Fortifications

• Recently we have had to spend way too much time responding to malicious attempts to use our servers. First, somebody hijacked our Tell a Friend form and sent spam. We blocked those.
  
  
• And this week, somebody launched a Denial of Service (DOS) attack against TixKeeper. It's simple to do, all you have to do is request a page continuously (30 times per second in this case) and TixKeeper gets really busy trying to respond. This slows down the service for everyone else. We put in place new alarms to tell us when this happens and easier ways to block the offending requests.
  
  
• So, things are more secure but I am really annoyed at the time it takes away from working on the fun projects that we have going (KitKeeper, LitKeeper, new Kiosk mode) -- and also the routine maintenance and requested improvements to EventKeeper, TixKeeper.

EventKeeper

• The option values in the dropdown list of years are now derived from public events after 1/1/2001. As a result, you can now show only the years that you want the public to see by putting template events in the year 2000.
  
  

EKRegistration

• New options for automatically displaying event information on a registration form. Choices are now "this event", "some other event", and "no event at all"
  
  
• For you folks using authentication with EKRegistration, we are now able to automatically bring the PTYPE of a patron into the registration form.
  
  
• More fields, e.g. registration status, are included on the reports page and in the data that is exported.

TixKeeper

• Fixed bug that allowed double autoblocking on days that a destination is closed. (If you have had that problem, you know what it means).
  
  
• Beta release of a new method of marking passes. This will be ready soon, i.e. in time for marking passes in 2010.
  
  

• Chairs - BETA - Here is something many folks have been waiting for. You can create a type of equipment (chairs is the most common example) where you configure the total number available and then room requestors can specify the number that they need for their room use.
  
  EKRooms keeps track to make sure that the number available is not exceeded.
  
  We're testing with a few clients now. Let Lori know (using the Contact Form) if you're interested.
  
  
• Miscellaneous Small Cosmetic/Bug Changes - nothing too interesting.
  
  
• Expected Attendance - A room reservation form can now be configured to require that the user fill in the Expected Attendance field.
  
  This field is now checked against the capacity of the selected rooms.
  
  The capacity of each room is now displayed on the reservation form.

• Duplicate Registrations - Admin can now configure EKRegistration to check for duplicate registrations using either the registrant's email address or the patron's barcode, if patron authentication is enabled.

• New View Option - Staff can now select -3+7 as an option for viewing passes. This will display the dates starting with 3 days ago and going forward 7 days from today. This view will take advantage of the recent change which displays past days with a different color date bar, and without a reservation button.
  
  
• Pass Date Alias - Admin can now call the "Date of Visit" something else. For example, some folks want to call it the "Date of Pickup"

• Barcodes - Field size increased to handle more barcodes per pass.
  
  
• Differentiation of Past Dates - The date separator bar of past dates is now silver and the reservation buttons are removed.
  
  
• Miscellaneous - Assorted minor cosmetic and functional improvements.

• Patron Authentication - Anyone that now has Patron Authentication for TixKeeper, can add it to EKRegistration
  
  
• Student Mover (BETA) - Testing new feature which will allow staff to move students to a new class.
  
  
• Name Labels - The first name field and the last name field may now have custom labels.
  
  
• Reports - Reports page now shows total number of form submissions and total number of registrants.
  
  
• Reports - Barcodes included in reports if Patron Authentication is enabled.
  
  
• Reports - New field called "Submitted By" which contains either the Editor Name or the word "PATRON"
  
  
• Miscellaneous - Minor cosmetic and functional improvements.

• Feature Check - A couple of small changes here.
  
  
• Event Sorting - now sort by Start Date, End Date and then Event Name
  
  
• Hidden Buttons - The Tell a Friend and similar buttons are now hidden if the Event Display Status is not SHOW
  
  
• EKRooms Weekly View - Configuration checkboxes improved.
  
  

• Bug Fix - Fixed problem that occurred when the registrant's last name was too long and the form did not request a user password.
  
  
• My Classes Link - The link to My Classes can now be hidden or renamed using the new MyClassesText option on the Edit Org Info page.
  
  
• Email Tracker - We now keep track of the email that is sent whenever someone registers using EKRegistration. Staff can view a list of the emails, including the sender and recipient.
  
  
• Who Gets the Email? - What we call the list of folks who get an email sent from the Email/Reports page is now configurable.
  
  
• Monthly View Registration - The event popup that comes from the big month view now supports the same registration buttons that are on the event list view.

• Big Week Header - The weekly view page now displays the keywords that are being used to filter the events.
  
  
• Warning - We added a warning about how updating a multiple event will change the data in the other events.
  
  

• More Info - Plymouth Rocket staff can now view when a pass was deleted.
  
  
• Warning - A message is now displayed to TixKeeper editors that notifies them when they are booking a pass further in the future than patrons can.

• Reporting - Registrant last name is now another, much easier to find, edit button.
  
  
• Reporting - Fixed several minor bugs in the report display.

• Big Year Display - Fixed error in which days were links.
  
  
• Big Year Display - New year links are now 2007, 2008, 2009
  
  
• Reserve Blocking - When a reservation can not be made because a pass is configured to book more than one day and an adjacent day is already booked, the reserve pass button is hidden and replaced by "Reserved".
  
  

• My Classes Display 1 - Administrators can now select many new fields to be displayed to registrants on the My Classes page by adding a ~ to the end of the field label.
  
  
• My Classes Display 2 - Display of registration status on the MyClasses page is controlled by a new radio button choice in the form configuration.
  
  
• Counting Registrations - The number of slots that are filled in a class is determined by counting the registrations that have any status that begins with an asterisk. This will let you create a status called e.g. * PENDING PAYMENT which will reserve space in a class but which will indicate that the registration process is not yet complete.
  
  For backward compatibility, a status of REGISTERED will be treated as * REGISTERED and therefore counted.
  
  
• Automatic Upgrades - When a registration slot is freed by the deletion of a registrant, EKRegistration will look for the folks with a status of "WAITLISTED" (exactly) and upgrade them to the default status. Previously, an upgrade assigned the status of "REGISTERED" but that may not be appropriate if there is a status like * PENDING which precedes the status of complete registration. The default status is the first selection on the list of status options.
  
  
• My Classes Cancellation - Cancellation of a registration can only be done by registrants up to 48 hours before the event. After that, they are directed to contact the registrar.
  
  

• Reporting - Flexible subgroups of registrants can be created using checkboxes and the new Show Checked button before printing or sending emails.
  
  
• EKRegistration Email - Email sent from the Email/Reports page is now handled by the new EKRegMail rather than the Tell a Friend function. This eliminates the confusion in the headers, text and event information.
  
  
• Passwords - The password on a form is now configured similarly to the email and phone fields. As such, if the label field is blank, the password field is omitted. If a label is entered the field is displayed. If the label field contains an asterisk, the field is required.
  
  
• First Name First - Form designers can now specify the order of presentation of the last name and first name.
  
  
• LIMITED Editors - If you want to have an instructor be able to see the class list but without the students' phone and email, create an editor with VIEW-ONLY rights and use the team name of "LIMITED".
  
  
• EKRegistration Reminders
  
  
  • Registration status is included in the email
  • Administrators can specify which status will be sent the reminder
  • The header containing the number of days until the event now shows calendar days rather than the number of 24 hour periods. [That's the kind of mistake that a math major makes.]
  
  
  

• Pagination - Administrators can now set the number of items (events) that will be displayed on the Event List page. If there are more events than can be displayed, the user will see clickable links to the other groups of events along with a next and previous button. If there are fewer events than the setting (which defaults to 987 events) none of the pagination data will be displayed. The value is set on the Org Info page in the field called Number of Events per Page.
  
  
• Monthly Calendar Links - There is a new field on the Org Info page called Month View Event Display which controls the events on the Big Month calendar view. If the field is blank, there is no change from the current functionality. If there are characters in the field they will be used to separate multiple events on a single day. If there are characters, the event name will show as a link to a popup of the event information unless the field also contains .
  
  
• Auto Delete [FIX] the description on the Edit Org Info page has been corrected to say that auto deletion takes place once per day at 2 AM
  
  
• Make URL for Users -
  
  
  • added support for linking to a specfic event
  • added support for linking to a custom, branded calendar
    
    
• Tell a Friend - added support for custom branded pages
  
  
• Miscellaneous
  
  
  • FIX : Note Editor URL text restricted to 50 characters
  • Editor footer has new link to Org Home Page
  • Org hour initialization added for 2009 and 2010
  • Big Week view added as option for branded calendars
  
  
  

• Initializing Passes - Administrators can now initialize the dates for a pass after they have created it.