Court Booking System - release notes

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Court Booking System current version: CBS 3.39

Release notes

Modified some system administration procedures for adding a new club to the system, to allow for delayed activation after editing configuration options and/or uploading a bulk user list.

Modified entry edits so that the 'Confirm' and 'Confirm & Review' buttons are disabled if there are instead active options for 'Proceed' with a conflict resolution. They are automatically re-enabled, and proceeding with conflict resolution options is disabled, if any aspect of the schedule is then adjusted.
Fixed a bug affecting the default hours and minutes for a booking if an existing 'All Day' setting for a booking is unchecked.

Updated password management to allow user passwords with letters from any recognised language.
Removed the possibility of choosing mulitple courts when editing a single entry or series. Choosing multiple courts should only be possible when either creating a new booking or copying an existing one.
Fixed a bug regarding the display of multiple bookings within a single time-slot.
Fixed a bug which allowed conflicting bookings to arise when changing courts for an existing booking.

In an attempt to improve email deliverability, changed the text in automated password reset emails and emails to new users, removing the embedded hyperlink to the CBS and replacing it with text describing where to find it.

Fixed a bug with the use of alternative languages and locales.
Adjusted behaviour so that after an update which fails because of scheduling conflicts, the previous selection of courts is retained as the default for any subsequent corrections.
Changed the display of scheduling conflicts so that they are now sorted by time and then by court instead of the previous sort order by court first. This means that conflicts for multi-court edits such as matches or tournaments will usually be grouped together in the display.
After creating or editing a series, whether successfully or after cancelling one with conflicts, the system now always returns to the 'month' view.
Added new options for handling the creation or editing of a series where conflicts arise. Instead of just rejecting the entire update, after seeing the list of conflicts users also now also have the option to proceed anyway with the choice of either skipping additions or changes where the conflict arises (the default) or deleting and replacing the conflicting entries with new ones from the series. The "delete and replace" option is only available to administrators.

Major upgrade of the underlying operating system and migration to a different server with larger capacity hosted elsewhere. No changes to any user functions. The update and migration should both be completely transparent to users, who should not need to make any changes or even notice that they happened. The new server is still physically located in the UK.
Server upgrade to PHP 8.3

Minor bug-fix to deal with multi-day bookings spanning a month end in the month view.

Minor bug-fixes to deal with some pathological cases.
Minor adjustment to improve widget display accuracy.

Several technical changes to tighten security:
- All inline javascript removed in order to enable a stricter Content Security Policy.
- Removed all remaining use of the javascript 'eval' function (was only relevant for old style interface).
- Added a Web Application Framework to filter out suspected attacks as a supplement to the existing filters.
- Added some additional security-related header directives.
There should be no visible changes to the normal use of the booking system.
All support for Internet Explorer v7 and older is dropped.
Fixed a bug for old versions of Safari browsers using the new style interface.

Server upgrade to PHP 8.2

Adjusted the system to allow longer email addresses.

Improved the use of some non-English date strings.
Adjusted the default report for ordinary users to report on their own bookings only, and improved the optional filtering on types of booking (default: any type).
Update to allow and check validity of international telephone numbers in a user's profile.
Some technical changes and a server upgrade to PHP8.1.

Fixed a bug arising from the MySQL upgrade that could affect the addition of new users.

MySQL and PHP server software upgrades and some related technical changes. No changes to booking operations.
Minor bug fix to prevent attempted return to a booking entry that has just been deleted.

Adjusted security filters to allow the use of certain extra characters such as quotes in some circumstances when editing booking names and descriptions (previously these characters were always treated as suspicious and blocked). Any blocked text is also now echoed back unchanged with a warning to allow the user to edit and resubmit it.
Made a technical change which should reduce the chance of a browser automatically pre-filling certain form fields with inappropriate default values.
Added a new option in club settings to choose the method for sorting names in lists of users.

Added first and last names as optional extra user information, to distinguish from the username.
Added an option for admins to add named non-user 'guests' at a club (distinguished from former club members). Admins can then add these guests to Participant Lists.
Adjusted the handling of minor changes to existing booking series to allow exceptions to be respected and skipped without all the changes being rejected because of clashes with those exceptions.
Expanded the Report and Search operations to include names which appear in Participant Lists.
Added 'Return to bookings' buttons to the Report and Search pages.
Added some information to the 'Edit user' page explaining the different types of user and the use of names.
Modified the 'Edit user' page for admins to prevent attempted deletion of a user with any existing booking or Participant List entries (they must be downgraded to a 'Past user' instead).
Some minor display adjustments.
Fixed a bug for admins for 'confirm & review' of a series.
Fixed a bug which allowed duplication of usernames at a club in certain circumstances.
Fixed a bug which could lead to wrong entries when changing the repeat type of an existing series of bookings.

Some minor display adjustments.
An adjustment to the default club shown if the club id isn't included in the URL: the browser will now default to the public bookings at the club of the last logged-in user instead of the Demonstration club.
Some technical changes to facilitate system management (no effect on users or club admins).

Court capacities can now be set for Participant Lists on a per-booking basis instead of a per-court basis. The court capacity is the default value if the capacity is left blank for a particular Participant List.
As a corollary, the default court capacity, if set, is no longer shown as part of the court heading when showing bookings, but instead is now shown only to Admins next to the court name when editing a booking.
The Participant List option and capacity setting are now only visible to Admins when editing a booking.
Added an option, for Admins only, to immediately review all the details of a booking after creating or editing it.
Some additional explanatory notes added in a few places.
Improvements to the way abbreviated court labels are used in the week, month and 'widget' summary views.
Addition of optional Short Croquet ('SC') handicap data for users.
Title added to 'view entry' page.
Some minor display adjustments.
More consistency of fonts used by different devices.
Minor bug fixes.

Added a check to force anyone still using a weaker old password to upgrade it to the current minimum standard password strength.
Server email handling modified to improve deliverability and reduce the chances of password reset emails being wrongly identified as spam by certain ISPs and rejected.

Added an email facility for users for forgotten passwords.
Added an option for admins to generate temporary passwords automatically and email them to new users.
Added an optional telephone number field in the user database.
Added notes for users on the purposes of data fields in their user profiles.
Added an option for admins to restore users who have previously been downgraded to non-member status.
Added optional capacity constraints for booking entry participant lists, and changed the sort order of entries in the participant list to be based on their timestamp.

Added club management features for national and regional administrators.
Added an option for regional/national admins to backup and restore all data for an individual club. (Note: all data for all clubs is already also backed up automatically every day to a remote store.)
Some minor bug-fixes

Added an 'All courts' option for both the 'week' and 'month' views. This provides an overview of all booking activity on all courts at the club for a week or a month, but without any text details. Details of individual bookings in the period can then be inspected directly with a single click.
Added a club settings option to enable administrators to select which court, or the 'all courts' overview, should be the default court presented to users if no court has yet been specified.
Added an optional calendar 'widget' that can be embedded in a club's own website page.
Adjusted the 'view_entry' and 'edit_entry' pages to highlight the type of activity with the relevant background colour.
Backup procedures have now been improved so that a full copy of the database is now taken automatically every day and stored in a secure off-site location.

Added the ability for club administrators to add and remove other club members in participant lists, as well as themselves. Regular users can still only add or remove themselves.

Added a club-level option to set the default style for new users.
Users can now log in with their registered email address as an alternative to the username.

Fixed a problem affecting date navigation on some newer versions of the Safari browser.

Multi-country and multi-language support added for World Croquet Federation member clubs:
- Automatic detection of the default language for each user.
- Selectable language over-ride for each user.
- Automatic detection of the user's country, with user-selectable override.
- Demonstration club now available in all countries and languages.
A new, modernised user interface introduced, with the option for each user of reverting to the old-style interface:
- Selection of dates using buttons and pop-up calendars instead of text links and fixed calendars.
- Navigation between views using buttons instead of text links.
- Simplified top banner, with some menu options moved to pop-up sub-menus.
- URL dates compacted to the format date=YYYY-MM-DD
Improvements to the usability on mobile phones and tablets.
A few bug fixes.

Support for old versions of the Internet Explorer browser (IE10 and earlier) has now been dropped. Some features of the CBS might not work correctly on older browsers that are now also unsupported by the browser supplier.

Minor bug fixes.

Migrated from a shared hosting service to a virtual private server. Standard https security is now used throughout the CBS and the rest of the EACF website. The migration has also improved performance and eliminated the server time-outs that were occasionally interfering with operations.

Code added for RSA encryption of user passwords in transit between client and server if still using the http protocol. But using proper https if available would still be better.

Various technical changes to some database tables, and some minor bug fixes.
Personal data held in the database is now encrypted.
Data entry errors during Admin page updates are now highlighted and shown inline.
Summary data about the numbers of users and bookings added to the Admin page.
CBS pages are now also accessible via the main EACF site-map page.

This page added.
Password protection security improved.
Passwords must now contain at least 8 characters including a mixture of both letters and numbers.
Users whose passwords were initially set or reset by an administrator are now required to change that password when they next log in.
Access restrictions have been tightened so that anonymous users can now only see the calendar view summaries of existing bookings, and not the details of each booking. Anonymous users can now not use the 'search' or 'report' facilities, and logged-in users can only search or report on bookings at their own club.
The default club on a particular device is changed so that it takes into account the club of the last logged-in user.
The system now caters better for users who are members of more than one club and use the same userid and password for both. (Basically, they are required to choose just one of these clubs when they log in, and that will then be the only club they can make bookings at until they log out again.)
There is a new option for club administrators to specify that the current device is a shared (public) club device. If implemented then the "keep me logged in" option on that device is disabled, and the default club on that device remains unchanged as the administrator's club even if a (non-admin) user from another club logs in.
Logged-in users now see an on-screen count-down showing how much time remains before their login expires.
Most error messages for the add/copy/edit entry form are now displayed inline on that form.
The add/copy/edit entry form now includes a 'cancel' button.
When viewing details of an existing booking, the options to try and edit or delete that booking are now automatically disabled if the user does not have permission to change it (e.g. if it was created by a different user at their club), though they ARE still allowed to copy and then edit it in order to create a new booking. (Club administrators can still edit or delete any booking at their own club, regardless of who made it.)
Clicking on a day in the mini-calendars (near the top of the bookings summary pages) now always invokes the 'day' view for that day, even if the previous view was 'week' or 'month'.
The list of months in the page footer now includes 3 previous months instead of 2.
The 'Admin' section (for administrators only) has been reorganised to separate the general 'club' settings from the 'court' settings and make it easier to find them both.
A new feature has been added to the 'club' settings so that administrators may choose to prevent general members from creating or editing a whole series of repeat bookings at once, i.e. restricting them to making single bookings only. In addition, any attempt to edit or copy a whole series of bookings now triggers an extra alert first.
Various minor bug-fixes.

The CBS as a whole now requires the use of Javascript to view or edit any bookings, rather than having a non-Javascript fallback.
Javascript is now used to view details of any booking OR to make a new booking from the 'day', 'week' or 'month' view summary pages. This measure is introduced to stop badly-behaved robot web crawlers from trying to access details of every booking, and from trying to make new bookings in every possible empty time-slot on every day. Although they were unable to succeed in doing this since they were not logged in, it was causing an unnecessary load on the website servers, and possible delays for legitimate users.
Interface adjustments to make it possible to use the CBS on a tablet or mobile (touch interface). However, the user interface is still designed primarily for laptop and desktop users with a mouse and keyboard.