Meterboard 2 updates (was Programmer needed...)

[Thomas W-P]

The hardware running meterboard was obsolete when set up in 2006.

JL wants to unplug it at the end of the season. After hosting it for 7 years I think that we owe him that and also a huge debt of thanks for the cleverness and inspiration it provides for some people.

But, with this comes a problem: we need to recreate the meterboard by April 2014.

I have JL's code (perl that ran on UNIX) and have a proof of concept that shows it can be done just using PHP (on this server) or Python (on a dedicated server like a Raspberry Pi - I have one that I am happy to dedicate to the meterboard).

Is there anyone out there who is interested in putting together meterboard2?

[Rodger]

This thread has 49 views now but no replies yet. Somewhat curious for something as crucial as the meterboard is to the Free Spirits website. I regret to say I don't have the necessary skills to recreate it.

But what is this? Is it you yourself who is making the second incarnation of the meterboard right now, Thomas? If so, fantastic! But you could have left everyone sweating for a couple of months. Someone might have stepped forward in the end. Maybe someone would rather learn how to program than let the beloved meterboard die.

I don't know if we as a team have expressed enough thanks to Jonathan for designing, making and hosting the meterboard for these 7 years. =D> =D> =D>

[Thomas W-P]

I have been doing it, but have had a couple of offers of help from zootmutant and GrantR. We have a hidden forum to discuss things. I had some time today and made progress. I just can't do all the whizzy stuff JL does though, and progress will stop here unless my little team can pull something out of the hat.

[Paul Victory]

I would also like to express my huge gratitude to Jonathan Lemon for what he has done over the last seven years. My only reason for not posting on this thread before now is that I have no programming skills (other than being a fairly proficient user of excel, which is not really relevant here) and I didn't want to post just to say that I can't help.

But I guess we need to mobilise the troops on this one. If we don't have the in-house expertise to do this, could we hire someone to do it and how much would it cost? And how much could we raise from Free Spirits members to keep it going? I'm happy to contribute, but I probably can't afford to fund the entire cost.

Maybe we could approach the guys who run nonathlon? Just a thought. There may be other ways around this, but I agree that it would be a shame to lose the meter board.

Paul V

[strider77]

LIke Paul I would like to add my thanks to Jonathan for the incredible job he has done =D>

Alas I have no programming background so am not of any use.

[Richard Lindner]

Thomas, I'm sure that there are lots of freespirits out there who, like me, would miss the meterboard on a daily basis if we were to loose it. Also like me, they would probably help if they could.

I have very basic (no pun intended ) programming skills that are probably of no use but I do know a couple of whizzkids who I could recruit to help on the initial programming side. How much ongoing hardware/software maintenance is required? Please PM me with some more details of what's required so I can assess whether I or the whizzkids can help.

[strider77]

Great stuff Richard, thats a fantastic offer

As Graham has eruditely said on another thread, this is one of the great things about this club, we all row in together (sorry )

[billwright]

Just seen the Beta version and it looks pretty good to me. Has it been authored by Thomas?

Bill

[plummy]

Not sure who authored it - probably Thomas - and I agree, it looks very good with a couple of extra nice touches re OTE & OTW metres =D>

[Thomas W-P]

Yes, it is me. But I have a small band of people who have expressed an interest in helping. I should be working on my own stuff at the moment but got a little distracted again today having a play with something extra .

I have no intention of doing the shared logbooks at the moment. It is in the "too fiddly" bin. If that happens then it will need to be one of the team.

[Stan]

Good to hear Thomas has received offers of help.
I too have seen the beta version and I am impressed. Thomas the shared logbooks haven't been working for a while so its something that's nice to have but not essential.
I really liked the ability for an instant update.
I would also like to acknowledge and thank Jonathan for his work on the meterboard since its inception.

[strider77]

I'd like to echo Stan, Plummy and Bill's comments, it looks great and the shared logbooks have not been there for some time.

Thank you

[billwright]

The instant update is indeed a stride forward. I think it updates "instantly" after you refresh your C2 Logbook when you've entered the metres. That may sound obvious, but I uploaded today's metres via the Logcard and the Metre Board changed once I refreshed my C2 Log page. Well done Thomas =D> =D>

Bill

[fkoene]

I also just want to express my gratitude for the meterboard the past years. It has been very inspiring for me. I don't think I will be of much help for the new meterboard either. I have a little programming experience in Perl for monitoring here at work, but seeing the beta-side I don't think my ample experience is needed.
Anyways, good luck with the new version.

[Thomas W-P]

I should be working on my big idea for internet riches, but this was more fun. Challenge icons now on-line. People who appear twice on the metre board do not get the Fall Challenge because I can't tell between two people with the same name.

http://www.freespiritsrowing.com/meterboard2/

[Rodger]

The update button, the daily mean, the challenges... it's all looking great to me!

I wouldn't want to over-ask and I'm not sure whether other people find it useful enough, but would it be possible and doable to add the number of days rowed as a column? If it is a question of space, I would personally prefer this over the 'gap' column.

[Thomas W-P]

Feature request ask you like, but no idea whether it will happen or not.

[Phil Lamb]

It's looking good and the work that has gone into it is worthy of significant recognition, thank you. =D> =D> =D>

[Thomas W-P]

Thank you. Here is my amazon wish list if people are feeling generous

http://www.amazon.co.uk/registry/wishlist/104GKHIPXRANF

If you want to change your flag, you can now do that through the user control panel on the forum. Go to the User Control Panel -> Profile tab and scroll to the bottom. This is probably only for English/Scots/Welsh, because all other countries are catered for by changing it on the C2 site:

Capture.PNG (15.27 KiB) Viewed 1814 times

[GrantR]

Nice!!! NZL flag for me thanks Thomas!

[Thomas W-P]

Let me know if it works [-o<

In fact I will start a new thread on the web site forum for tracking bugs.

I don't know if people have noticed, but if you float your mouse over the little flags/icons you get a little piece of information.

[Thomas W-P]

Let me know if it works [-o<

Ha! It would have worked for you, but nobody else would have seen it. I think it is fixed now, but you have to visit the meterboard and see the flag in place for it to be fixed in to the meterboard database.

[Thomas W-P]

mb2 had a complete wobbler today. I thought it was my code (it was) but came about because C2 have this weird thing where members appear again at the bottom of the board. There are now four Richard Lindner and two Andrew Stanway entries. I could cope with two, but not three!

I am going to have to start ignoring duplicates - which will work until we get two people with exactly the same name. If this happens then they will *have* to add a picture to their account (of anything) to appear.

[zootMutant]

I, too, wish to express my thanks to JL for creating the code for the meterboard and hosting it for many years. I think this is a hugely useful feature which helps to bring us all together. I would sorely miss it if it were to disappear!

Also, I wish to thank Thomas and Grant for their work on the improvements so far! I am committed to helping where I can, but Thomas is running away with the show, here. Today I managed to install an Apache web server on my Linux machine and got PHP installed and configured, but every time I check the meterboard, Thomas has added a new feature! Incredible! =D> =D> =D>

Cheers,
zoot

[GrantR]

I haven't even had time to unzip Thomas's files. It's all him! Pretty impressive improvements so far