Seneschal Report - January 2018

In which James talks about recent changes to the site, once again copy/pastes a change-log, and talks about upcoming coding-related things on the horizon.

Hi all,
Time for another report from your friendly neighborhood Seneschal with the latest ins and outs related to the site.

Deployed Code Changes

Below is a list of most of the code check-ins done to the site since my last report. This is a non-exhaustive, automatically generated list, and does not contain code changes that have not yet been deployed to the main website, nor does it list code changes that are outside the scope of the main website.

Here are some highlights:

1. CS improvements (show related feats on power/skill tooltips and in CDAWG; ability to import a sheet into the editor by ID)
2. Factions, and related tweaks/fixes/additions
3. Various GJW-related changes
4. Switch uploaded file storage from disk-based to Object Storage to prevent having to clean out server space every couple of weeks
5. Blind Grading feature for competitions
6. Dossier Activity Notes, allowing summits and leaders to attach notes to a member's dossier, for example if they performed a task that in itself didn't warrant a promotion or award, but combined with other things might warrant an award or lift it to a higher level
7. Various bug fixes and misc changes

James Entar:
      Fix GFX request Markdown render bug; Update MAA request tips
      Word-wrap long words and URLs in Markdown sections
      Bug-fixes for the [REDACT- I mean... Faction pages
      Tweaks to permission definitions
      Allow limiting feats/etc. by Faction
      Fix popovers on expanded sub-inventories
      Prepare moving uploaded files to Object Storage
      Switch over uploaded files to Object Storage
      Adapt Word Counter code to Object Storage
      Fix Markdown not recognizing uploaded [asset] images on Object Storage
      Update SA Degree requirements
      Add Fiction Studies to Writing Maven
      Add some additional explanatory text and cross-links to CS admin page
      Minor tweaks to inventory management
      Slight tweaks to summit member overview tools
      Don't require Factions to have a classification anymore
      Allow retrieving win/loss records for a single day
      Fix item unslot return path
      Add search/filter options to NPC administration
      Private Item Containers
      Also hide cold storage containers that are inside other containers
      Fix sub-faction NPCs not being able to equip faction items from their parent faction
      Allow setting up ACC Bracket battles with snapshots from previous rounds
      Engage SA staff vendetta lockdown
      Add setting to opt out of event-specific skins
      Allow showing multiples of the same NPCs on unit/faction rosters
      Fix ACC bracket rendering
      Allow custom item aspects for Factions
      Tag gfx requests in Trello
      Update 404/500 static pages to splash skin (still used Odyssey background)
      Add some SEO annotations to Item Prototype pages
      CS importer tool
      Fix a typo
      Fix trophy competition counting code to only consider judged competitions
      Ensure CS age, height, weight are > 0 before proceeding
      Feature: blind competition grading
      Separate out selectable and random venue pool by ACC Hall
      Disengage SA staff lockdown
      Allow Voice staff to link feats and associated skills/powers.
      Fix a bug where a transfer event wasn't generated for a member passing the Trial of Identity if that member didn't transfer directly to a Clan but a House or BT instead
      Fix competition supervisors being counted as co-organizer by trophies and fiction society
      Attempt to fix skill levels being displayed in the wrong order
      Revoke ability for unit summits to rename (sub)units
      Fix multiple competitions with the same end date 'jumping around' between different pages in dossier activity tab
      Fix Regression: Activity overview was no longer showing all competitions organized
      Updated SA landing page
      Slightly update Warbanner request pattern/medallion options
      Fix rare double except message on auto-promo notification
      Require MAA approval when closing a comp that does not have all (1-3) placement slots filled, yet has enough participants to make this possible
      Add view link to CS admin for active/archived sheets
      Feature: Dossier Activity Notes
      Remove "Wampa Do" from list of available CS Martial Arts
      Show relevant feats on force/skill popups on CS display
      Add force/skill/power links to CS reference (CDAWG)
      Fix email formatting bug; update Kallisto; add activity notes overview
      Fix calendar dropdown orientation
      Add SEO/meta descriptions to some pages
      Rework units index page a bit
      Better handle attempts at creating a manual snapshot without a CS or with an invalid CS.
      Tweak unit index page some more
      Add validation to some item store properties
      Fix attempts at unslotting an item that was not slotted throwing a 500 error
      Disable CORS checking on various innocent GET requests to prevent serving errors to search engine bots
      Add prototype name to item url
      Add meta description to unit page
      Allow MAA staff to edit recruiter through manual admin
      Add more search filters to possessions admin
      Allow M:HMs to edit course notes but not course questions
      Separate out deleting editable sheets, and withdrawing pending sheets back to editable state
      Send out advancement surveys to full DC + CoC instead of just HM

On the Horizon

This section provides some sneak previews of upcoming site changes and the larger things on the Seneschal Office's todo-list in various stages of completion, in no particular order.

1. Possessions: Item Upgrades
   Status: ▮▮▮▮▮▯▯▯▯▯ (On hold pending content)
   A proposal to implement Upgrades, which basically can be described as pre-written aspects provided by the Regent Staff (members can't submit custom versions), that don't necessarily need to have a downside like regular Item Aspects.
   This is currently on hold at Evant's request until the Regent staff has enough decent content to drop into this feature. Once this is the case, this should be fairly easy to implement as we can leverage the existing Item Aspect infrastructure.

2. Graphics Society
   Status: ▮▮▮▮▮▯▯▯▯▯ (On hold pending Society Development)
   A new Society to provide our artistically capable members with a new outlet of creativity and activity.
   This is currently on hold until the final details, point values and rewards for the society have been worked out. Once this is done, translating everything into Promotheus rules should be fairly easy.

3. Recruitment Incentive System
   Status: ▮▮▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯ (Brainstorming)
   Additional incentives to recruit your friends to the Brotherhood
   This is currently in the brainstorming phase. See this GM report for more information.

4. Random Bug fixes and Things That Come Up™
   A wild Dark Council member appeared. It uses Feature Request!
   [FIGHT][ITEM][PKMN][RUN]

5. The big "When we get to it" list
   Random small or less small things the Seneschal office tackles when they have spare time. Feel free to mail/message me with any suggestions for this list.

   • Look into ways of letting people know their CS metadata (name, unit, saber) is out of date before taking snapshots or issuing an ACC challenge
   • Look into revamping the current ACC extension request feature to make it a bit more user-friendly in order to eliminate the need for e-mail based extension requests. For example, allowing members to set a preference to always auto-accept any extension request
   • Bring back search and filter options to member/npc inventory management
   • Fix Issue: ACC staff inserted post generates duplicate 24h warning

Closing

As always, we've seen lots of fixes and additions being applied to the site, and even more interesting things to come. As always, if you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to e-mail me, Telegram me, or throw in a comment.

James L. Entar
Seneschal of the Brotherhood