On The Horizon: Game Schedules 5.0 & Live Game Updates

So what’s been going on with the MSTW framework this summer? Glad you asked. I’ve been preoccupied teaching a summer session JavaScript class, but in my copious spare time, I’ve been working with a Gold Support member and long time MSTW user on MSTW Live Game Updates. This new plugin will allow “a reporter” at a game to post updates via a cell phone or other mobile device and have them appear on a “scoreboard” on a website, which will update dynamically WITHOUT requiring a page reload. I plan to have it in Beta test during this football season, and (perhaps) have it ready to release for basketball season. I’d love to hear from any of you who are interested in this concept.

The MSTW Live Game Updates plugin will require MSTW Game Schedules to be active in order to be activated and to function. So work on the new plugin has highlighted some needed changes to Game Schedules. Four key upgrades are planned:

Better integration of MSTW League Standings and Team Rosters, and Coaching Staffs plugins. There will 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.
Introduction of a scoreboard feature, which will provide a means to display the results of completed games. It seems that as many users are using game schedules for completed games as are using the plugin for future games.)
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. The concept is that you will be able to better control user access to the MSTW plugins and configure their WP Dashboard so they only see the functions they need to use.
Updated CSV Import function that will better support the new schedules->teams->locations->teams data entry. A CSV Export function is also under consideration.

This post/e-mail is also an open request for comments on the upgrades listed above (any “must haves”?), and a data call for other features/upgrades of interest. Now’s the time to bring it on!

Game Schedules 4.1 & 4.1.1

Game Schedules 4.1.1 was released on WordPress.org today.

Game Schedules 4.1 previously introduced the following features:

Schedule tables can now display the last N results from the current time.
New CSS tags (by team) allow COLUMNS in schedule tables to be customized.
Added contextual help to Display Settings admin screen.
The Schedules, Teams, and Games admin screens were cleaned up to better handle missing required data elements.

VERSION 4.1.1
In previous versions, including 4.1, each schedule on the Schedules admin screen had a title, a default permalink or slug generated from the title, and a “schedule ID”. In theory, the schedule ID was intended to be used to reference schedules in shortcodes, etc. in WP permalink or slug format, while the title was simply informational – a nice native language title for lists and pulldowns on the admin screens. Unfortunately, the software used the ‘slug’ generated from the title, not the schedule ID field, to reference schedules in the [shortcode]. Damn programmers! The majority of users probably never saw this issue, but those who changed the post’s (schedule’s) permalink probably thought things were a bit strange.

This bug is addressed in version 4.1.1. The schedule ID field is now used to create the schedule’s permalink/slug and the default field to modify the permalink, normally right below a post’s title, has been removed. So when you upgrade you will likely have to go into your schedules screen and update each schedule ID TO MATCH THE PREVIOUS permalink/slug generated from the schedule title. If you simply entered the identical title into the schedule ID field, you should be fine. However if you changed the schedule’s permalink/slug, you’ll need to enter that. It is assumed that if you changed the schedule’s permalink/slug, all this makes complete sense, and you know what needs to be done. Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause, but it needed to be straightened out to move forward with the MSTW Framework. Phew!! Thank you for your patience.

Finally, both releases some missing strings were wrapped and added to the /lang/default.pot language translation files. Work continued to remove PHP notices and warnings for those who like to leave the WordPress DEBUG feature on.

Welcome To The New ShoalSummitSolutions.com

ShoalSummitSolutions.com has been redesigned to better support users of the MSTW framework and plugins. All previous features remain available, although perhaps re-organized in the new navigation system. In particular, the MSTW users manuals, which greatly expand on the MSTW plugins’ ‘readme’ files, are readily available and constantly improving. New features have been added to improve the overall support to MSTW users and provide increased personal support to MSTW users. In particular, a new Gold Support option provides the following features:

A private support forum allows users to ask questions and share answers and other information with the MSTW community. Most of us are all building sports websites, and have a tremendous amount to share with each other about both WordPress, best practices in sports team websites, and other valuable plugins for sports sites.
A (growing) library of video and text tutorials, which address basic operations and common ‘sticking points’, as well as advanced topics.
A (growing) library of code snippets provides customizable solutions to common challenges.

What’s the difference between the “Gold Support” forum on this site and what’s available on WordPress.org?
The plugins’ “readme” files will provide complete information, including installation instructions and FAQs, but there is the assumption that you know your way around WordPress themes, plugins, PHP, and CSS. Bugs may be reported and questions can still be asked in the WP plugin forums. However, if you’d like some help on theme integration (other than Twentyeleven in which the MSTW plugins are tested) or CSS issues, that will now be through this site’s Gold Support forums. Also, the response time on the Gold Support forums will not exceed 48 hours, usually less than 24, depending on timezone differences. The plugin tutorials and code snippets will only be available through Gold Support.

Game Schedules 4.0 Released Today!

That’s right, released it was released on Friday the 13th of December, 2013. Double bad luck. Please attribute any “unexpected behavior” to the release date, not to the author. But let me know about it anyway! 🙂

I won’t bore you (again) with all the cool new features in this release, but some things have changed so please read all the documentation on shoalsummitsolutions.com. I spent a lot of time on it this week, and I think it’s improved. (You tell me.)

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 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.