I got back into the MSTW Team Rosters plugin to answer a support question yesterday, and got a bit nauseous. It’s past time for a MAJOR overhaul to fix some problems, add some features that have been requested, and improve integration with the overall MSTW Framework.

A couple of days ago a user asked on the WordPress forums about increased responsiveness of this plugin to better support mobile applications. That would certainly be nice, and I’ve thought about that issue with the entire MSTW plugin family. Here’s my thought. Tables are provided in the HTML spec for, well, data tables. They are intended to display many columns, and many rows, like say, a roster. Sure one could create a table entire with CSS that would do a reasonable job of adjusting to small screens. But it seems to me that would lose the informational content of a table. It doesn’t seem to make sense for a roster to become two or three columns with data fields hop-scotching their way down the screen. So I’m thinking about the following for small screens. First, restrict roster tables to two or three columns; maybe a photo, name, and number. They would still be tables, but they would fit on small screens. Then make the single player profiles much more responsive. They are not tables and should display their reasonably well on small screens. As for player galleries, those *could* be more responsive, but is it worth the effort is the single player profiles work well on small screens? Who wants a gallery that’s a single column of players? Hummm ….

One thing that will happen is the plugin’s custom post types and custom taxonomies will get new names, which will prevent collisions with sports themes and other sports plugins. This means that when you upgrade to the next release, you will have to export your existing data to CSV files and import it back into the new plugin. The MSTW CSV Exporter plugin and the Team Rosters import function will both be updated to support this migration.

SO, now’s the time to send me your suggestions for improvements and requests for new features that would make the plugin work better for you. You can contact me via the contact form on this site or e-mail me directly. [mark@shoalsummitsolutions.com] No promises, but the chances are low that I’ll add exactly what you need if you don’t tell me what that is. 🙂

Three new video tutorials for the MSTW Schedules & Scoreboards plugin are now available to Gold Support members. Styling the Scoreboard Ticker, Styling the Schedule Slider, and Styling the Schedule Table walk you through creating custom CSS for individual scoreboards and schedules shortcode displays starting from the code snippets which are available for this purpose. Here’s a quick preview:

Version 1.2 of MSTW Schedules & Scoreboards introduces three new features:

Scoreboard Ticker. The scoreboard ticker format is a slider intended for use at the top of your site’s pages.

Scoreboard Settings. A robust set of layout and color settings is now available for both the scoreboard gallery and ticker formats. The plugin’s stylesheet may also be edited to customize these views.

Import “human-readable” CSV files. The initial import capability was based on the MSTW CSV Exporter format for game schedules. The exporter generates UNIX timestamps for game dates and times. [Computers like that format; most humans, not so much.] The schedule importer now also recognizes game dates and times as human-readable strings, for example, “20141230 15:27“.

The users manual is being updated, and additional Gold Support tutorials and code snippets are in the works. Please report any bugs to the WordPress.org forums or the Gold Support Forums.

The MSTW Shortcode Summary page has been updated to reflect the new Schedules & Scoreboards shortcodes. https://shoalsummitsolutions.com/shortcode-summary/. All the MSTW shortcodes in one sock with links to their man pages.

Version 1.0 of MSTW Schedules & Scoreboards replaces the MSTW Game Schedules and Game Locations plugins. It contains a ton of new features in both the front end displays and the admin screens, which you can read about What’s New in Schedules and Scoreboards man page.

The primary driver behind this upgrade was to support migration of data, specifically the links between data tables, across sites. The secondary goal was to create a platform for better integration of MSTW features – teams, schedules, leagues, coaching staffs, venues – in sports site themes. In the process, a collection of requested features have been added. The users manual is being updated and additional Gold Support tutorials and code snippets are in the works. Please report any bugs to the WordPress.org forums or the Gold Support Forums.

The new MSTW Schedules & Scoreboards plugin has been released to beta testers. The release of version 1.0 of the plugin is being delayed a bit on the off chance one of them finds an “undocumented feature”. Unlikely, I know, but just in case, I’m giving myself some time to document any such features. I am in fact testing myself while I update the documentation on this site.

MSTW Schedules & Scoreboards will replace the Game Schedules and Game Locations plugins. You can read about a number of the improvements and new features in this recent post.

One of the coolest new admin features greatly simplifies the addition team logos. Now you can select (and/or upload) them directly from the WP Media Library. If you choose not to use the Media Library for your logos you can still view the logo on the admin page after you cut and paste the logo URL into the text field.

There are new MSTW Admin and MSTW Schedules & Scoreboards Admin roles as shown in the screenshot below. The former allows a user to access all the admin screens for all MSTW plugins without all the default ‘clutter’ on the WP Admin dashboard (if the site admin sets it up that way). The latter allows a user to access only the MSTW Schedules & Scoreboards admin screens.

Finally, here’s a quick look at what a scoreboard will look like. There is a new section on the Edit Game screen for the game data as shown below. This one is the SF-NO game you see on the scoreboard below.

Here’s what a simple scoreboard might look like on the front end. This is ‘gallery view’; more views are coming in future releases.

Despite a VERY hectic summer, progress is being made on the next release of Game Schedules. The following status summary is provided to encourage current MSTW users to chime in with their “would really like to haves”. I have created a new thread on the Game Schedule forum for Gold Support members to share their ideas. All others are welcome to send me an email (mark@drmarkodonnell.com) and I will post their ideas to the forum (the good ones anyway 🙂 ) Now is the time …

Game Schedules will be deprecated (read: no longer supported). It will be replaced by a new MSTW Schedules & Scoreboards plugin. You can think of it as Game Schedules 5.0, but it needs a new name due to constraints within the wordpress.org plugin support structure.

At this point, the backend Admin Screens in the WP Dashboard are in test. Some pictures follow below.

After considerable hemming and hawing, pro and conning, Game Locations is also being deprecated. It’s functionality (plus some new stuff) will be included in the new MSTW Schedules & Scoreboards. So rather than having to load a separate plugin to use the full features of game schedules, game “venues” will be built in.

Some of the ‘deepest’ changes were in support of data export/import to/from CSV files. As some of you have discovered, you cannot import related games, schedules, teams, and locations and have everything link together properly. This sucks for admins with large sites with lots of teams, games, etc. Not only will this be fixed going forward, but it will be fixed in such a way that you can export your existing data to CSV files and import it into the new data tables. (I just heard a big “Yeah!” from Jay!)

Better integration of MSTW League Standings and Team Rosters, and Coaching Staffs plugins is coming. Eventually there will be only one Teams DB, which will allow rosters and coaching staffs to be linked to teams, and teams to be assigned to leagues. The various displays can also be updated to use other team data such as logos. The necessary hooks are in the admin screens. They don’t provide any functionality yet, beyond what a skilled theme developer could do with them, but they are available for the next builds of Team Rosters, Coaching Staffs, and League Standings.

Custom WP Roles and Capabilities will allow site admins to restrict MSTW users to MSTW Admin functions (all plugins), admin functions for a specific plugin, admin functions for a specific team or schedule. Site admins can assign custom MSTW roles to users as shown on the left. Users will only see the functions they need to use. The goal is to create a much simpler back-end experience for non-technical admin support personnel (read: parent volunteers).

Here’s what a “schedules and scoreboards admin might see. When they log in they see their profile page and the Schedules & Scoreboard menu item. Note that I have not removed access to the dashboard or allowed access to other WP menus. I decided to leave that to each site admin based on their site use cases. I also don’t try to control what other plugins are available to users. (Not my job!)

Finally, a subscriber would only see their profile and whatever else you choose to give them, but nothing related to MSTW plugins.

The biggest front end change will be the introduction of a scoreboard feature, which will provide a means to display the results of completed games. (There will be others, like CSV export.) It seems that as many users are using game schedules for completed games as are using the plugin for future games. The new scoreboards will look something like the scoreboard on the left. The Seahawks Chargers game (Go Bolts!!) shows what “Live Game Updates” might look like in the future. But that’s a story for another post!

A user recently requested a list of all the MSTW shortcodes. Seemed like a good idea, so here it is … https://shoalsummitsolutions.com/shortcode-summary/. All seven MSTW shortcodes in one sock with links to their man pages. (Don’t worry, more are coming soon!)