ETA for return of messaging functionality?

Scoutbook Using Scoutbook & Scoutbook Plus
1

I was baffled this morning when I was unable to find the messaging button to send an email communication to our pack about an upcoming event. After browsing the forums here, I see that this capability was temporarily disabled during a data center migration (for some reason I do not have a warning banner about this; there is just a message about merit badge policy).

Do we know when this might return? I’m trying to judge if I can wait a little to send the pack communication or if I should go ahead and propagate through the grapevine.

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2

I second that. I waited till the datacenter outage officially ended at 7AM CST this morning in the hopes of getting the message capability back…no dice. Anyone part of the weekend datacenter outage have an update or ETA?

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I just tested going straight to URL and it functions - so not sure - you just have to replace XXX with your SB UnitID - which you can get from your unit page url - \https://scoutbook.scouting.org/mobile/dashboard/messages/default.asp?UnitID=XXXXXXX\

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That is really not a solution. Do we know when the functionality will return for all users as a default? And not some copy and paste from the forums… Thanks

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That’s interesting, thanks for sharing. I tried that with a test message to a single person and it worked. I’m guessing maybe things are ready on the back end, and we are now just waiting on someone to add the menu button back?

I am going to hold off on sending a broadcast message to the pack until it is officially enabled again, though. It’s possible that the reason it’s not available in the menu is because there is some lingering problem that needs to be resolved first.

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Hey, looks like it’s back! So the ETA is “right now” I guess.

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7

11am CT is the official time. As they bring it back they are testing it.

8

The system is working as expected. There is a backlog in the email system. The system is working its way through the queue.

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9

A notification which was scheduled for Friday 9am EDT (1 day before the event) was sent out at 11:38 EDT today:

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This created some confusion on the meeting participants. Has anyone else experienced this issue? Could this delayed notification be related to the ‘data center migration’ change?

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There was a red notice (now gone) at the top of Scoutbook login pages that reminders and emails would not be sent due to the data center migration. We had delayed notifications sent as well.

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Yes. It did some that anything that would have gone out during the data center move, came out this morning.

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Unfortunately, because I set the reminders quite far in advance, and I was out on vacation I did not see the banner… Thank you for the confirmation.

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It wasn’t clear to me that they would all que up and send en bulk when done even if the event had past. Not a big deal, but a surprise.

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No warning. No banner. During summer camp season when scout leaders are communicating with their units about pre-camp, etc. I’m not impressed at all by this action. Admins for scoutbook - are you listening? We need more advance notice about this stuff… we depend on this to communicate with our units and you cut us off at the knees on this one.

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There was a huge banner for about a week before then during the down time. What I was surprised about was that all the “out of date messages” queued up and went out.

Your comment about during summer camp season pairs nicely with the ones that say it shouldn’t be in the fall due to new membership.

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@Casey - is there ever a good time for anything… as Matt noted the banner was up for while… in fact I think it was well over a week. Sorry… they should have called you first…

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@Casey I provided similar feedback to IT about insufficient warning when I learned about it from my tent at camp.

For the record, the warning was about two days rather than a whole week. The banner was up for about a week because it was also up for the 3-4 days that email was down.

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18

I’m glad you saw it Matt. There were no banners present the day I found out about the feature being disabled. It was certainly not convenient. It pairs well with: September for new members, December for recharter, and July for summer camp. As a scoutmaster are the three times I expect this system to be working at top speed with very few scheduled outages.

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Thanks for the great feedback Stephen. Much appreciated. They could have sent advance notice via email to unit Key 3. That would have been pretty easy for them to do.

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@Casey - in all seriousness, was it an impact why yes indeed. I do think you raise a valid point of notification. I certainly understand data center migrations having worked on one myself that took almost 2 years with a great deal of co-ordination. This was understandably a tough one for many but it is done.

On the notification point I guess they could leverage the system that notifies the end user of YPT expiration. But yes this was messy for many.