Virtual Enrollment Party

I have a bunch of things I've been MEANING to blog about, and haven't necessarily got "a round tuit" but now's a good time. This entry is going to combine info about what happened to the servers last week, and what MIGHT be happening in the reorganization that will affect Blue Ribbon. Hot topics, eh?

First, the easier one--last week. Apparently a router in Durham that controls off-campus access to Extension servers (like the X drive) went down, and it was probably brief, because Darin hadn't gotten any notice about it when I sent him a message saying that I had three--no, four--no, wait, seven--counties with the same issue, which seemed to indicate that it wasn't a coincidence. Anyway, the short version is that anyone who was working in Blue Ribbon when that happened had problems. If Blue Ribbon was not running, no problems. So, if you're having issues with Blue Ribbon that include "search table not active", just back out of the program, send me an email and I'll fix it for you. Takes less than 5 minutes, and is easier/faster to do than to send instructions to you!!

Well, time to talk about the Elephant in the Room. What's going to happen with Blue Ribbon when/if county offices contract for internet service with a local provider instead of using the T-1 we currently have? I'll tell you what I know (not much), what I think (some of it) and what I think I know (subject to change). My understanding right now is that you will still have access to the Cougar Mountain server, which SHOULD mean that you could also still access the X (Blue Ribbon) drive. This all falls under the category of "what I think I know".

What I KNOW is that T-1 service is darn fast, and easy to get used to. There may not be a local provider in your community who can give you service at that same level. Some may be at DSL speed, hopefully not dial-up. Don't ask me to expand a lot on that. I'm stretching my technical limits just typing those words. I have DSL at home, and I can use Blue Ribbon with server data. I'm spoiled because I think we have faster than T-1 speed on campus, so it seems slow for me at home. It's pretty acceptable once the program is up and running, but I do notice a speed difference. I'm not sure how different it will be than your current office speed, but it could be.

So, let's play "What if". What if you contract with a local internet company and it's INCREDIBLY slow--so much that running Blue Ribbon is a burdensome task? We'll fix it. We'll have to move the Data folder back to your C: drive and you'll have to go back to sending me backups, probably on a monthly schedule. What if I'm wrong about the Cougar Mountain & Blue Ribbon servers, and they're not accessible to county offices any more? Same answer, on a larger and faster scale.

The larger question is what are we going to do over the long-term, not patching this up to get by? I need to rustle up some more money and get serious about moving to a web-based platform, faster than I thought I had to. Given the new sense of urgency, I probably only have one option, since it's "done" and more importantly, "I could sell that in Iowa". Whenever I saw one of these potentials, I had to consider if there were deal-breakers, and I did it with the words, "I can't sell that in Iowa... it would have to be fixed." One company listened closely and fixed everything I found, so I'm going to have to visit more seriously with them!!

There are lots of budget issues still working themselves out, but Chuck and I have visited briefly about moving this up the priority list. We have SOME of the money we need (from your Blue Ribbon support fees), but have to find some more. That's why I can't give you a definite date or even more details. There are negotiations waiting to happen. As things start to shake out, however, I'll update you on progress through this blog. I'll be looking for victims, but we won't be the first state to transition, so it might not be as painful as it could be!!

I'm being as open with you as I can be at this point. If you have questions I've not addressed, post them to the blog. I'm hesitant to do too much "guessing" but if I KNOW something, I'll share that. You can also email me if you have concerns that you don't want to share on the blog. Basically, the short version of the story is that we'll make it work. I'm not quite sure HOW yet, but I AM sure we'll come up with something. And I'm also sure that YOU are the most important consideration in that plan. What works best for me is never as important as what works best for you. There's only one of me, and I can make ...whatever... work.

Posted by Becky at 10:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I've had several questions in the past couple of weeks, all related to project codes, and most related to this year's winner of the "We Should Have Thought About that Twice" Award--Horseless Horse.

Horseless Horse has been project 1214. REAL Horse Level 1 was project 1211. The problem was that although that was Level 1, the project literature we use for the project has "Level 2" in its title, & Level 1 of that curriculum is Horseless Horse. That seemed to be too confusing, so a decision was made (and nobody asked me) to re-number and re-name all the horse projects, assigning current numbers to different projects. That's where the problem came in.

How does this affect your enrollment process? Well, it's giving us a great opportunity to know who has installed the project and lit file updates. If you are trying to enter a project enrollment for 1210 (Horseless Horse) and it's telling you it's an invalid code, it's because you haven't done those updates. They are available on the BR Updates webpage, along with instructions for downloading/installing.

A few key facts: Installing now will NOT affect any enrollments you already have done. There were many price changes in the literature, so if you DON'T install them, not only will you have the Horseless Horse Issue, but also your lit orders will not add up the same in BR as they do on the web order form. You only have to do this installation ONCE, regardless of how many computers are loaded with Blue Ribbon. And, finally, you should not log in as Administrator when you do this.

Posted by Becky at 09:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Why it happens:
When Blue Ribbon is running, there are some temporary “lock” files that are created that keep two concurrent users from accessing and changing the same record at the same time. Two people can use Blue Ribbon at the same time, you just can’t be in Johnny Smith’s record at the same time. Normally, when the last (or only) user exits from Blue Ribbon, those files are deleted automatically by the program.

However, sometimes funky things happen with computers. They creatively decide to shut themselves off, the lights go out, Blue Ribbon locks up and you ctl-alt-delete out of it, the auto-update thing happens, whatever. If BR doesn’t get shut down in the “normal” way, sometimes those files are not deleted. At that point, nobody can get into the program.

How to fix it:
This is lots shorter than the explanation. Go to your Data folder, and open it. Look for any files that end in “.lck” or ".net"—there may be 2 or 3 of them. Delete those files only. Once the files have been deleted, BR will work normally again.

Posted by Becky at 03:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Why it happens:
There are 3 reasons this could happen...
You're using a member ID number that's been used in the past and still exists in the system somewhere.
You're trying to add the same project to a member for the second time.
(most likely) The Parent ID on the parent screen has been used before.

How to fix it:
Change the member ID at the top of the member screen if that's where the problem is.
Check to make sure you're NOT adding the same project twice.
(most likely) Change the parent ID at the top of the parent screen, ESPECIALLY if what you see is "NEWID" in that box. That's the default value that BR adds in each time you create a new parent record. It works really swell the first time, but not after it's been used once already.

How to prevent it:
Everyone should go to Utility>>Preferences, and on the Default Parent Entry tab, check "auto entry". That way the computer will search for an unused number for each new parent record you add. Preferences are computer-specific, so it has to be done on each BR computer in the office, AND (the most common mistake) on all NEW computers that are brought in and loaded with Blue Ribbon.

You can also go to the Default Member Entry tab and set those numbers to be auto-entry as well, particularly if you are not one of the counties who believes that the 5-digit Member ID should begin with the 3 digits of the primary club ID.

Posted by Becky at 11:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Why it happens:
Inside the Blue Ribbon Data folder, there are numerous data files (think of them like they’re Filemaker databases, all related to one another). Those files end in “.db”. For each data file, there’s a corresponding “index” file (.px) whose purpose it is to keep track of changes to the files and speed up the sort and find processes. (Well, that’s the general idea, anyway…) Sometimes the data file and the index file decide not to play nicely with one another… they don’t “match” any more.

How to fix it:
This is another one of the magic Datafix solutions--very easy to do. With Blue Ribbon NOT running, go to your Start menu, Programs, Youth Enrollment, and select Datafix. Set the parameters on that Datafix screen to be "By Alias", Rebuild All, and Pack Tables. If your data is on your S: drive, it could take approx. 5 minutes; on the C: drive, it's much quicker. When the program has finished, just exit out of it, and re-start Blue Ribbon--life should be swell!

Posted by Becky at 11:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Why it happens:
The primary cause seems to be copying your entire Data folder from the S: drive to the C: drive, or vice versa. It's nothing you can avoid, or that you did wrong. It's just a "thing" that evidently happens when those files are transferred from a server environment to a local environment.

How to fix it:
This is the simplest error message to fix. With Blue Ribbon NOT running, go to your Start menu, Programs, Youth Enrollment, and select Datafix. Set the parameters on that Datafix screen to be "By Alias", Rebuild All, and Pack Tables. If your data is on your S: drive, it could take approx. 5 minutes; on the C: drive, it's much quicker. When the program has finished, just exit out of it, and re-start Blue Ribbon--life should be swell!

Posted by Becky at 11:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)