Periodically I search for new swim team related software to see if anyone else is trying to solve the problems I am trying to solve. Today I found something interesting called Natalog. Natalog is from a company called Natavision and it is a swim results viewing and analysis tool.
I think much of what this tool can do is available in Crystal Reports but this looks to be much easier and certainly something a parent or coach might find useful. It takes a variety of input formats including SDIF (.sd3), Hy-tek, and plain text. Since it accepts SDIF, it can report WinSwim results very easily.
I am slowly adding reporting functionality to wp-SwimTeam and I doubt I will ever do anything to this extent.
The MacDolphins summer swim season ended this past Tuesday but there are few things I wanted to fix while they are still fresh in my mind.
Our volunteer coordinator had asked me if I could make it so she could export the Job Assignment Report to Excel. When I got into it I realized that the approach I was taking with the original Job Assignment Report was based on an old report and I really should have based it on the Users report.
Since the Job Assignment Report leverages the User information, I was able to base the new Job Assignment Report on the classes for the User reports. This was absolutely the right decision as it saved me from writing a bunch of new code which would be similar to. if not exactly the same as, the code for the User Report.
This release fixes a couple of minor nits but mainly it introduces a new Job Report which can be exported as a CSV file which is easily manipulated with Excel. The report can also be generated as a HTML table and allows the user to specify which fields are to be included in the report.
I just uploaded a minor update to wp-SwimTeam. This release adds enhancements to the reporting for jobs and the opt-in/opt-out system. A new field called “Notes” was added to the Jobs definition. This field is reported when viewing the Job Assignments for a swim meet.
The time stamp for opt-in/opt-out is now included when generating a swim meet report. The time stamp can also be displayed via the short code by adding “timestamp=’y'” to the short code. Reporting the time stamp will allow you to easily see exactly when users submitted their request.
Quick turn-around on a release as there was a bug which was really bothering me. The Opt-In/Opt-Out report was pulling swimmer label from the active season regardless of which season a meet was created against. This was fine for the current season but messed up reports from any prior season.
The report now pulls swimmer labels from the season that the meet is created against so looking back a a report from last season or two seasons ago will still show correctly.
I posted wp-SwimTeam v0.1.417 this afternoon to the download page. This update adds new functionality and fixes a few minor things which have bothered me as I found them during the season.
The big new feature is a new shortcode – wpst_meet_report. This shortcode allows a the contents of a meet report to appear in a post or a page like this example on the wp-SwimTeam demo site.
The reports also now support hiding first and last names by only showing the initial as well as the ability to override the first name with a nickname if the swimmer’s profile has one. The missing ability to display a map on the swim meet report has been added so the checkbox on the form is now enabled. The reports can now display opt-in and opt-out information chronologically in the order they were added to the system as well as the previously available by name and by swimmer label.
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.
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.
This afternoon I finished updating the Report Generator so it completely supports the new option model. Both CSV and HTML reports are working. Filtering works too but right now only YES-NO optional fields are available as filters. I am not sure if I will change that or not.
I need to run through some additional testing and then I’ll post a release. This is enough of a change that I’ll probably bump the revision from 0.0.x to 0.1.x for both the software and database version.
wp-SwimTeam v0.0.313 is now available from the download page.
New
This update adds new reporting functionality for both swimmers and parents. Full details for a swimmer, including their primary and secondary contact, can be generated. Output of HTML (in a web page) reports is now supported.
Bug Fixes
This update fixes a problem with the Update Swimmer function which resulted in the form being displayed again after a save but only when nothing was changed.
As I noted in an earlier post, a minor update to the wp-SwimTeam plugin has been posted and is available for download. This update fixes a the issues I encountered as I worked on the MacDolphins registration. A couple of them were just dumb mistakes – some hardcoded paths that assumed the plugin path (from before I knew how to determine the plugin path).
While I was fixing the Report Generator I enhanced it – it can now export the primary and secondary contact details but only to the CSV version of the report. The HTML report will be updated as well in the next day or two.
Note: Make sure you download and install the phpHtmlLib plugin! wp-SwimTeam won’t work with it.
