Database Readme

updated 12-08-01

Note: This readme is not yet updated in light of the new website. The features are mostly the same.

Link to the database page
Link to the back up OLD database modification program (just in case)
Link to the NEWEST version (probably needs some testing)

The to-do list of future features and improvements

• The logon screen

  • To logon, select a team, then enter username and password, and click on LOGON.
  • To change your password, in addition to the above steps, also enter your new password twice before clicking on LOGON.
  • To access the admin page (administrators only), check the Admin Page radio button.
  • Logons are logged.
  • The default choices are to logon to the Team Page and your own section.
  • The username may be entered with either lower or upper case letters (or any combination). The password is case-sensitive.
  • Regardless of the lower/upper case of the typed username, the capitalization scheme of the alias in the database will be used in automatic situations such as email signatures.

---

• The Edit Team page

  • At the top are:
    • Back to list of all teams button.
    • Show team page preview link: This shows what the team page would look like.
    • Update htm file button: This updates the team htm file located in directory teams2. (This also time-stamps the updated page.)
    • Show htm page link: This shows the actual htm page as it resides in directory teams2. (It should look the same as the preview.)
    • An admin would have a jump to another team button and selection box.
    • A TL or SL with fullaccess would have a Display button for selecting which section to show, or show all could be selected.
    • Click on the Edit Custom Email Messages to go to the Edit-Custom-Email-Messsages page.
      • You can enter custom emails for Ref Checks, Promotion, Welcome, or Team messsages.
      • Notice that you only get to customize the "body" of a Ref Check, Promotion, or Welcome message. That is, these emails always have a certain beginning or ending to them. Such beginnings and endings are reminded to you for each message.
    • Click on the Export Team Data to display a page with team data displayed as a comma separated list. This is useful only for those people who wish to import this data into a personal database such as Access, for those people who still wish to keep their own personal database on their own computers.
    • Click on the Update GAB Links Page to update (recalculate) the GAB Web Page links page. This is needed if you wish any changes to members' URL, TradingPageURL, or team web page url to be reflected immediately (otherwise, there will be a lag time of about an hour).
  • You view the members in order of alias or by real name (the default - but you may set your preference) or by email, by clicking on the appropriate button.
  • Click on the button of a member's alias to edit that member.
  • Note that to the right of certain members there are numbers with yellow, red, blue and pink backgrounds. These correspond to the number of not-yet-confirmed refs, the number of overdue not-yet-confirmed refs, the number of unresolved "other" refs, and the number of days since the last edit of this member..
  • A members in need of an official promotion has the "old" rank in parentheses.
  • Members which are MIA are in pink [MIA is to be used for Invalid email only - ruling as of 12-07-01, use LessActive for less active members]
  • Members which are Deleted are in red.
  • Members on probation have are highlighted in dark green.
  • Members with LessActive (LessActive) are highlighted in light green.
  • Padawan members (from some Padawan team) for whom you are the Master will show up, highlighted in light purple.
  • Click on the Send team message... button to compose a mail message to team members:
    • Select type of message: blank message, standard promotion message, standard welcome message, custom promotion message, custom welcome message, or custom message.
    • Select recipients: everyone, promotees, ensigns, vice-admirals, or captains &up.
    • All members on the list will be checked appropriately unless you check the "Leave all members unchecked" checkbox, in which case no-one will be checked.
    • Note that a promotion message that includes a Vice-Admiral will also be automatically CCed to the Grand Admiral.
  • Click on Promote members... button to bring up the promotions page, where you can promote multiple members simultaneously. On this page, all members in need of a promotion are selected (except those with "Withhold promotion" status, or Probation or MIA). You can check and uncheck individual members as you please, and then click on Promote! to perform all the selected promotions. (Be sure that you have already sent out any desired Promotion Message before performing this action.)
  • In the Preferences,
    • To edit your personal team header colors, enter the background color or the text color as either a word (such as "red", "green") or a RGB hex string (such as "#ff0000" or "#00ff00").
    • You can also edit the section header background and text colors as well.
    • You can also edit the link text color. (The background is just the black background of the whole team page.)
    • You can choose the default ordering of team members on the Edit-Team page. (This is only for the Edit-Team page, not for the public htm page.)
    • You can edit the preference to list by alias, name, or email.
    • You may enter an alternate TeamLeader username, which you may use to log on in conjunction with the regular password.
    • If your team has RefLink permission, you can enter a Common Note that will appear at the end of the Notes in each team member page. You can also choose whether the RefLink is notused, or gives additionalInfo (which means the regular reference info is still shown), or gives replacementInfo (which means the regular reference info is not shown).
  • In the Edit sections information,
    • You may edit the section name, section leader alias, the access permission and the password,  and click CH.
    • Note that the old password does not show up. If the new password field is left blank, the password will not be changed.
    • Full Access means that the section leader has the same permissions as the team leader.
    • Section Access means that the section leader can only edit information on members from that section (except it is not permitted to change the section of such member). Section Access does not permit adding members nor editing other general team information and preferences.
    • To delete the section, click on DEL. (Note that if a member's section no longer exists, that member will be listed under the main section.)
    • To add a section, fill in the info next to ADD and then click ADD.
    • Note that for section names, the word "Section" is option. For example, you may enter section names such as "Alpha", "Alpha Section", "Alpha Squadron". These will show up on the public htm pages, respectively, as "Alpha Section", "Alpha Section", "Alpha Squadron".
    • The last login time of each section leader is also listed.
    • Any added or modified section will be moved to the end of the list.
    • To get the sections to be listed in a specific order, use the fact that if you click on CH on a section, that section will move to the end of the list (without changing any information). Thus a strategic series of click can always order the sections in an order you want.
    • You can use emptysections to make the list of links skip an empty slot. An emptysection is one where the name of the section has the string "emptysection" in it. Such an empty section does not show up on the listing of members. Since different sections cannot have the same name, multiple emptysections would have to be for example emptysection1, etc.
  • In the Edit optional links information, you may add optional links that show up near the top of the team page. You can CH or DEL or ADD as with sections information.
    • To specific one link as the team web page, check the corresponding checkbox. The significance of a specified team web page link is that it shows up in the "GAB Web Pages" page as a team web page.
  • To add a new member, paste information from either the sign up form or from the old style member pages; then click on ADD NEW MEMBER.
    • If the alias is already used by another member, the new member will not be added. (if this happens, contact the appropriate people) You can also use Check Alias to get further information.
    • The information should look like:
      Alias:somealias
      Email:someone@somewhere
      Name:Real Name
      ref1@somewhere - Ref1name
    • A date on a line by itself (example: May 20, 2000) will be read in as the JoinDate.
    • By default, refs are read in as not-yet-confirmed. Other categories will be detected if there is a line that contains certain key words of the following sort:
      • "bought": refs thereafter will be read in as the "bought" category.
      • "invalid": refs thereafter will be read in as the "invalid email" category.
      • "friend": refs thereafter will be read in as the "friend" category.
      • "in" and "person": refs thereafter will be read in as the "in person exchange" category.
      • ("not" or "n't") and (either "recall" or "remember"): refs thereafter will be read in as the "does not recall transaction" category.
      • ("no" or "never") and (either "respon" or "answer" or "repl"): refs thereafter will be read in as the "no response after several tries" category.
      • "refused": refs thereafter will be read in as the "refused" category. Note that this category of refs does not show up in the public member page. This category is intended for those refs that do not want to receive emails, and they only show up on the Edit-Member page.
      • "confirmed" without a "not": refs thereafter will be read in as the "confirmed" category.
      • "not" and "confirmed": refs thereafter will be read in as the "not yet confirmed" category.
      • "delete": refs thereafter will be read in as deleted. (This is more useful in the APPEND/OVERWRITE usage on the Edit-Member page; see section below.)
      • Please let Adm. Yuen know if you need different keywords recognized.
    • Always check the information to make sure it was read in correctly.
    • Section Leaders may add members only to that section.

---

• The Edit Member page

  • At the top are:
    • Back to editing team button: Takes you back to the Edit Team page.
    • Show public member page link: Shows you what the public will see.
  • You can delete or purge members. (Delete is intended for former members, and Purge is for mistakes.) You must first change the Status to MIA (which will then bring up the Delete option), or change the Status to Deleted (which will then bring up both the Delete and Purge options).
  • If you logon as an admin, you can transfer the member to another team by selecting the destination team and hitting the transfer button.
  • Under the name of the member being edited  is the date of last modification.
  • You can edit each item of the member. You can either submit each entry individually or use the Submit changes to ALL items button to submit all items at once. However, if you are just changing one item, it is recommended you use the individual buttons.
    • For most items, to change the value, just type in the new value and click on the corresponding button. Some exceptions or noteworthy items follow.
    • Rank: Select from the list of possible ranks. A yellow background indicates a promotion is in order. (But note that the updated rank is always displayed on the public member page.)
    • RetiredNote: This shows up if the Rank is "Admiral (Retired)". This note shows up on the public team page. For example, if the Retired Note is " from Old Team", then the public team page would show "Admiral Alias (Retired from Old Team)".
    • AutoPromotion: Select either AllowAutomaticPromotion (the default) or WithholdPromotion.
    • Status: Select from the list of possible statuses: Active, ActiveChecking, LOA, Temporary, Probation, MIA, Deleted. Note that this is one way you may temporarily delete a member, by changing the status to deleted. The background color corresponds to the status in that pink is for MIA (invalid email), red is for deleted, dark green for probation, light green for LessActive. Here is an explanation of the intended use of the various statuses.
      • Active: This is the normal status of a member.
      • LessActive: This status has no bearing on how a member is displayed in public pages. This status is only provided for those TLs who like to organize their members according to how active they are. There is no expectation that a TL needs to use this status at all. The bottom line is that a LessActive member is still considered a full active member by all means.
      • LOA: For a member on a leave of absence. The public team page entry will say (Leave of absence). This status is important especially for a TL or SL on a leave of absence. For a regular member, this would indicate to the public that the member may not be able to respond to emails.
      • Temporary: This is for a member who is temporarily filling in as TL or SL for the team. Such a TL or SL would have the word temporary in the TL or SL title on the public team page. A regular member who is not filling in for a TL or SL should not be given this status.
      • Probation: This is for a member on probation. The public pages will have (Probation) next to the member, with a link to the probation web page.
      • MIA: This is intended for members with Invalid emails only.. [Eventually   in the future, this designation will be changed to InvalidEmail.] Please use LessActive for members who are less active. Public pages will say (Invalid email). Hopefully if that  member sees this, he/she will email the TL.
      • Deleted: This is one way to begin deleting a member. A member with this status will not appear on any public pages, but will remain in the Edit-team page. Once a member has this status, the Delete and Purge buttons will appear. Remember that Delete is for former members, whereas Purge is for mistakes.
    • Section: If the team has sections, you may select the appropriate section. The default section is 'main'.
    • Alias: Note that logins are done by alias. So take care when changing the alias of a TL or SL. TLs may change their alias safely starting with Version 9.7. If the alias is already used by another member, the alias will not be changed. You can also change the capitalization scheme of your alias. However, aliases on web pages show up with first character capitalized.
    • CardTypes Select from the list of possible cards. Note that on many computers, you have to do CONTROL-click to individually select the types.
    • Note: This is a place for special comments on a member that appears at the bottom of the member's public page.
    • PreviousRefs: This is used for when the email information for previous refs is lost. A member's rank is computed by taking the larger of the number of PreviousRefs versus the number of confirmed refs with emails. (This is necessary because there would be no way of telling whether a confirmed ref with email may duplicate a previous ref.) Note that a message regarding previous refs will show up on the member's public page only if the number is positive.
    • Master, MasterEmail, MasterLink: This is used for when the team is a Padawan Team. Enter the Master's alias in Master, the email in MasterEmail, and a link (which is probably of the form http://www.gabtraders.com/cgi-bin/memberinfo.pl?team=***&member=***; use copy and paste to get the URL when viewing the Master's public member page). Currently, the MasterLink is not used [but it may be in the future].
    • RefLink: If the team has RefLink permission, this URL will be the link for the REFERENCES in the member page. This is intended for those team leaders who already have their own team individual pages on another web server and would like to continue to maintain that as well.
    • URL, TradingPageURL, TradingPageTitle:
      • URL: This is a URL to the member's home page. This will automatically show up in the "GAB Web Pages" page as a member home page.
      • TradingPageURL: This is a member's trading page that contains lists of cards available for trading (have/want lists). This shows up as a hit when someone does a search for trading pages using the form in "GAB Web Pages" that specifies card types. To eliminate clutter, this field should be filled in only if the page contains have/want lists; TLs and SLs should try to enforce this when filling in this field.
      • TradingPageTitle: This is an optional title for the TradingPageURL. If this is left blank, the default will be Alias's Trading Page. TLs should enforce no excessive capitalization and no excessive punctuation.
  • [future feature]You may send a personal message to the member:
    • Select type of message..
  • You may edit information on the member's references.
    • To change the confirmation status of a ref, just click on the appropriate button. For "other" types of statuses, select the approprate status from the list (bought, friend, inperson, notrecall, or other) before clicking the button. Note that "other" types of refs do not count towards rank.
    • Click DEL to delete the ref.
    • Click CH to submit changes to Name, Date, Note, or to add an Equiv (alternate) email address to an existing ref.
    • Click on UP to update the date of sending a ref check but without sending a ref check email; this is intended for use by TLs who wish to use their own email system for sending ref checks, but would like to update the date of such sending on the GAB database system.
    • You can also hit the Display refs again button to either view all refs or just the unresolved ones (default is unresolved only) and whether to display refs alphabetically or chronologically (default is alphabetically). Note that subsequent member pages will use this preference, in this sesssion.
    • Note that the number of ref check requests sent and the last date sent are underneath the word Confirmed.
  • To send ref check requests (or any other email to the refs), click on the Send ref checks... button. Be sure to check whether you want the standard message or your custom message. This will bring up the mail page, as described in the Mail page section below. This is an easy automatic way of sending ref checks.
  • To add references, paste in information in the text area with emails and names. Put emails (multiple emails are acceptable) and optional name, any order, for the same ref on a single line. Information for separate refs must go on separate lines. Duplicates with existing refs will be detected and not added. Then hit the ADD NEW REFS button.
  • To APPEND/OVERWRITE member information, including references, use format similar to that for adding a new member. Caution: This does not check for duplicate refs, and will replace existing information without checking. This feature overwrites information but does not delete other information that is not overwritten.
  • WARNING: If a TL wishes to change his/her alias, you must use the method of changing the alias on the Edit-Member page. Do not use the method of deleting or purging the member followed by adding a new one; this would not change logon information, causing problems.

---

• The Mail page

  • Use the checkboxes to select who will receive your email. Use the Select all checkbox to send mail to everyone listed.
  • If you are an SL, your TL will appear as one of the possible recipients.
  • In the case of sending ref checks, if any refs were just added, those refs will automatically be selected, or if a new member was just added, any not yet confirmed refs will automatically be selected.
  • An overdue ref will have the last sent date highlighted in red.
  • Specify which return address to use (if you have more than one) by clicking on the appropriate radio button. The first email is selected by default.
  • You may use the checkbox "Use alias for return address instead" to have your rank & alias show up in the return address instead of your real name.
  • You can also specify if you wish your alias (instead of your realname) to appear with your return address.
  • You may specify the subject and content of the email.
  • You may specify the whether to use the Bcc method or the To method of sending. (The Bcc is the recommended and default method when sending more than one ref.)
  • In the case of sending standard messages, an email message is already composed with the correct subject and member and teamleader information filled in. However, you may edit the subject and message.
    • Note that your alias will appear capitalized or not depending on your login. (However, the first letter is automatically capitalized.)
    • That is, the login username is case insensitive; however, the way you type in your login username is how it appears automatically in your email.
  • Hit the PREVIEW MESSAGE & SEND button to preview the message one more time before sending.
  • On the subsequent Confirm Email page, click on SEND to send the email. You may not do any editing on this page. If successful, you will receive information about what was sent and to whom.

---

• The Admin page and Admin functions

  • On the Admin page, you may:
    • Jump to another team.
    • Access the Logon logs, which brings up another page with such info.
    • Access the Hall of Fame Page. [see below for more details]
    • Update the Duty Roster Page
    • Force an update of the Quick Search Database (which would otherwise be updated hourly, triggered by someone accessing the database).
    • Edit Applications Preferences.
      • Note that the recipient in the preferences is used only if the actual application htm file did not contain a recipient hidden input field.
    • Update Team Count on main page.
    • Get a report on cross-checking GAB database with the Bad Trader database. The report checks on matching emails and matching real names.
    • Get a Report on Duplicate Aliases and Emails.
      • Duplicate aliases where the real name matches are not counted as duplicate.
      • Duplicate emails where the aliases match are not counted as duplicate.
      • An admin may enter comments on ongoing or completed investigations.
    • Update the GAB Web Page (page of links).
    • Send an email to all the team leaders, or a selection of the team leaders. Use the checkbox to either select or unselect every TL to begin with.
    • Edit an announcement message that will be displayed at the top of the login page.
    • Create a new team
    • Edit existing team information, such as Team name, Team Leader, and password.
    • Edit RefLink permissions.
    • Create and edit Admins (Root admins only).
  • To transfer a member from one team to another, you must first select the team that the member is currently in before logging on. Then go to that member's Edit-Member page, and there is a Transfer member button. Select the destination team, and click button.
  • Special RefLink permission may be given to individual teams. RefLink permission allows a TL to link the references section to another webpage. Also, a common note may be attached at the end of all team member pages.
  • Edit the Announcement message, and specify the number of days to display this message, which appears at the top of the logon page.
  • Root admins may create or edit admins with regular admin permission, search permission, BTL permission, or Probation permission.
  • The Edit Hall of Fame Page.
    • You may select from a set of images (which are only used on the team pages)..
    • To add more image choices, just drop any GIF file with "fame" as part of its name into the images folder.
    • Edit the nominators. Nominators should go on separate lines. Note that even blank lines will be counted. (This could be a way of upping the number of stars artificially, or if for some reason some nominators count as multiple stars.)
    • The number of stars will automatically be calculated.
    • Edit the Reason.
    • Edit Alias or Team. (The Rank and Email are automatically retrieved).
    • If the Team is missing, a suggested will appear if found. You must still type it in and hit CH to change it. The Team is necessary for getting the correct Rank.
    • When ADDing a new entry, you may enter either the Alias or an Email, and the team will automatically be entered for you if found. (Or you may manually select a team if desired.)
    • Hit UPDATE Hall of Fame to update the htm page..

---

• Features special to the Padawan teams

  • A Padawan TL may ...
    • Add a member, specifying his/her master and master email.
    • Transfer a member out of the Padawan Team.
    • Reset a master's password.
    • Initialize all masters' usernames and passwords.
  • A Padawan Master may ...
    • Edit their Padawan's information, send out ref checks, etc., similar to a section leader.
    • If a Padawan Master is also a TL or SL, he can also access the Padawan's Edit-Member page from their Edit-Team page. That is, Padawans would also show up on their Edit-Team page. If this link is used, the Padawan login password will be asked unless that password happens to be the same as the TL or SL password. Thus, a Padawan Master who is also a TL or SL is encourage to use the same password for both.
    • The Edit-Team page also shows the number of confirmed refs as a number with a green background color.

---

• The Member Search Page

  • You can enter parts of name, email, or alias (any or all).
  • You may select sorting by name, email, or team
  • You can use UNIX type regular expressions to create advanced searches.
  • An admin (with at least Search access) may search for more information.

---

• The Bad Trader Search Page

  • Searches through the bad trader database.
  • The BTL now has a no-readmit component (see below).
  • You can use UNIX regular expressions to yield more advanced searches.
  • The admin page
    • You can modify entries, delete entries, or add entries.
    • You should select NOREADM for making entries for people to be not readmitted to GAB. These entries do not show up on the public Bad Trader Searches, but do show up when used by the applications program.

---

• The Probation List

  • Anyone may view the current probation list.
  • An admin (with at least ProbtnAccess) can modify the list.
    • Log in, and you may add a new entry or modify old entries.
    • You may also view old entries.

---

• The Applications Form

  • This is for both the Padawan sign up form and the regular sign up form.
  • Automatic alias and email duplicate checking. The application is automatically rejected if the alias is already in use, and the applicant is asked to sign up again.
  • Automatic bad trader (name and email) checking, which includes checking against the no-readmit list. A warning seen only by the application team is sent with the application to the application team.
  • Automatic reply to the applicant that application is sent.
  • The email that the application team receives has the applicant's email as the return address.
  • In the admin page from regular database, an admin may specify recipient of applications, and also the content of the automatic reply.
  • An entry is also added in the Applications Log. The entry will specify distinguish Padawan applicants from regular applicants.

---

• The Applications Log

  • You may view the applications log (requires at least search access).
  • Select the month and view.

---

• The Wait List

  • Anyone may view the wait list, which displays both current requests and old requests that have been filled.
  • An admin (with at least AppsAccess) can modify the list.
    • Log in, and you may add a new entry or modify old entries.