Crew Manager Support Forum

Documentation & FAQs :: Tutorial - Import Events & Customize for Your Boat :: Author admin

no_email@example.com (admin) — Fri, 19 Jan 2024 13:22:45 -0500

Overview: This tutorial provides step-by-step instructions so that Skippers may import events, then tailor the imported event for their boat. The steps with links to the Skipper Manual are provided in this post.

Why Import Events?

Less typing! Many popular events have already been entered with the host yacht club and organizing authority information.
Automatic update on your sites when the organizing authority posts race documents, notices, scratch sheets and make announcements. Relevant links display on your sites. These are automatically updated daily with no additional effort required, provided the organizing authority uses a regatta management site recognized by Crew Manager. Currently these are Jibeset.net, Nextsailor, Regatta Network and Yachtscoring.
Events on the master calendar are annotated with event or organizing authority logos that are automatically displayed on the imported events
Events copied may be edited and customized for the boat. Skippers may easily adjust boat call locations, times, and may update the descriptions as desired.

Step-by-Step Procedure
Import the Events
This procedure assumes the Skipper (or a helper designated by the Skipper) is logged in. While this process may be done on a phone, a desktop display is better suited for this task since the limited screen real estate on a mobile device requires a significant amount of scrolling.

On the menu mouse over Skipper and click on WordPress Admin to display the Admin screen with the blue menu bar.
Click the menu bar with a mini calendar icon + Import Events. After a few seconds the Import Events screen is displayed. The lower portion of the screen is labeled Import Events From followed by a dropdown that defaults to the Crew Manager Main Site. This tutorial is based on the main site, but other sites may be used as a source to copy events to your own site.
Located to the right of the site selector are filters with a Year dropdown, Categories dropdown and Tags dropdown. Select the correct year from the dropdown if the desired year is not displayed and the screen will update.
The filters limit the number of events displayed on the screen. Geographic areas are available in the Tags dropdown. Click the Tags dropdown and select the geographic area to display just events in that area. The screen will refresh
Check the boxes in the Copy column for events you desire to import. Once the desired events have been checked, scroll to the bottom of the screen and click the blue Copy Events button. The screen will refresh. When the event list is updated, those events that were copied have the check boxes replaced with Copied and the copied event titles are prefaced with your boat name in blue.
Review the list and if you see an event that you missed, check the box in the Copy column and click Copy Events.
You are done importing the events. If you inadvertently imported an event that was not wanted, you may delete it as described in the subsequent section.
Click the blue bar at the top of the page labeled Return to Homepage.

Mass Editing the Imported Events
The imported events have a number of items that the Skipper will probably want to change. Some of these item may be changed all at once (Boat location, Hiding Crew Lists, Limiting Crew Entry, Assigning or clearing Categories & Tags). These may also be changed on a per event basis along with other items (date / time changes, free form text in the description field). Should there be repeating events, they will be displayed with a salmon colored background. Repeating events should be edited in mass as much as possible before splitting to individual events. After recurring events have been split to individual events, each event must be edited separately.

On the menu click on Calendar to display the Annual Calendar.
Click on the Skipper View radio button located above the blue Jump to Next Scheduled Event button. The calendar will update to display each event in rows having a number of buttons, check boxes and dropdowns.
Click the Year dropdown to select the desired year if it is not displayed
If you imported events that were not desired, click the Delete Event checkbox located on the right side of the row where the event is displayed. Multiple events may be checked. Click the blue Skipper Update button located at the screen bottom center. The screen will refresh and the checked events deleted.
Set the default location with Crew should meet for boat call. If most of the events use the same location you may click the master dropdown labeled --> Select Location All Events <--located in the gray bar above the calendar list and set the desired location for all events at once. If some events use a different location, scroll down and change each event dropdown as desired.
Click the blue Skipper Update button located at the screen bottom center. The screen will refresh and the locations will be saved.
There are check boxes and dropdowns available on the right of each event row that allow hiding crew lists and / or restricting crew entering availability. Change each event as desired
Click the blue Skipper Update button located at the screen bottom center. The screen will refresh and the restriction will be saved.
Categories & tags may be edited using the blue dropdowns for each event. Some tags imported with the events may not be desired (e.g. a tag for a one design class different than your boat, categories for rating classes not being raced such as ORC, IRC, etc.). Change each event as desired.
Click the blue Skipper Update button located at the screen bottom center. The screen will refresh and the updated categories and tags will be saved.
Should it be desired to edit the free form text, logs, or any other event information the event may be opened by clicking the Edit Master link for recurring events and Edit link for individual events. These links open the event edit page in a new browser window. Make any changes desired for the individual events in the separate windows. When completed editing each event click the blue Update button located in the Publish box in the right margin.
Click Calendar on the menu to refresh the page to reflect the edited events

Mass Splitting Repeating Events: Some events imported may be repeating events. Generally a weekly event should be split since it is likely that crew may change. A weekend regatta covering adjacent days may be a situation where everything including the crew remains the same, so no event splitting is necessary. Once a repeating event is created, you will want it split into separate events if any of the following apply.

The Crew is different on any of the days
The time to be at the boat or location is different on any of the days so the associated email reminder is sent at different times.
The event description text is different for any day (e.g. you may include text about post race activities that are different each day
You want to modify any of the special fields for an event such as specify a different Uniform for each day (e.g. white shirts one day, blue shirts the next)
Typically a weekly series would be split since it is likely there will be changes during the season

Step-by-Step Procedure to Split Events

Click Calendar on desktop menu
Click the Skipper View radio button at the top, if not already selected. The display will refresh
You may view recurring events expanded for all dates, or rolled up by unchecking the box labeled: <== Uncheck to Roll-up Recurring Events (Recurring Events Background) or Check the box labeled: <== Check to Expand Recurring Events
After the screen refreshes there are options to Edit Master (allows editing all events with the same changes), Split & Edit (creates a copy of the master event for the selected date with edit screen), and green button labeled Split All (splits the entire series into separate events and copies the crew list from the first day to all days). Each of these button is an independent action and does NOT use the Skipper Update button.
Click the green Split All for the first event you want to split. The screen will update showing the event on sperate dates.
Repeat this action for all the events you want to split.
Individual events may noy be edited as desired. Close that editing window once it has saved and repeat until you have edited all the desired events.
Refresh the calendar and the separate events will display. Each event has its own crew list visible when mousing over the event data badge on the left.

Import Events Screen

Annual Calendar Skipper View - Used to Split Events

Request a Feature or Enhancement :: Feature Incorporated: Skipper Send Email, two enhancements :: Reply by admin

no_email@example.com (admin) — Wed, 06 Dec 2023 23:11:50 -0500

Effective 6 December 2023, an alert message now appears as a popup to confirm when an email is sent. The dialog box remains on the screen until it is confirmed. This will make sure that positive acknowledgement is provided by the sender whenever an email is sent.

The first image below provides the popup. Once this is clicked, the second picture shows and additional confirmation banner while the screen is refreshed. Once refreshed, the Skipper Send Email screen appears.

Confirmation Popup

Confirmation Banner After Popup

Request a Feature or Enhancement :: Feature Incorporated: Skipper Defined Groups for Mail Lists :: Reply by admin

no_email@example.com (admin) — Mon, 08 Jan 2024 15:29:21 -0500

A feature added to Crew Manager in January 2024 allows the group list to be displayed as All IN the Group (default view) or by clicking a check box All NOT IN the Group. This option is available to the Skipper on the Manage Groups page in the admin area. This may be used for the Retired, Core Crew, All Posts and custom named groups.

Further explanation is in the Skipper Manual in more detail at this link, with a picture below.

Request a Feature or Enhancement :: Feature Incorporated: Change Boat Location for Multiple Events at Once :: Author admin

no_email@example.com (admin) — Mon, 08 Jan 2024 15:50:42 -0500

A feature incorporated in January 2024 allows Skippers to change the boat location for multiple events at once. Previously each event needed to be edited individually. This feature is helpful if the location has changed from an imported or copied event. As an example, as boat schedule may have been copied from the previous year to create a future year schedule. The boat might have changed slip assignments or the marina location. When importing events from the main Crew Manager calendar or another Crew Manager boat site, the required location is frequently different for each boat.

The following outlines how to change the boat location for multiple events at once.

The Skipper should edit one event with the new boat location and save the event. Once this is done, the new location is available for all events.

Select Calendar from the menu - if Annual Calendar is not the default calendar view, use the Calendar View dropdown to select Annual
Check the radio button labeled Skipper View
A Master dropdown for boat location is located at the top of the event list. When selected, this sets all events to the location selected.
Individual events may have the location changed as desired
Once all the locations have been selected, click the blue Submit Changes button

The picture below provides an annotated Skipper View

Request a Feature or Enhancement :: Feature Incorporated: Smart Copy of Events Between Years :: Reply by admin

no_email@example.com (admin) — Mon, 08 Jan 2024 16:17:45 -0500

Effective January 2024 Smart Copy has been enhanced to strip out selected information in order to reduce the amount of editing on the copied events. The smart copy routine detects in any custom field, payment field or club link field any of the regatta management sites (Jibeset.net, Nextsailor, Regattanetwork, Yachtscoring). The old links are now automatically removed during the copy process. The text field is not checked, only the link fields.

Crew Manager has a routine that detects regatta management sites in these fields, and automatically generates various standard links for race documents, notice board, scratch sheet, etc. The new regatta management site link should be entered when it is available.

It is suggested that Skippers put the regatta management links in the Payment field so Crew Manager may automatically generate these additional links. See the following Skipper Manual links for further information:

Request a Feature or Enhancement :: Integrate with Scoring Products for crew availability :: Reply by admin

no_email@example.com (admin) — Thu, 18 Jan 2024 08:22:57 -0500

Dan - an interesting concept. Can you please post some real world links on these sites to show examples of what is there?

Crew Manager automatically creates links for the Regatta Manager (Yachtscoring, Regatta Network, Netsailor and Jibeset.net) hosted regattas. Each of these sites has a protocol with a unique ID associated with an event, and some sort of consistent structure to develop the links for items such as notice board, scratch sheet, results, etc. Crew Manager detects if the Regatta Manager unique event link has been saved in either of these fields - Payment Link on Crew - Regatta Registration Status page, or on the event itself either the Website URL or Payment Link. A check is done to see if any of the Regatta Manager event URLs are entered, and if they are will generate the standard links for that event automatically.

The highest level of integration is with Jibeset.net (Northern California) where we were able to work out an API so that Crew Manager sends a request, and Jibeset.net returns a JSON encoded response with specific fields populated. I have been unsuccessful so far in getting the other Regatta Managers to provide the same level of access that Jibeset.net provides. For the other Regatta Managers a brute force method is used where Crew Manager will read the Regatta Manager's event page and use routines to detect and grab the unique URLs. This is know as web scraping and subject to errors or missing items if the Regatta Manager changes their page structure at all.

Some questions to be answered and comments include:
1. What data does the Regatta Manager make publicly available? If information such as contact information, name, etc are not made visible, it would not be possible to detect and grab that.

2. Is the data structured so that it is easy to get specific fields? If the information is free form text it is almost impossible to have a routine that reliably gets the correct information.

3. I am aware that some yacht clubs and events have their own boards to post crew wanted / available type posts. Most that I have looked at are stale and once posted never get updated with status (e.g. found a boat or found crew).

A suggestion might be for you to contact the Regatta Managers whom you use for events and say - I have this great idea with a need for my boat that could apply for almost all the boats who register for events through your site! If they respond positively, further coordination could be done.

Request a Feature or Enhancement :: Crew Manager Master Calendar Event Requests :: Author admin

no_email@example.com (admin) — Sat, 20 Jan 2024 11:01:35 -0500

Users may submit requests for additions to the Crew Manager master calendar. These requests are for events that would benefit other subscribers so they may import them to their own boat calendars. When submitting the request, copy and paste the following in a reply to this post and provide the following information:

Event Name -
Host Yacht Club or Organizing Authority -
Link for Host Yacht Club or Organizing Authority -
Link where registration, regatta documents, etc. may be found -
Date(s) of Event -
Other Comments or Information -

Request a Feature or Enhancement :: Feature Incorporated: Admin Navigation Tabs for Desktop Displays :: Author admin

no_email@example.com (admin) — Sat, 20 Jan 2024 11:43:29 -0500

Navigating between the various Crew Manager admin screens has now been made easier on desktop displays. The tabs duplicate the Crew Manager menu items on the left margin of the admin screen. The tabs are displayed at the top of the various Crew Manager admin pages (Crew Manager Settings, Auto Assign Crew, International Options, Edit Position Titles, Manage Groups, Annual Smart Copy, Import Events, Import Users) to make navigation between pages easier. These are only shown on desktops as the display real estate available on mobile devices is limited.

The following screen shots provide a visual.

Crew Manager Admin Dashboard Home (buttons available on both Desktop & Mobile)

Crew Manager Tabs in Admin Area (Desktop only)

Request a Feature or Enhancement :: Feature Incorporated: Northern California Regattas Integrated with Jibeset.net :: Reply by admin

no_email@example.com (admin) — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 00:46:54 -0500

Effective 30 January 2024 the race and series results posted on Jibeset.net are automatically updated on Crew Manager sites at 2am PST daily. Any calendar entry with a properly stored Jibeset.net event link will receive the update.

This will show in the Recent Results section, on the Boat, Results page and on the popup when a date badge is moused over.