Build .9032913

I found a really nice JQuery plugin that allows for tables to be reordered. Unfortunately I had to convert all of my nice div tables into actual HTML tables. It works like a charm for IOS. I've deployed these changes to the live site for the team oriented stats and player career stats. I want to have for the game stats for the game tomorrow. It will be a long work night tonight.

Build .9032713

As promised, more frequent pushes.  Today I pushed:

1. New Team Page
1. Schedule moved to top and made prominent ala ESPN.  Calculates record on the fly.
2. Team Info and Coaches moved to top of page beside Schedule.
1. Edit Team Info now a Dialog box that pops up instead of going to another page.
2. Bug - New team info is broken
3. New Tab System for Players
1. Default tab is for Player info (still needs a bit more work to include all player data.  I may put this into an editable table structure.
2. Player Season Statistics - gives full stats for all players who have played on a team during the season with full counts for all games completed.
3. Player Game Average - calculates the X per game stat for all players.
4. Played Time - tab is there, report is not complete

Feature Focus - March 25 - 29

All of our games got rained out over the weekend so there was no new data to cause me sleepless nights.  This week I'm going to focus on some left-over features.

1. Offline Storage
1. Get back to server
2. Home Page
1. Start Marketing
3. Game Screen
1. Lines?
2. Timer
3. Hook up new Team buttons
4. Determine how to handle man up/down situations.  With a modifier to main action???
4. Game Info
1. Set players to unavailable
2. Set players to be "borrowed"
5. Team Screen - major overhaul needed, want this page to look like it came from ESPN
1. W/L
2. Team Stats for the Season
3. Player link should go to master player page with stats
6. Stats
1. Game Stats 
1. need more of the team data (clears, turnover, etc).
2. Time line report
2. Team Stats 
1. Create based on game, but do rollup for entire season
2. Allow break down by game?
3. Additional stats
1. shots per game
2. saves per game
3. avg FOW percentage
3. Player stats
1. Fix bug
2. Combine with player page
7. Organization/Program Screen
1. Match US Lax types
2. Custom CSS for Orgs
3. Better layout - ala ESPN or CBSSports
8. Following
1. Add team follow
2. Post to facebook when following has action?
9. Offline Stats
1. Add offline entry of stats - important for those who can't get a live tablet and for players/teams to have a running record in a single location
10. Girls variations - get with a girl's coach to be sure I understand the primary differences.

Build .9032213

On Friday I deployed the latest build.  Doing weekly builds has some risk and I'll be moving to more frequent builds instead.  There are only a few people in the system so I'm not jeopardizing anything by doing so.  The system is becoming very stable and the features are getting richer.  I want to get more people involved but its hard to focus on marketing and development at the same time.  Regardless, this is what was deployed.

1. Offline Storage
1. If the application loses connection or has an error for any reason, it will store the data local on the device.  Eventually I'll change to keep a full copy locally with an asynchronous push to the server and have an offline app,  but that is a summer project.  I still don't have the method of getting lost data back to the server just yet.
2. Game Screen changes
1. Roster now has tabs, one each for Attack, Defense, and Middies.  Being on the list doesn't preclude a player from switching positions, it only helps me organize them better and minimize scroll.
1. Added Primary Position
2. Modified Team to reflect
3. Modified Player to reflect
2. New Team buttons (not completely implemented)
1. Clear
2. Team Goal
3. Team Turnover
4. Man Up
5. Man Down
3. Specialized buttons for Face Off Middie and Goalie
1. Faceoff won
2. Faceoff attempt
3. Goalie Save
4. Scored Upon
3. Template
1. Broke apart pages into commonality's and created a master template.  I didn't do this early on because I wanted them to organically find its design and it mostly has at this point.
4. Stats
1. Game Stats
1. Added Percentages for Scoring, Faceoff's and Goalie Saves
2. Added Team Totals for individual stats
3. Added Penalty report
4. Fixed calculation for Shot on Goal to also include actual Goals.
2. Player Stats
1. All stats that exist for a team exist for player as a roll-up for the season (currently).  Seems to be missing data for players who have played for a second team.
5. Action Screen
1. Removed Goalie Actions (save and scored) and Middie only actions (faceoffs)
6. General
1. I had several versions of the JQuery library listed throughout the application.  With the template they are all on the latest version now.
2. Removed some orphan pages
3. Added a Favicon - sorta looks like a lacrosse head.

Feature Focus - March 18-22

With the major bug from yesterday weighing on my mind, I'm certain that it will take the bulk of my week to get implemented.  However, there is still a ton to get done.  Again in no particular order...

1. Offline Storage
1. Save copy locally
2. When game finishes, compare the two results, update local to server at that time.
2. Home Page
1. Start creating a marketing version of the home page
3. Game Screen
1. Better Roster organization
2. Lines/grouping of players
3. Timer (still looking into longer term solution)
4. Better user feedback for Clears
5. Man Up/Down button
6. Team Activities - Goal, Turnover
7. Better way to record Face Offs
8. Better way to record Goals
4. Game Info
1. Set players to unavailable (will help the roster organization)
2. Set players to be Defense, Attack, or Middie to help minimize screen scroll
5. Team Screen
1. W/L Box
6. Stats Screen
1. Game report
1. Remove Penalties from current game table
2. Create secondary report for team actions, including totals for all actions.
3. Create timeline report.
4. Create time on field/shot percentages, etc.
2. Team report
1. Create team rollup of all games, same as game report, may need way to dive into game report from here.
2. Create additional stats, Shots per game, saves per game, etc.
3. Player report
1. Individual statistics for the player, use same report as game, just limit per person, very important for followers
4. Organization report - although important in the future, putting on hold for now, I only have 2 teams from a single organization at the moment.
7. Action Screen
1. Hide goalie actions for non- goalies
8. Organization/Program Screen
1. Set types to match US Lax
2. Custom CSS for Orgs
3. Better layout and design
9. Following
1. Add Team Follow
10. Offline Stats
1. Need ability for those without wireless tablet to enter data after a game.
11. Deployment
1. Better way to keep in synch

That's enough for a week.  If you have a feature request that you would like to see on this list, please leave me a comment.

Offline Storage

I guess it goes to show you that you shouldn't mention what could be a serious problem before you've addressed it.  During the first game yesterday, the app performed as expected with no issues (at least none that weren't already known).  However, during the second game I started getting "bad proxy" errors.  I'm not sure if this was a connectivity issue from ATT or something on GoDaddy's side.  Since neither have claimed the issue I'm certain that I will never know.  Thus the second game ended up missing approximately 1/3 of its data.  That being said, Offline Storage just became my number 1 priority for the week.

Beta - Week 3

Yesterday was another busy day, with 2 teams stats being taken back to back.  Many of the issues that I noticed last week weren't addressed this week due to having the Follow function up and running and Facebook integration.  The Follow function allows for Parents and Fans to keep up with their favorite Player or Team real time.  Since the entirety of the Beta is currently U11 Boys, the data will be skewed a little, but its better than nothing.  I'm still quite pleased with how its gone but there is easily as much work left as has already been completed.  I've two more games to do today, so after this point I'll be a lot more comfortable and will look to expand the beta to more teams.  Also this week I added the "login with Facebook" feature which virtually eliminates any barrier to entry for someone looking to follow a player.  It also helps to eliminate cracking attempts at my low level authentication.  I don't have any huge features to be added this week (short of the timer, but I'm happy with how it currently works) so I should be able to enhance what is already there and eliminate some of the bugs.

Yesterday, I had the situation where one team needed to "borrow" a player from another team.  Fortunately, I was prepared for that, at least for the addition.  I'm not so sure that I can gracefully hide at this point and I'm not going to worry about it today.  I'll think that through a little better tomorrow.  I did notice that the individual Player stats don't appear to be calculating for teams other than the original team.  I must have an error in the SQL because it should calculate across all teams.  I do need a better Player page, and that will be second on the priority list for this week.

I will eventually need the concept of game validation.  As it stands the stat recording is a "fire and forget" methodology.  It is necessary to keep from getting behind in the recording (which still happens).  What that means is that the AJAX Get is pushed, but no request is required, which means that I could lose a stat here of there based on the whims of ATT.  I think that I'll also write a manifest locally and upon game completion do a comparison against the two and if any are missing to add them then.  That will have a heavy payload and its something that will require a lot of thought.  I'm putting into the parking lot for the Fall release.

That's if for now, got a game to go to.  I'll update with my feature list in the morning.  Have a good St. Paddy's day!

Build .9031313

Yesterday I completed the Facebook Login integration.  With this in place, I no longer need registration, one can simply "login with Facebook" and I capture everything I need from them.  This makes registration and authentication a breeze for both me and the user.  I'm going to get the "Follow" portion completed next so that Parents can watch their kids stats.

Feature Focus March 11-15

I'll be working on the following this week, in no particular order.

1. Facebook login
2. Home Page
1. Start creating a marketing version of the home page
3. Game Screen
1. Better Roster organization
2. Lines/grouping of players
3. Timer (still looking into longer term solution)
4. Better user feedback for Clears
5. Man Up/Down button
6. Team Activities - Goal, Turnover
7. Better way to record Face Offs
8. Better way to record Goals
4. Game Info
1. Set players to unavailable (will help the roster organization)
2. 
   
5. Team Screen
1. W/L Box
6. Stats Screen
1. Game report
1. Remove Penalties from current game table
2. Create secondary report for team actions, including totals for all actions.
3. Create timeline report.
4. Create time on field/shot percentages, etc.
2. Team report
1. Create team rollup of all games, same as game report, may need way to dive into game report from here.
2. Create additional stats, Shots per game, saves per game, etc.
3. Player report
1. Individual statistics for the player, use same report as game, just limit per person, very important for followers
4. Organization report - although important in the future, putting on hold for now, I only have 2 teams from a single organization at the moment.
7. Action Screen
1. Hide goalie actions for non- goalies
8. Organization/Program Screen
1. Set types to match US Lax
2. Custom CSS for Orgs
3. Better layout and design
9. Following
1. Base setup
2. Allow Parents, etc, ability to follow player (youth protected)
10. Deployment
1. Better way to keep in synch

That's enough for a week.  If you have a feature request that you would like to see on this list, please leave me a comment.

Live Beta Test #2

Saturday was a very busy day.  We started early with the first test of the day.  The second test of the application went better than the first.  With some of the changes I made, it was easier to get the players onto the field.  I'm still annoyed with the screen scroll when a roster is too large.  I've shrunk the names as much as I can and it still be usable.  I've got to come up with another way.  Also this is iPad only ATM and other tablets it may be worse.  I've got someone with an Android tablet that wants to help test so maybe that will help answer that question.

Feature Request #1 - Come up with way to stop the scroll.

During the first game, I had no issues and everything worked really well.  It also helped knowing the players names a bit better.  Some things to consider is that currently it takes 2 entries to record a Face Off Won.  As you know, that is the fastest part of the game so often the steps were, record Face off Attempt, record Face off Won, and record who picked up the ground ball.  If there was an assist and a score there, that would be a tough stretch to keep up with.  Similar issue with a goal.  Often there was an assist, shot on goal, and then a goal.  Currently I haven't been counting a Goal as a shot on goal although I should.  I can either calculate that post action, or build it in.  Not sure which way to go just yet.

Feature Request #2 - Determine better way to record Face Off process.
Feature Request #3 - Determine better way to record Goals/SOG's/Assists.

Although I separated Clears from the individual stats and put it on the field as a team stat.  Recoding it had no feedback.  It was a direct record to the database and as such didn't notify the user that it had done its work.  Perhaps I need some indicator that a Clear did happen.

Feature Request #4 - User Feedback for Clears

Still the biggest problem I had was on line swaps.  Getting 3 new players on the field, especially during a score and then a face off opportunity was too slow.  At least twice I had missed a middie (fortunately he didn't do anything during that time).  What I need to have is the concept of lines, just like the teams have.  That way I can activate a line and it would still give me the flexibility to rotate individuals in and out.

Feature Request #5 - Create Position "Lines"

At the end of the game, the statistics were quickly and easily calculated and put into my nice new tabular format.  I had left a spot for Penalties, but I can't easily integrate them into the table, and because they won't be calculated by type, don't fit anyway.  I'm going to remove that from the table and do a secondary report for the team as a whole where I report penalties.  I need a team report anyway, so this works out well.

Feature Request #6 - Team report, calculate totals for all, report on clears and man up/down opportunities, Team Goals, Team Turnovers, and Penalties.

I was asked to do a second game for a different team and I was happy to oblige since this gave me more data.  Fortunately I did know a lot of the Player by name already as they practice with my son, and/or have played on his team in the past.  Still, it was much harder to keep up with than it was during the first game, just because of my lack of knowledge for the boys.  One bug surfaced.  Although it was recording the scores correctly, on the field screen, it had the home and away as the same team.  Not sure why this occurred as I wasn't able to reproduce on the spot.

Defect - Away team on both sides of the scoreboard.

Last week I stood with the parents to take the stats which helped greatly when I was struggling with names, etc.  This week I stood with the boys.  Once they figured out what I was doing, I was having to answer the same question every 5 minutes "what are my stats?"  After learning my lesson, my answer became, "I can't get that until the end of the game", but the truth is that I can refresh the report as the game goes on, which was a nice way for me to validate that the program was working as intended.  It also helped to validate that the real time push to Facebook that I want to integrate will work nicely.

Now with 2 games under our belt for my son's team, Parents are now getting interested in seeing the stats.  This week's number one priority is to complete the Facebook login integration and to get "Following" working properly.  If it is anything like the Google Maps integration, it shouldn't take more than a day to get implemented.

That's my thoughts for now.  As always if you have any suggestions for the application, I'm very grateful to hear them.

Build .9030813

Build .9030813 will be deployed later today.  Included in this build are:

1. Finish Game Button
1. Completes all Player actions
2. Flips Game Status
2. Event Dialog
1. Minimize Penalties list - toggle to be invisible, only viewable when needed
2. Make Actions larger
3. Add other events - defaulted to the NCAA rule book
4. Update Event Dialog to break out per NCAA rules
3. Team Page
1. Updated Game list to reflect completed games
2. Added Stats button once game has started
3. "Start Game" changes to "Continue Game" once started
4. Game Page
1. need to be able to set players as unavailable for the game - completed database work, not hooked up on page yet
2. Order by Jersey number
3. Player name aligned to button
4. Jersey numbers as draggable instead of full name
5. Stats
1. Take data and create Pivot output - may be completed by launch
6. Facebook
1. Added Like button to each page, authentication not ready yet
7. Game Info Page
1. Google Maps integrated
2. DEFECT - only works on new game, existing games won't change map.
8. Template
1. Added Footer to all pages
2. Include Google Analytics via footer
3. Facebook like via footer
9. Database
1. Added Game Unavailable table - for players who won't be at game
2. Added GameTime table - to time box game via actual time
3. Updated Events with new Events (TurnOver, Caused TurnOver, Face off Attempt)
4. Updated Game with Points For and Points Against

Feature Focus - March 3-8

This week I'll be focusing on the following features (not prioritized yet):

1. Finish Game Button
1. Completes all Player actions
2. Flips Game Status
2. Event Dialog
1. Minimize Penalties list (dropdown?)
2. Make Actions larger
3. Add other events (interceptions, turn over, etc. - find better resource)
3. Game Timer
1. Freeware was inadequate, need a full system.  This is likely too big for a single week.
4. Team Page - needs a W/L box
5. Game Page
1. need to be able to set players as unavailable for the game
2. Order by Jersey number
3. Truncate name or other methodology
4. Jersey numbers as draggable instead of full name
6. Stats Page
1. Game
1. Replicate standard game sheet familiar to most coaches
2. Create timeline report
2. Team
1. Create rollup team stat report (for all games [with a filter to each individual game])
2. Create advanced reports (time per goal, etc.)
3. Player
1. Create single player stat report linkable from player id
2. Also linkable to followers (youth protected)
3. Filter by Lifetime/Year/Season/Team/Game
4. Organization/Program
1. Full report for season broken down by gender, age level, team
2. Need to determine need for larger long time report (may be helpful as players advance careers)
7. Organization/Program
1. Set types to match US Lax
2. Custom CSS for Organizations
3. Better layout and design
8. Facebook integration
9. Following
1. Base setup
2. Allow parents, etc. ability to follow player (youth protected)
10. Deployment
1. Better way to keep DB in synch
2. Better file deployment (Git?)

First Beta Test

I spent the week frantically trying to get enough pieces into place that would allow me to take the stats for the Saturday game.  Some features had to be scrapped for less functionality just so it would work well enough (not be a stopper).  No other beta testers have come online yet, so it was just me on Saturday (in hindsight this was the better way to approach it).

First, let me say that it is one thing to come up with an idea and code it, but once you are forced to see it in action at the speed of a Lacrosse game, one can see some immediate improvements.  The previous game ran over so the refs were on a fast pace to get the game started.  I had anticipated having a few minutes to populate the field for the first time.  Sadly I didn't get that time and was rushed to get players on the field as the game started within seconds of them taking the field.  They won the faceoff which gave me time to get everyone on the field.  I may have missed a ground ball, but otherwise was able to catch up.  The other thing was that without knowing each players name well, I was forced to rely on other parents to help me fill out the roster.  What I mean by that is that I just struggled quickly finding a number with a name which pointed out my first real bug in the system.  I designed it to be number specific, so that all you needed to do was see the Jersey to tell what happened.  But since I neglected to sort my list (either alphabetically or numerically) finding players was a bit of a strain.

Defect 1 - sort by jersey number.

My player list is setup on the right hand side of the screen (which is great for right handers - need to address for lefties at some point), but I had originally designed it to be a fixed width.  Some of the names causes wrapping and thus made if more confusing as I couldn't see the numbers neatly lined up on the left hand side of the box.

Defect 2 - eliminate wrapping (either by truncating the name, allowing for an indent on the wrap, or something else).

Although the dragging idea is sound, the problem I had was that the entire name and jersey number were part of the draggable item.  The drop point was the center of the draggable item, so players with long names had drop points to the right of where my finger tip was.  I missed dragging a couple of players that way.  Perhaps this needs a smaller, more reliable draggable item, such as a button with only the jersey on it.

Defect 3 - make jersey the draggable item.

During the game the app worked as expected.  The one annoying thing was that on an event, the focus was to a drop down list that I had (which I had already fixed, but not deployed to the live site).  Also, the text list was a little small and didn't allow a lot of room for error.  This was partially due to my having so many entries for Penalties.

Defect 4 - separate penalties better, make events bigger.

It also occurred to me that I may be missing some event items.  I was missing things such as interceptions and turn-overs, but that was due to the reference material I used.  My son is U11 and some of those things don't show up until later in his career.  But I could have easily recorded that during the game.

Feature Request - more inclusive events.

Lastly, I only had a rudimentary statistics page up, it was the last thing I did on Friday night before the game, and it was raw at best.  However, it allowed me to give good stats, but since I had each position on the field as a separate entity, I had to do some adding on the fly (not an issue, but obviously something to address).  So not a bug per se, but functionality to complete.  One thing I did notice is that a touchable application is tough on a 39 degree day (my poor finger was all but frozen).

I did get a chance to introduce my app to a few new people.  Although we lost, I noticed that the opposing team stat keeper was doing everything by hand, literally a list of who did what when and then he would have to add everything up at the end.  I showed him the app and asked him if he would like to be part of the beta.  He was very interested and I expect to hear from him before next week's game.

That's it for now.  I'll update you as things continue to progress.

Build .9022813

Features added:

1. Statistics Page - shows after game is started (very limited functionality - just enough to run first beta test)
2. Events write to database asynchronously.
3. Score dynamically updates on game screen and records to database, no round trip needed.  Upon refresh, sets from database to keep in synch.
4. Draggable functions working for iPad (need Android to test).
5. Events are variable based on position.
6. Game spawns in separate window to eliminate back.

Defects addressed:

1. Event orphans addressed.
2. Timer changed to Time of Day clock - need to find longer term solution
3. Player reset turned off, killed draggable action, couldn't find a way to reset draggable