FIRST website is an embarasment

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by Eugene Fang

I've wrote something that gets more granular data and it's used for "Search Nearby," but we don't store it anywhere else yet and thus can't serve it in the API. I'm working on making use of it elsewhere in the site and will expose it in the API.

For those curious, to get granular location data I make guesses of what a team's location could be by combining city/state/zip/country with different parts of a team's full name (which usually starts or ends with the high school or title sponsor), hitting Google's Maps API to check for validity, and then making sure the results Google gives back have the same city, state, zip, etc. as what FIRST says the team's location is. Then the best result is normalized (To fix CA vs. California, typos in FIRST's database, etc.) by hitting Google again.

TLDR: Yes TBA will expose an API for detailed street-level addresses for most teams. Hopefully within the month.

Cool, glad to know I'm not the only one that is finding dealing with the location data painful.

I've been using Mapzen to do it and ended up slicing up the location data TBA does return to remove the country from the end. Due to a quirk in how Mapzen does location searches Flint, MI will return weird stuff but Flint, MI, will return exactly what you'd assume. I've also started experimenting with restricting to the country that is reported for team. I've not had much luck with that yet though.

I'm using it to generate geojson files for team travel to events such as https://github.com/schreiaj/frc-team...7mimid.geojson (they exist for all events, some of them just render funky because teams got coded to the wrong place)

[GaryVoshol]

Originally Posted by EricH

Might have been me not being used to the new Drive format. Seems to be working now. (I was, in fact, hunting up stuff from the first Game That Shall Not Be Named.)

See, there's your problem. It Shall Not Be Named, so they didn't name it!

[christiawest]

My parents are having a terrible time! Also, I have to accept a member before the parent signs the consent??? What kind of crazy is that. I want the old site back also - this is taking way too much time. A Google form would be easier to manage.

I think we need to send this to FRC - they need to fix this -FAST!

[NShep98]

Originally Posted by Eugene Fang

I put this together over the weekend to help with searching for teams and events. It has some small bugs right now, but they'll get ironed out shortly.

https://www.thebluealliance.com/nearby

I've noticed that the zip code and town for my team are different. The town is our physical location, but the zip code is for a town with the school we used to be affiliated with. While not a huge deal, how would this be fixed?

[Eugene Fang]

Originally Posted by NShep98

I've noticed that the zip code and town for my team are different. The town is our physical location, but the zip code is for a town with the school we used to be affiliated with. While not a huge deal, how would this be fixed?

The zip code is what FIRST provides. http://www.firstinspires.org/team-ev...team?id=521725

[BSV]

Originally Posted by Eugene Fang

I put this together over the weekend to help with searching for teams and events. It has some small bugs right now, but they'll get ironed out shortly.

https://www.thebluealliance.com/nearby

This is nice and very useful. I've never understood the mileage limit on the FIRST web site search. We only get one event for FRC, ever, with that thing, and it's two miles from our school. It's pretty useless.

My only suggestion is to add a button to turn off championship divisions and exclude zip code 00000. Right now, if I set the limit to 500 miles, I get 25 hits in the results. 14 are championship divisions, 10 are regionals, and 1 is the Michigan State Championship (listed as zip code 00000). I used an OKC zip code (73109).

Thanks for providing the service!

[Alyssa]

Originally Posted by christiawest

My parents are having a terrible time! Also, I have to accept a member before the parent signs the consent??? What kind of crazy is that. I want the old site back also - this is taking way too much time. A Google form would be easier to manage.

I think we need to send this to FRC - they need to fix this -FAST!

If what you're talking about is STIMS, here's something to help you and your parents get through it until FIRST puts out a better way.

http://nutrons.com/wp-content/upload...te-STIMS-1.pdf

[TJP123]

Originally Posted by cpapplefamily

My gripe lately is the Kick Off registration. How can the list of locations not be in some order?

They're sorted by state/region, with the unapproved events at the top. While I would prefer each column to be sortable, it does kind of make sense.

[pryland]

As the lead coach, I am unable to register my own son for my own team.
When I log in as mentor, there is no option on the dashboard to add a member.

The only way, is if i create another email account just to register my own son.

[Bryan Herbst]

Originally Posted by christiawest

My parents are having a terrible time! Also, I have to accept a member before the parent signs the consent??? What kind of crazy is that. I want the old site back also - this is taking way too much time. A Google form would be easier to manage.

I think we need to send this to FRC - they need to fix this -FAST!

You do not need to have been accepted to the team to complete the consent form. You just need to have applied to the team.

Originally Posted by pryland

As the lead coach, I am unable to register my own son for my own team.
When I log in as mentor, there is no option on the dashboard to add a member.

The only way, is if i create another email account just to register my own son.

You can register a youth member under your primary account as well. On your dashboard, click "I want to... +" to expand the same set of buttons "regular" users see, including "Complete Youth Member Registration."

[BSV]

I just typed in a bunch of FLL parent's emails to invite them to the team. After digging them all out of my email and pasting them into the invitation list on the team management page, I hit "enter" on the last one instead of clicking the button at the bottom that says something like "send invitation".

Basically, it refreshed the page, lost all of the emails, and didn't send out the invitations.

This "improved" web site is very very frustrating.

[ArtemusMaximus]

Originally Posted by Alyssa

If what you're talking about is STIMS, here's something to help you and your parents get through it until FIRST puts out a better way.

http://nutrons.com/wp-content/upload...te-STIMS-1.pdf

Kudos to Nutrons team for creating Slideshow and PDF.
I join my voice of frustration to say how awkward the STIMS interface is. It is not user friendly. Nutrons shouldn't have to be in position to create a manual of how to use STIMS in the first place.
Only one parent on my team (besides myself) persevered and finished registration online, rest gave up and asked for paper forms.

Another problem I have is that while I am a Lead Coach and Administrator, I still cannot see parent information in STIMS.

[Bertman]

I am sensing a theme here

[peronis]

Originally Posted by Alyssa

If what you're talking about is STIMS, here's something to help you and your parents get through it until FIRST puts out a better way.

http://nutrons.com/wp-content/upload...te-STIMS-1.pdf

Thank you so much for this!!!!

[Bob Ward]

Nice site! But it has one of the same problems the whole site has. What if I want to find all the events in Ohio? No state names associated with events.
Also, many events do no have a city name associated.
So, if I want to find the event in Cleveland, searching for 'Cleveland' or 'Ohio' gets no results. I have to know it is 'Buckeye.' And now there is 'Miami Valley' to deal with.
A newcomer would have a real pain trying to figure out which events in their state or nearby states they can attend.
The old site had them all in one long list and including the state. Piece of cake.
Also, the phone friendly version doesn't get enough info on each page.
If someone is making a list of gripes...
End rant.