The following request is to help manage Sailwave files, especially when its necessary to revert to a previous copy because of issues in the current. This is critical when scoring flights, etc. and results need to be locked. Then you find that something needs to fixed in locked results. While many organizations have policies and procedures around this, they often fail for a variety of reasons. Having a command to do this automatically will mitigate this problem.
The idea is to add a command to:
Save version
The file name would be composed of two parts.
First of predefined text that is always used and is the same
Second part of YYMMDDHHMMSS to make the file name unique and sequential
The ss are included to ensure that issuing the command within the same minute would be unique.
Characteristics of the last saved file would be same;
Sailwave file flagged as saved until a changed
File saved would be at the top of list of saved files
Details such
Whether there is separator between the two parts
How to enter or define the standard text
How to address the situation of system using 12-hour clock and need to identify AM/PM
Is left to the implementation design
The above is only a suggested approach for automatic versioning of Sailwave files. There may be better or easier to implement approaches that would accomplish versioning and address the problem of manual versioning attempts,
Thanks,
···
Edward * Graham* Dougall, ABCP, AMBCI, FLMI
VA3BGD
The answer is 42 or it depends!
Gattuso’s Extension of Murphy’s Law: Nothing is ever so bad that it can’t get worse!
I use both Dropbox [2GB free version but now limited to 3
devices] & pCloud [15Gb free version] cloud based storage
systems which provide version control, other cloud storage systems
are available which might also have version control available…
They have saved me on several occasions. Another advantage of
cloud storage is that I can access the files from other machines.
I also store the contents of the 4 Sailwave folders [Ratings,
Templates, Styles & Scripts] there as well so again can have
consistency of Sailwave environment across which ever computer I
am using [laptop, desktop, Windows PC, Mac or Linux].
Using cloud storage is also recommended for clubs so that the
club system and the scorer’s home system both have access to the
same files. I appreciated quite a few clubs will not have Internet
access from the club, but it is likely getting fewer and fewer in
number.
FYI - if it is necessary to make a change to scoring of Q-series
[flights] after an F-series race has been completed, there is a
process that can be followed.
That is my two cents worth.
Kind regards,
Huw
···
On 25/06/2019 02:56, ‘Edward Graham
Dougall’ [sailwave] wrote:
following request is to help manage Sailwave files,
especially when its necessary to revert to a previous
copy because of issues in the current. This is
critical when scoring flights, etc. and results need
to be locked. �Then you find that something needs to
fixed in locked results. While many organizations have
policies and procedures around this, they often fail
for a variety of reasons. Having a command to do this
automatically will mitigate this problem.
�
The
idea is to add a command to:
�
���������
Save version
�
The
file name would be composed of two parts.
�
First
of predefined text that is always used and is the
same
Second
part of YYMMDDHHMMSS to make the file name unique an
d sequential
�
The
ss are included to ensure that issuing the command
within the same minute would be unique.
�
Characteristics
of the last saved file would be same;
�
Sailwave
file flagged as saved until a changed
File
saved would be at the top of list of saved files
�
Details
such
�
Whether
there is separator between the two parts
How
to enter or define the standard text
How
to address the situation of system using 12-hour
clock and need to identify AM/PM
�
Is
left to the implementation design
�
The
above is only a suggested approach for automatic
versioning of Sailwave files. There may be better or
easier to implement approaches that would accomplish
versioning and address the problem of manual
versioning attempts,
�
Th anks,
Edward * Graham*
Dougall, ABCP, AMBCI, FLMI
VA3BGD
The answer is 42 or it depends!
Gattuso's Extension of Murphy's
Law: Nothing is ever so bad that� it can’t get worse!
The very simple solution to your suggestion is to use a service such as Dropbox or Pclould - which is the solution I’ve recommended in the past and is the way I always use Sailwave.
Just make sure your .blw is saved in a Dropbox/pCloud folder.
Then every time you save the file it will be backed up to the Dropbox (or pCloud).
Even the free version of these keep every version of the files for you for 30 days and if you have a paid subscription then you can have them saved for up to a year. You can revert back to any version or recover to a different file name if you just want to.
pCloud has an advantage in the paid version where you can have a public folder. With a public folder, these files are automatically available as web pages. So simply publishing the results to a folder on your PC makes then instantly available to the public via the web, via an https link which you can supply. Super easy and quick - this is what I normally do if I scoring a regatta as a guest scorer. The link can be published on the club website.
···
For the advanced user, there is also a nice Chrome addon which will show you differences of the different versions of the files
I agree that using the cloud is the way to go and do that for my scoring situation.
The request comes as a result of being on the race committee at other venues were someone else is doing the scoring. Unfortunately, all too often sufficient attention and priority is not given to scoring. Some poor individual has been pulled into scoring because of their availability and in many cases they don’t have any in depth tech skills, understanding of Sailwave and scoring. They are instructed to use Sailwave, so spent whatever short time they have attempting to learn the details of Sailwave without thinking about and putting good practices in place. They may not know what the cloud is nor even how to get whatever computer they are using connected to the Internet.
The idea behind the request is to provide them something inside Sailwave to provide some automatic rollback to help protect then from themselves without having to figure out tech stuff outside Sailwave. Even knowing that there is the automatic save version feature, might reduce the stress they are under because them being dropped into this pressure situation.
Thanks,
···
Edward * Graham* Dougall, ABCP, AMBCI, FLMI
VA3BGD
The answer is 42 or it depends!
Gattuso’s Extension of Murphy’s Law: Nothing is ever so bad that it can’t get worse!
The very simple solution to your suggestion is to use a service such as Dropbox or Pclould - which is the solution I’ve recommended in the past and is the way I always use Sailwave.
Just make sure your .blw is saved in a Dropbox/pCloud folder.
Then every time you save the file it will be backed up to the Dropbox (or pCloud).
Even the free version of these keep every version of the files for you for 30 days and if you have a paid subscription then you can have them saved for up to a year. You can revert back to any version or recover to a different file name if you just want to.
pCloud has an advantage in the paid version where you can have a public folder. With a public folder, these files are automatically available as web pages. So simply publishing the results to a folder on your PC makes then instantly available to the public via the web, via an https link which you can supply. Super easy and quick - this is what I normally do if I scoring a regatta as a guest scorer. The link can be published on the club website.
For the advanced user, there is also a nice Chrome addon which will show you differences of the different versions of the files
The following request is to help manage Sailwave files, especially when its necessary to revert to a previous copy because of issues in the current. This is critical when scoring flights, etc. and results need to be locked. Then you find that something needs to fixed in locked results. While many organizations have policies and procedures around this, they often fail for a variety of reasons. Having a command to do this automatically will mitigate this problem.
The idea is to add a command to:
Save version
The file name would be composed of two parts.
First of predefined text that is always used and is the same
Second part of YYMMDDHHMMSS to make the file name unique and sequential
The ss are included to ensure that issuing the command within the same minute would be unique.
Characteristics of the last saved file would be same;
Sailwave file flagged as saved until a changed
File saved would be at the top of list of saved files
Details such
Whether there is separator between the two parts
How to enter or define the standard text
How to address the situation of system using 12-hour clock and need to identify AM/PM
Is left to the implementation design
The above is only a suggested approach for automatic versioning of Sailwave files. There may be better or easier to implement approaches that would accomplish versioning and address the problem of manual versioning attempts,
Thanks,
Edward * Graham* Dougall, ABCP, AMBCI, FLMI
VA3BGD
The answer is 42 or it depends!
Gattuso’s Extension of Murphy’s Law: Nothing is ever so bad that it can’t get worse!
