enter your new username if you would like to change it.
Enter your current password and new password to change your password.
Click Save Settings.

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From the Pet Adoption Portal

Click on User Account Info on the menu.

To change your username, enter a new username.
Click Change Username.

To change your password, enter your current password and a new password.
Click Save New Password.

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From the Website Interface

Go to the My Rescue page.  (You should be taken there when you log in.  If already logged in and there is no My Rescue link in your site's menu, go to <<your website>>/myrescue/).

To change your username, click Username at the top of the page.
Enter you new username.
Click Change Username.

To change your password, click Password at the top of the page.
Enter your current password and new password.
Click Change Password.

Be sure that you are entering the user name and password exactly as they appear in your password email.  The password is case sensitive, which means you need to enter it using the same capitalization as is used in the email you received.  If you recently reset your password make sure you are using the correct password to login.  Once you reset your password you previous password will no longer work.

If you have a new volunteer or staff member you might want to give them access to your RescueGroups.org service.

If you are using the new Management Interface:

If a Contact Record doesn't exist for the volunteer, Go to Contacts > Add a Contact
Enter the person's basic contact information including email address
Click Save Contact.

Once a Contact exists, go to Contacts > Contacts Home.
In your list of contacts, click the Contact's name to go to view their details.
On the Contact's page, click the User Login Accounts link at the top of the page.
Click the Add icon on the list of User Login Accounts for that contact.

On the user registration page, verify that the contact information is correct.

Enter a Username.
Select Volunteer for Registration Type.
Click Register User.

Once complete, the contact will receive an email notification of their registration with their username and a temporary password.

You will be taken to the User Login Account page for that user.
Click the Roles link at the top of the page to add the appropriate security roles for that user.

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If you are using the Pet Adoption Portal:

Go to Volunteers
Click Add a Volunteer
Enter the person's information
Select Grant Access to the Portal
Enter a user name
Click Add Volunteer

The new staff/volunteer will receive an email with their user name and password, and when they login they will be able to manage your pet list on the Portal.

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If you are using the Website Service Interface:

If the contact doesn't exist, Go to Contacts > Add a Contact
Enter the person's basic contact information including email address
Click Save Contact
On the Contact's page, under Web Site Permissions, click the Register link.
On the user registration page, verify that the contact information is correct.
Enter a username.
Click Register User.
Once complete, the contact will receive an email notification of their registration with their user name and password
Then, on the Contact's page, add the appropriate roles under Web Site Permissions

If registering an existing contact, find the contact in your mail contact list.
Click on the contact's name to view their details.
On the Contact's page, under Web Site Permissions, click the Register link.
On the user registration page, verify that the contact information is correct.
Enter a username.
Click Register User.
Once complete, the contact will receive an email notification of their registration with their user name and password
Then, on the Contact's page, add the appropriate roles under Web Site Permissions

If you are using the new Management Interface:

To assign a role to an existing user login account go to:
Contacts >User Login Accounts
Find the contact/user login account in your list of users.
Click on their User Name to view the User Login Account.
Click the Roles link at the top of the page.
From there, you can add/remove security roles for that user.

------------------------------

If you are using the Website Service or Data Management Service Interfaces:

Go to Contacts > Contacts Admin in the admin menu.
Find the contact in your list and click their name to go to the Contact's page.
On the Contact's page, under Web Site Permissions, you can add/remove security roles for that user.

If you need to remove a volunteer from your service you can do so yourself by going to the Volunteers link on the Portal or Contacts on the Data Management or Web Site service.

However, if you need to remove the only person with administrative permissions to your service, you will need to submit a Change of Authority letter.

Change of Authority is a simple letter to RescueGroups.org requesting that we make a change to the Responsible Party for your organization's account. The Responsible Party will initially be the person or persons who requested that the site be created (completed the Sign Up Form).

Please E-mail this letter to info@RescueGroups.org as an attachment to request this change AND you MUST send the letter via postal mail on organization letterhead for the change to be considered permanent.

Include the following:

Current Responsible Party
New Responsible Party
Reason for Change
Contact Information for the Organization and Responsible Party

Our address is:
RescueGroups.org
P.O. Box 1245
Bowie, MD 20718-1245

Locations and caregivers are two separate functions.

You can use the Locations link to set up the location. Then for each pet you want identified with that location, go to the pet's Portal listing and select the correct location from the dropdown menu for that field. Please note that Petfinder and Adoptapet.com DO NOT accept zip code/location data from us.

To get a contact person's info to show up above a pet's description: Make sure your foster caregiver is listed under Volunteers, with at least the first 2 boxes checked for that person's listing (Fosters Animals and Contact Info is Public). Then visit your Options page and pick which fields you want to be public for your contacts.  Finally, edit the pets' listings on the Portal to reflect that Foster/Caretaker.

Each of the adoption listing web sites take different amounts of time to update.  Here's what we have noticed:

Petfinder: 30-60 minutes average for the animals and pictures to appear in the admin pet list.  Up to 24 hours for pictures to be visible to the public.*

Adopt-a-Pet.com: 2-3 hours average for animal data and picture updates

Pets 911: 1 hour average for animal data and picture updates

* Please note that the delays with Petfinder are equivalent to what you would experience when updating Petfinder manually.  Also, at times Petfinder caches old information on the public web page which may appear to delay the updates.  Be sure to refresh the pet list to view the latest pet information and pictures, and to use the pet list troubleshooter here on this support web site if you are experiencing any issues.

If you find that your drop downs are no longer working you should check to be sure that you haven't enable (or recently installed) any software that would block JavaScript.  Programs like Norton or McAfee Internet Security can be configured to block JavaScript, and that would prevent the drop down boxes from populating correctly.

We don't add pets from Petfinder or from your web site.  You must add animals directly on your RescueGroups.org web site in order for them to be added on the adoption listing web sites.  We do offer to add your animals for you during your initial setup, however we do not add animals for you on an ongoing basis.

If you can't find a specific pet in your adoptable pet list on one of the adoption listing websites you may want to check the following:

• Is the animal marked as a courtesy listing?  If so, have you disabled courtesy listing exports?
• If the pet is missing from Petfinder, Pets 911 or Adopt-a-Pet.com, is the account for that website selected for the animal?

Each pet can have up to 4 pictures on the Pet Adoption Portal.  You can select pictures to upload when you are adding or editing a pet.

When uploading a picture, be sure it is in JPG format.  You can tell if it is a JPG by looking at the file extension (the filename).  It should end in “.JPG.”  If it's not in JPG format our system will convert it to JPG for you.

Most digital cameras save the image as a JPG, although you may need to read your camera’s owner’s manual to be sure it is configured correctly.

If the picture is not a JPG (perhaps it’s a GIF or BMP), you can edit the image and save it as one of the formats we accept.  Here are instructions on how to do this in Windows:

1. Right click on the photo and choose Edit (the picture should open in Microsoft Paint).
2. Under File, choose Save As.
3. Change type to Jpeg or Jpg.
4. Click Save.
5. Upload the new Jpeg or Jpg image to the Portal.

How are videos handled by the Pet Adoption Portal service and the RescueGroups.org Web Site and Data Management services?

The RescueGroups.org services handle two methods of adding videos to your animals:

Option #1: Upload a video directly to RescueGroups.org

If you upload a video file directly to your RescueGroups.org service we are able to store the file and upload it to other services as necessary.  We will upload the video for you to YouTube because some of the adoption listing web sites (Adopt-a-Pet.com specifically) supports only YouTube video URLs.

The following video formats are supported for upload to RescueGroups.org: .MPG/.MPEG, .3GP, .AVI, .MOV

Option #2: Add a video URL from YouTube to the animal

If you upload the video to YouTube and then add the video URL to the animal the YouTube URL will be uploaded to Adopt-a-Pet.com and embedded in the animal's description for all other adoption listing web sites.  A YouTube URL will NOT trigger the pet's video icon on Petfinder.

See section 7.2 of the Pet Adoption Portal User Guide for more information on the Send to Accounts field.

The Send to Accounts section of an animal will list all of your export accounts.  You can select which accounts should receive the current animal information.  If you unselect one of the accounts, the animal will be removed from that account.

Often times, when pasting in your animal descriptions from outside sources, such as emails, Microsoft Word, or others, formatting can be pasted in along with the text of the descriptions.  This can be frustrating to deal with or even cause unexpected results when viewing you animals on the pet adoption listing sites or even your own website.

There are a couple tools built into the Animal Description Editor that may prevent this or help "clean" you descriptions up for you.

If pasting in your descriptions from an outside source, such as an email or Microsoft Word, and you would like to preserve as much formatting as possible,  you could try the "Paste in from Word" tool built into the description editor.  The "Paste in from Word" button is on the editor's toolbar, and looks like a briefcase with a W on it. 
That should remove most of the unwanted formatting or code while leaving the basic formatting in tact.

If that doesn't resolve your issues or if you do not want formatting at all, use the "Paste in as Plain Text" button the editor's toolbar to paste it in with NO formatting, (it looks like a brief case with a T on it).

If you have pets added that have unwanted formatting or code in their descriptions and want to get rid of it, follow the following steps:

Edit the pet.
In the description editor, click the Select All button on the editor's toolbar, (it looks like the letter "a" with lines behind it).
Right click the selected text and click Copy, or press CTRL-C to copy the selected text.
Click the Paste as Plain Text button on the editor's toolbar.
In the Paste as Plain Text dialog that pops up, paste in the copied text.
Click Insert at the bottom of the Paste as Plain Text dialog to overwrite the selected text with the plain text.
Save the pet.

If you still have problems with your animals' descriptions or need help, don't forget you can open a support ticket: http://www.rescuegroups.org/support

There is a new feature on the Management Interface, http://manage.rescuegroups.org, that you can use to export your data to a CSV file.

You can do this from any "datatable".  In this example, we will reference your Animals List.

To do this, go to Animals > Animals List in the menu.
Then click on the datatable icon next to Views.
Name your view and select the fields you would like to appear in this view.  You can use the up/down gray arrows to reorder the fields. 
Save the view.

You can now bring up this view whenever you would like.

Once you load your view, in the Options drop down on the right, you can choose to export this view to CSV.

Here is some more information on views.
http://www.rescuegroups.org/userguide/views

Petfinder does not give us the capability to upload "contacts" for pets on Petfinder.  Therefore, all pets on Petfinder will show the main contact information.

When you first start with your RescueGroups.org web site you must enable the species that you support.  Go to the Animals > Options > General Options page and enable each of the species that you will be adding to your web site.

For some fields, like the animal description, you may want to perform a spell check.

The easiest way to do this is with a spell checker installed on your computer. There are several spell checkers that are available for free.

One example is ieSpell. You can read about ieSpell and download it here:

http://www.iespell.com/

Once ieSpell is installed on your computer, you can click the spell check button (looks like "abc" with a checkmark) to spell check the description you have entered.

Some web browsers, like FireFox, support spell check right out of the box.  We would recommend that you use FireFox.  FireFox is completely supported by our services.

http://mozilla.com

The first step to updating your organization's contact information is to update your information in your RescueGroups.org service.

If you are using the Pet Adoption Portal:

Go to Portal Setup and click Edit Contact Information

If you are using the RescueGroups.org Web Site or Data Management Service:

Go to Services > Organization Contact Info

Next, you'll need to update your organization's contact information on Pets 911, Adopt-a-Pet.com and/or Petfinder.  To do that, login directly to those sites.  If you do not have your login account information for those sites, you should contact them directly.

You can find Adopt-a-Pet.com's contact information here: http://www.adoptapet.com/public/contact_us/index.html

Pets 911's information can be found here: http://www.pets911.com/contact-pets-911

The other adoption listing web sites (DogTime.com, PetBond.com, etc) receive your contact information through either our API service, or through one of the other adoption listing web sites.

Depending on the Status of the animal (available, adopted, hold, pending, etc) you may need to change your pet list to include that status.  By default, only your available pets are listed.  You can change your pet list by selecting one of the statuses in the Show drop down and clicking Go!

Yes!  Of course we are, because that's in the best interest of the adoptable animals.  We are constantly contacting new organizations and web sites to see if they would like to accept animal data from us.  If you know of a web site that would benefit from our adoptable pet listings, please contact us, and we'll contact them.  It wouldn't hurt if you emailed them to let them know about us as well!

Often times, when pasting in your animal descriptions from outside sources, such as emails, Microsoft Word, or others, formatting can be pasted in along with the text of the descriptions.  This can be frustrating to deal with or even cause unexpected results when viewing you animals on the pet adoption listing sites or even your own website.

There are a couple tools built into the Animal Description Editor that may prevent this or help "clean" you descriptions up for you.

If pasting in your descriptions from an outside source, such as an email or Microsoft Word, and you would like to preserve as much formatting as possible,  you could try the "Paste in from Word" tool built into the description editor.  The "Paste in from Word" button is on the editor's toolbar, and looks like a briefcase with a W on it. 
That should remove most of the unwanted formatting or code while leaving the basic formatting in tact.

If that doesn't resolve your issues or if you do not want formatting at all, use the "Paste in as Plain Text" button the editor's toolbar to paste it in with NO formatting, (it looks like a brief case with a T on it).

If you have pets added that have unwanted formatting or code in their descriptions and want to get rid of it, follow the following steps:

Edit the pet.
In the description editor, click the Select All button on the editor's toolbar, (it looks like the letter "a" with lines behind it).
Right click the selected text and click Copy, or press CTRL-C to copy the selected text.
Click the Paste as Plain Text button on the editor's toolbar.
In the Paste as Plain Text dialog that pops up, paste in the copied text.
Click Insert at the bottom of the Paste as Plain Text dialog to overwrite the selected text with the plain text.
Save the pet.

If you still have problems with your animals' descriptions or need help, don't forget you can open a support ticket: http://www.rescuegroups.org/support

If you can't find a specific pet in your adoptable pet list on one of the adoption listing websites you may want to check the following:

• Is the animal marked as a courtesy listing?  If so, have you disabled courtesy listing exports?
• If the pet is missing from Petfinder, Pets 911 or Adopt-a-Pet.com, is the account for that website selected for the animal?

We will ask during the Setup Wizard for the specific information we need to enable all of your adoption listing web site uploads.

If you do not already have an account with Petfinder or Adopt-a-Pet.com, you need to sign-up with them before we can start to upload to them, and before you can start to use the Petfinder Sync App.

We do NOT need your Adopt-a-Pet.com account information and we would prefer if you did not send us any auto-upload information from Adopt-a-Pet.com because it may cause confusion.

If you already have an account with them we will find it and configure it correctly.  A duplicate account will not be created.

Before we will enable the uploads for Petfinder, Adopt-a-Pet.com or Pets 911 you must first verify that your pet list on the Pet Adoption Portal is accurate and correct.  We do this so that you will not lose any information.  When we enable the uploads to the other sites there is a possibility that the pet listings on the other sites will be removed and replaced with the listings from the Pet Adoption Portal.  That's why it's critical that the most accurate and complete information be on the Portal.

To verify your pet list, click Pet List on the menu.  Change the list to view All animals (Active and Adopted) and visually review each animal to be sure it is accurate.  If ALL of the information is correct, all animals are listed, and the descriptions were added correctly, go to the Setup page and click the link to Verify your pet list.

Each of the adoption listing web sites take different amounts of time to update.  Here's what we have noticed:

Petfinder: 30-60 minutes average for the animals and pictures to appear in the admin pet list.  Up to 24 hours for pictures to be visible to the public.*

Adopt-a-Pet.com: 2-3 hours average for animal data and picture updates

Pets 911: 1 hour average for animal data and picture updates

* Please note that the delays with Petfinder are equivalent to what you would experience when updating Petfinder manually.  Also, at times Petfinder caches old information on the public web page which may appear to delay the updates.  Be sure to refresh the pet list to view the latest pet information and pictures, and to use the pet list troubleshooter here on this support web site if you are experiencing any issues.

No, you don't need to do anything to cause your animals to be updated on the adoption listing web sites.  When you add or edit a pet the update will happen automatically.

Petfinder does not give us the capability to upload "contacts" for pets on Petfinder.  Therefore, all pets on Petfinder will show the main contact information.

We don't add pets from Petfinder or from your web site.  You must add animals directly on your RescueGroups.org web site in order for them to be added on the adoption listing web sites.  We do offer to add your animals for you during your initial setup, however we do not add animals for you on an ongoing basis.

It can take as little as a few hours; on the average it takes a couple of days.  Getting set up on the Portal is an interactive process with you, the organization.

The Pet Adoption Portal Setup Wizard makes setup fast and easy, so you can be up and running the same day.  Doing so does require that you respond in a timely manner to all of our requests, such as when we ask you to verify that your pet list looks correct on the Portal.  We cannot enable your automatic updates until you verify your pet list.

Please use the pet listing troubleshooter to resolve this issue.

No, you don't have to update all of the adoption listing web sites if you use the Pet Adoption Portal, Data Management or Web Site service.  In fact, you can pick and chose the web sites you want to update.

Keep in mind that some of the adoption listing web sites also upload your data to additional web sites. These uploads are commonly called "3rd party uploads."  In order for your pets to appear on those 3rd party web sites you must have the first adoption listing web site enabled.  For example, Adopt-a-Pet.com uploads to Dog.com.  If you want your pets to appear on Dog.com you must have your upload to Adopt-a-Pet.com enabled.

Most of your uploads can be managed from the Exports page.  The exception is Petfinder, which you have to manage directly from your account.  Petfinder does not give us the ability to manage your 3rd party uploads through your RescueGroups.org service.

See section 7.2 of the Pet Adoption Portal User Guide for more information on the Send to Accounts field.

The Send to Accounts section of an animal will list all of your export accounts.  You can select which accounts should receive the current animal information.  If you unselect one of the accounts, the animal will be removed from that account.

Absolutely not!  In fact, we have noticed an increase in the number of hits on animals that are posted through the Pet Adoption Portal and the other RescueGroups.org services.  This is probably due to the more frequent update and the ease of updating your pet listings!  You should not notice a difference in your Petfinder.com stats.

In addition, by utilizing the other adoption listing web sites you may notice a 100-200% increase in the number of inquiries, adoption applications and actual adoptions!  We've done surveys of our users, and we've noticed an average of a 100% increase in activity.

On the Pet Adoption Portal, click Exports to view the web sites where your pets are uploaded.

On the Data Management and Web Site services, click Animals > Animal Options.

You can enable or disable each of the uploads.  Please contact support if you have any questions or concerns related to your exports.

Yes!  Of course we are, because that's in the best interest of the adoptable animals.  We are constantly contacting new organizations and web sites to see if they would like to accept animal data from us.  If you know of a web site that would benefit from our adoptable pet listings, please contact us, and we'll contact them.  It wouldn't hurt if you emailed them to let them know about us as well!

If you need to remove a volunteer from your service you can do so yourself by going to the Volunteers link on the Portal or Contacts on the Data Management or Web Site service.

However, if you need to remove the only person with administrative permissions to your service, you will need to submit a Change of Authority letter.

Change of Authority is a simple letter to RescueGroups.org requesting that we make a change to the Responsible Party for your organization's account. The Responsible Party will initially be the person or persons who requested that the site be created (completed the Sign Up Form).

Please E-mail this letter to info@RescueGroups.org as an attachment to request this change AND you MUST send the letter via postal mail on organization letterhead for the change to be considered permanent.

Include the following:

Current Responsible Party
New Responsible Party
Reason for Change
Contact Information for the Organization and Responsible Party

Our address is:
RescueGroups.org
P.O. Box 1245
Bowie, MD 20718-1245

If you are trying to record a voice mail greeting and you are only give a few seconds to speak, you are recording the greeting in the wrong place.  Be sure to follow the instructions exactly.  There is an article in the knowledge base for how to record a mailbox greeting that will give you the exact steps to follow.

The first step to updating your organization's contact information is to update your information in your RescueGroups.org service.

If you are using the Pet Adoption Portal:

Go to Portal Setup and click Edit Contact Information

If you are using the RescueGroups.org Web Site or Data Management Service:

Go to Services > Organization Contact Info

Next, you'll need to update your organization's contact information on Pets 911, Adopt-a-Pet.com and/or Petfinder.  To do that, login directly to those sites.  If you do not have your login account information for those sites, you should contact them directly.

You can find Adopt-a-Pet.com's contact information here: http://www.adoptapet.com/public/contact_us/index.html

Pets 911's information can be found here: http://www.pets911.com/contact-pets-911

The other adoption listing web sites (DogTime.com, PetBond.com, etc) receive your contact information through either our API service, or through one of the other adoption listing web sites.

If you have a new volunteer or staff member you might want to give them access to your RescueGroups.org service.

If you are using the new Management Interface:

If a Contact Record doesn't exist for the volunteer, Go to Contacts > Add a Contact
Enter the person's basic contact information including email address
Click Save Contact.

Once a Contact exists, go to Contacts > Contacts Home.
In your list of contacts, click the Contact's name to go to view their details.
On the Contact's page, click the User Login Accounts link at the top of the page.
Click the Add icon on the list of User Login Accounts for that contact.

On the user registration page, verify that the contact information is correct.

Enter a Username.
Select Volunteer for Registration Type.
Click Register User.

Once complete, the contact will receive an email notification of their registration with their username and a temporary password.

You will be taken to the User Login Account page for that user.
Click the Roles link at the top of the page to add the appropriate security roles for that user.

------------------------------
If you are using the Pet Adoption Portal:

Go to Volunteers
Click Add a Volunteer
Enter the person's information
Select Grant Access to the Portal
Enter a user name
Click Add Volunteer

The new staff/volunteer will receive an email with their user name and password, and when they login they will be able to manage your pet list on the Portal.

------------------------------
If you are using the Website Service Interface:

If the contact doesn't exist, Go to Contacts > Add a Contact
Enter the person's basic contact information including email address
Click Save Contact
On the Contact's page, under Web Site Permissions, click the Register link.
On the user registration page, verify that the contact information is correct.
Enter a username.
Click Register User.
Once complete, the contact will receive an email notification of their registration with their user name and password
Then, on the Contact's page, add the appropriate roles under Web Site Permissions

If registering an existing contact, find the contact in your mail contact list.
Click on the contact's name to view their details.
On the Contact's page, under Web Site Permissions, click the Register link.
On the user registration page, verify that the contact information is correct.
Enter a username.
Click Register User.
Once complete, the contact will receive an email notification of their registration with their user name and password
Then, on the Contact's page, add the appropriate roles under Web Site Permissions

Be sure that you are entering the user name and password exactly as they appear in your password email.  The password is case sensitive, which means you need to enter it using the same capitalization as is used in the email you received.  If you recently reset your password make sure you are using the correct password to login.  Once you reset your password you previous password will no longer work.

Although we don't have a demo service for you to use, we'd be happy to walk you through a demo at your convenience.  Please contact us through our web site to schedule a demo.

http://www.rescuegroups.org/contact

We do provide a 3-month trial for our Data Management and Web Site services.  The Pet Adoption Portal is completely free.  Our other services, including Voice Mail, Email and Domain Name services do not include a free trial.

Your trial will begin when your account is created.  You can cancel at any time during the trial.

To record a greeting for one of your mailboxes, do the following:

• Dial your voice mail number.
• At the main greeting (or the message about the voice mail service not being setup yet) press the mailbox number (eg 1, 2, etc)
• At the mailbox greeting (or message about there not being a greeting) press * and enter your voice mail password
• At the voice mail menu press * again and enter your mailbox admin password
• Follow the prompts to record the mailbox greeting.

Before recording the greeting you must create the mailbox.  Be sure to review the Voice Mail User Guide available on our support web site.

If you find that your drop downs are no longer working you should check to be sure that you haven't enable (or recently installed) any software that would block JavaScript.  Programs like Norton or McAfee Internet Security can be configured to block JavaScript, and that would prevent the drop down boxes from populating correctly.

You can check your voice mail messages in any of three different ways:

1) Receive the voice mail audio recording as an attachment in your email.  To configure this option, enable the Attach Recording option on the mailbox.

2) Login to the voice mail service web site and view/listen to messages with your web browser.  The link to login to the voice mail service web page (Web Login) is on the mailbox page.  Login with the user name on the mailbox page, with the mailbox voice mail password.  (Read Section 5 of the Voice Mail Service User Guide for additional information.)

3) Dial into the voice mail system with your phone.  (Read Section 3 of the Voice Mail Service User Guide for additional information.)

You can easily use Google Analytics to track visitors, visits and page views on your RescueGroups.org Website.

First, you need to get the Google Analytics code for the profile you want to use.  To get the necessary HTML code do the following:

• Login to your Google Analytics account.  If you don't have one you can start here: https://www.google.com/analytics
• Add a new profile, if necessary
• Click Edit on the profile
• Click Check Status
• Select and copy the code in the "Paste this code on your site" box

To add the Google Anayltics code to your website you need to add a Custom Code Snippet.  You can add one on the Management website.

• Go to: https://manage.rescuegroups.org
• Login
• Click Website > Custom Code Snippets
• Click Add a Custom Code Snippet
• Enter a name for the code snippet (like "Google Analytics")
• Paste the code from the Google Analytics profile into the Code box
• Click Save

Then you need to add the Custom Code Snippet to your website.

• Still logged in to the Management website, click Website > Web Page List
• Click Edit Content on Footer (bottom of every page)
• Put the cursor at the top or bottom of the content
• Click the Insert a Custom Tag or Code Snippet button, (little blue paw icon in the menu of the content editor)
• Click on your Custom Google Analytics snippet
• Click Save Content

It takes about 24 hours for hits to appear in your Google Analytics profile.

Google Analytics is very powerful and can be very complex.  You may want to do some research on how to best use Google Analytics and the profiles.  This KB article is really just designed to provide you with where to find your GA profile code, and how to add a custom code snippet to your website.

Often times, when pasting in your animal descriptions from outside sources, such as emails, Microsoft Word, or others, formatting can be pasted in along with the text of the descriptions.  This can be frustrating to deal with or even cause unexpected results when viewing you animals on the pet adoption listing sites or even your own website.

There are a couple tools built into the Animal Description Editor that may prevent this or help "clean" you descriptions up for you.

If pasting in your descriptions from an outside source, such as an email or Microsoft Word, and you would like to preserve as much formatting as possible,  you could try the "Paste in from Word" tool built into the description editor.  The "Paste in from Word" button is on the editor's toolbar, and looks like a briefcase with a W on it. 
That should remove most of the unwanted formatting or code while leaving the basic formatting in tact.

If that doesn't resolve your issues or if you do not want formatting at all, use the "Paste in as Plain Text" button the editor's toolbar to paste it in with NO formatting, (it looks like a brief case with a T on it).

If you have pets added that have unwanted formatting or code in their descriptions and want to get rid of it, follow the following steps:

Edit the pet.
In the description editor, click the Select All button on the editor's toolbar, (it looks like the letter "a" with lines behind it).
Right click the selected text and click Copy, or press CTRL-C to copy the selected text.
Click the Paste as Plain Text button on the editor's toolbar.
In the Paste as Plain Text dialog that pops up, paste in the copied text.
Click Insert at the bottom of the Paste as Plain Text dialog to overwrite the selected text with the plain text.
Save the pet.

If you still have problems with your animals' descriptions or need help, don't forget you can open a support ticket: http://www.rescuegroups.org/support

There is a new feature on the Management Interface, http://manage.rescuegroups.org, that you can use to export your data to a CSV file.

You can do this from any "datatable".  In this example, we will reference your Animals List.

To do this, go to Animals > Animals List in the menu.
Then click on the datatable icon next to Views.
Name your view and select the fields you would like to appear in this view.  You can use the up/down gray arrows to reorder the fields. 
Save the view.

You can now bring up this view whenever you would like.

Once you load your view, in the Options drop down on the right, you can choose to export this view to CSV.

Here is some more information on views.
http://www.rescuegroups.org/userguide/views

If you are using the new Management Interface:

To assign a role to an existing user login account go to:
Contacts >User Login Accounts
Find the contact/user login account in your list of users.
Click on their User Name to view the User Login Account.
Click the Roles link at the top of the page.
From there, you can add/remove security roles for that user.

------------------------------

If you are using the Website Service or Data Management Service Interfaces:

Go to Contacts > Contacts Admin in the admin menu.
Find the contact in your list and click their name to go to the Contact's page.
On the Contact's page, under Web Site Permissions, you can add/remove security roles for that user.

Receiving email notifications of submitted online forms is a user option.  Your volunteers can turn this option on and off.  (The volunteers must log in individually to adjust these settings.)

On the Management Interface 

Click my settings in the upper right corner.
Click Alerts & Emails.
Configure the option "Alert me when an online form is submitted" or "Alert me when an online form is submitted for my foster animals" to only receive alerts on your fosters.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On the Website Interface

Go to the My Rescue page.
Click Options at the top of the page.
Configure the option "Get an alert when a form is completed for any animal" or "Get an alert when a form is completed for your foster animals"  to only receive alerts on your fosters.

From the Management Interface

Click My Settings in the upper right corner.
Click Username & Password at the top of the User Options page.
Enter your new username if you would like to change it.
Enter your current password and new password to change your password.
Click Save Settings.

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From the Pet Adoption Portal

Click on User Account Info on the menu.

To change your username, enter a new username.
Click Change Username.

To change your password, enter your current password and a new password.
Click Save New Password.

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From the Website Interface

Go to the My Rescue page.  (You should be taken there when you log in.  If already logged in and there is no My Rescue link in your site's menu, go to <<your website>>/myrescue/).

To change your username, click Username at the top of the page.
Enter you new username.
Click Change Username.

To change your password, click Password at the top of the page.
Enter your current password and new password.
Click Change Password.

If you can't find a specific pet in your adoptable pet list on one of the adoption listing websites you may want to check the following:

• Is the animal marked as a courtesy listing?  If so, have you disabled courtesy listing exports?
• If the pet is missing from Petfinder, Pets 911 or Adopt-a-Pet.com, is the account for that website selected for the animal?

If you can't find a specific pet in your adoptable pet list or on the pet list on your RescueGroups.org website you may want to check the following:

• Is the animal marked as a courtesy listing?  If so, have you disabled courtesy showing courtesy listings with your adoptable pets?

Occasionally we hear a report about how anyone and everyone have access to make changes on an organization's web site.

Only the people to whom you grant access will be able to manage your web site.  Only the people who have at least one permission on your web site will see the admin menu bar across the top of the page.

The confusion comes from the use of the "remember me until I logout."  When you login and select that option, you will remain logged in until you specifically chose to logout.  That means that when you open your web site at a later time you will automatically see the admin menu bar.

If you are seeing the menu bar unexpectedly on a computer it's probably because you previously logged into that computer using an account that has permission on your web site.

We will ask during the Setup Wizard for the specific information we need to enable all of your adoption listing web site uploads.

If you do not already have an account with Petfinder or Adopt-a-Pet.com, you need to sign-up with them before we can start to upload to them, and before you can start to use the Petfinder Sync App.

We do NOT need your Adopt-a-Pet.com account information and we would prefer if you did not send us any auto-upload information from Adopt-a-Pet.com because it may cause confusion.

If you already have an account with them we will find it and configure it correctly.  A duplicate account will not be created.

Each of the adoption listing web sites take different amounts of time to update.  Here's what we have noticed:

Petfinder: 30-60 minutes average for the animals and pictures to appear in the admin pet list.  Up to 24 hours for pictures to be visible to the public.*

Adopt-a-Pet.com: 2-3 hours average for animal data and picture updates

Pets 911: 1 hour average for animal data and picture updates

* Please note that the delays with Petfinder are equivalent to what you would experience when updating Petfinder manually.  Also, at times Petfinder caches old information on the public web page which may appear to delay the updates.  Be sure to refresh the pet list to view the latest pet information and pictures, and to use the pet list troubleshooter here on this support web site if you are experiencing any issues.

No, you don't need to do anything to cause your animals to be updated on the adoption listing web sites.  When you add or edit a pet the update will happen automatically.

Petfinder does not give us the capability to upload "contacts" for pets on Petfinder.  Therefore, all pets on Petfinder will show the main contact information.

We don't add pets from Petfinder or from your web site.  You must add animals directly on your RescueGroups.org web site in order for them to be added on the adoption listing web sites.  We do offer to add your animals for you during your initial setup, however we do not add animals for you on an ongoing basis.

Locations and caregivers are two separate functions.

You can use the Locations link to set up the location. Then for each pet you want identified with that location, go to the pet's Portal listing and select the correct location from the dropdown menu for that field. Please note that Petfinder and Adoptapet.com DO NOT accept zip code/location data from us.

To get a contact person's info to show up above a pet's description: Make sure your foster caregiver is listed under Volunteers, with at least the first 2 boxes checked for that person's listing (Fosters Animals and Contact Info is Public). Then visit your Options page and pick which fields you want to be public for your contacts.  Finally, edit the pets' listings on the Portal to reflect that Foster/Caretaker.

Every volunteer has the option to receive an email alert when an online application is submitted.  There are a few things you should be aware of:

1. Each volunteer must enable the option to receive an email alert
2. They can receive an alert for ALL submissions or just for their foster animals
3. An "available animals" question must be added to the form for #2 to work correctly
4. There is no way to specific additional email addresses that should receive alerts
5. You can prevent all volunteers from receiving an email alert in Feature Options

When you first start with your RescueGroups.org web site you must enable the species that you support.  Go to the Animals > Options > General Options page and enable each of the species that you will be adding to your web site.

Yes, your RescueGroups.org website service can keep your Petfinder home page up-to-date.

This feature is not related to your Petfinder animal list in any way.

Once enabled, your RescueGroups.org website service will upload a copy of your home page to Petfinder.  That page will look exactly like your RescueGroups.org home page, with the addition of the Petfinder required links (as required by the Petfinder Terms of Service).

You can learn more about updating your Petfinder home page in this User Guide article: Update Petfinder Web Page.

For some fields, like the animal description, you may want to perform a spell check.

The easiest way to do this is with a spell checker installed on your computer. There are several spell checkers that are available for free.

One example is ieSpell. You can read about ieSpell and download it here:

http://www.iespell.com/

Once ieSpell is installed on your computer, you can click the spell check button (looks like "abc" with a checkmark) to spell check the description you have entered.

Some web browsers, like FireFox, support spell check right out of the box.  We would recommend that you use FireFox.  FireFox is completely supported by our services.

http://mozilla.com

If you need to remove a volunteer from your service you can do so yourself by going to the Volunteers link on the Portal or Contacts on the Data Management or Web Site service.

However, if you need to remove the only person with administrative permissions to your service, you will need to submit a Change of Authority letter.

Change of Authority is a simple letter to RescueGroups.org requesting that we make a change to the Responsible Party for your organization's account. The Responsible Party will initially be the person or persons who requested that the site be created (completed the Sign Up Form).

Please E-mail this letter to info@RescueGroups.org as an attachment to request this change AND you MUST send the letter via postal mail on organization letterhead for the change to be considered permanent.

Include the following:

Current Responsible Party
New Responsible Party
Reason for Change
Contact Information for the Organization and Responsible Party

Our address is:
RescueGroups.org
P.O. Box 1245
Bowie, MD 20718-1245

If you registered on a web site but haven't received a password yet, please do the following:

 - Wait at least 1 hour
 - Verify that you used the correct email address.  The registration page will tell you the email address you used when you registered.
 - Check your Spam/Junk/Bulk mail folder

If you have not received your registration email after one hour, please open a support ticket in the Login/Registration department.

The first step to updating your organization's contact information is to update your information in your RescueGroups.org service.

If you are using the Pet Adoption Portal:

Go to Portal Setup and click Edit Contact Information

If you are using the RescueGroups.org Web Site or Data Management Service:

Go to Services > Organization Contact Info

Next, you'll need to update your organization's contact information on Pets 911, Adopt-a-Pet.com and/or Petfinder.  To do that, login directly to those sites.  If you do not have your login account information for those sites, you should contact them directly.

You can find Adopt-a-Pet.com's contact information here: http://www.adoptapet.com/public/contact_us/index.html

Pets 911's information can be found here: http://www.pets911.com/contact-pets-911

The other adoption listing web sites (DogTime.com, PetBond.com, etc) receive your contact information through either our API service, or through one of the other adoption listing web sites.

If you have a new volunteer or staff member you might want to give them access to your RescueGroups.org service.

If you are using the new Management Interface:

If a Contact Record doesn't exist for the volunteer, Go to Contacts > Add a Contact
Enter the person's basic contact information including email address
Click Save Contact.

Once a Contact exists, go to Contacts > Contacts Home.
In your list of contacts, click the Contact's name to go to view their details.
On the Contact's page, click the User Login Accounts link at the top of the page.
Click the Add icon on the list of User Login Accounts for that contact.

On the user registration page, verify that the contact information is correct.

Enter a Username.
Select Volunteer for Registration Type.
Click Register User.

Once complete, the contact will receive an email notification of their registration with their username and a temporary password.

You will be taken to the User Login Account page for that user.
Click the Roles link at the top of the page to add the appropriate security roles for that user.

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If you are using the Pet Adoption Portal:

Go to Volunteers
Click Add a Volunteer
Enter the person's information
Select Grant Access to the Portal
Enter a user name
Click Add Volunteer

The new staff/volunteer will receive an email with their user name and password, and when they login they will be able to manage your pet list on the Portal.

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If you are using the Website Service Interface:

If the contact doesn't exist, Go to Contacts > Add a Contact
Enter the person's basic contact information including email address
Click Save Contact
On the Contact's page, under Web Site Permissions, click the Register link.
On the user registration page, verify that the contact information is correct.
Enter a username.
Click Register User.
Once complete, the contact will receive an email notification of their registration with their user name and password
Then, on the Contact's page, add the appropriate roles under Web Site Permissions

If registering an existing contact, find the contact in your mail contact list.
Click on the contact's name to view their details.
On the Contact's page, under Web Site Permissions, click the Register link.
On the user registration page, verify that the contact information is correct.
Enter a username.
Click Register User.
Once complete, the contact will receive an email notification of their registration with their user name and password
Then, on the Contact's page, add the appropriate roles under Web Site Permissions

Be sure that you are entering the user name and password exactly as they appear in your password email.  The password is case sensitive, which means you need to enter it using the same capitalization as is used in the email you received.  If you recently reset your password make sure you are using the correct password to login.  Once you reset your password you previous password will no longer work.

You do not have to request that visitors register and login on your web site before submitting an online application.  You can update the Online Form to allow an unregistered user to submit the form.

Although we don't have a demo service for you to use, we'd be happy to walk you through a demo at your convenience.  Please contact us through our web site to schedule a demo.

http://www.rescuegroups.org/contact

We do provide a 3-month trial for our Data Management and Web Site services.  The Pet Adoption Portal is completely free.  Our other services, including Voice Mail, Email and Domain Name services do not include a free trial.

Your trial will begin when your account is created.  You can cancel at any time during the trial.

Each pet can have up to 4 pictures on the Pet Adoption Portal.  You can select pictures to upload when you are adding or editing a pet.

When uploading a picture, be sure it is in JPG format.  You can tell if it is a JPG by looking at the file extension (the filename).  It should end in “.JPG.”  If it's not in JPG format our system will convert it to JPG for you.

Most digital cameras save the image as a JPG, although you may need to read your camera’s owner’s manual to be sure it is configured correctly.

If the picture is not a JPG (perhaps it’s a GIF or BMP), you can edit the image and save it as one of the formats we accept.  Here are instructions on how to do this in Windows:

1. Right click on the photo and choose Edit (the picture should open in Microsoft Paint).
2. Under File, choose Save As.
3. Change type to Jpeg or Jpg.
4. Click Save.
5. Upload the new Jpeg or Jpg image to the Portal.

RescueGroups.org Sponsorship service is available to qualified organizations.  All applications are approved by the RescueGroups.org Board of Directors.  Only organizations who truly cannot afford the service fee ($100/year for Web Site, $75/year for Data Management) will be approved.

Minimum requirements:

•  Non-profit 501(c)(3)
•  Low income

If you are in the process of receiving your 501(c)(3) exempt status, you can include a copy of the application in place of the determination letter requested on the Sponsorship application.

You can find the Sponsorship application in the Downloads section of the RescueGroups.org website.

As explained on the application, the following documents are required: 501(c)(3) determination letter, financial summary, most recent 990ez, list of organization principals, vet reference information, brief organization and mission summary.

See section 7.2 of the Pet Adoption Portal User Guide for more information on the Send to Accounts field.

The Send to Accounts section of an animal will list all of your export accounts.  You can select which accounts should receive the current animal information.  If you unselect one of the accounts, the animal will be removed from that account.

It might be confusing if you see information on the animal detail page (main animal web page) that you not expecting to see.  However, you are most likely seeing the information because you are a volunteer and logged into the web site with permission to see the private information.

You can always verify what the public sees by logging out of your RescueGroups.org Web Site and viewing the page again.

There is additional information concerning the public and private animal fields on section 13.21 of the RescueGroups.org User Guide.

In addition to enabling Sponsorships under Animals > Options > General Options, you also need to enable the "Allow Sponsorships" option for each animal.  Once you enable that option on the animal they will appear in the Animal drop down on the Add a Sponsorship page.

Depending on the Status of the animal (available, adopted, hold, pending, etc) you may need to change your pet list to include that status.  By default, only your available pets are listed.  You can change your pet list by selecting one of the statuses in the Show drop down and clicking Go!

The featured animal option of the RescueGroups.org Web Site service gives you the ability to control which pets appear on your sidebar.

The Featured Animal option, available on the Layout Options page, lets you choose either a random pet, or a featured pet.  If you select a featured pet you can then select the specific pet you want to appear on the sidebar.  The pet must have at least one picture to appear on the sidebar (either random or featured pet).

You can remove a user from all email subscriptions by going to Contacts > Contacts Admin in the admin menu, then find the user in your contact list. The easiest way to find them is to click "Search" in the header of the contacts table, then enter their email address, below the email heading, and click the Search button.

Once you find the user, click his name to view his contact details.  Click each of the subscriptions you wish to remove under the Email Alerts heading.

The most common reason a person won't see an email they receive is because the message is flagged as spam.  Make sure the user adds your email address to their address book, or to their white list.

If you continue to receive reports of missing emails we can verify that the email was sent, and the user can then take that information to their ISP or email provider to inquire why the message was not received.  Please contact us for additional assistance.

The Online Forms Steps feature is a way you can easily see the status of an online application or form through your process.  Steps are individual items or processes that need to be completed during the processing of the application (for example, Vet Check).  The Online Forms Status Report will show the status of the steps in a percentage pass of the completed items.  For example, if you have four steps, two have passed and one has failed, you will see 2/3 (66% pass) for the steps.  The incomplete steps are not calculated in the pass rate.

The RescueGroups.org Web Site and Data Management services include a Do Not Adopt (DNA) list.  Each organization can mark Contacts as Do Not Adopt, and optionally share their DNA list.

To mark a Contact as Do Not Adopt, edit the contact by going to Contacts > Contact Admin.  Find the contact in the list and edit that contact.  Select the checkbox for Do Not Adopt and save the contact.

If you would like to share your organization's DNA list with other RescueGroups.org organizations, go to Feature Options (Features > Feature Options) and enable the option, "Share your organization's Do Not Adopt list (from Contacts)."

If you find that your drop downs are no longer working you should check to be sure that you haven't enable (or recently installed) any software that would block JavaScript.  Programs like Norton or McAfee Internet Security can be configured to block JavaScript, and that would prevent the drop down boxes from populating correctly.

Yes!  Of course we are, because that's in the best interest of the adoptable animals.  We are constantly contacting new organizations and web sites to see if they would like to accept animal data from us.  If you know of a web site that would benefit from our adoptable pet listings, please contact us, and we'll contact them.  It wouldn't hurt if you emailed them to let them know about us as well!

How are videos handled by the Pet Adoption Portal service and the RescueGroups.org Web Site and Data Management services?

The RescueGroups.org services handle two methods of adding videos to your animals:

Option #1: Upload a video directly to RescueGroups.org

If you upload a video file directly to your RescueGroups.org service we are able to store the file and upload it to other services as necessary.  We will upload the video for you to YouTube because some of the adoption listing web sites (Adopt-a-Pet.com specifically) supports only YouTube video URLs.

The following video formats are supported for upload to RescueGroups.org: .MPG/.MPEG, .3GP, .AVI, .MOV

Option #2: Add a video URL from YouTube to the animal

If you upload the video to YouTube and then add the video URL to the animal the YouTube URL will be uploaded to Adopt-a-Pet.com and embedded in the animal's description for all other adoption listing web sites.  A YouTube URL will NOT trigger the pet's video icon on Petfinder.

To find an inactive or deleted contact in Contacts Admin you can enable the option to display inactive contacts in the list.  That option is in Feature Options (Features > Options).  Once you enable that option you'll see your inactive contacts in the contacts list and you can edit them like any other contact.  You'll notice that inactive contacts have a (i) next to their name.

Currently we do not force a visitor to provide an answer to online form questions that are check boxes.  The basic reason is that we are unable to determine if the visitor is answering the question by selecting the option(s), or answering it by NOT selecting the option(s).

We strongly recommend that you use drop down fields if you need to require an answer.