Features Incorporated: Create Event Enhancements

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dancorcoran
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Features Incorporated: Create Event Enhancements

Post by dancorcoran »

Read the last post for the results of these feature requests

None of these ideas are necessary, just nice to have. - dan

(1) Copy Current Event button - create a copy of the current event (published or unpublished) in a new tab, change name to event name + copy - purpose, when creating a multi day event, avoid the need to copy information such as the event name (usually changes only by adding Day 2, Day 3, etc.), location, and other details. Bonus - If when going to select publish/update, give an error message if the date/time matches another entry, and ask the user after showing the error message, ask are you sure y/n so they can accept or go back and change date/time

(2) Copy Past Event button - create a copy of a past event (published or unpublished) in a new tab, after pressing button provide the user a drop down box of the past events for the last 12 or 24 months. User chooses, change name to event name + copy. (this is currently possible through another menu, copy events from yourself or other boats, this method may be faster, for example creating 14 Wednesday races)

(3) Event Location. Provide a drop down box of locations to choose, based on past fills of this field in other events.

(4) Start/End Time. Provide a drop down box of times to choose, based on past fills of these two fields in other events.

(5) Event Defaults. Allow the owner to set up defaults for : Boat Location, Start and end time, and perhaps others and in doing so leave some defaults blank.

(6) Event, Mandatory Fields. Alow the owner to set which Event fields must be populated, and error if they are not. kind of a reminder to fill in fields such as Categories, Boat Location, Notice of Race.
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Re: Create Event Enhancements

Post by admin »

Dan - I'll consider these after the boat is hauled for the season. It would be helpful if you took some screen shots and annotate them with a suggested user interface so that I could better assess how to implement.
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dancorcoran
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Re: Create Event Enhancements

Post by dancorcoran »

Sure, these are my thoughts about the GUI:

(1) and (2), perhaps place the buttons to the right of "Edit Event [Add New]" perhaps [Copy This Event] [Copy Other Event]

(3) Add check box line above Location Details, [ ] Choose Past location [drop down], if someone checks the box, than the drop down becomes active,

(4) Add check box line above All Day Event [ ] Choose Past Start / End Time Combination [drop down], if someone checks the box, than the drop down becomes active, listing all the combinations that had been used by the captain in the past. (or) rethinking this a bit, populate the drop down only with a few options, setup with Eent Defaults described in 5/6 below.

(5 & 6) Perhaps an option in the admin section, just above Organize, call it Event Defaults
List the various fields that make sense to have a default, Like Location. For each field have a check mark for mandatory, and a check mark for default to, with the default to field value shoring to the right? Combine in this, rethinking (4) a bit, allow the user to create a list of default times rather than in (4) making the dropdown all the combinations used in the past.
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Re: Create Event Enhancements

Post by admin »

Dan,

These thoughts are helpful to figure out the intended desire and means to implement.

Copy Events: (1) and (2) I think I've got a good idea on these and can work with that.

Location Details: (3) I may use a variation on how Teamsnap handles locations and provide a screen so skippers can build their own location details, then in the event creation/edit screen offer a dropdown to select a stored location using the logic to select and populate the location information from the dropdown, or if no location selected the user may manually populate location information in the event.

Default Start / End Times: (4) - this still needs more thought and appears to be cumbersome if left on its own.

Event Defaults: (5) I could see this as a single option only so the skipper could set in one place default start/end time, default location, default club / organizing authority, and default image. This would display whenever a new event is created, and the skipper could type over / change when the event is open for creation. I don't want to clutter the creation screen with too many options because I think it would confuse people.

Event, Mandatory Fields: (6) - This could be done as annotation of the text such as a red asterisk next to mandatory fields to highlight an entry is needed. Adding error checking is overkill and would put too much overhead
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Re: Create Event Enhancements

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Dan,

Starting to do some more planning on these now. I just coded some updates for copying and importing events that will be released in Crew Manager Version 2.11 soon. I'd like to ask you to evaluate these updates to see if it addresses items 1 and 2 (Event Copy). **** Update 4 Nov 2020 - This has been incorporated in release 2.11.1

I like #3 (choose a location) and have been missing something like that for my own use. I''ll be working some concepts for it.

#4 (default start/end times) - would be rolled in with #5

#5 (defaults for event) - This potentially would have a template that would be saved, for a single set of defaults. When a new event is created, it would populate these defaults in the editing screen. These could then be overwritten as needed and the new event created.

#6 (Event Mandatory fields). The only mandatory fields for Crew Manager to work are the Title, Start Date / Time and Location Name. What I will do is do error checking to make sure these fields are populated on publish or update. If the fields are not populated on save, it will display a pop-up message displaying the error. **** Update 4 Nov 2020 - This has been incorporated so that warning messages are displayed if you try to publish an event with incomplete field data
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Re: Create Event Enhancements

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Updated 5 December 2020 - all sites now have a "Location Chooser" on the event create and edit screen to address Dan's request #3 above.
  • There is a new section above the Event Details section labeled Reuse Previous Boat Location & Address:
  • As locations and addresses are manually entered, they will automatically appear on a dropdown when adding or editing an event
  • Clicking on the dropdown and selecting a location & address automatically enters the information in the Location Name and Address boxes in the Boat Location Details section below.
The annotated picture below provides an overview with the dropdown expanded.
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Re: Features Incorporated: Create Event Enhancements

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Dan & I had a phone discussion on 6 December 2020 to review the implementation status of the requested features.

(1) Copy Current Event button -
Complete! This is included with event Smartcopy on the Skipper's admin screen. It is also available as part of the normal Event list for Skippers viewing All Events in WordPress admin. There are links listed for each event when moused over for Clone and Clone to Draft.

(2) Copy Past Event button -
Complete! This is included with event Smartcopy on the Skipper's admin screen.

(3) Event Location. Provide a drop down box of locations to choose, based on past fills of this field in other events.
Complete! A dropdown with previous locations is now available.

(4) Start/End Time. Provide a drop down box of times to choose, based on past fills of these two fields in other events.
Complete! This occurs automatically when copying an event.

(5) Event Defaults. Allow the owner to set up defaults for : Boat Location, Start and end time, and perhaps others and in doing so leave some defaults blank.
Complete! Using copy events and all events now have the location dropdown.

(6) Event, Mandatory Fields. Allow the owner to set which Event fields must be populated, and error if they are not. kind of a reminder to fill in fields such as Categories, Boat Location, Notice of Race.
Complete! Warning are displayed at the top of the screen if mandatory fields are not completed when posting or updating an event.
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