Author Archives: Mike Walsh

07.01.09
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Custom Reports for WinSwim

We use WinSwim to manage and run swim meets for the MacDolphins and now that our season has started, I have been doing a lot of work with WinSwim and not too much with wp-SwimTeam.  There are some things I need to fix but right now nothing is broken.

A year ago when I started using WinSwim I ended up creating a slew of custom reports mostly to deal with the fact that our pool is one of the few in the area which is a 25 meter pool – most are 25 yards.  We needed times in both meters and yards and the reports which came with WinSwim didn’t really handle it.  So I created a bunch of my own.  The only real downside of using custom reports is it required a file that is installed with WinSwim (language.xml) to be modified.  This was a maintenance headache as it would be overwritten with each WinSwim update.

WinSwim 4.0.21 introduced a new model for custom reports which removes the need to modify the language.xml file (yeah!).  Now each report is paired with a corresponding XML file and they all reside in a directory called “custom” within the WinSwim installation tree.

The reports are mostly geared around Heat Sheets and end of year reports.  To use the new reports, download the ZIP file and unzip into your top level WinSwim installation directory. 

WinSwim Custom Reports – v07-05, last updated on 2009-07-06

For example. in my case, I have WinSwim installed like this:

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When the reports are installed correctly you will have a new “Custom” menu available in the Report Viewer as a new top level menu item to the right of “Reports”.  Note that the old “Custom” menu under the “Reports” but will still be there and will likely be empty unless you are using the old style of custom reports (which is still supported).

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06.11.09
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wp-SwimTeam v0.1.406 – fixes to reports

This evening I posted a new build of wp-SwimTeam to the downloads page.  This version fixes an unusual situation where the swimmer reports would fail to work when no optional swimmer fields we defined.

I also fixed another issue with optional fields (user and swimmer) where if the number of fields in use was set to 0 in the Options settings, the system would revert to the default (5) number of fields.

Over the past week or so I have also posted a couple updates without posting an announcement.  Most of the improvements were in the reporting and SDIF generation.  Reports for Swim Meets can now include multiple meets on the same report and the SDIF options page has a new option to allow overriding the first name with the nickname when exporting the roster in SDIF format.

06.04.09
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wp-SwimTeam v0.1.400

A quick update that fixes exactly one issue – v0.1.400 is now on the download page.  I unleashed the opt-in/opt-out system on the MacDolphins today and quickly found that having the Participation column with “Register” and “Scratch” displayed for the users was confusing as parents thought that the Register or Scratch wording indicated the statue of their swimmers.  For now I have removed the column and I will add the ability for parents to see a summary of their Registers and Scratches.

06.04.09
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wp-SwimTeam v0.1.399 available

I just uploaded a new version of wp-SwimTeam.  It is now available on the download page.  This version fixes some issues with the Opt-In/Opt-Out functionality and fixes a pretty significant issue with User Option fields not being initialized correctly.

This build also restores the missing CSS references so any information generated by the short codes is displayed properly.

05.31.09
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wp-SwimTeam v0.1.389 released

This evening I uploaded a new version of wp-SwimTeam.  It is available on the download page.  This version introduces a new report for swim meets.  The Swim Meet report’s most important feature is the listing of swimmers who have Opted-In or Opted-Out of a swim meet.  On the MacDolphins we call this a the Scratch List.

A parent can now indicate when their swimmers are participating (for meets defined as opt-in) or not participating (for meets defined as opt-out) on either a full meet or event basis.  The meet report will display a summary of swimmer participation based on the type of meet.

A couple of the options on the Report Form are disabled because they aren’t functional yet.  They will probably work in a day or two.

This release also introduces a new mode for Swimmer Labels – Frozen.  When Swimmer Labels are unlocked, they can be bulk assigned.  When they are locked, Swimmer Labels can be edited on a per swimmer basis but no bulk assigned.  When they are frozen, they can’t be edited at all.  I added this because I inadvertently reassigned the swimmer labels for the MacDolphins yesterday without meaning to.  Whoops.

I fixed a few other minor issues as well but nothing significant, mostly presentation of forms and such.

05.28.09
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MacDolphins WordPress Theme

I have had a couple people ask me for the MacDolphins WordPress theme to use as a starting point for their own swim team.  The MacDolphins theme is built on top of the Sandbox theme framework and I am happy to share it.

I have toyed around with a couple of themes but this is the first one I think is robust enough to share.  It does have a few issues left to fix (e.g. sticky posts) and I hope to do that soon.  If you end up using this theme, please make sure to credit the Sandbox theme as without it, this theme isn’t possible.

MacDolphins Theme – updated 5/28/2009 @ 11:10 PM
[download#9#image]
05.23.09
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Known Issues with v0.1.377

Last nigth the MacDolphins had our kickoff party – a fun event before practice starts on Tuesday. In getting ready for the event I ran into a couple things that I will fix over the next couple days. These are the things that I found don’t work correctly:

  1. Swimmer labels can be reassigned even when the labels are locked for a season.
  2. Swimmers labels are not exported to CSV from the Swimmers Report.
  3. CSV export for Roster fails from Roster Tab.
  4. Scratch fails with array out of bounds error.

I also changed how the registration e-mail works yesterday. Instead of filling out the e-mail template with the information from the user actually doing the registration, it uses the information from the Primary Contact.  I am finding that a number of parents are asking if I can “just take care of it” for them.  This change allows them to receive the e-mail even if the Admin performs the registration on their behalf.  This change is already committed and I used it last night but hasn’t been released in a build yet.

05.20.09
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wp-SwimTeam v0.1.377 – Administrative Fields

I posted a new build of wp-SwimTeam this afternoon for download.  This build supports the new administrative mode for user and swimmer optional fields.  It has not had a significant amount of testing but I was able to run through quite a few scenarios and all behaved as expected.

This build also introduces a new type of optional field the NO-YES option.  This is similar to the YES-NO option but defaults to NO instead of YES.