TOPIC:

The Meeting Sign-up Sheet feature has been updated to incorporate new functionality to address user requests (including my own wants) and provide greater flexibility for use. Additionally, a new Excel based output format has been added. See the following:

Notice ability to select specific meetings.

(Notice new output format: Excel grid format)

Now you can select which meetings to include in the output and you can select more than 5 meetings into the future. For the Web Page Grid format, the output is spanned over multiple pages when more than 5 meetings are selected, each showing a maximum of 5 meetings. Page break indicators are shown on the HTML output screen.

Your feedback is welcomed on this new functionality!

Very nice change !

I have tried to select all the types of output but I'm afraid none of them appear to be working for me.
The expected screen appears when the button to print multiple meeting sheets is selected, there are dates checked, but when I select ok, nothing happens, then I select ok again and the screen goes away but nothing else happens.

Please let me know if there is something I'm missing, I'm using internet explorer 11.0.9600

Thank you

Brenda G.
Jtalkers 1067481

Click the reload button at the bottom of your site and try again.

Thank you for the suggestion, however that has not fixed the issue.

I have the same issue. When I go into developer mode and press the OK button, I get a javascript error. "Unable to get property length of undefined or null reference." File agenda.min.js, Line 1, Column: 11118. The code I get looks a bit hoky. if ("Cancel" != e&&a.length). Not sure the e&&a is a valid identifier for javascript.

Hope that helps.

fixed

rglennwalker wrote:

I get a javascript error. "Unable to get property length of undefined or null reference." File agenda.min.js, Line 1, Column: 11118. The code I get looks a bit hoky. if ("Cancel" != e&&a.length). Not sure the e&&a is a valid identifier for javascript.

"e&&a" is a valid *logical expression*, but it helps if I remember to include the updated utilities.js file that defines "a" in the production distribution. BTW what you see as javascript will look hoky because it is intentionally compressed and obfuscated to run faster.

Thanks for reporting the issue! Should be all better now.

Thanks Steve

Minified JavaScript is so much fun to look at.

I tried it out and it works. Slick!

Glenn

rglennwalker wrote:

I tried it out and it works. Slick!

Thanks! Still hoping for some more feedback...

Is the dialog ok? I made the scroll bar the entire height of the dialog instead of just the checklist so there is more room to see the meeting dates when scrolling down. However, the downside is that the output format drop-down and the check-all checkbox get scrolled off. I had also considered gray-banding the checklist.

Also, considering the possibility of reducing the font size for table cell text in the HTML version if there are more rows (more roles). This would fit more rows on a page for the HTML at the expense of a smaller font size. Have not yet committed to that though.

There is a subtle difference to how the roles on the left are determined in the HTML version. If you look closely, the role list on the left is "determined newly" for each page in the output. Thus, if you have a "inconsistent agenda" in the mix such as a contest agenda, it would only affect the role listing on the page on which it lands. However, this "role sequence reset" is not used for the XLS Grid version, since the pagination is not really known until the user prints from Excel.

>>> If anyone wants to test this for their understanding, then create a dummy agenda at least 6 meetings out from today containing an extra test role in the middle. Notice how the roles on the first page vs the second page differ in the HTML version. However, in the XLS Grid version, they are all lumped together in the left most column (column A).

From my perspective, the dialog is OK. Is there any option to allow me to resize the dialog like others? That way I don't have to scroll if I don't want to do Grey banding might be a nice touch. Might make the list more readable. Maybe a grid would set it off nicely too.

Not sure reducing the font makes a lot of sense. The typical agenda probably won't have more than 20-25 lines. Width is the bigger concern. I know paper limits us there. I am spoiled, I have access to 11x17 printers. I would keep the text around a 10-12 point size. I notice the roles are in different size than the names.

I will test out the different agenda thing when I get a chance. I have one meeting like that but it is within the 6 meetings. Would have to play around.

I like the XLS versions as well. Gives me the opportunity to format any way I want. I can then print with more than six columns if I want or simply publish for people to use as a reference.

Well, this is created w/ my dialog "wrapper functions" that are used to produce the simple pop-ups... intentionally dumbed down and fixed size for my ease of deployment. I could make it resizable, but I would have to build the dialog using the full jQuery UI dialog widget functionality. Let me think on that a bit.

Gray banding is easy... I could do a grid also... just a bit more effort.

Let me look at the role vs names size... had not thought of that.

Here is what the dialog looks like in my development code w/ gray banding and grid lines on the list:


Should I deploy this?

I fixed the font size discrepancy in the HTML Grid output. The role titles and the names should be the same font now, which should recoup a little vertical space.

I will probably eventually switch the Excel output from XLS to XLSX which is the current prevalent Excel file format. I have to switch code libraries to do that and I am not yet up to speed on the newer code library.

THANK YOU - LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS!!!
Works well for me...

And I am hoping this may lead to two easy adds:
1. include meetings on TODAY'S DATE for this process (historically it's been only meetings beyond today's date)
2. provide ability to produce historical matrices for seeing who's served in what roles. Ideal would be to list a date-range and dump out an excel file in a choice of these two options: MEMBER-by-ROLE or ROLE-by-MEMBER

Those would be super helpful for my clubs!

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for these updates!

- Nancy

NSB wrote:

And I am hoping this may lead to two easy adds:
1. include meetings on TODAY'S DATE for this process (historically it's been only meetings beyond today's date)
2. provide ability to produce historical matrices for seeing who's served in what roles. Ideal would be to list a date-range and dump out an excel file in a choice of these two options: MEMBER-by-ROLE or ROLE-by-MEMBER

# 1: Can be done fairly easily.... Can you give me some sort of justification for this? I do not see what the value is.
If I did do this, I would want to maintain what comes up as checked in the dialog as the next 5 meetings for consistency with how it has worked in the past. In other words, what is coming up as checked as checked in the dialog is my "bridge" to past functioning. We can eventually change that, but for now, I want the next 5 meetings to be what is checked. Thus, you should be able to pull up the dialog and click Ok and basically get the same result as previously... that was one of my key objectives.

# 2 We already have historical reports in the role reports... one is an excel output... it looks like it may currently have a bug that I need to fix, though. What you are wanting is another role report, I think.

So... in summary, Role Reports are basically historical reports. Meeting Signup Sheet is the future stuff. That is the difference, and I do not intend to change that.

#1 - The VPE prints the roles for THIS and COMING WEEKS for the meeting, they come prepared to help the club members see where they are TODAY and forward in the sign up.

#2 - Hmmm... the HISTORICAL ROLES comes out for me in a complicated linear format, not a matrix of name x role x date. Maybe I'm missing something?

A matrix is what I'm looking for, much like the forward looking roles. In fact - EXACTLY like the forward looking roles would be the first fabulous output and might be super easy as it would just be different dates, right?

NAME (column) x ROLE (rows) and filled in with meeting dates would be super helpful for clubs that recognize members for serving in all meeting roles over a finite period of time. (2 of my clubs do this).

Of course accuracy is contingent on back-correction of the meeting roles.

Farnsworth Feedback for you. First, nice idea and it looks spiffy! At my end, I use non-breaking spaces   to indent certain agenda roles so make it visually obvious who's in charge and who control gets passed back to, to wit:

President
Toastmaster
General Evaluator
Prepared Speaker
Table Topicsmaster

I had to use the HTML non-breaking space code because the agenda would, as is done in HTML rendering, ignore multiple spaces, reducing them to one. The   codes are showing up as " " in the two spreadsheet output options (see attached file). Can the code translate these to ASCII space characters? The HTML report looks really spiffy with my indentaton scheme!

Art

Late addition: I noticed just now that even though I only selected three meetings to include in the printout, the HTML version (and presumably the others) insisted on providing column headers for Meeting 1 through Meeting 5. Even in landscape mode 5 on an 8.5x11" page is a bit cramped, so I want to reduce page content. Why not just print column titles for requested columns?

NotLiable wrote:

Farnsworth Feedback for you. First, nice idea and it looks spiffy! At my end, I use non-breaking spaces   to indent certain agenda roles so make it visually obvious who's in charge and who control gets passed back to, to wit:

President
Toastmaster
General Evaluator
Prepared Speaker
Table Topicsmaster

I had to use the HTML non-breaking space code because the agenda would, as is done in HTML rendering, ignore multiple spaces, reducing them to one. The   codes are showing up as " " in the two spreadsheet output options (see attached file). Can the code translate these to ASCII space characters? The HTML report looks really spiffy with my indentaton scheme!

Art

Late addition: I noticed just now that even though I only selected three meetings to include in the printout, the HTML version (and presumably the others) insisted on providing column headers for Meeting 1 through Meeting 5. Even in landscape mode 5 on an 8.5x11" page is a bit cramped, so I want to reduce page content. Why not just print column titles for requested columns?

Art, yeah, I can kill the nbsp's in the spreadsheet... give me a bit (I am at my day job)... remind me if I forget.

Varying the column count makes things more complicated... I could probably work it out, but I am not sure it is worth the effort, particularly since I have other things I prioritize higher.

NotLiable wrote:

Farnsworth Feedback for you. First, nice idea and it looks spiffy! At my end, I use non-breaking spaces   to indent certain agenda roles so make it visually obvious who's in charge and who control gets passed back to, to wit:

President
Toastmaster
General Evaluator
Prepared Speaker
Table Topicsmaster

ok, I added this, but it does not work how you may expect w/ keyworded roles, and I am not going to put any more effort into it. This is another example of how the current keywording feature w/ askerisks goofs things up in some cases.

1. include meetings on TODAY'S DATE for this process (historically it's been only meetings beyond today's date)

This is a great feature for Toastmaster or VPE to easily check on any missing/late members and know which roles (might) need to be reassigned at the last minute - Thank you!

I never thought to ask for this but it is SO helpful! I like to keep 2 months worth of agendas open for the Type A's in my club (of which I am a proud member). Now I can view them all.

All of today's agenda in the slim column format is much easier to read than the full agenda page.

slothbear wrote:

All of today's agenda in the slim column format is much easier to read than the full agenda page.

I am not sure I understand your comment.

Sorry I didn't provide any context for my comment. I was trying to agree with Nancy and Pam's comments that having today's meeting included in the Sign-up Sheet is useful. It's also nice to have Today & Future printed on one sheet in the same format, rather than Today in one format (a printed agenda page) and Future in a different place and format.