Squadlist

The system was unavailable from 11.45 to approximately 7pm on the 27th of February.

This is the longest outage we’ve had since we started running Squadlist. It was particularly inconvenient as it fall on a weekend, when access to the data is most important.

The outage was caused by a faulty component in the machine which hosts the system.
This machine is managed by a dedicated hosting company. We choose to use a locally based, independent company for our hosting needs. An independent may not have access to the same resources as a larger supplier but in my opinion, they did an excellent job of recovering for this failure as quickly as possible and we’ll be sticking with them.

Apologies for any inconvenience caused as a result of this outage.

Regards, Tony McCrae.
Squadlist developer

This system was unavailable earlier this afternoon.

This outage was caused be the system failing to recover automatically from an unscheduled power outage. The system has now been altered to allow it to restart automatically in this situation.

The update scheduled for this week was completed this evening. All copies should now be using the latest version.

A 10 minute downtime occurred at approximately 9.50pm while this work was completed.

For your information, the Squadlist system will be updated this week.

This update clarifies the role squad representatives as well as adding a new contact export feature.

The admin screen currently prompts squad reps with options which they are not able to perform; namely adding new rowers, deleting rowers and adding and deleting squads. This update removes these broken links from squad reps’ admin screens. Clubs who require squad reps to be able to perform these tasks should consider elevating them to full admin users.

The Squad Contacts screen now allows a squad’s contact details (name, email address and phone number if the rower is permitted to see this) to be downloaded as a Group vCard.

A Group vCard is a de facto standard which is supported by Google Mail and the Apple Address Book among others. Some mobile phones also understand this format.

Microsoft Outlook is not known to support this standard; we hope to address Outlook’s specific requirements in the near future. Outlook users may be able to make use of the vCard export by loading their squad contacts into Google Mail and then re-exporting as an Outlook CSV file.

With the started of the new season, we’ve updated this mailing list to include the admins of the copies which appear to be active. A notification message is sent to this list before we make any updates which we could impact on your users. Removal instructions are shown below if you do not which to receive these notifications.

The availability databases were unavailable from approximately 4am to 11am this morning.

This outage was caused by a power issue at the hosting provider who supplies the machine which the databases are hosted on. Normal service has now been restored.

All copies of the system have now been moved to a new server. This move is in response to performance issues which we have observed over the last 10 days.

Users should see improved access speed as a result of this move.

For your information, we will be making an update to the availability system later this week.
This update addresses these issues:

- Login fails silently if the user’s browser does not accept the login cookie
A check has been put in place to warn users that they need to allow cookies from the system.

- Admin users should be able to see all squads availability even if they are not assigned to a squad
Admin users who are not assigned to any squad are currently unable to browse availability. This update resolves this issue.

Performance issues

Over the last week, we’ve observed erratic performance from the machine which hosts the availability systems.
This could be caused by congestion at our hosting company. We’re monitoring the situation and will take
further action if the situation does not improve.

Access to source code

There have been several requests for copies of the code which runs the system.
A copy of this code is now available on Google Code at: http://code.google.com/p/squadlist/

The source code is currently offered for information proposes only; we’re not currently able to support clubs wishing to use it in a production environment.

For your information, your copy of Squadlist will be updated during the next week.

This update improves the functionality of the rowers availability screen.

Currently, when filling in their availability, rowers must scroll to the bottom of the screen and
press the update button before their changes are saved. This has been causing problems for squads with large numbers of outings.

The updated availability screen uses Javascript to save availability changes instantly as the drop downs are changed. Users with Javascript enabled should see the value in the ‘Your availability’ column change as the drop downs are updated.

The update button continues to work as before and users with Javascript disabled will be able to continue submitting their availability in the usual way.

This new functionality can be previewed on the demo copy located at: http://www.squadlist.co.uk/demo/

Thank you to Cambridge City RC for assisting in the testing of this update.

Your copy of Squadlist will be updated later this week.

The following minor changes are included in this update:

- A first attempt at improving the readability of the availability screen.
To help coaches identify availability for upcoming outings, the availability for past outings has been grayed out.

- Ical outings feeds are available to rowers.
Each rower now has the option of importing their pending outings into an ical compatible calendar program.

This feature is mentioned on the right hand side of each rowers availability screen. This feature is already available to coaches from the admin screen.

Both of these changes are currently visible on the demo site: http://www.squadlist.co.uk/demo.php

Squadlist will be updated later this week. The following changes are included in this update:

- Coaches can see the last modification time for a rower’s availability.
On the Squad Availability screen, coaches can see the last modified time by hovering the pointer over the rower’s name.
This field records the date on which the rower last successfully submitted the Rowers Availability form.
The display will initially show ‘unknown’, as this data has not been recorded in the past.

- iCalendar outings feed.
On the admin screen a link is provided to an iCalendar feed containing all of the your club’s outings.
This format is compatible with applications such as Apple’s iCal and Google Calendars.
This feed could also be used to integrate the outing information into your own clubs’ website.