Recent Product Updates
Software is hard. It took me longer than I would have liked to figure out what is wrong with the TurboNET advancement report for Cub Scouts, but I finally did. If you have used the Cub Scout TurboNET Advancement Report and had it run without errors but not report any awards to BSA, please give it another shot. Thanks for your patience as we figured this weird problem out.
Best wishes,
~ Dave
PermalinkHappy Friday! We just released a number of enhancements and bug fixes:
1) Remember that feature that lets users filter the calendar to events they are invited to? This caused trouble for some units who want their users to see all events. So now there is a setting to let you choose the default filter for the whole troop. Just go to Manage -> Settings -> Edit Troop Settings, then click on the TroopTrack Settings tab. The default setting is to show all events a family member is invited to.
2) We fixed a bug with imports from AHG Connect that was adding awards without their requirements. If you have awards like this, you can fix it just by re-importing your data from AHG Connect OR by removing the awards and adding them again.
3) Interacting with ScoutNET via our TurboNET features (BSA only) occasionally fails because ScoutNET is slow. We have made TurboNET better at dealing with this problem when it occurs.
4) All mailing lists now start out as "open" lists when they are first created. By default anyone will be able to use them and you only need to add restrictions if you want to.
5) Announcements are sorted better on the newsletter, announcements page, and on the user dashboard.
Have a great weekend!
~ Dave
PermalinkThis morning we are releasing our first update to TroopTrack Mobile for iOS! Here are the release notes.
Thanks for using the mobile app, and thanks for all your feedback! We're listening, and have fixed a number of issues and added some new functionality that you asked for. Keep submitting that feedback, more great things are coming!
+ Added "Feedback" option to Settings Page
+ Make it easier to jump to the Achievement Details Page
+ Settings Page shows which user is logged, to help families where multiple users share one iOS device.
+ Add note when event has no attendees
+ Clean up event attendance and event RSVP status to remove confusion
+ Show money account balance on Scout Info Page
+ Fixed issue where submitting images from the app didn't display correctly.
It could take up to 24 hours for you to see the update on your device, so don't freak out if you don't see it right away.
Also, we are busily making plans for the Android app. We are totally going to do it.
PermalinkWe just released a number of product updates:
1) There is now an option to sort the record attendance page by last name or by rsvp status.
2) There is now an option to sort youth by last name or patrol on the bulk achievement page
3) Exporting equipment items to PDF now lists the right values under the right columns
4) Performance tuning to make the site faster during peak hours
5) Fixed a bug that was preventing newsletters scheduled for Sundays from being sent. This was a crazy bug. Sorry!
Have a great day!
~ Dave
PermalinkA number of fixes went live this morning:
1) A bug preventing you from saving services hours, hiking miles, camping nights, and canoeing miles when recording attendance was fixed.
2) You can now RSVP for an event until 2 hours after it is over. We added the 2 hours for recording payments for people who showed up without a ticket.
3) Some users were not able to open money accounts listed on their dashboard. This is fixed.
4) A bug preventing new Cub Scout awards from being reported to BSA via TurboNET was fixed.
Have a happy Monday!
~ Dave
We just released two important bug fixes. They are both now live:
1) We no longer mark awards "reported" when a TurboNET advancement report fails (usually because the BSA Internet Advancement Report is responding too slowly).
2) We now longer send duplicate text messages if two people on the same list share a cell phone number.
Have a nice weekend!
~ Dave
PermalinkA couple of minor changes this morning:
1) We fixed a bug that prevented you from viewing the profiles of deactivated users
2) We now show you the ID of your support requests on the "All my requests page".
3) Automated messages from the help desk now include a count of the number of support requests with the same status so you can have a sense of where you are in line.
We have also been working to improve our support processes so that we escalate the critical issues as quickly as possible. There has been some confusion about "escalated" support requests. The word escalated suggests that it is critical and needs fixed now, but we were using it to mean "needs developer review". We've now added a "needs review" status and from now on "escalated" means "HOLY COW THE BARN IS ON FIRE PLEASE GET THE WATER". As of this morning, if your ticket gets escalated it is in our highest priority queue. Tickets that were escalated before this morning have been updated to have a status of "Needs Review".
We are always working to make our customer support processes better. We think this is a step in the right direction.
We released two bug fixes this morning:
1) Some BSA Packs were having trouble with TurboNET imports. We were crashing if there were users who had a first name that was not capitalized in ScoutNET. This problem is fixed.
2) For members with no achievements, when you clicked the "Start Achievement" button on the user profile you would receive a message that the user had already started all achievements. It's now fixed.
I'm really glad these two bugs are fixed. They were frustrating a lot of people and they were mystifying us for a while.
A couple of updates this morning...
1) Photo uploads from the mobile app (https://itunes.apple.com/…/a…/trooptrack-mobile/id1002622052) now work. You don't need to update the app version to get this fix.
2) Overlapping table headers on PDFs have been fixed. Here's what that means: ugly unreadable text on the top of PDFs is gone.
3) The BSA permission slip has been updated to use the 2014 version.
Also, I'd like to add a quick note about our enhancement process. Sometimes when we release an update we will get a comment along the lines of "It's nice that you did this, but you really should be working on X instead". These comments sometimes imply that we just work on the stuff we want to work on and ignore requests from users or that we only work on "new" features instead of "fixing" existing ones.
That's not how we roll, not at all. Pretty much everything we work on is driven by user requests. We do our best to work on the things that are requested the most, impact the most users, or seem the most important for operating a unit. We aren't perfect at it. Sometimes we aren't even good at it. But that's how we operate, and we sincerely hope that our efforts to make TroopTrack better every single day are paying off for you.
~ Dave
Happy Monday! We've got a couple of exciting changes that went live this morning - here's a quick rundown.
1) Dashboards 1.0! Whether you are a leader, scout, or parent, the new dashboard gives you a nice overview of the things you care about. The dashboard is configured based on the privileges you already have. We're certain you will very quickly think of other things you'd like to see on the dashboard, so please let us know by opening a support request.
2) Event filters on the calendar. When you access the calendar, by default it now only shows events you created or events you or a family member are invited to. There are four icons at the top of the calendar so you can change the view to include:
- All events
- Only events you are invited to
- Only events you or a family member are invited to
- Only events you have RSVP'd "Yes" to
This change is present on the calendar and agenda view of events.
3) Events that don't require an RSVP. There is a new checkbox under the invitee box called "RSVP Required". It is checked by default. If you uncheck it, invitations to the event will now say "RSVP not required" and invitees will not get a notification asking them to RSVP.
4) The colors of the header for Venturing Crew have been updated to be more Crew-ish.
5) A bug preventing Sea Scout Ships from doing anything other than sign up for an account has been fixed.
6) The pop-up you see when you click on an event in the calendar now includes a link to all event payments.
7) The "Invite Members" page now includes a link to reset passwords.
We hope these changes please you and make it easier for you to operate your unit effectively!
~ Dave
Good morning! Happy Friday!
We have been getting a lot of requests lately for the ability to include a note when you RSVP for an event. Well... you asked and we delivered. It went live this morning.
Also going live this morning, our BETA of Sea Scouts and Civil Air Patrol. If you are involved with either of these groups, please give it a spin.
We have also included a few minor security tweaks and some performance enhancements that improve the speed of power search and anything related to achievements.
What's next? I'm not entirely sure. Here are some things I am considering, in the order I am considering them:
1) Dashboard. I've already started work on this, but it's not quite ready to go. There's a chance it will be ready next week, but we will see.
2) "My Events" filter on the calendar. We currently show all events, all the time. This feature would add a filter to show only your events. This would become the default, with the option to view all events.
3) Streamlined event creation. Basically a spreadsheet that lets you plan your recurring events in a snap.
4) Newsletter improvements. The newsletter is plain looking and can be hard to read. Let's make it look nice and more relevant by only showing events the recipient is invited to.
5) Events without RSVPs. This is a common request, to be able to have events where you aren't expected to RSVP.
Feel free to let me know what you think!
~ Dave
PermalinkOn Thursday, September 17, 2015 we will have a planned outage from 6:00 AM CT to 8:00 CT. We will be performing various security updates and upgrading the database significantly.
PermalinkA number of minor updates this morning:
1) If you invited a user, patrol, or mailing list to an event, and then deleted that user, patrol, or mailing list, you would receive an error message trying to edit the event later. This is fixed.
2) The access level names listed on the new invite users page were not consistent with the names listed on the privileges tab, causing confusion. Fixed!
3) The "Start Achievement" button on user profiles was very slow. We've optimized the page to make it much faster.
4) Various improvements to our help desk application to make us more efficient.
HAPPY MONDAY!
PermalinkIt's been a big week, with lots of new stuff and critical improvements. But it's only Thursday and heck, we aren't done yet!
This morning we bring you two new features that are among our most requested enhancements:
1) You can now choose attendees to events using mailing lists. I've also tried to make the event invite section stand out a bit more.
2) Attendance sheets now include totals.
And now, a request from us to all of you. We are working on a dashboard concept. The dashboard will be customized based on your role in the troop. We are planning to start with 3 dashboards:
- Admin dashboard (based on privileges)
- Parent dashboard
- Scout dashboard
For each of these dashboards, what would you want to see? How would it look?
I once asked users for some feedback on the layout of TroopTrack, and a super kind user actually sent me HTML and CSS for a redesign. We totally used it. So if you have the skills to mock up one of these dashboards, send it to sam@trooptrack.com and we will use it to inspire us.
PermalinkThis morning we released a new feature and a number of bug fixes.
1) Power search is now live. Now you can search for users, events, money accounts, user guide pages, and even commands by typing in the power search field in the header. Here's a demo video of power search in action:
https://vimeo.com/138579275
2) Sign up sheets were re-designed to make them easier to use and to let everyone see who has signed up for what. They are also now editable by anyone with the proper privileges, regardless of who created them.
3) Better sorting on the record attendance page. Records are now sorted by RSVP status then last name. They were previously only sorted by RSVP status.
4) Multi-troop users who use TroopTrack subdomains were having problems switching troops. This problem is fixed.
5) Minor improvement to the way our navigation bars are displayed. They recently doubled in height for some users and we forced them back.
6) We only show active users now on the invite users view.
7) Sending event emails from a mobile device using the site (not the app) was broken. This is now fixed.
8) We provided a few minor API fixes needed by the mobile app
9) We've been making a lot of improvements to our customer support processes. As a result our response time has improved tremendously in the last week - for simple questions during business hours we are now often able to respond in minutes.
Permalink