Setup for a new year
There is a reasonable amount of setup that is needed each year to support Online Forms as both TDFs and Prep Checklists are specific to the year's challenges. These documents are encoded as .XML file in the source code tree (so they are in the SVN repository). Each document starts with a root file such as:
b_2023_tdf.xml
where:
- b is the letter of a challenge (b for the scientific challenge)
- 2023 is the program year
- tdf is the type of document
- tdf for Tournament Data Form
- exp for Expense Report
- prep for Prep Checklist
If you examine one of these .XML files they "include" many other files that represent parts of the online form. The included files contain common sections that appear in more than one online document.
To begin developing the Online Form documents for a new year, duplicate the content of the prior year's directory to the directory for the new year. The Resource Area has code to do this: Documents=>manage documents; Misc LiveDoc red tab; click Prep LiveDocs. You can then start editing the .XML files in the new year directory. These edits will include:
- the year in each root file
- for each team challenge, the specific elements the team needs to describe in the TDF (this comes from the challenge)
- for each team challenge that has an expense form, the $ limit is in the root expense file (this comes from the challenge)
Those requiring an expense report have a team budget section in the challenge. The Resource Area determines this from the record for the challenge. You can set both the name of the challenge and whether it has an expense report using Admin=>initialize year. - for each team challenge the challenge requirements in the prep checklist file vary from year to year (this info typically comes from the Program Directors)
There are also additional .XML files that will need review:
- ic_2023_do_prep.xml
This is the prep check list for the Digital Open / Team Film Challenge. (check with the Program Directors for new content) - ic_2023_ip_prep.xml
this is the in-person prep check list for the year (the Program Directors are the source for changed content)
The Program Directors will review the PDF version of Online Forms, not the .XML files. To aid in sending the current state of the Online Forms to the Program Directors, click Create All LiveDocs on Documents=>manage documents; Misc LiveDoc Actions. This will produce a Zip file containing a PDF for each Online Form. The PDF will display the form as it would appear to the team as a PDF. This is good for seeing the text associated with each Online Form question. If there is a need to see the input controls, we typical put these forms up on a test site.