FRED upgrade

[peet]

Hi all-

A notice for FRED users: askFRED.net got an update the other night, which added or changed several features. I can never remember all of the changes in any given release (I'm gonna start keeping a changelog one day, honest!), but here's some highlights:

Points system completely overhauled:
Points standings are now almost completely self-service. FRED has a battery of calculators that can be used by any Bout Committee member to create points lists for their club/division/section/whatever. Also, FRED now handles rolling points systems.

FRED's googlemap comes out of beta:
There has been a googlemap of FRED's tournaments hiding unlinked on the site. With the release of google's geocoding API, FRED's googlemap seems "ready for prime time". Check it out.

"Clone" tournament:
One of the more often requested feature enhancements for tournament organizers who host many nearly identical tournaments. FRED lets you copy a whole tournament, changing only the dates and such, even replicating events, fees, and other options.

Secondary clubs:
Some organizers use secondary club affiliation in seeding/pool generation. FRED now collects fencers' secondary club info for this purpose.

Waiver "attachments" to prereg confirmations now linked instead of attached:
In today's atmosphere of over-zealous spam filters, many people do not receive emails from FRED that have important liability waivers attached. When an organizer chooses to have a waiver "attached" to preregistration confirmation emails, it will now be linked with a normal text link in the email, and also linked on the preregistration "thank you" page on the site. NOTE: This applies only to attachments to preregistration confirmations. If you attach a file to general emails sent through FRED (tournament announcements, etc), those will still be attached as usual (because the file is not retained on the FRED site).

Search by tournament date
Why was it not possible to search for tournaments (past or future) by the tournament date? 'Cause well, sometimes i miss the obvious options. So now you can.

Better duplicate request prevention:
Under certain circumstances, a web browser can accidentally send two requests instead of one. Usually this is no problem, but when you are paying for something, it can result in double-charges. FRED now puts a unique code into every payment form that can only be used once. If the code comes back twice, the second request is dropped.


Well, that's all I can remember for now. If i remember some other changes, I can always edit this post.

Cheers everyone, and thanks for using FRED!

-p

[qatet]

The maps and dates are the most wonderful options ever. Thanks Peet!

[mrbiggs]

FRED's googlemap comes out of beta:
There has been a googlemap of FRED's tournaments hiding unlinked on the site. With the release of google's geocoding API, FRED's googlemap seems "ready for prime time". Check it out.

That is ridiculously cool.

[KD5MDK]

FRED is the coolest website Ever.

[Goldgar]

Fabulous!

[grotto]

Peet if the USFA asks to buy your site.... DON'T DO IT!! license it or what have you, but don't let them near your code! it stikes me funny that a single guy can program an incredibly usable fencing tool like this "for the love of the sport" more or less. then my dues go into building that POS that is the USFA site. Sorry about the rant, AskFred has become the defacto place for information regarding fencing for my division... thank god.

[peet]

You guys are way too kind...

But thanks!

-p

[academe]

Peet,

I was given the task of getting up to speed on using askfred for our local fencing tournaments. It is elegantly simple to use, just as good code should be, lets me concentrate on getting the job done rather than figuring out the eccentricities of its design. Your site and work is a perfect example of less is more. You simply get the job done.

Excellent.