wp-SwimTeam v1.40-beta-5 now available

I have just uploaded beta-5 of wp-SwimTeam v1.40.  This is a minor update, the only fix is to the generation of the USS Number when used as swimmer labels.  Previously the USS Number was being computed in YYMMDD format where as the USS Swimming SDIF specification calls it out in MMDDYY format.

wp-SwimTeam Beta (12560 downloads )

wp-SwimTeam v1.40-beta-4 available

This morning I posted beta-4 of wp-SwimTeam v1.40.  This beta update addresses a number of issues mentioned recently on the WordPress Support Forum.

  1. Support for Age Groups where min and max age are identical.
  2. Mapping zero (0) as upper and lower max age in event files to min and max age in wp-SwimTeam.

There are a few other fixes as well plus some debug code cleanup.  I still have a couple of things to clean up before releasing v1.40.  Also in this build as are the basic building blocks for Roles and Capabilities.  If you use a Roles and Capabilities plugin, you may see some new swim team related data which has been defined but is not yet being used.

wp-SwimTeam Beta (12560 downloads )

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 (12560 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

Supporting Mixed-Gender Events

It turns out adding support for mixed-gender events isn’t as simple as I thought it might be.  Because so much of wp-SwimTeam revolves around age groups, I haven’t made it very easy on myself to add this enhancement.

Events are tied to age groups so in order to add a mixed gender event, I need a mixed gender age group to associate it with.  A mixed-gender age group doesn’t really make any sense although it is similar to another feature which isn’t easy to support – age groups which are supersets of other age groups.

I have learned that some leagues have “special” events which are open to swimmers from multiple age groups.  For example:  The league my niece and nephew swim in has open freestyle events at the end of the meet.  There are two age groups (10 and under, 11-18) for each gender.  The wp-SwimTeam definition of an age group doesn’t work well for these groups either although it isn’t as problematic as a mixed gender event it.

After noodling around with a few ideas I think I have come to the conclusion that I need some sort of Age Group classification to allow defining a group which spans ages and/or genders.  I am struggling with nomenclature for these groups but I believe the fundamental idea is sound.

For now I am referring to these special age groups as a “Combined” age group.  They will not be counted in swimmer population numbers but will be used for Events and Entries.

wp-SwimTeam v1.38.983 released

This afternoon I posted an update to wp-SwimTeam.  This update addresses a number of bugs that have been reported recently.

  • Fixed bug in Hy-tek entries generation which caused a PHP warning but no loss of data.
  • Fixed bug which caused parents/guardians to see all swimmers instead of just their swimmers when opting in or out of a swim meet.
  • Added checking and a warning message when the selected meet occurs outside of the active season. Some operations makes sense, however some do not (e.g. opt-in or opt-out).

You can find the update in the WordPress Plugin Repository or as an update via your Dashboard.  You can also download it here.

Google Forms Beta (39002 downloads )

wp-SwimTeam v1.37.976 released

This morning I released v1.37.976 of wp-SwimTeam.  This build addresses a bug which prevents the deletion of Event Groups and fixes several situations where dialog boxes were “floated” to the wrong place pushing them off the page to the right side.

You can find the latest version of wp-SwimTeam on the Download and  Installation page or in the WordPress Plugin repository.

wp-SwimTeam v1.36.973 released

This morning I released v1.36.973 of wp-SwimTeam.  This build addresses a bug which prevents Users from signing up for job from the Jobs tab.

Yesterday I released v1.35.971 which addressed a problem when there were zero swimmers (aka a new installation) in the system.  This bug caused some of the pages to display oddly for the Roster and list of Swimmers.  Lastly, I enhanced the registration email such that it includes the Optional Field data defined for a swimmer.  This enhancement is only included when using HTML formatted email.  The Plain Text email continues to be very brief in nature.

You can find the latest version of wp-SwimTeam on the Download and  Installation page or in the WordPress Plugin repository.  I also released an update to phpHtmlLib yesterday which addresses the very odd situation which resulted in blank pages within the wp-SwimTeam Dashboard.

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.