BLADES - Brunel LINKS Automated Duty Enrolment System

Technical Information

The BLADES engine was designed and created by Richard Archer of Indigo Onion for Brunel LINKS. It is now hosted and maintained by Indigo Onion.

The basic engine involves three parts - your web browser, which displays HTML pages for you to read, a database, which stores all the duty information, and a script library, which acts as a middleman, getting information from the database and generating HTML pages for your web browser.

BLADES uses a collection of PHP scripts which interface with a mySQL database. The servers that run these are all maintained by Indigo Onion's webhosts in America. The database and script code themselves are maintained by the BLADESmaster (Richard) over here in England, along with the Chairperson of Brunel LINKS.

The Process

When you first arrive at BLADES, a script accesses the database and pulls out a list of duty names (with date and time information) and dynamically creates a page which you then see in your browser, listing all the duties.

When you select a duty from the list, your browser sends information back to the script telling it which duty you selected. The script runs again, pulling up a list of duties and also getting full details about the duty you selected. It then creates a page, similar to the last one, but this time with formatted information about your duty as well.

When you click the Sign Up button, your browser sends which duty you selected to another script, which again pulls up the duty information and displays it along with a form that allows you to enter you details. The form is created dynamically and can vary depending on the duty you are signing up to and the information required.

After entering your details, your browser sends all that information to another script, which simply displays it for you and asks you for confirmation.

After confirmation, all the information is passed on to a processing script which takes all the information and formats it into e-mail's that are automatically sent to the duty organiser, the ops officer and also back to you, just to confirm the details. This script returns a special page to you browser, which makes it automatically move on to the final page.

Version History

Last updated: Tue, 5 November, 2002

To view the BLADES Engine To-do list, click here

CURRENT: Version 1.13 - 5th November 2002

• Implemented Code to ensure that when users sign up for the test duty, the BLADESmaster gets the Ops Officers e-mails. This allows any comments the user might add in the uniform box to be seen by the BLADESmaster, and also stops the Ops Officers from getting notifications about test signups (which they don't really need)
• Fixed Minor Bug where slashes (/) would appear before apostrophies (') in any text a user entered in the sign up process
• Updated Admin Code to compensate for the slashes big fix
• Updated index page so it no longer calls the alternative duty list "new". It's been there for ages!!!

Version 1.12 - 21st October 2002

• Added custom http error pages for the sheer hell of it. If you mistype a URL, you'll get a BLADES error, rather than an Indigo Onion error.

Version 1.11 - 16th October 2002

BLADES has now been moved over to its new location: http://blades.indigo-onion.co.uk/ and, as such some alterations had to be made.

• Updated references from old web address (http://www.indigo-onion.co.uk/brunel-links/) to new address (http://blades.indigo-onion.co.uk/)
• Minor Improvements to Cosmetics - corrected typographical errors
• Fixed Moderate Bug where the KCL ops officer would not receive a sign-up notification e-mail
• Updated Brunel and KCL Ops Officer's e-mail addresses. Also updated BLADES own e-mail address to Ian's new teaandsheep address. (!)

Version 1.10 - 1st July 2002

Following a request for BLADES to support Kings LINKS members as well, a few things had to be altered. As it stands, this version of BLADES can now be fairly easily altered to add other LINKS units if necessary, although proper support for multiple units won't be around until V2.

• Added Option in Sign-Up process to choose between Brunel LINKS or KCL & GKT LINKS
• Implemented Code to provide correct e-mail/phone information and to ensure the correct Ops Officer received sign-up notifications
• Updated e-mail templates to make use of this new facility
• Minor Improvements to Cosmetics - changed all references to "groups" to "units", as you're not members of a LINKS 'group'
• Improved Code in sign-up process to also store member's unit along with other details in the optional cookie

Version 1.00 - Final - 2nd March 2002

Realising that I'm not going to be making any more changes to this version of BLADES (as version 2 is currently in the pipeline) I've basically promoted 0.98 to final release, with a few minor improvements. V2 will be quite different, with a nicer interface, searchable duties, and the facility for other LINKS units to adopt the system and customise it to their liking.

• Minor Improvements to General code - mainly finishing off all those poor array references and non-abbreviated echo commands

Version 0.98 - 22nd November 2001

• Added Option to save member details in a cookie so they do not need to be re-entered each visit
• Implemented P3P Compliance (hopefully) to get around cookie issues in IE6 Click here for More Info
• Added Natural English Privacy Policy to comply with P3P
• Removed LINKS Group box in Sign-up process (it was pointless after all) - "Brunel" is now fixed text
• Minor Improvements to General code - still removing poor array references and non-abbreviated echo commands (oh yes!)

Version 0.97 - 20th November 2001

I'm getting more and more tempted to try and include search and filter options in the final V1.00 release.
This is probably silly considering how many bugs that are still around that need ironing out, so we'll see what happens.
For this reason, I have not classed this version as a release candidate.

• Fixed Moderate Bug in Processor where Ops Officer was receiving blank e-mails
• Added Alternate Duty List page that doesn't use a drop-down menu as solution to Mac browser issues
• Minor Improvements to General code - gradually removing poor array references
• Corrected Minor Typos in one or two places
• To-do: Fix Mac issues so Mac users can still use the drop-down menu option
• To-do: Add an update mailing list for those of you who are sad enough to want to stay up-to-date with all the BLADES Engine changes

Version 0.96rc3 - 17th November 2001

What were supposed to be quick last-minute changes ready for the roll-out ended up taking ages to implement.
My lack of access to my computer for several days didn't help.
This is now the proposed release candidate for V1.00

• Minor Improvement to E-mail sending to include duty name in subject
• Implemented a Feedback form
• Added Link to feedback on welcome page and completion page
• Minor Improvement(?) to Processor code
• Added Member's phone number to sign-up process
• Corrected Minor typo in Member e-mail template
• Added To-Do list page
• To-do: Investigate corruption problems

Version 0.95rc2 - 12th November 2001

First version planned to be seen by members.
Should still be considered a release candidate, rather than a final version.
After fixing any bugs revealed by real-world testing, this will become V1.00

• Added Update warning to welcome page
• Added Ability for administrator to easily temporarily take the system off-line
• Fixed Minor Bug in Engine where version number was not displayed
• Fixed Moderate Bug in Processor where e-mail's could be sent containing HTML tags
• Added Version check to information page
• Corrected Various typos & spelling mistakes across BLADES
• Implemented Code to hopefully prevent pages from being cached and containing out-of-date information
• Fixed Minor Bug in E-mail templates where e-mail footers would contain extra empty lines
• To-do: Real-world testing

Version 0.91 - 11th November 2001

• Minor Improvements to Cosmetics of sign-up process so headings are better structured
• Added Extra wording to Welcome page
• Added Technical Information & Version History page
• To-do: Considering implementing search functions for the duty list

Version 0.90rc - 10th November 2001

First version to go online ready for use by Brunel LINKS (mainly Ops Officer).
Not a final version, but a fairly fully functional release candidate.

• Partially Implemented Custom error handling
• Added Administrative functions - fully featured with error handling
• Minor Improvement to Duty list sorting so events with same sort dates and theatres are alphabetical
• To-do: Still no decent error handling for sign-up process

Version 0.80 - 9th November 2001

• Completed Working sign-up process
• Added Customisable messages to e-mail formatting
• Implemented E-mail sending
• To-do: Still no administrative functions

Version 0.30 - 7th November

• Implemented E-mail formatting
• To-do: E-mail sending

Version 0.20 - Summer 2001

• Added Multiple event and TBC features
• Updated Database structure and scripts accordingly
• Minor Improvements to Sign-up process

Version 0.10 - Spring 2001

• Implemented Initial database structure
• Implemented Basic working simulated sign-up process
• To-do: Does not format or send e-mail's
• To-do: No administrative functions

BLADES - The Brunel LINKS Automated Duty Enrolment System
Version 1.13 - © 2001-2002 Indigo Onion - Technical Information & Version History

The BLADES engine is hosted and maintained by Indigo Onion.
If you have any problems, for example an error message, or something that simply doesn't work, please e-mail bladesmaster@indigo-onion.co.uk

The duties themselves are maintained by Brunel LINKS.
If you spot a mistake in the duty information, please e-mail blades@teaandsheep.com