Over the weekend I made a bunch of changes to the Admin section of wp-SwimTeam. The latest version of the wp-SwimTeam plugin and the phpHtmlLib plugin have been loaded into this demo environment.
Next up to implement a sample set of data people can play around with. Hope to have that done by the end of the week.
Are you involved with running a youth swim team? If so - does it run efficiently? If your team is like most, a loose collection of volunteers run your swim team doing many things by hand or with Word and Excel documents. You may even have some of your information on the web.
wp-SwimTeam is a WordPress plugin which makes the job of running a swim team a little easier by moving many tasks typically done by hand or with Excel to the web. WordPress is primarily known as a blogging platform but it can do much more than that. When you combine WordPress with the wp-SwimTeam plugin, you have a platform which allows you to easily communicate with your team and simplify many of the tasks required to run a swim team.
There are number of software applications (e.g. WinSwim and Hy-Tek Meet Manager) which help teams run swim meets and track times and results but finding a solution to manage the logistics to manage eveything else, has been elusive. If you are struggling with team registration, volunteers, scratches, and other similar aspects of running a swim team, wp-SwimTeam may help you out.
WordPress is a widely used publishing platform. It is well supported, open source software which is easy to install, configure and deploy. There is a wealth of add-ons to WordPress available for both new functionality (plugins) and presentation (themes). Much of the work involved in running a swim team is communication and WordPress does this really well.
The other aspect, managing the data for the team, is accomplished with a plugin (wp-SwimTeam). Instead of reinventing the wheel, wp-SwimTeam builds on top of WordPress and extends the data model so it can be used to capture swim team specific information.
wp-SwimTeam is a WordPress plugin which supports the following features:
The plugin continues to evolve and this afternoon I uploaded a new version of it to this demo site. Much of what has changed isn’t visible without having admin access to the plugin but the start of some end user functionality has been added.
The fall meet schedule is firming up, here is the schedule as it now stands.
| Date | Opponent | Location | Result |
| Sat Aug 23, 2008 | MOR Marlins of Raleigh | Home | Tie: 0 - 0 |
| Sat Oct 18, 2008 | YMCA of the Triangle YOTA | Home | Tie: 0 - 0 |
| Sat Nov 8, 2008 | Raleigh Swim Association Wahoos | Away | Tie: 0 - 0 |
If you would like to include a swim club profile in a post or a page, wp-SwimTeam defines a short code to make doing so easy. For example, placing the following short code in a post, yields the following table of information. The googlemap keyword in the short code is optional and will cause a map to be displayed if (a) a valid Google Maps API key is defined in the Swim Team settings and (b) if the Google Maps URL field has been set for the club profile.
| Pool Length | 25 Meters (8 Lanes) |
| Address | 4904 Waters Edge Dr Suite #155 Raleigh, NC 27606 USA |
| Primary Phone | 919-859-4881 |
| Notes | RSA swims at the Triangle Acquatic Center in Cary, North Carolina. |
This web site is used to demonstrate the wp-SwimTeam WordPress plugin. Thanks to WinSwim for hosting this site. If you are unfamiliar with wp-SwimTeam, it is a WordPress plugin which extends WordPress with capabilities for managing a swim team.
