Category Archives: Development

04.17.11
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What’s next for wp-SwimTeam?

I have one more feature to add to the Jobs module before I consider it complete.  I have a request to be able to send out Reminder Notifications on a per swim meet basis which should be pretty straight forward to implement and I hope to have it done in the next day or two.

Once that is complete, I need to decide what to do next.  I have a couple of choices.

  1. I’ve had a couple requests to be able to import a roster into wp-SwimTeam.  I don’t think this will be too difficult technically but it does require a couple decisions.  Since swimmers in wp-SwimTeam are connected to parent or guardian users, what WordPress userid would the imported swimmers be connected to?  The obvious choice is the Admin user or user running the import.  Swimmers could then be updated at a later time to connect them to the appropriate WordPress user if/when it exists.
  2. Import results.  This has long been on my to-do list because the MacDolphins need it.  I’ve been working on processing results off an on as a side project (see Flip-Turn) with the intent to fold that work into wp-SwimTeam when it is functioning and useful.  I already have a lot the functionality working and the GUI will look familiar to wp-SwimTeam users but I have yet to tackle relays and really push the robustness of the SDIF parsing.
  3. Hy-tek/SDIF compatibility.  This is also something I need for the upcoming season.  Anyone who has read much of this blog knows that I am not a big fan of Hy-tek and their goofy checksum and weak support of SDIF.  Since it isn’t likely to change and lots of teams use Hy-tek, we need to resolve the data exchange problem.  This issue may be the highest priority for me personally and I’ve debated whether to build some functionality into wp-SwimTeam to try and resolve sharing data with Hy-tek teams.

Comments and suggestions are welcome.  I try to incorporate suggestions quickly if I can.

04.17.11
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wp-SwimTeam v1.5.579 released

I have just released wp-SwimTeam v.1.5.579, you can find it on the download page and shortly, via the automatic plugin updater.  This release fixes an issue which has bothered me personally for a long time.

There was a problem in the E-mail Confirmation code for both registrations and opt-in/opt-out.  This same code was used for the new Jobs module so it existed there too.  For a long time the confirmation e-mails were duplicated and if a swimmer had to two contacts, only one of them would receive the e-mail.  I have finally found and fixed this problem so e-mail confirmation should be cleaner and sent to the appropriate people.

04.12.11
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wp-SwimTeam v1.4.573 released

This evening I released wp-SwimTeam v1.4.573.  It can be downloaded from this web site or from the WordPress plugin repository.  The plugin auto-update will also update to this release.  New and fixed in this release are:

  • Fixed bug in Opt-In/Opt-Out e-mail confirmation which duplicated recipients.
  • Fixed bug in handling Country when set to US Only.
  • Added Club Profile initialization based on State or Province in Team Profile.
  • Added E-mail confirmation for Job Assignments.
  • Added Job Options tab on Options page to configuring Jobs module.

Make sure you visit the Job Options tab to configure your jobs module.  There is still work to be done to report the number of credits a user has signed up for and to flag which users have not met the threshold.  Hopefully that functionality will come in the next week or two.

Update: This release had a minor update due to a file missing from the WordPress plugin repository.  The missing file prevented the Jobs Options tab from rendering.  Other minor tweaks were also made to the Jobs Confirmation e-mails.

04.02.11
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wp-SwimTeam v1.2.552 now available

This morning I posted wp-SwimTeam v1.2.551.  This release fixes a couple of bugs and adds a couple minor features and addresses one major issue.

  1. Prior to this release a new user could add a swimmer without completing their swim team parent/guardian profile but a warning was displayed.  The warning is now an error and no further action can proceed until the profile information is completed.
  2. Throughout the wp-SwimTeam dashboard much of the information is displayed in a widget that can be searched, sorted, and paged through.  The number of rows that is displayed is now controlled by a setting on the Options->Miscellaneous tab.
  3. A couple of minor bugs have fixed with respect to reporting.
  4. There was a serious bug which occurred when the number of User or Swimmer optional fields was set to zero.  This has been fixed and the ability to essentially “turn off” optional fields for users or swimmers now works correctly.
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03.09.11
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wp-SwimTeam v1.1.546 available

I have posted an update to the wp-SwimTeam plugin.  This version addresses a few bugs, one of which was fairly critical as related to optional fields for users and swimmers.  This version also adds infrastructure to provide Contextual Help for all of the forms although only the Jobs forms have detailed help so far.  Help will be updated for other forms as time permits in upcoming releases.

This version also adds a new choice when defining a Job’s location.  Previously the location was limited to Home, Away, or Both.  A new choice, N/A, has been added to account for some jobs not being tied to a swim meet.  An example of this would be a job such as ‘End of Season Banquet Coordinator’.

[download#7#image]
03.02.11
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wp-SwimTeam v1.1.533 now available

I have just posted v1.1.533 of the wp-SwimTeam plugin.  This version includes the first pass of Contextual Help for all plugin screens and forms.  I have added and/or clarified some of the information to (hopefully) make it more clear what particular areas of the plugin are for and the actions which can be performed.

This version also fixes a number of minor bugs that I encountered, most were due to typos in the SDIF constants that were exposed when I turned the WP_DEBUG flag on.

I added one significant new feature:  It is now possible to configure the Opt-In/Opt-Out system to support opting in or out of Full, Partial, or Both types of swim meets.  Control over this setting, which defaults to BOTH, is on the Options page under the Swim Team tab.

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02.28.11
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Adding WordPress Contextual Help

WordPress 3.0 introduced a concept called Contextual Help.  Contextual Help provides a mechanism for plugins to hook into the standard WordPress Help system.  This is pretty cool because it provides a way to provide Help that is consistent with the WordPress Dashboard.

I’ve had something I’ve called Guidance on almost every page and tab through the plugin and while helpful, it tends to clutter up the interface.  I had a question from our swimteam’s volunteer coordinator about adding more help to the page and I was worried about adding even more clutter.  I tried a couple experiments with a jQuery Dialog solution but I wasn’t happy with the results.  It was then that I wondered if I could make use of the existing Help button in the Dashboard as it is always there on the Dashboard.

After a bit of reading and some experiments I was able to have custom content displayed within the Swim Team Dashboard pages.  However, trying to have different content for each tab was a little more of a challenge.  I ended up solving this problem using a simple jQuery script to swap the default content with some tab specific HTML.  Awesome!  Elegant Help solution achieved!

I am now in the process of retrofitting this new model for every page and every tab which will take a little while.  I expect I will have a build available in a few days but in the mean time, here are a couple screen shots to get an idea of what this new Help model will look like.

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02.20.11
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wp-SwimTeam v1.0.514 available for download

A new release of wp-SwimTeam is now available.  This release addresses a number of issues encountered when running on a server with PHP 5.3.5 installed.  This release requires the phpHtmlLib plugin to be updated to v2.6.2.3545 or later.

Make sure you backup your database before installing this update.  This update also fixes some database table issues, deleting fields and columns which have been deprecated.  Please report any issues you find, I have tried to test everything but I may have missed something!

wp-SwimTeam plugin – updated 2/20/2011 @ 18:11
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01.26.11
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Potential Bug follow up

I had some airplane seat time over the last couple days and had a chance to look into the potential bug thatI posed about a couple days ago.  I have not discovered the source of the bug yet, I am even more convinced it is from a plugin conflict of some sort.

However, in the process of trying to find it I enabled some WordPress debug features and found a bunch of little things wrong with wp-SwimTeam.  Prior to WordPress 3.0 most of these either didn’t happen or didn’t matter and the end user never was exposed to them.  I have spent a fair amount of time cleaning them up as they DO matter in 3.0.x and still have a few more to do.

I hope to have a new release out by the end of the week.