I would think one could edit the upload file to include the current data.
We have 80+ scouts, so I would have to cross reference everyoneâs advancement data. Would be extra time, and as a committee chair, Iâm always looking for ways to decrease hours. LOL.
SOAR did have a catastrophic failure and then was bought out and restored. Itâs working fine since then as Anne noted.
@RonFedele - my issue here is that clearly BSA IT broke something that I bet is fairly straightforward to fix. I am suggesting you open a ticket and have them look at it. I would happily accept a workaround as well. BSA should support its Troops on the front lines working with our wonderful kids. I need a solution so my scouts and parents can have a good experience with our troop. Right now I have a father that wants to be active and I canât get his account set up right. I would love to find a nice clean solution. If you accept volunteers in BSA, read me in and give me source code access, and I am almost positive I could fix it myself. I am a registered adult volunteer for Troop 998 already. A simple workaround could be to manually generate the advancement export file. I could help there as well if needed. Thanks for taking the time to respond.
The BSA does not use volunteer developers nor does it make the source code available.
This may seem like a simple task to fix, but given the size of your troop, I suspect it is a much larger task as it is probably related to the time it is taking to extract the data from the DB. As I said earlier, this is in the backlog but the BSA does not tell us when it will fix any given issue. When it is fixed, an announcement will be made in the Change Log forum.
i could do that though I donât have a previous version of the file to use. I usually delete the old file when I download the new as a best practice. Apparently a better practice would be to delete after successful upload 
Thanks, @edavignon sorry to be difficult but I am struggling with how 85 entities would be more than a trivial fix. Thanks again for taking the time to respond! I appreciate your efforts and patience.
@AmandeepBawa - it is those scouts and all advancement data. That is what the export includes
I would be inclined to retain N and N-1 at least, when downloading N+1, just to have some ability to check data integrity over time. The files arenât that large, even for a fairly large unit. I thought that the export files included the export date in name by default, which seems like it should prevent overwriting. Long-term, one could potentially retain export files on a periodic basis.
That seems like a separate issue. Itâs fairly straightforward, assuming that the parent has created a my.scouting account where their PII matches what was entered in the youth application for their scout (or applied online originally, assuming your council/chartering org permits it). When that data doesnât match (or doesnât match whatâs in the system, if it was mis-entered), the system isnât able to identify that the person is the same. As a result, it creates a new BSA ID and associated Scoutbook account. Then, you may have to get your council involved, since the data mismatch will prevent the parent from being able to link the member IDs in my.scouting.
Thanks @Stephen_Hornak and @edavignon and @AnneWhite - all this discussion got my creativity going and I realized I did not do a hard delete on the old advancement file I had from September so was able to complete the upload from there (I am mostly a mac user and using a windows box for personal things so had to google to find how to find the file). My communication issues are resolved with this workaround. Advancement is a touch wonky (imagine scouts saying, I got Life at the last CoH, why does the website say I am still Star?) but I will notify the troop to mitigate that and help our scout webmaster answer questions and do some manual updates.
The inability to export data is a huge issue for my unit!
Why do we export the data? To run reports that Scoutbook does not provide, such as metrics for âmissingâ requirements. Why? Our PLC needs to understand what requirements Scouts in individual patrols and the entire troop need to complete. Collecting those data manually for a large troop is nearly impossible.
@DallasCecil - report builder does not provide the data you need ? Also, since scouts and parents can access scoutbook, they can see for themselves what they need to do.
The advancement export for our troop also is broken with HTML. This has worked fine for many years. We have a large troop with over 200 scouts (Troop 809B), and rely on this advancement export for reporting and validation when it comes to approvals and more.
This is a known issue. It is in the development backlog. We do not know if or when the BSA will scheduled it for development work.
Let me start by saying Iâve read the entire thread, and I realize the fix for the bug is in the backlog, and it may or may not ever be prioritized. I also recognize that the folks working this forum are volunteers, and I appreciate everyoneâs effort. I have one question and then an observation.
Is there a definition of a âlargeâ troop? We have exactly 50 scouts. (Disclaimer - Iâm in the same unit as the OP.). Fifty honestly doesnât seem that large to me, and I expect the number of troops affected by this bug might be larger than some here think.
For many units, the functionality provided by Scoutbook is inadequate at best. I get that it is just fine for many units, but like shoes, one size doesnât fit all. The comment that the export feature may be eliminated in a future release is quite disturbing, and I hope it isnât true. For our units, having advancement exported from Scoutbook and available in the system of our choice is a convenience. But, it isnât with the rest of our data. I feel bad for the units that are dependent on this data being exported for whatever functionality they require.
@MichaelNapolitano - i guess you glossed over the part about bsa data being shared to 3rd party entries and that exposure to data breaches. It is ultimately BSAâs determination on if the export of cdata remains.
@Stephen_Hornak - No, you guess wrong. I chose not to address comments attempting to sow fear, uncertainty, and doubt. You see, like most volunteers here, I have a day job. Mine happens to be as an information security professional - CISO to be exact. I recently retired from the military as a senior reserve cyber officer, and Iâve been a CISSP for almost 12 years. In those capacities, Iâm well aware of data breach concerns.
I also understand that BSAâs data privacy policy indemnifies no entity from data breaches. The policy calls out councils as a third party. It also talks about how it is a personal choice to provide an individualâs data to BSA although for some positions, it is mandatory. Note that the policy explicitly notes whoâs data it is. It is not BSAâs. As volunteers, we can exercise that same choice with our data and use third-party providers of our choosing.
I would argue that if BSA truly wanted to protect OUR data, it would create an electronic ecosystem where email and software applications were entirely owned, operated, and protected by BSA. Kinda like I do at my job. But, thatâs extremely expensive, and they wonât.
In the end, the data we choose to include in the third-party system of our choice is PII but hardly sensitive and likely publicly available elsewhere. In the event of a breach, our CO may be responsible for notification to affected parties by law. It will, however, not face a severe reputation loss or loss of business because of it.
Youâre right that it is BSAâs choice to allow data export functionality to remain. I acknowledged that previously.
@MichaelNapolitano - thank you for your information and insight. I think one thing that would help would be to list those items that would be enhancements and improvement to the BSA platforms. Reducing the need to port the data to various 3rd party vendors should be a goal.
