MyCouncil / News: Recent posts

Bug Fixes for :

3496256(SQl Injection via PollingStationFinder)
3496255(SQl Injection via BinFinder)
3495691(Revise wording of tweet)

New Functionality :

The BinFinder routine is now adapted to work on a mobile device.

http://selfserve.northampton.gov.uk/mycouncil/binFinder.html

Bug fix for 3487898.

Bug Fixes :

3432316 : Script Error on Lagan (v3.07)
3432317 : Meeting Bar in Chrome not working (v3.08)
3486582 : Contact Forms - contact details (v3.09)
3486583 : Emails from MyCouncil not replyable

Bug Fixes

3401357 - Content error in some tweets

Maintenance

Google Maps API v3.6 compliant

Enhancements

Parameterised hashtags

Bug Fixes

3302887 - Duplicating Buttons
3052153 - ModernGovScraper Issues
3047070 - Feedback email containing default text

Enhancements

Revised Tweet format.
Hashtags in Tweets.

Use of shortened URL’s has been extended, emails and Twitter messages (soon to include Facebook) now use different shortened URL’s for the same link. These are then stored along with the other case data on our CRM. We can then track the effectiveness of each social media channel by monitoring which URL’s are being used. ... read more

Improved Functionality - Twitter messages now refined to include the ward the problem has been reported in.

New Functionality - Integration with Google's URL shortener API, to free up the most space in each tweet.

New tweets can be seen here :

https://twitter.com/#!/Northampton_SW

http://www.northampton.gov.uk/mycouncil

Bug Fix - Map now loads in IE9 without the need to switch to compatibility mode manually. Still need to get the map working in IE9 natively.

Bug Fix - Config file error was preventing Mattress's being reported.

Bug Fix - If a case can't be created it no longer puts an incomplete message out to the twitter streams.

Enhancement - BinFinder routines refined, some of the content has been pushed out to the JSON, others still need to be. Links to MissedBin and Replacement Bin eForms to enhance task based approach to using this functionality.... read more

New Functionality - Bin Round Lookup. This can be seen in action on :

http://selfserve.northampton.gov.uk/mycouncil/binFinder.html

Put in a postcode (NN5 4EA for an example) and if there are multiple bin rounds for that postcode it will ask you to select a property from a list. If there is only the one bin round for that ward it'll display the details on the map and a link to the downloadable calendar.... read more

Performance improvements, elections mode & twitter integrations. MyCouncil can now automatically report to hyper local twitter streams when a problem has been reported :

http://twitter.com/#!/northampton_all

http://twitter.com/#!/northampton_sw

v3 of MyCouncil was recently launched at the local elections 2011. The new 'elections module' includes the following functionality :

(1) Show people where their polling station is.
(2) Show people who the candidates are for each ward.
(3) Show the results of the election 'live', updating the map as each ward declares.

We had 3,000 people watch the results live via MyCouncil on election night and used MyCouncil on LCD screens at the count itself for candidates and those attending the count to be kept upto date with progress.... read more

v2.02 contains the full notifications module to allow MyCouncil to sent our email, text and voice notifications to anyone who reports a problem to their authority.

No new functionality, but the installation process has been refined so that now there is just the one config file and jar to create.

The default download for this project has changed to mycouncil.war. This allows for the easiest installation possible, as the war file contains everything needed to run MyCouncil in full integration mode. Just place it into the webapps directory of a tomcat installation and it wil auto deploy to :

http://localhost:8080/mycouncil/

Integration is available for Lagan CRM by default. For integration to work you will just need to tweak three config files and then recreate your own .jar file to link into your own Lagan system.... read more

ReportIt has had it's live date put back by a couple of weeks whilst the back office confirm they are ready for it. In the meantime we have started work on ViewIt to enable people to see the current status of their, or anyone elses, call via the MyCouncil page.

This should be ready to go live alongside ReportIt, the functionality is working already, we're just tweaking how it looks before putting it into the test site (hopefully Monday).

This is a good opportunity to show you how easy it is to reflect changes on MyCouncil, see the below article :

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-11358341

All that we have to do to reflect this in MyCouncil is amend the mycouncil.json file with a one character change :

On line 511 change the following :
"councillor_names":["Maria-Trinidad Crake","David Perkins","John Yates"],... read more

The ReportIt module will hopefully be going live this coming week, you can see it working at the test URL :

http://selfserve.northampton.gov.uk/mycounciltest/

Feel free to have a play, it's only reporting issues to our test Lagan (CRM) system, so no reported problems actually get acted on.

If you enter an email address you'll get an email confirmation, if you enter a mobile number (UK only for our test site) it'll send you a text confirmation, if you enter a landline number (again UK only) it will send you a voice confirmation. ... read more

Feature request #3049751 implemented. Further progress towards ReportIT module included.

Minor cosmetic changes, fixes bugs :

3054608 - Feedback Panel
3049727 - Info Panel in 1024x768

Further development of the ReportIt module also included, not yet complete.

Message Bar (Request 3045256) has been included in the core release. See live website for it in use. Minor cosmetic changes also included to improve the interface in 1024x768 resolution.

Fixes bug 3048323. Also added some metadata to get the application SEO better.

v1.02 contains some minor cosmetic changes on the wording. The Help button (top left of the map) has been altered and the help text improved. Two new buttons appear underneath - Open Source, which offers a preamble before linking to this project and then Feedback with offer a form for emailing feedback to the developers.

Although still waiting for Councillor approval at Northampton, the functionality is there and can be seen at our test site :

http://selfserve.northampton.gov.uk/mycounciltest/

Click on the map, select 'Your Councillors' then 'Find out more about your councillors', then select a councillor. With this functionality disable (as on our live site) the councillor profile page is opened in a window automatically. However with the communications channels enabled you get a new menu, listing all the communication channels that councillor has available for you to see. Each channel opens up a new window linking to that councillors page. ... read more