Server update
Wednesday, May 11, 2011: The server was updated today with support for the special leave office, chess 960, and more. Read on for release notes.
There is now a menu item “Use 40+ reflection” on the game screen visible to the player if it is his turn. Using that menu triggers notification emails to the opponent and TD (and to both team captains in a team event). An entry in the game log is created.
· On the game screen, when selecting “Board/Show timestamps” there is now a link on each displayed time stamp, leading to a time calculation. This should be useful to players and TDs when in doubt about the thinking time used.
· Support for the special leave office is now implemented:
o There is a new role “SLO” for special leave officers. They can approve and deny special leave.
o Tournaments can use either the old rules for special leave (“Standard”), where the TD decides, or use the special leave office rule (“StandardSlo”).
o The default leave rule for new tournaments is now StandardSlo. TOs of national events which do not want to use the SLO have to set the leave rule to “Standard”.
o In tournaments using SLO, players see a new menu item “Request special leave” in the “Event” menu on the game screen. This leads to the special leave screen.
o On the special leave screen, players have to fill in the start date, end date, and reason fields.
o Submitting the special leave requests creates an entry with status “Pending”. Email notifications are sent to all SLOs.
o SLOs can see a special leave list, showing all pending SLO requests.
o SLOs can click on the details link, and approve or deny the SLO request.
o Approved SLO requests are counted as special leave in all tournaments of the player, and are displayed in red on the take leave screen.
o Overlapping normal leave is not removed, it is the player’s task to manage his normal leave.
· Support for chess 960 is now implemented:
o On the first step of the create event wizard, there is a new checkbox "Chess 960 event".
o Chess 960 events have to be unrated, and cannot be thematic events.
o Chess 960 events have to use a double rounded pairing rule.
o There is a new step in the create event wizard where the TO has to select a chess 960 starting position, or randomize.
o When randomizing, the start position is randomized for each pairing, i.e. players have to play the same position against the same opponent, one game with white and the other with black.
o Position 518 (standard chess) is excluded from the randomization.
o The chess 960 number of the start position is displayed at the beginning of the game notation.
o PGN files of chess 960 games can be downloaded and should be working with most chess software (that supports chess 960).
o When castling in a chess 960 game using drag and drop, you have to drop the king on the rook.
· Player signup
o New players see a link to register with ICCF on the welcome screen.
o They can register with ICCF on the new player signup screen.
o After signing up, an unconfirmed account for the new user is created.
o A notification about the new user is sent to the ND of the selected country. If the selected country is not a member federation, the notification is sent to the zonal director.
o The member federations should confirm the new users, and guide them to a suitable event.
o Users in the trusted role can see the unconfirmed users list with the unconfirmed users from signup, and from their country.
o The trusted user can “Confirm” or “Reject” an unconfirmed account.
o If the trusted user confirms the account, final confirmation is done by the RC.
o If the trusted user rejects an account, he has to fill in the rejection reason. Emails are then sent to the player and to the RC. The RC can edit and confirm, or delete the rejected account.
o On the player details screen, users can now be listed as “Unconfirmed”, or “Rejected”. It is not possible to send a starter password to these users.
· Automated event registrations:
o Event registrations have so far been handled manually between the TOs, the DE admins, and the federations. With this release, they are handled by the server.
o Direct entry administrators and TOs now have a new main menu item “registrations”.
o The registration list shows all registrations for events. It can be filtered by event.
o A TO can copy a player from a registration to an event. First select the event from the second drop down list (there have to be two separate lists for events with multiple groups). This feature is not available for team events.
· Cross table improvements:
o Removed columns “B1, B2, …” from team cross tables. This tie breaker is rarely used, and can be easily looked up on the board cross tables.
o Correct display of title abbreviations (e.g. “SIM” instead of “SM”).
· The event registration dialog is now improved, and works with the automated event registrations.
· The new events list is now improved and grouped by header.
· There is now a time report for WTDs, TDs, and TOs, which lists game where a flag has fallen for a long time without any action.
· There is now an unfinished event report for WTDs and RCs, that lists old events which are not yet finished.
· The IA title of TDs is now displayed on cross tables.
· The start list of an event is now also sent to the TO.
· Account creators can now edit an account until the account is confirmed.
· Countries can now be made inactive.
· The QC can now edit IA titles.
· The changed results list for the RC has now links to the player details.
· The event export for the RC was extended with a field for transmission method.
· Improved country switch: When the RC switches the country of a player, the server now revalidates any requirements for international title tournaments.
· Usability of the suspension list is improved.
· There is now a direct entry report available to the direct entry administrators.
· Bugfix: Fixed tooltip on country flags for modern browsers
· Bugfix: Columns “FG” and “RG” were not calculated correctly on team cross tables having results “0-0”.
· Bugfix: The create event wizard was not displayed correctly in IE9.