Tech Forum Archive

Church Handbooks 1 & 2

33 postsstarted by benjamincarleski 16,677 viewsoriginal topic

benjamincarleski
Member
#1
The new church handbooks are available on new.lds.org. They appear to have secured Book 1 now so that you can't just type in the name and get to it. It is now available to leaders by signing in, choosing Leader and Clerk Resources from the Tools menu, and then choosing Church Handbooks from the Resources dropdown.

One thing I found though is that Handbook 1 doesn't appear to be searchable yet. Does anyone know if that happens as part of an automated process which will occur sometime this week, if someone needs to index it manually for searching, or if it simply isn't currently searchable because it is a protected resource?
mndrix
New Member
#2
benjamincarleski wrote:The new church handbooks are available on new.lds.org. They appear to have secured Book 1 now so that you can't just type in the name and get to it. It is now available to leaders by signing in, choosing Leader and Clerk Resources from the Tools menu, and then choosing Church Handbooks from the Resources dropdown.
Excellent! I was just wondering about this last night as I traversed the paper indexes on a couple topics.
benjamincarleski wrote:One thing I found though is that Handbook 1 doesn't appear to be searchable yet. Does anyone know if that happens as part of an automated process which will occur sometime this week, if someone needs to index it manually for searching, or if it simply isn't currently searchable because it is a protected resource?
Searching Book 1 was working for me just now.
benjamincarleski
Member
#3
mndrix wrote:Searching Book 1 was working for me just now.
Weird I just searched for "adoption" and for "secretary", both of which I know are in there and both return no results.
eblood66
Senior Member
#4
benjamincarleski wrote:Weird I just searched for "adoption" and for "secretary", both of which I know are in there and both return no results.
I tried searching on "bishop" (which most definitely is in Handbook 1) and got no results either. It certainly looks like search is supposed to work so I'm guessing there is some (intermittent?) problem.
johnshaw
Senior Member
#5
I've had a branch presidency member let me know that they aren't able to access book1 - i've validated that they are in MLS correctly. Anyone else have this same experience?
“A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom.”
― Thomas Paine, Common Sense
paulstreet
New Member
#6
As 1st Counselor in a Branch Presidency I can't access Book 1 online either, but then it does say in the Physical Copy I've read that A Branch President Gets a copy and a file copy for the Clerk & Exec Sec but not the counselors...... painful but true
DaltonTM
Church Employee
#7

handbook 1

I believe search has been corrected for handbook 1 (if not, I know the problem was isolated, and being worked on)

As to the Branch presidency member, the last response on this thread is correct. The distribution of the book specifically states Branch President (1 copy). Sorry.
mfmohlma
Senior Member
#8
eblood66 wrote:I tried searching on "bishop" (which most definitely is in Handbook 1) and got no results either. It certainly looks like search is supposed to work so I'm guessing there is some (intermittent?) problem.
Search is working fine for me, but when I click on any result (or simply try to go to a page) no text is displayed, only the menu bars, etc. It was working for me earlier today.
ekaszynski
New Member
#9

Handbook 1

Members of our Stake Presidency were able to view Handbook 1 yesterday. I just got a call from our Stake President saying that when he selects chapters from it this morning he just gets pages without content. Does anyone know if this is just a temporary problem or what?
aebrown
Community Administrator
#10
oregonmatt wrote:...when I click on any result (or simply try to go to a page) no text is displayed, only the menu bars, etc. It was working for me earlier today.
ekaszynski wrote:Members of our Stake Presidency were able to view Handbook 1 yesterday. I just got a call from our Stake President saying that when he selects chapters from it this morning he just gets pages without content. Does anyone know if this is just a temporary problem or what?
I've been seeing the same thing with Handbook 2 since yesterday afternoon. I'm sure it's just a temporary problem, but I have no idea when it will be fixed.
Questions that can benefit the larger community should be asked in a public forum, not a private message.
russellhltn
Community Administrator
#11
You might double-check what URL you are using. I've noted before that there are two URLs for Handbook 2. One of them has blank content for the section on "Selected Policies".
Have you searched the Help Center? Try doing a Google search and adding "site:churchofjesuschrist.org/help" to the search criteria.

So we can better help you, please edit your Profile to include your general location.
TinMan
Member
#12
I am experiencing the same problem. The only way for me to fix it is to do a hard reboot (power down and power back up.) It will work for a while then revert to having only the frame and no text.

It is doing it in both explorer and firefox for me.
jonesrk
Church Employee
#13
RussellHltn wrote:You might double-check what URL you are using. I've noted before that there are two URLs for Handbook 2. One of them has blank content for the section on "Selected Policies".
That is only for that chapter and if you get there from the Table of Contents it goes to the following url which works:
https://new.lds.org/handbook/handbook-2 ... s?lang=eng
if you get there from the pull down list of chapters then you get the following url which doesn't work:
https://new.lds.org/handbook/handbook-2-administering-the-church/selected-church-policies-and-guidelines?lang=eng
(bold showing the bad part of the url)

having gone back and played with it more now, it looks like some chapters are showing the problem.
For example the introduction and chapter 1 don't work, but chapter 2 Priesthood Principles works.
aebrown
Community Administrator
#14
ryan jones wrote:having gone back and played with it more now, it looks like some chapters are showing the problem.
For example the introduction and chapter 1 don't work, but chapter 2 Priesthood Principles works.
There was definitely a problem over the last 20 hours or so with content not displaying for much or all of Handbook 2, but it does seem to be working properly now. For some chapters, I had to do a refresh, and accessing Chapter 21 from the chapter selector still has the problem mentioned earlier (but removing "-and-guidelines" from the URL fixes that as well).

So it did seem to be a temporary glitch that is fixed now.
Questions that can benefit the larger community should be asked in a public forum, not a private message.
jonesrk
Church Employee
#15
Alan_Brown wrote:There was definitely a problem over the last 20 hours or so with content not displaying for much or all of Handbook 2, but it does seem to be working properly now. For some chapters, I had to do a refresh, and accessing Chapter 21 from the chapter selector still has the problem mentioned earlier (but removing "-and-guidelines" from the URL fixes that as well).

So it did seem to be a temporary glitch that is fixed now.
emphasis added

It is working for me now as well. The refresh seems to be the key.
TinMan
Member
#16
I'm glad it is working for you. It isn't for me.

Back to the hard copies that aren't so easily search-able...

:confused:

For example in book 1, chapter 5. I can get the first section to come up, but not either of the second two. When I click refresh on 5.2, it goes back to 5.1.

But it is probably "operator error." :)
aebrown
Community Administrator
#17
TinMan wrote:I'm glad it is working for you. It isn't for me.
And are you doing a browser refresh on each page that seems to have the problem? When I first tried this again an hour ago, I thought it wasn't really fixed. But once I started doing browser refreshes after navigating to a new page, it all worked fine (except for Chapter 21, as mentioned).
Questions that can benefit the larger community should be asked in a public forum, not a private message.
TinMan
Member
#18
I thought so, but again. It is probably me not knowing how to work the system.
TinMan
Member
#19
Yeah, checked again. I got to section 5 of handbook 1. Section 5.1 comes up, but when I try to look at 5.2 nothing is there. I click refresh and it goes back to 5.1.

Same when I try to look at 5.3.

Perhaps I will just wait until tonight and get one of my geeky counselors to show me how it works. I feel so old some days...


:)
lajackson
Community Moderators
#20
I do not know if this will help or not, but some browsers really like to hang onto their cache. The refresh will cause a new load of the page from the site in most cases, but some browsers struggle even with that, unless you empty the cache from time to time.

This thread seems to indicate that there have been some changes to the URLs in the Handbook(s). Overly helpful browsers pulling from the cache may actually be causing part of the problem here.
kisaac
Community Moderators
#21

How secure is book 1 on-line?

It's interesting that all the "clerk and leader" tools I've noticed thus far are using an HTTPS (secure) connection on new.lds.org, but when I select book 1, it drops back to HTTP as I view it. This was surprising, as it could allow "snooping" if somebody is authorized and correctly accessing book 1, but doing so on an unsecured (public?) wifi connection, and somebody with a little technical prowess and unknown intentions is monitoring the "open" http traffic. Due to the sensitive nature of Book 1, is this intended, I wonder?
"A soft answer turneth away wrath" works great on LDSTech forum boards!
DaltonTM
Church Employee
#22

Helpful info?

The handbook chapters were broken for some hours the other day, and are back online now. If you are still seeing a problem, "LaJackson" has it right, browsers tend to cache "AJAX" requests heavily. The second issue I'm seeing the most in here is also being addressed. If you refresh the page after having navigated to a section in a chapter it always drops you back to the first section of the chapter.

This is also because the section navigation is handled through javascript requests that only modify that part of the page, not the full page URL. We will be tweaking that so that you can refresh, or send a section URL to a friend, and it will persist where you were.

Finally...I'm intrigued by the last comment about it not being https...I'll investigate. :)
aebrown
Community Administrator
#23
Tyler wrote:This is also because the section navigation is handled through javascript requests that only modify that part of the page, not the full page URL. We will be tweaking that so that you can refresh, or send a section URL to a friend, and it will persist where you were.
Until that change is made to how URLs are handled, you can manually change the URL for bookmarks or including URLs in email messages or such. You just have to append the section. For example, if you are anywhere in chapter 4, the URL in your browser's address bar will be:

Code: 

https://new.lds.org/handbook/handbook-2-administering-the-church/the-ward-council?lang=eng
But if it's section 4.3 that you are really interested in, just add "/4.3" before the question mark to make it:

Code: 

https://new.lds.org/handbook/handbook-2-administering-the-church/the-ward-council/4.3?lang=eng
Once that is the URL, you can refresh and you will be on section 4.3 instead of going back to 4.1. And that full URL can be sent to someone in an email.

Of course, all this will be unnecessary once the "tweaking" is done, but in the meantime, this little tip might be helpful.
Questions that can benefit the larger community should be asked in a public forum, not a private message.
geowizrd4zion
Member
#24
oregonmatt wrote:Search is working fine for me, but when I click on any result (or simply try to go to a page) no text is displayed, only the menu bars, etc. It was working for me earlier today.

the search capability seems to be selective in that it does NOT find all instances of a search term, but returns a subset of them. for example, 16.3.3 contains the following sentence: "The bishopric may also organize a ward young single adult committee."

however, doing a search on
committee
young single adult committee
ward young single adult committee
does not return a reference to that particular sentence, although it does include quite a few others.

unless i am experiencing a unique quirk, this means that the search cabability will help you find some related items, but not necessarily the one you are looking for, or worse yet, to conclude that something does not exist in the handbook when in fact it does. (reminds me of the crippled ms desktop search, which is "faster" because it is always incomplete).

can anyone else replicate this or shed any light on it?
geowizrd4zion
Member
#25
geowizrd wrote:the search capability seems to be selective in that it does NOT find all instances of a search term, but returns a subset of them. for example, 16.3.3 contains the following sentence: "The bishopric may also organize a ward young single adult committee."

i thought i found the answer to my own question in another thread, and tried a google search of:

site:new.lds.org/handbook/handbook-2-administering-the-church?lang=eng committee

which returned many more results, but still not the sentence in question!

as another example, searching for either committee or committees fails to return a reference to this sentence from 7.3.2:
They may organize committees among quorum or group members to carry out the work of the quorum or group and to fulfill assignments given in ward council meeting.

makes one long for a searchable pdf file instead of the world of javascripts...
liddleld
Church Employee
#26

Understanding search results

I just wanted to add some clarification on how search is working on the handbook. Results are returned at the chapter level rather than the section level. So the searches mentioned in the previous 2 posts actually do return the correct chapters in the results, although the snippet displayed on the results page may not be the sentence you're hoping to find because there may be other sentences from the chapter with the search term in them.

We do plan to change the search so that results are sections instead of chapters since it's not straightforward once you go to a chapter, where in the chapter your search term was found.
geowizrd4zion
Member
#27
<chuckle> oh, i get it, it's a game kind of like geo-caching, a search gives me some clues that get me in the neighborhood, and then i hunt around some more and find it myself...

seriously, to be useful, a search should take me straight to each and every instance of a search term, not to it's container, however defined.

in any event, the clarification IS appreciated, since i had previously assumed that if it didn't appear in a snippet, it didn't exist at all...
jpmuofu-p40
New Member
#28

Handbook 1 Access for Assistant Ward Clerk & Assitant Ward Executive Secretary

I was just called as an assistant ward clerk and assistant ward executive secretary. From what I can tell, the new Handbook 1, contains descriptions of the policies and responsibilities for both of these callings.

Currently, when I login to the leader resources page, it gives me access to Handbook 2 but not handbook 1 (https://lds.org/leader).

Is this correct? If so, how should I go about obtaining the information I need to fulfill my calling according to handbook 1's guidelines?
benjamincarleski
Member
#29
All the citations I see are for the executive secretaries, and assistants as needed. I would work with your executive secretary to find out what he needs you to assist with.
jonesrk
Church Employee
#30
jpmuofu wrote:I was just called as an assistant ward clerk and assistant ward executive secretary. From what I can tell, the new Handbook 1, contains descriptions of the policies and responsibilities for both of these callings.

Currently, when I login to the leader resources page, it gives me access to Handbook 2 but not handbook 1 (https://lds.org/leader).

Is this correct? If so, how should I go about obtaining the information I need to fulfill my calling according to handbook 1's guidelines?
As far as the online copy, I don't think you will be able to for now. There should be an office copy that is to be shared between the ward clerk and ward executive secretary. I would talk to them about reviewing the portions that you need.
mgattuso
New Member
#31

Book 1 continues to be available without authentication

Just wanted to post a message here to hopefully catch the eye of church developer to let you know that there is still way to access the entire Handbook 1 without ever logging into the church website. I posted a feedback item through the site but figured this might be quicker.

I don't want to post the link here so perhaps someone could PM me (or look at your website feed back system).


Of course if it is supposed to be available to all then disregard this message.
aebrown
Community Administrator
#32
mgattuso wrote:Just wanted to post a message here to hopefully catch the eye of church developer to let you know that there is still way to access the entire Handbook 1 without ever logging into the church website. I posted a feedback item through the site but figured this might be quicker.

I don't want to post the link here so perhaps someone could PM me (or look at your website feed back system).

Of course if it is supposed to be available to all then disregard this message.
Handbook 1 is definitely not supposed to be available to all. You did the right thing in reporting it using the feedback link (and in not posting the link here). A developer might see it here, but that's a long shot. The feedback mechanism will get the information to the right people.
Questions that can benefit the larger community should be asked in a public forum, not a private message.
tortdog
Member
#33

Searching "Kitchen" Find Index Entry

I must be missing something. I do a search of CHI 2 for kitchen and find the index entry. I do not see the section referred to in the index. And there is no way to go from the online index entry to the referenced page that I can see. I see no page numbers for CHI 2.