Game Schedules 4.0 Release WILL Beat Santa!

I am in the death throes of the version 4.0 release – readme file, screenshots, I18n .pot file, documentation on this site, etc. Some of you may not be aware that plugin readme files drive most of what you see as well as what you download for plugins on the WordPress.org site. Internationalization has been fleshed out more fully on the admin side, so there are many more strings that need translation for this version.

The coolest new feature is the schedule slider along with the team logos. You can check them out on the MSTW plugin development site. The admin Display Settings have been greatly enhanced – show/hide data fields, customize data field and schedule table column titles, I18n, more control of display colors, complete control of time and date formats, team specific CSS tags have been added different teams schedules can be displayed in different colors and layouts for something like a league site. Again, see the dev site where the Cal slider and schedule uses the admin display settings and the 49ers slider and schedule use custom styles.

Thanks to the beta testers who have provided valuable feedback. In case you think the MSTW dev site is composed of Jedi mind tricks, check out this beta site. (Thanks Brent.)

Stay tuned. After this release I am committed to getting the MSTW Theme/Framework re-released, even if I have to back down to a single sport site briefly. Much of the recent work on Game Schedules will be re-used within the framework. I have received several of great ideas for Team Roster upgrades (Thanks Jay), but they are going to wait for the MSTW Theme/Framework to be completed.

Game Schedules Plugin Upgrade

The Game Schedules plugin upgrade is nearing completion, which means it’s feature complete but there’s some testing to finish. Please take a look at the progress on the dev site pages and let me know what you think.

The new shortcode, [mstw_gs_slider], is working and is pretty cool if I do say so myself! The settings from the admin Color Settings page are working. There are MANY combinations of settings and shortcode args to test. So I’ll probably take “the Microsoft testing approach*” to the features that I don’t use on my sites. Custom CSS by team/schedule seems pretty solid.
Added the ability to display the next N (remaining) games in a schedule to the [shortcode] and the widget (by setting the first date-time to ‘now’).
Added the ability to display multiple teams/schedules in the same schedule table or slider via [shortcode] or the table widget.
Adding the ability to customize the look of the schedule table [shortcode], the schedule slider [shortcode], and the countdown timer [shortcode] (in test).
Added the ability to show/hide data fields and customize data field labels so they can be re-purposed. The Admin screens now display the customized data field labels in place of the defaults. (Cool!)
Added the ability to filter the All Games admin table by schedule id.
Added an option to link a game location/venue to a map or another (venue or team) website.
Completing the internationalization of admin screens.
Added a javascript datepicker control which simplifies game date entry.
Added a javascript colorpicker control to admin screens to simplify color entry.
Added the ability to specify custom formats for dates and times (based on php date() format strings).

A lot of this is back end stuff. If you would like to try out a beta copy of this release, just send me a request via email.

Besides cleaning-up/finishing/testing all of the above items, I have started developing a new “Teams” concept which will be an integral part of the overall MSTW Framework and tie all the existing plugins together. Turns out, this ‘first step’ has forced some significant modifications that will ripple through all the plugins over time. But it’s all good.

Thanks to all of you who sent in recommended enhancements. Some of them actually made the cut. 🙂

* Let the users find the bugs in version 1.0. 🙂

Welcome to the MSTW Development Site

This is the development and test site for My Sports Team Website (mstw) plugins and the lab for other “experiments”. As such, you my on occasion see some strange goings on (up to and including crashes). The primary elements of the configuration are listed below.

Plugin Shoppers

Feel free to look around. Write me if you have questions.

Plugin Users

If you think your plugin is not working, you may want to sample what’s here. Feel free to play with the functionality, inspect the styles with your favorite tools, and view the HTML source. If you’d like me to change a setting on the Admin Dashboard, just write. PLEASE POST ALL SIGNIFICANT QUESTIONS ON THE WORDPRESS FORUMS rather than sending e-mail to me directly. This will allow all users to benefit from your questions and comments and from my responses. You decide what should be personnel or ‘back-channel’ and what would benefit the larger community. You can find the forums on the plugin links below.

Site Configuration

I try to keep the configuration current because this is where I test new versions of the plugins and their compatibility with new versions of WordPress. However the stylesheets and plugin settings are in continual flux in response to questions from users.

The very latest versions of the plugins, often versions that have not been released, are always on the site (because this is where they are developed and tested). If you want to access the very latest development version, you can follow the links below to the WordPress.org pages, then follow the developers link to the SVN repository. The Development Version is the very latest and greatest. (Just don’t ask for support on it!!)

Game Schedules Upgrade in Progress – Requests?

Another major upgrade to the MSTW Game Schedules plugin is now in progress. The following new features are planned:

Re-purpose data fields via show/hide and re-label display settings (like other MSTW plugins such as Team Rosters
Display next N games from current date in schedule tables ([shortcode] and widget)
New schedule slider view (via shortcode)
Supports a complete suite of custom time and date formats via PHP date format strings
A new team structure which allows the inclusion of team logos in schedule tables and sliders (and the eventual integration with Team Rosters and League Standings through the MSTW framework
Color settings admin screen so the colors of displays can be controlled without editing CSS files

What did I miss? Now is the time to get your requests in. No promises, but bring ’em on.

-Mark

MSTW Coaching Staffs 0.2 Released Today

Version 0.2 of the MSTW Coaching Staffs plugin contains all the good stuff from version 0.1 – coaching staff tables, single coach profile pages, coaches galleries, internationalization – plus significant new functionality.

NEW IN VERSION 0.2

VERSION 0.2 PROVIDES SIGNIFICANT NEW FUNCTIONALITY AS OUTLINED BELOW, INCLUDING THE FLEXIBILITY TO CHANGE THE VISIBILITY AND LABELS ON ALL DATA FIELDS.

Shortcode Example #1

Cleaned up a few minor bugs that were reported.
Added show/hide controls for all data fields and columns to Display Settings.
Added numerous other Display Settings, primarily settings for the gallery, including: Show/Hide Title, Title Color, Corner Style, Photo Size (width x height), Border Color, Border Width.
Also added settings for the Single Coach’s Profile Border and Width.
Added more CSS tags the display code and plugin stylesheet to allow any team’s coaching staff to be individually and uniquely styled via the plugin’s stylesheet.
Added link to Coach’s Profiles from coach’s photos (as well as their names), just like on the tables (shortcode) displays.

Please read the Installation Instructions, FAQs, Coaches Gallery and Single Coach Profile Pages and Coaching Staffs Table Shortcode for how to get these page templates working properly. If you have modified the stylesheet or the theme templates, they WILL be overwritten by the new installation, so you’ll want to back them up first.

Happy upgrading!! Please use the WordPress Plugin Forum if you have any questions [or to report any bugs. 🙁 ]

MSTW Coaching Staffs 0.1 Released Today

I am pleased to announce the release of the fifth MSTW plugin – Coaching Staffs. This plugin manages multiple coaching staffs, including photos and bios, in tabular, “gallery”, and single coach profile formats.

Coaching Staffs is designed to handle some challenges unique to high school coaching staffs, where coaches often coach two (or more) teams in different roles. For example, one coach can be the Head Coach of the Junior Varsity team and the Offensive Line coach for the Varsity team. That coach can be shown as the first coach on the JV staff and somewhere lower on the Varsity staff listings.

The look of coaching staff tables, single coach profiles, and coaches galleries can be highly customized using the plugin’s display settings, shortcode arguments, and/or by editing the plugin’s stylesheet (/css/mstw-cs-styles.css). But data fields cannot be ‘re-purposed’ as in League Standings and Team Rosters.

The MSTW Coaching Staffs plugin is now available on WordPress.org. Please take a look. If you have questions, comments, bugs (?!), or features requests please contact me via the plugin forum on WordPress.org.

MSTW Team Rosters 3.0 Released Today

Version 3.0 of the MSTW Team Rosters plugin contains all the good stuff from version 2.1 – roster tables, single player bios, player galleries, internationalization – plus significant new functionality.

Please read the Installation Instructions, FAQs, Player Gallery and Single Player Pages and Team Rosters Table Shortcode for how to get these page templates working properly. If you have modified the stylesheet or the theme templates, they WILL be overwritten by the new installation, so you’ll want to back them up first.

NEW IN VERSION 3.0

THE CODE IN VERSION 3.0 HAS BEEN COMPLETELY REFACTORED TO PROVIDE SIGNIFICANT NEW FUNCTIONALITY AS OUTLINED BELOW. IF YOU ARE UPGRADING YOU WILL WANT TO READ THE DOCUMENTATION CAREFULLY.

Added a filter by team to the “All Players” table on the admin screen (screenshot-1).
Added ability to configure table columns and data fields to meet specific application requirements. Show/hide all columns (except Player Name) and change the header/label of all columns and data fields.
Provided additional color settings on the Display Settings admin screen, and refactored the code to improve performance.
Added the new WordPress Color Selector to the Display Settings admin screen.
Added more CSS tags the display code to allow any team’s rosters to be uniquely styled via the plugin’s stylesheet.
Added player name format control to the Display Settings admin screen. Several formats are available, perhaps most importantly a first name only format is now available to address privacy concerns with young players.

Happy upgrading!! Please use the WordPress Plugin Forum if you have any questions [or to report any bugs. 🙁 ]

League Standings 1.0 Released!

I am pleased to announce the release of the fourth MSTW plugin – League Standings. This plugin manages multiple sports league standings and displays standings (via a shortcode) in multiple, highly configurable table formats on pages and posts.

This “quick” plugin took longer than expected because I have incorporated a much more flexible approach to column visibility and custom column headings than in previous MSTW plugins. I did not tackle column ordering, but it turns out you can kludge that if you are a bit creative. Visit my development site to view some samples of this flexibility. I did not tackle column ordering, but it turns out you can kludge that if you are a bit creative. At this point, I only have a [shortcode] standings table and I’m not sure if I’m going to build a corresponding widget for use in sidebars.

The MSTW League Standings plugin is now available on WordPress.org. Please take a look. If you have questions, comments, bugs (?!), or features requests please contact me via the plugin forum on WordPress.org.

League Schedules Plugin in Work

By popular demand, I’ve decided to put together a quick “League Standings” plugin. You can visit my development site to view current progress. It is in development, so it could be broken for (hopefully brief) periods at any time! I have incorporated a much more flexible approach to column visibility and custom column headings than in previous plugins. I did not tackle column ordering, but it turns out you can kludge that if you are a bit creative. At this point, I only have a [shortcode] standings table and I’m not sure if I’m going to build a corresponding widget for use in sidebars.

Please take a look. If you have questions, ideas, or features requests, please mail them to me from the this site. You can’t download it from WordPress.org yet and there is no support forum there.)

Team Rosters 2.1

Get the Team Rosters Plugin from WordPress.org.

Version 2.1 of the Team Rosters plugin is a maintenance release that addresses several bugs reported by users:

Re-factored the featured image (thumbnail) activation code to avoid conflicts with another plugin. (Thanks, Razz.)
In the process, modified the theme settings so that the player photo width and height settings would always be honored. The default remains 150x150px regardless of how the thumbnail sizes are set in the theme.
Corrected another conflict with some themes due to my horrible choice of the function name – my_get_posts(). Shame on me … it’s now mstw_tr_get_posts(). Doh!