October 2023, the Internet Calendar feature is migrating to IA.
@LinneaLemon - was this meant for the scouting forums or for your unit(s) ?
I’m wondering if this means we will still be able to use the Calendar function in Scoutbook to set up our events and take role of our meetings, email parents, etc.?
and if we do this in IA now will it still be connected to scoutbook so that it checks off the requirements as we check scouts in to the meeting or campout?
@JamesWells4 - scoutbook has never checked off requirements based on attendance
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Not after the calendar moves to IA2. The calendar functions will be removed from Scoutbook, as I understand the posts from the SUAC of the BSA’s intent.
If you’re talking about scheduled reminders, those are moving with the calendar. If you’re talking about the Send Message interface, that hasn’t been announced as a near-term migration target to IA2, although eventually all of Scoutbook is moving to IA2, and Scoutbook itself will be removed, based on prior posts by SUAC folks.
That’s a little too vague to identify what functionality you’re talking about. I suggest reading the posts in detail in the BSA Announcements thread about he migration. It gives a fair amount of information about the near-term migration of the calendar functionality.
At some point in the not too distant future (date TBD) the Scoutbook calendar will become unavailable and the only interface to the calendar will be through the Internet Advancement platform. The calendars share the same database so nothing will be lost when the path via Scoutbook user interface points to the Internet Advancement platform.
As Stephen said, taking attendance in the Scoutbook calendar never updated advancement.
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Ahhhh, ok. So I guess now that something has worked really well then it’s going to be changed (again). Look, scoutbook literally saved my pack when we all came back from covid and had a groundswell of kids join but had not gotten leaders trained up. I would not of been able to keep track of that many kids and their requirements without it. Our pack had previously (paid out of pocket) to use scouttrack and scoutbook was FINALLY the tool that everyone had been asking for. It has worked REALLY well the last few years. At the end of the day, You bounce from product to product to interface to interface and no sooner do I get parents and leaders trained on one and everything starts going smoothly, National fixes something that isn’t broken. Unless you are building IA2 around that scoutbook interface and functionality that has served us so well for the last several years (after literally begging for it for years before that) then this is a mistake. Something needs to give here, someone needs to put some actual thought into transitioning this stuff instead of surprise (again) we are changing the system that was working again. Glad I didn’t put the time in yet to create the years events!! Which I would of done if rechartering wasn’t such a cluster. .
@JamesWells4 - let me state this again…scoutbook never, ever, never marked requirements complete when attendance was taken. So something that never existed is not being taken away.
yes, I get that but I also would preload the events in there and the agenda so I could take attendance and then easily check off what was covered for that meeting by seeing the attendance to that meeting.
Let me state this again, Scoutbook was a solid system that not only saved our Pack but I have finally got parents and leaders used to using. If we are just combining the IA and scoutbook into one system that pretty much looks/feels/operates/functionality like Scoutbook then maybe you are on the right track. Otherwise, stop listening to old people complaining they can’t find the any key when getting feedback on the system.
@JamesWells4 - what in sam hill are you talking about…
It has been stated multiple times that Scoutbook is written in an obsolete language that is almost impossible to find developers for. Internet Advancement is written in a more modern, supported language. Since they share the same database, the decision was made to do future development in the IA platform and sunset the Scoutbook platform.
The planned advancement has not been updated as requirements changed. Since it never really did what was intended (only those who could edit the calendar could see that advancement on the calendar) very few units used it. You are better off just placing the planned advancement in the event description so families know what is planned for the meeting.
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My troops calendars just migrated on Sunday Night. When I add Events to the calendar I am only able to add attendees from the male troop but not the female troop. I can add the unit but not the members of the female units. It will also not let me duplicate when switching units in the top right.
There is a known issue with the Duplicate function in the IA calendar. It is in the developer’s backlog to fix.
You are only registered with the boy’s troop. Your registration with the girl’s troop lapsed on 8/31/23 and was not renewed this year. Since you are in Northern Star Council, did you fill out 2 Black Pug applications for 2023-24? One for the boy’s troop and another for the girl’s troop? If not, this is the reason you dropped. If you did you will need to contact the Council for assistance.
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As long as you are building the scoutbook advancement infrastructure and similar interface into IA2, then I think it could turn out to be a positive. Scoutbook worked and I could track advancement year to year, keep track of calendars, email my parents/leaders, other leaders could edit their own dens, etc. Just build that all into IA2 in the new language, similar interface, and then it should be fairly seemless assuming the data is all migrated over.
With scoutbook not being that old, I’m amazed good money was wasted developing something in an old programming language. That is a pretty big fail. Technology changes pretty fast but c’mon. I reworked my website 5 years ago, didn’t ask someone to write it fortran jeez.
Just as a point of clarification, Scoutbook was developed long before the BSA purchased it. So, it’s not as though the BSA started development a few years ago on an obsolete platform. Most scouters view Scoutbook as “new” when the BSA purchased it, but in fact it had been around quite a while, and was just “new” as an official BSA platform. For example, the units I work with had been using it as a third-party product for many years before the BSA first acquired it.
I think scouttrack was the same. Needless to say, the need for a platform was (and still is) there. This is an opportunity to build that functionality into IA2. Anything less and we are wasting time and money just like purchasing a software company with software written in Pascal would be a poor choice. Let’s make IA the one stop shop that does everything IA does PLUS everything scoutbook does. Please tell me that is the goal.
That’s the plan but first functions need to be migrated to IA from SB. After that is done, enhancements will be added.
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@JamesWells4 - the BSA acquired scoutbook in 2015 and I manned the scoutbook booth at NAM and had been a user for a few years before that. The code was primarily one person who was an ASP programmer. That train has left the station and it is time to work with more current language hence the transition to IA.
@edavignon - you mentioned there is a known issue with duplicating events. Is there also a known issue with recurring events? I am trying to setup Troop meetings that occur on the second Monday of every month and I get an error that reads, “Error: The fromDate must be the first day of the month, minimum current month - fromDate: 2023-12-31”. I have tried changing multiple parameters but can’t create this as a recurring meeting.
@MatthewLicklider - that one is known
