We’ve just completed some changes to the production/technical forms that can be generated by the system and then sent to performers (or their management) to provide the information. This upgrade also has some knock-on affects elsewhere in the system. The changes are as follows:

• when you create the production forms, there are now four pre-prepared options that you can include. These are: performer names; crew names; performer biography; and rider. If you turn these options on, then the production form will contain the required fields for gathering this information and feeding it directly into the appropriate pages in the system (people, press and contract).
• artists will be able to edit/amend/delete any unapproved performer/crew member, but if a member of staff has checked and approved these names, then artists will have to contact you to amend them. This ensures that when the festival is approaching, you’re not having things you’ve already checked being changed without your knowledge.
• if they supply a name and include a mobile phone number, then that name will also be added to the artist’s address book/contact page
• riders (in the contract page) now have an approval system that locks down the contents of this field and adds a time stamp with the name of the person who approved it. However, performers will will be able to edit/amend any unapproved rider request, but once ‘locked’, they’ll have to get in touch with you to approve any changes.
• on the press page, if an artist provides a biog, that will appear above the festival’s “edited” biog. This allows you to take the artist’s press release and format it for your own purpose. (remember that the recent addition of the publishing function will enable you to approve this for publishing elsewhere).

Up until now, the system used the name of the performer to identify who was performing, which kinda makes sense… up to the point when you start programming spoken word elements (like lectures, discussions and workshops). It’s all very well knowing that Dolly Parton is going to be singing on the main stage, but if she’s also doing a lecture on the history of Country Music, perhaps you’d like to spell that out.

So, today we’ve upgraded the system so that each performance can have an (optional) title. These titles can be supplied in any of the areas of the site that you can enter a new performance (the overview page, the artists’ stage page, or the Scheduler). It’s also meant that the Scheduler has to reflect the titles for these elements of programming, rather than the name of the person presenting, so in the configuration page you can set the Scheduler to automatically display performance titles if they exist and, if not, to default to the artist’s name.

All xml feed content also contains this information, so that if you’re using that part of the system to update your own website (and, therefore, avoiding having to enter the same information twice), the title of each performance will also be sent.

Hopefully this will mean that it’s easier to view and understand your program.

We’ve just completed some changes to the press biogs/artist photos and xml feed system. Basically, these add a level of flexibility when you are using our system to serve content to your website or iphone app (such as artist biographies and photos, performance times, stage details and so forth). The details are as follows:

• you can now switch on/off the xml feed content and set default image sizes for any uploaded artist photograph.
• the default image settings mean that when a photo is uploaded, the system saves the original uploaded image for you to download from the press page and use in print/promotional content. Then it  automatically re-sizes the photo for use on the web at the dimensions you require. If you provide either height or width, it’ll scale the picture to that figure (leaving the other in proportion). If you provide both, it’ll scale to the most appropriate size, then trim (crop) any excess so that it fits with your website’s design.
• on the press page there is now a small gold star to indicate the artist’s default picture. If you have more than one image for a performer, clicking the small grey star will make that image the default.
• the xml feed can either supply just the default photo, or a list of all images for the artist, depending on what is required.
• all images are saved to amazon’s web servers, enabling you to access them directly from your website.
• if you’re using the xml feeds (i.e. turned this on in the config page), then there will be a publish/unpublish button next to each biog. No artist/performance details will appear in the xml feed without being published. This enables you to oversee exactly what appears on your site and when.