This document describes the procedure for defining the information for a specific church, passing that information to the Lutheran Hub website administrator and having that information uploaded to the Lutheran Hub server from which it can be accessed by users of the Lutheran Hub website.
The first step in the church definition process is to verify that the information displayed for the church on the "Church Information" webpage is correct (to view information for a church click on its state in the map of the United States). If any of the information shown (Name, Location (city, state), District, Phone, Email address, Website URL) is incorrect, then an email should be sent to here with the following:
After the change request has been processed, a return email will be sent indicating that the change has been made and the process in the next section can then be performed. Note that any mismatches between the Hub information for the above set of properties (i.e., Name through Website URL) for a church and the information sent for those properties in later steps will result in errors with the sent changes being rejected. Therefore, it is important that the church information for Name through Website URL should be consistent with the user defined values before proceeding further into the definition process.
The next step in the definition process is to identify the folder for the specific church. This is done by accessing the Church Information webpage (to view information for a church click on its state in the map of the United States), locating the specific church and clicking the first image in the Extended column to access the current Hub home page for that church. The URL for the church home page should identify the folder (after the f= in the URL at the top - e.g., f=Southern/437723). Copy this information (not the leading f=) as it will be used in the following places.
Several of the definition forms/webpages require the identification of an image/picture file. Therefore, these picture files should exist prior to the definition on those forms/webpages. These files may already exist on the Internet, in which case the URL for that picture can be entered into the appropriate fields or they can be included with the set of files passed using a Full Data request. If passed with the Full Data set of files, the value that should be entered into the appropriate input fields should be "./" followed by the folder value followed by "/" and the file name (e.g., ./Southern/437723/Ascension1.png).
To identify the URL for a picture file already on the Internet, the webpage with that image should be accessed. A right-mouse click over that image followed by selection of "Copy image link" from the dropdown menu will copy the URL for that image into the paste buffer (clipboard).
The Define General Information form/webpage defines the key information for the church. The values entered into the input fields on this webpage govern what is displayed on the home page for the church for the Lutheran Hub website. The values entered into these fields also define which files need to be included with the full set of files for the church.
As previously mentioned, the city, state, zip, e-mail address, phone number and church home page (website URL) should match the values for those properties within the Lutheran Hub website. If any of the values defined within the Lutheran Hub website are incorrect, those values should be corrected by sending a Change request (step 1) with the correct values. Any mismatch between the Lutheran Hub values and the values defined via the Genral Information webpage will result in the rejection of the data sent via a Full Data (and possibly a Delta Data) request.
All the information shown on the Hub home page for the church, with the exception of the calendar information shown in the middle, comes from the General Information webpage:
All the fields, except those flagged as optional, down through and including Church home page should be given a value. All the input fields starting with Facebook can optionally have values or not. As mentioned before, the existence or non-existence of values in these fields dictate what hyperlinked images appear after the church name in the header for the home page for the church.
The existence or non-existence of values for the input fields starting with Facebook also drive what images appear in the Extended column for the church on the Church Information webpage. The help webpage for the Define General Information webpage should be consulted for specifics on how the set of images that appear in the extended column are determined.
The Newsletter(s), Sermon(s), Bible studies, Serve, Radio station, Podcast and Online service fields define the need for additional files and for the use of the other Define forms/webpages. The specifics on when these additional files are required and when the other Define forms/webpages should be used are defined by the help webpage for the Define General Information webpage.
Since all the churches have been seeded with general information, the first time the Define General Information webpage is accessed for a specific church, the "Download from server ..." input field and Download button should be used to download these values from the server. Subsequent accesses to this webpage should begin by copying the contents from the local file saved in step 5 below.
After the input fields for the Define General Information webpage have been properly defined, the contents of the webpage should be copied into the paste buffer (clipboard) using the "Copy definition to paste buffer" command button. A local text file named generalInfo.txt should be created (if it doesn't already exist) and the contents of the paste buffer copied into that file. The file should then be saved and included with the set of files sent for the church.
Since all the churches have been seeded with worhip service times (from LCMS.org), the first time the Define Calendar events webpage is accessed for a church, the "Download from server ..." input field and Download button can (should?) be used to download these worship events from the server. Subsequent accesses to this webpage should begin by copying the contents from the local file saved in step 7 below.
The help page for the Define Calendar webpage should be accessed for questions on defining the various calendar events. Unlike some of the text files for the other Define webpages (with the exception of Serve.txt), the calendar events should probably not be defined outside the use of the Define Calendar webpage. Most of the text files (with the exception of Serve.txt) for the other Define webpages are simple enough that they can easily be reverse engineered and therefore manually edited.
The calendar events defined via this webpage can be copied to the paste buffer (clipboard) using the "Copy events into paste buffer" button. Once the events have been copied, they should be pasted into a local text file named events.txt. This file should be included with the set of files sent for the church.
Subsequent editing of the calendar should begin by copying the contents of the events.txt text file and pasting the copied contents on top of the "Paste here" text on the Define Calendar webpage.
If the following fields on the Define General Information webpage are populated using the "Use Hub link" command button, then the corresponding Define webpage should be used to populate the information for that subject and the information defined on that webpage saved to the appropriate text file. The following listing shows the Define General Information subject/input text field, the Define webpage to populate that data (if "Use Hub link" button is used) and the text file to save the data:
The help webpage for each of these webpages should be consulted for any questions about using that Define webpage. With the exception of Serve.txt, each of these webpages uses a basic one object per line, properties delimited by Or bars (|) text file.
Any of the files included in the listing above that apply to a specific church should be included in the set of files sent for the church (step 9).
When the church definition is complete, the following files should be emailed to here:
The email that is sent should have a subject line of "Full Data for" followed by the folder (e.g., Full Data for Southern/437723). The files above should be attached to the email. They may be attached individually or they may be zipped into any of the Windows 11 supported formats (ZIP, RAR, 7z, TAR, GZ, TGZ, BZ2, and other libarchive formats).
When the files are received, they are put into a separate directory and software is run that checks the files for viruses, errors and warnings. If a virus is detected, a Rejected email is sent back to the sender and a subsequent email still containing a virus will result in that source address being automatically rejected for future emails. If one or more errors are encountered, a Rejected email is sent. However, in this case, subsequent emails will continue to be processed. If no errors are encountered, the sent files are uploaded to the server and an Accepted email is sent to the source.
If the files sent via a Full Data request are accepted (as opposed to rejected), then subsequent emails with changes can be sent with a Delta Data request (e.g., Delta Data for Southern/437723). A Full Data request can still be used but a Delta Data request need only include the specific file(s) that have changed. Several of the files (Newsletters.txt, Sermons.txt and BibleStudies.txt) may need periodic updating, so sending a Delte Data request with only the updated files is more efficient than sending all the files in another Full Data email.
Whenever a set of sent files validates without errors, a record is kept of the church, the validation date and the originating source for the email with the sent files. If any future email for a church has a different source, then a process will be followed to verify that the new email source is OK. This validation will include sending an email to the original source asking for validation that the new source is legitimate.
If any issue is encountered with this process, that issue should be reported via an email to here with the subject being Issue for followed by the folder (e.g., Issue for Southern/437723). Alternatively, the issue may be reported by using the feedback image at the top of each Lutheran Hub webpage, identifying on the feedback webpage that there is a problem, describing that problem and Submitting the problem. Be sure to include an email address in the description of the problem. When the problem is addressed, an email will be sent back to the source identifying the problem as resolved.