Director of Scoutbook - 11/62015 Update

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Director of Scoutbook - 11/62015 Update

Published: Nov 6, 2015

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I’m here. It’s been a tough week in Scoutbook land and as much as I would like to be reporting good news on this Friday afternoon, I’m not:

As has been reported in the forums, there are issues with the calendar function not sending emails, especially when email traffic is high. While bad, the fix for this issue has been identified and is in QA. Presuming no issues with testing the fix for this should release early next week.

Likewise there has been an ongoing issue with broken image links in the forums. The fix for this issue is also in QA and on track for release early next week.

Coming behind are a number of stories focused on improving the unacceptable page load times we have been experiencing lately, especially during peak usage times. By improving and moving scheduled maintenance routines and improving queries that run many, many, many times per session we hope to improve our load times. More as these stories progress.

For now, back to it. Have a great weekend.

Comments (27)
10 years ago

Brooks Prevette

I am very appreciative of any info we get, thank you!

Would you consider maybe updating your blog two times a week instead of just once every week to a week and a half?

Especially, knowing that there are all these issues, it would be really helpful having a little extra effort on SB's part to keep us up to date on these progresses....

Pending Approval

I am very appreciative of any info we get, thank you! Would you consider maybe updating your blog two times a week instead of just once every week to a week and a half? Especially, knowing that there are all these issues, it would be really helpful having a little extra effort on SB's part to keep us up to date on these progresses....

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10 years ago

Robbie Deyoung

Any idea on when we might see the Varsity and Venturing modules released?

Pending Approval

Any idea on when we might see the Varsity and Venturing modules released?

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10 years ago

Frank Turner

Or be able to print a useful report?

Pending Approval

Or be able to print a useful report?

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10 years ago

Debbie Daddio

Reports are useless so far!! Any update is appreciated

Pending Approval

Reports are useless so far!! Any update is appreciated

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10 years ago

Tina Daniels

Will we be able to print a sticker formatted report for awards?

Pending Approval

Will we be able to print a sticker formatted report for awards?

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10 years ago

Stephen Padgett

Thank you for your information and updates, and yes I would also like to see more updates, useful reports.

The SB email reminders from the Calendar still are not working, as of 7:00am this morning, BUT if you click "send now", it will.

Thank you for all of your hard work.

Pending Approval

Thank you for your information and updates, and yes I would also like to see more updates, useful reports. The SB email reminders from the Calendar still are not working, as of 7:00am this morning, BUT if you click "send now", it will. Thank you for all of your hard work.

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10 years ago

Douglas Walcutt

Its not easy having explosive growth, but with that it is a blessing. It is a good thing to have a pipeline of demand and issues to prioritize. That speaks to the confidence that your user community has in you and your team. If the product was not useful in delivering a quality scout program, then people would not bother asking for more. Thank you for the honesty and actually having courage in bringing forward your challenges and how you are addressing them. Keep up the great work in moving from good to great. And continue to bring us the good, the bad, and the ugly. I appreciate all news. It helps me set expectations in my community of users and allows us to prioritize what we choose to focus on ( features and functions ) as we roll out.

YIS,
Doug W.

Pending Approval

Its not easy having explosive growth, but with that it is a blessing. It is a good thing to have a pipeline of demand and issues to prioritize. That speaks to the confidence that your user community has in you and your team. If the product was not useful in delivering a quality scout program, then people would not bother asking for more. Thank you for the honesty and actually having courage in bringing forward your challenges and how you are addressing them. Keep up the great work in moving from good to great. And continue to bring us the good, the bad, and the ugly. I appreciate all news. It helps me set expectations in my community of users and allows us to prioritize what we choose to focus on ( features and functions ) as we roll out. YIS, Doug W.

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10 years ago

Joseph VandenBrock

Again I know I keep repeating this but im hoping to hear an official answer... eventually.
I would like to find out if Lone Scouts and their Counselors will be able to put their information in correctly. So it will reflect correctly on the dashboard (i.e. no need for a link to a pack or troop). Also is there anything in the works for us to use scoutnet?

Pending Approval

Again I know I keep repeating this but im hoping to hear an official answer... eventually. I would like to find out if Lone Scouts and their Counselors will be able to put their information in correctly. So it will reflect correctly on the dashboard (i.e. no need for a link to a pack or troop). Also is there anything in the works for us to use scoutnet?

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10 years ago

April Croissant

Will the new NOVA awards and new requirements be added to Scoutbook soon?

Pending Approval

Will the new NOVA awards and new requirements be added to Scoutbook soon?

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10 years ago

Adrian Tait

The calendar module is a good start and there are a lot of little things to add such as the ability to email just those that have registered, or not registered. Keep working on improving it and it can become a very useful tool for managing events. Thanks for all you guys do!

Pending Approval

The calendar module is a good start and there are a lot of little things to add such as the ability to email just those that have registered, or not registered. Keep working on improving it and it can become a very useful tool for managing events. Thanks for all you guys do!

Update

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10 years ago

Shawn Cleary

I love reading the blog posts every week...little advances (victories) are good to hear about, and minor setbacks are all a part of building something bigger and better. I like that you are able to identify the issues, and are taking more than a "Band Aid" approach to fixing it.

For everyone else that seems to reply with complaints, every week, to your blog posts, take that to the forums, where it belongs. Lone Scout questions? Take it to the forums...Additional awards questions? Take it to the forums. Issues with the program? Forums.

Keep up the great work!!!

Pending Approval

I love reading the blog posts every week...little advances (victories) are good to hear about, and minor setbacks are all a part of building something bigger and better. I like that you are able to identify the issues, and are taking more than a "Band Aid" approach to fixing it. For everyone else that seems to reply with complaints, every week, to your blog posts, take that to the forums, where it belongs. Lone Scout questions? Take it to the forums...Additional awards questions? Take it to the forums. Issues with the program? Forums. Keep up the great work!!!

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10 years ago

Jason Wyatt

The updates are helpful, but is the development team employing an agile methodology to help expedite code testing and rollout? Also, Is there something on the development roadmap that will allow pack admins to set more granular permissions to positions within the pack? (for example, allowing a position such as pack trainer to be able to pull the trained leader report, which they cannot do now?) We need to be be able to assign permissions with the least privilege concept without having to make them full pack admins (that's a recipe for a security nightmare). Thanks!

updated 10 years ago

Pending Approval

The updates are helpful, but is the development team employing an agile methodology to help expedite code testing and rollout? Also, Is there something on the development roadmap that will allow pack admins to set more granular permissions to positions within the pack? (for example, allowing a position such as pack trainer to be able to pull the trained leader report, which they cannot do now?) We need to be be able to assign permissions with the least privilege concept without having to make them full pack admins (that's a recipe for a security nightmare). Thanks!

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10 years ago

Larry Faust

I would gladly trade "unacceptable page load times" for progress on any of the more substantive issues mentioned in the forums. @Shawn, these issues/complaints have been taken to the forums... repeatedly.

Pending Approval

I would gladly trade "unacceptable page load times" for progress on any of the more substantive issues mentioned in the forums. @Shawn, these issues/complaints have been taken to the forums... repeatedly.

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10 years ago

Tim Bradford

@April Croissant The NOVA awards are all available to track under the awards section.

Pending Approval

@April Croissant The NOVA awards are all available to track under the awards section.

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10 years ago

Randy Means

How do you pay for scout book

Pending Approval

How do you pay for scout book

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10 years ago

David Touster

@Timothy Bradford: Yes the right categories for NOVA are listed but when you click them, the detailed requirements, for example, still state the pre-2015 Belt Loops and Pins and not the 2015 Adventures as listed on the NOVA/STEM site (they need to match what is on the following website) so we are waiting for the changes to Scoutbook. I would presume that's what April Croissant was talking about.
http://www.scouting.org/stem/Awards/CubScout.aspx

Pending Approval

@Timothy Bradford: Yes the right categories for NOVA are listed but when you click them, the detailed requirements, for example, still state the pre-2015 Belt Loops and Pins and not the 2015 Adventures as listed on the NOVA/STEM site (they need to match what is on the following website) so we are waiting for the changes to Scoutbook. I would presume that's what April Croissant was talking about. http://www.scouting.org/stem/Awards/CubScout.aspx

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10 years ago

Nathan Smith

I'm assuming peak times are right around now... 5pm-8pm after work when everyone is scouting. You can definitely tell the AJAX is falling apart under the stress of a server which is trying to keep up. Lots of sparatic issues adding scouts, leaders, sending emails, etc. Starts to behave buggy, and functions just plain time out. I'm lucky to get a page to load after 30 seconds. Keep up the good work, you'll get there. If you need a good beta tester, please let me know. I'm a .NET/JS developer. Obviously performance is priority #1. No one wants to work with a buggy, slow site. Good luck!

Pending Approval

I'm assuming peak times are right around now... 5pm-8pm after work when everyone is scouting. You can definitely tell the AJAX is falling apart under the stress of a server which is trying to keep up. Lots of sparatic issues adding scouts, leaders, sending emails, etc. Starts to behave buggy, and functions just plain time out. I'm lucky to get a page to load after 30 seconds. Keep up the good work, you'll get there. If you need a good beta tester, please let me know. I'm a .NET/JS developer. Obviously performance is priority #1. No one wants to work with a buggy, slow site. Good luck!

Update

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10 years ago

Nick Sims

Keep up the good work. Progress is important.

Pending Approval

Keep up the good work. Progress is important.

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10 years ago

Doctor Bob Richard

Thanks Bob, developing software in a live environment is always a Big Challenge. Keep up the good work eventually there will not be a need for this blog!

Pending Approval

Thanks Bob, developing software in a live environment is always a Big Challenge. Keep up the good work eventually there will not be a need for this blog!

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10 years ago

Ken Mortello

Thank you for keeping us updated on the progress being completed.

Pending Approval

Thank you for keeping us updated on the progress being completed.

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10 years ago

Dennis Dyer

Performance for me is the big issue. Monday meeting nights are the most painful. Performance at 10am on Tuesday (right now) is great, but the wait times at a meeting when I need the data is painful. Keep up the good work and tell the team THANKS from us in the troops.

Pending Approval

Performance for me is the big issue. Monday meeting nights are the most painful. Performance at 10am on Tuesday (right now) is great, but the wait times at a meeting when I need the data is painful. Keep up the good work and tell the team THANKS from us in the troops.

Update

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10 years ago

Bob Esser

Glad I'm not the only one with email reminder issues.
I run a den that doesn't use a regular meeting schedule so we rely on Calendar and email reminders.
Last week none of my Webelos came to the meeting - it was even a topic they chose, Game Design. After taking a day to stew about how I was stood up by an entire den, I sent out an email and discovered it was a Scoutbook error.

Pending Approval

Glad I'm not the only one with email reminder issues. I run a den that doesn't use a regular meeting schedule so we rely on Calendar and email reminders. Last week none of my Webelos came to the meeting - it was even a topic they chose, Game Design. After taking a day to stew about how I was stood up by an entire den, I sent out an email and discovered it was a Scoutbook error.

Update

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10 years ago

Ken Morgan

Thanks for the update, Bob. It's always good to hear the current state of development, even if it's not always good news.

BTW - My den meeting reminder went out on time last night. :)

Pending Approval

Thanks for the update, Bob. It's always good to hear the current state of development, even if it's not always good news. BTW - My den meeting reminder went out on time last night. :)

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10 years ago

Doug Moore

Sir, as far as reports, a good starting point would be including the Adventure Requirements to bring Report Builder back to its level of usefulness on May 30th. Second most important would be actually implementing the PDF and CSV options in Report Builder that have been "coming soon" since Report Builder was first released.

Pending Approval

Sir, as far as reports, a good starting point would be including the Adventure Requirements to bring Report Builder back to its level of usefulness on May 30th. Second most important would be actually implementing the PDF and CSV options in Report Builder that have been "coming soon" since Report Builder was first released.

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10 years ago

Bob Cain

+1 to Doug Moore's report suggestion, above.

Pending Approval

+1 to Doug Moore's report suggestion, above.

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10 years ago

Glenn Graczyk

Bob, thank you for your hard work! Really looking forward to getting the crew on Scoutbook!

Pending Approval

Bob, thank you for your hard work! Really looking forward to getting the crew on Scoutbook!

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10 years ago

David Cutler

Bob - if it helps any, I personally am anxious for bug-fixes, enhancements & improvements because it is such a good tool already compared to others that have been available! I can see the potential and just have a hard time waiting for a good thing to get better (think I learned that from my Scouts...).

Pending Approval

Bob - if it helps any, I personally am anxious for bug-fixes, enhancements & improvements because it is such a good tool already compared to others that have been available! I can see the potential and just have a hard time waiting for a good thing to get better (think I learned that from my Scouts...).

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