Status 5/14
As of today the basics are in good shape. I'd put it as in "late beta" state, about 90% of the way to go-live. The content looks good, and all the links work.
To-dos
- Member accounts must be set up.
- Some of the graphics need a little tweaking, especially for !@*^& Internet Explorer.
- The event calendar is pretty weird; need to cause it to show only event names, with details as tooltips or something.
- The weather blocks are showing the wrong last-update times for some reason. They should be current as of the latest ATIS/AWOS update; that is, within an hour or so of the current time.
- Need to verify the site with all popular browsers, especially #$&^% Internet Explorer 6. Should be good in Firefox and IE 7.
Issues
- Need an opinion from the exec board as to what information here is public, and what should be considered members-only. We can control access down to individual pages and forum topics. Right now, everything is public except member profiles (but only members can create content or post comments).
Roadmap
The plan at this point is to go live with the current level of functionality; that is, content of the old site (enhanced somewhat), plus member forums, journals (blogs), galleries, and the event calendar. Once the new site is open to the public and shaken down, we can start adding new functions.
Planned enhancements, in descending rough order of priority, are:
- Roster summary page. Since members will be maintaining this information in their profiles, we might as well let the site maintain the roster, and provide a current roster sheet on demand.
- A simple way to post meeting agendas and minutes. Content creation isn't where I'd like it to be as yet, it's still relatively complicated for anything more than simple text. My goal is to get to the point where someone can compose a document offline, export it as HTML or RTF, and do a quick upload to the appropriate archive. In the case of reports such as meeting minutes, members would automatically be informed upon uploading.
- Squawk database. The idea here is that once a squawk is recorded, (1) everyone who needs to be notified is notified, automatically; (2) nothing gets lost or forgotten; (3) anyone can pull a complete list of current squawks with status, on demand; (4) we have a permanent, searchable record. This could grow into a general maintenance tracking system down the road.
- Online tach sheet entry, being a dirt-simple way of prompt entry and distribution of tach time summaries, and (i hope) auto-updating of the scheduling system review dates. Could possibly interface to whatever billing tools are in use to save a LOT of redundant data entry. In conjunction with the maintenance information, this would also provide a wealth of on-demand usage / downtime / fuel / etc. statistics. This could be expanded down the road to provide e-mailed monthly statements to members, which could easily pay for the site hosting in postage savings alone.
- Flight prep tools, including a kick-ass interactive loading and performance calculator I'm working on.
- Ties into the scheduling system and elsewhere to provide a one-stop, on-demand summary of, e.g., local fuel prices and aircraft availability.
- RSS feeds, and subscription-driven e-mail notification to members when important information is posted. Low priority only because the functionality is already in place, it just needs to be set up.
- Ultimately, our own scheduling system. Big job; not in the near future.
- Whatever other nifty things the members can think up.
