The first "TrackMeeting" in Utrecht has taken place again. Once again with support of ATDOR, but this time in a somewhat different setting: they used for the first time a centralized database to share meeting data across different workstations. This functionality is already available in ATDOR, but has not been used much: it's a bit complicated to set-up initially (you have to set-up a MySQL database server) and there are still some outstanding issues if you work on similar data at the same time.

In the same geographical area, AV Atverni in Nieuwegein is also using ATDOR and upon their request we're going to look if we can add some functionality for competitions.

We have also found out that the runtime engine we use (so ATDOR is packed in one single executable .exe file for windows users) was the cause of some sparse crashes. We replaced it to another engine and the problems are solved for now.

So what else is going on? On the website/infrastructure part we decided to make use of Sourceforge's excellent options to list and order the outstanding issues, also known as bugs. If you report bugs to us (via e-mail), we will enter them in the list so they will not be forgotten. You can click here to go directly to this page.

According to an e-mail message I received, the ATDOR software has been added to softpedia.com software library.

Unlike most automatically generated e-mail, this message indicated that the team behind softpedia did some work to test ATDOR and to check that the software is spyware and adware free, as following text says:

I think this is a nice service and gives ATDOR a good independent "quality"  stamp!

One of the most important parts of software is the manual. Not only the commercial software, but also for open source software the manual is an essential part of the package to explain the use of the product.

Some may argue that a manual should not be necessary: the product should explain itself. Partly I think this is very true, as many people do not need the manual, or think they won't need it.

However, we are always working with different people and some people really want and need a manual: they print it out and read it thoroughly before even start the program.

Further more, my experience with users of ATDOR is that some functionality is not really known and can only be explained with some easy-to-read sections. Functionality can be scattered along the program and may require additional changes to your set-up, think about electronic time synchronization. Also, a manual is searchable and therefore very useful if you're looking for something and you do not know where to start.

Concluding: A manual is needed. I've had a manual included with ATDOR first, and later on decided to have this manual included via the ATDOR website. Since two years (see previous Blog posts), I used an open WiKi system in the hope many people could change and improve the manual.Unfortunately, this system is not really hacker-proof and some SPAMMERS used it to modify the content.

I will take some appropriate measures to bring the manual back on the website as soon as possible. I will also see if I can update it. Until then, please be patient and you might try the program without one. I'll be answering my e-mail (See contact page) for you in case you run into problems.

 Roalt

Since the restyling of the ATDOR website, we have noticed that spammers took the opportunity to misuse some of the components of the website. The target was both the ATDOR forum pages and the Wiki pages. We've taken some steps to prevent this spamming (unwanted messages not related to ATDOR) in the future: the forum has been updated with latest software and a so-called 'CAPTCHA', that prevents automatic programs from entering forum messages. The downside is that as a authentic user of the forum, you have to type over some random number from a mangled picture. The other downside is that we had to empty the forum, but fortunately not many messages were placed in there for now.

We also did some work to reduce  the spamming in the Wiki pages, but they are not (yet) as drastic. So we have to see it will prevent future changes, otherwise we have to enforce that active users must register.