Google Updates Forms Again

Sometime in the past few days (as near as I can tell) Google has updated Forms again.  This most recent update adds the H5F Javascript library to do required field checking.  This functionality is similar to the jQuery Validation plugin solution I included in WordPress Google Form a number of months ago.

This new validation functionality doesn’t appear in all forms, just those created after a certain date.  Existing forms do not appear to have this new functionality embedded in it.

So how do I know if I have the new functionality?  The most obvious sign is the appearance of the text “This is a required question” underneath the form element.

GForm_SS_58

 

It is fairly easy to make these messages go away since they are redundant with the plugin functionality.

You can add the following to your Custom CSS (form specific or global):

div.required-message {
    display: none;
}

This will hide the messages and the form reverts to looking as it did prior to Google’s latest change.

GForm_SS_59

I will likely include this CSS as part of the default CSS in the next update but I need to do a little more testing first.

wp-SwimTeam v1.40-beta-1 now available

I have uploaded a preliminary build of wp-SwimTeam v1.40-beta-1.  This build introduces new functionality to support mixed gender and combined age groups.  It also fixes a number of small bugs I encountered along the way.

I have not done thorough testing on it as I don’t have access to MM and TM right now to validate the changes.  However, I am reasonably confident that the changes I’ve made will have little to no impact on Hy-tek compatibility.

If you run into any issues, let me know and I’ll get them fixed as quickly as I can.

wp-SwimTeam Beta (2187 downloads )

Changes to Age Groups

I am working on some new functionality to support mixed gender events.  While I am at it I have decided to fix a limitation with the current Age Groups where the need to define overlapping age groups works but causes some discrepancies on the roster and other reports.

I have enhanced the definition of an Age Group so it can either be “Standard” (which is what it has always been) or “Combined”.  A combined age group can support mixed genders and/or age ranges that span multiple age groups.  By differentiating two types of age groups it cleans up the issues with overlapping age groups too.

Here are a couple of screen shots of what the changes look like.  I am running through some testing now to make sure everything still works.

wpst_SS_03 wpst_SS_04

wpGForm Custom Post Type Preview

As I noted a couple days ago, I have started a “renovation” of sorts to my WordPress Google Forms plugin.  I have defined a Custom Post Type which makes it much easier to set up a form.  It is no longer necessary to worry about the syntax of a long complicated short code!  Here are a couple images of what the Dashboard UI looks like.

Adding a form to a post or page is as simple as adding the [wpgform id=’N’] short code where N maps to the form’s post id.  The short code syntax for each Google Form appears in the list of forms.

The Google Form Edit Screen has fields which map directly to all of the short code attributes that were defined in the original short code.

There is no change of operation on the front end – the form should continue to operate as it has previously.  If you’re interested in testing this new version, I hope to have a beta available fairly soon which also has some other new features.

Moving to a Custom Post Type may allow for some more robust field validation using the jQuery Validation plugin!  Stay tuned for  more details on that as I don’t think it will be in the first release of Custom Post Types.

wp-SwimTeam v1.34.963 available for download

This afternoon I fixed a couple of minor bugs and pushed out v1.34.963.  The primary new feature in this release is the ability to export Meet Entries to Hy-tek Team Manager.  I have had lots of requests to support Hy-tek over the years so I am happy to say I can finally support it!

As anyone who has read my postings over the past few years knows, I am no fan of Hy-tek.  Between the closed data format and the awful user interface, it amazes me that their products have become the defacto standards for Swim Team and Swim Meet management but they have.  If you want to play in this space you need to interface with Hy-tek.  Fortunately some smart guys decoded the HY3 checksum and through lots of experiments some other people have figured out the HY3 file format so building on the work of others, I can now export a roster and meet entries in HY3 format.

I would appreciate feedback in this area as I have tested what I can but there is no such thing as too much testing and I may not have envisioned every scenario.  There is also a very strong possibility that some of the fields in the HY3 format may not be in the right place or contain the right data.

I also fixed a number of issues when browsing Parents, Swimmers, and the Roster where the Search function wasn’t working correctly.  Most of these problems were due to the SQL changes I made to address performance issues but a couple of them were due to allowing search against fields which are computed as opposed to extracted from the database.

wp-SwimTeam and WordPress 3.4

I see on my Dashboard that WordPress 3.4 is out today.  I knew it would be out soon as I follow the WordPress Hackers and WordPress Testers mailing lists but have not done anything with it yet.  In the past I have tried to do a basic smoke test against one of the release candidates before the final release is out but this time I haven’t had the time to do it.

So the answer to “will it work?” is “I don’t know!”.  I realize that isn’t a very good answer and I will try to test it in the next few days.  My recommendation is to hold off until I’ve done some basic testing.  I am not aware of anything that will break based on what I know is coming but until I test it, you never know!

Two Minute Setup Guide

I don’t have much documentation for wp-SwimTeam.  It is on my to-do list but I haven’t made it a priority.  When I first started the plugin, there were not a lot of options and capabilities but that has changed over the past three years.  I get a few questions each week on where to start in order to use the plugin.  Today I wrote up a quick summary of the steps necessary to get wp-SwimTeam setup and usable.

I also frequently get asked about the various short codes available to put swim team information in posts and on pages.  I’ve started adding more information to the Demo site so the syntax of the short codes is clearer.  See this post as an example of the various ways a Swim Meet schedule can be displayed.

  1. Two Minute Setup Guide
  2. Demo wp-SwimTeam Site

 

Job Bug in v1.25 and v1.26!

There is a pretty serious bug in the last couple of releases. It appears that the changes I made to support Multi-Site affected the Jobs module.

It appears that jobs that have already been committed to one user appear as available to all other users.

I am at a Lacrosse tournament and have limited access from my phone to be sure. For now, I recommend putting your Jobs module in “Admin” sign up mode until I investigate later tonight. Use the Jobs tab on the Options menu to disable User job sign up.

Update 5/13/2012:  This bug has been fixed in v1.27, please update ASAP.

Bug Report for v1.22.x

Here are a couple of issues that I am working to fix this morning, an update should be available shortly.

  1. LSC Registration Pyramid doesn’t pass SDIF Checker.
  2. Can’t add or import events for an Event Group that doesn’t have at least one event already.

Please let me know if you’ve encountered any other problems.