Manual: Versions-Version 4.0

February 2006

Version 4.0 is a significant enhancement of the RidgeStar Referee Management Site upgrading the internal language in the site to XHTML standards. It also incorporates several ease of use enhancements, cosmetic improvements, and additional functions, as described below:

XHTML

Version 4.0 has converted the internal HTML page language to be fully compliant with the DTD XHTML 1.1 definitions. This effort also incorporates many of the recommendations from the W3C community including font management (relative text sizes), style sheet standards, heading and document structure, etc. This will produce minor changes in how the site appears on some browsers, but should provide more consistency and similarity from Browser to Browser (across different machines)

Hyperlink Extensions

URI References within the site no longer require the file extensions (e.g. ".PHP"). This simplifies the manner in which you reference a functional page on the Site (the URI). As an example, when referencing the Logon page, you can now reference it as logon instead of logon.php (the .php is no longer required)

Action/Element Symbols

The various Symbols have been modified to .PNG (Portable Network Graphics) (a non-proprietary graphical file implementation), and the individual symbols adjusted to more accurately represent their implied meanings. They have been standardized to 16 pixels (height and width) to provide a predictable size as an target for clickable objects

Authority

The "Authority" for a Match is the identity of the administrative group that sanctions a particular Match to be held and that is responsible for hearing/reviewing any Misconducts or other Match Results. This key element has been added to the Matches table, as well as making it one of the key elements used for selection of Rules (SelfAssign), etc.

Availability

SiteManagers can now devise their own set of Availability questions that the Referees can respond to. The responses can be used as Subset criteria for the purposes of Bulk Email and other mailings

Notices

The database table identified as "Notices" is now a standard portion of the system. This is where manually initiated Match Assignments (Referee: Request) and other notifications are posted. NOTE: Email is NOT recommended or used by the standard Referee Management Site for notifications (see Manual: Operations-Notices for more detail about why).

Qualifiers

The XRef mechanism has been modified to incorporate the full range of defined Qualifiers (Organization, Authority, League, Level, Division, Gender, and Season)

Topics Summary Listing

The Topics (sometimes called the FAQ or Help) mechanism has had the summary listing changed to group Topics by SubTopic. Thus, you can now "group" Topics together within a Segment for the purposes of improving the organization for sites making extensive use of the Topics mechanism.

User Photos

Individual users (Referees??) can now upload a photo to identify themselves to other Chapter participants

We think this Version of the system provides a great base to work from for future enhancements, as well as delivers several new features of benefit for existing clients.

Enjoy!

- The Development Staff