About Skylog

Have you found yourself in a sea of scratch notes while coordinating support for your local run/walk/bike event? It's nearly impossible to take a break because your relief can't make sense of your scribbling.

What if the event is big enough that your command post is a multi-person operation? One person answers phone calls from participants who need help. The second person dispatches SAG and supply vehicles. Another person is talking to the aid stations. A fourth person is getting decisions from the organizing committee. Oh, and then someone calls back to find out what the status is on their request. You could try passing sticky notes around, or you could find a smoother solution.

Skylog was born to address both of those problems. It is a light-weight tool to help your command post track and address issues during the event.

Interested? E-mail me at: n9vht at skylog dot net


My workstation at the Horribly Hilly Hundreds, with the Skylog main page and map on my screens.

Fixed colon command issue

Fixed an oversight where some of the colon commands were redirecting to the old .php URLs, which lead to a 404 not found error. They're now redirecting to the new .html URLs.

8/3/2024

System maintenance

The live system underwent server upgrades this evening. Please let me know if any issues arise.

7/29/2024

Bug fixes and new feature

The demo and live systems have been updated with the following:

  • All URLs within the application have changed due to migration to a new web server configuration. PHP has been retired from use.
  • Several pages have been updated such that clicking the Cancel/Save/etc. buttons now returns you to the page from which you came.
  • Edit incident: If you cleared all units that had been assigned to the incident, the incident would auto-close even if you were simultaneously assigning a new unit. This has been fixed. The incident will now only auto-close if all units are being cleared and no new units are being assigned.
  • Map:
    • If you saved the center and zoom of the map, you would continue holding a lock on the Dispatch Center record. This lock is now appropriately released.
    • Duplicate APRS location detection is now limited to one minute. If a unit continues to send the exact same location, it will now be able to stay green on the map even though it's not moving.
    • An update to the Google Maps API allowed for improvement of the labels for places and units. They now have a more modern look and are more bandwidth-efficient.
    • When editing a route, you can now delete a point/vertex by simply right-clicking on it.
    • An update to the Google Maps API made an adjustment to how the map zoom level is expressed, which sometimes caused the Save center/zoom button to fail. This has been addressed.

7/17/2024

Bug fixes and new feature

The demo and live systems have been updated with the following:

  • New command! :LU updates a unit's last-known location.
  • Edit incident: Multiple clicks on the TR button would create multiple copies of the destination field. Fixed.
  • Edit incident: RET button now prompts for destination.

6/16/2023

Skylog update applied

Skylog has now been updated to include the new unit status options, as mentioned in the post below from 5/18/23.

Click here to view a video demonstration of the new features.

5/27/2023

Upgraded live system

The operating system, web server, Python, etc. on the live system have been upgraded so that they now match the demo system. Please let me know if you notice any issues. The confidence checks that I performed tonight were successful.

This does not yet include the new unit status options shown below. I want to do a little more testing before I release that update.

5/27/2023

Coming soon: New unit statuses

In an effort to provide additional clarity, the next update to Skylog will incorporate the following unit status options:

Status Replaces Meaning Use cases
ATD (new) At Destination Transported a patient/participant to a care facility or other drop-off point
ATS OL At Scene Arrived at the scene of an incident
AU AS Assigned Unit Unit assigned to an incident but not yet responding
CI (unchanged) Checked In Present but not yet ready for service
CO (unchanged) Checked Out Done for the day or hasn't been heard from yet today
IS (unchanged) In Service Available, ready for an assignment
OOS OS Out of Service Temporarily unavailable or taking a break
RES ER Responding On the way to an incident scene
RET (new) Returning On the way back to their base or home territory
TR (unchanged) Transporting Taking a patient/participant to a care facility or other drop-off point

5/18/2023

Behind-the-scenes upgrades

I rebuilt the development and demo servers today. This was the most straight-forward way to upgrade various software components and update some of my own standards and practices. After some shake-down time, I'll perform the same procedure on the live server.

4/9/2023

New features

The following new features have been released on both the demo and live systems today:

  • The :NI command can now be used as a one-liner to create a new incident (:NI/rp/desc/loc).
  • On the Edit Unit screen, keyboard navigation has been made easier by using radio buttons for unit status changes.
  • On the New Incident screen, added a checkbox to immediately assign the incident to the reporting party.
  • On the Log screen, it is now possible to download a plain-text version of the log.
  • If an attempt is made to assign a unit that is Checked Out, the assignment is rejected.
  • Automatic incident expiration/closure:
    • On the Edit Incident screen, an Expiry Time can be set. (optional)
    • Once per minute, Skylog closes out any incidents that are still open but have expired.

2/23/2023

Updates and fixes

I've made a change in terminology. The term "group" has been replaced with "dispatch center." Skylog's primary job is to support the dispatch center for a large-scale community event. Multiple dispatch centers could be using Skylog at the same time, so the user must understand the need to select the dispatch center they are working with. This terminology change should make the concept more clear.

I'm also starting to lay the groundwork for field support units to use Skylog. This will allow a unit to directly view details of the incident that they are handling. The user interface will be simplified for mobile use. Units will also eventually have the option to share GPS data from their mobile devices with the dispatch center. This will help situations where APRS is unavailable.

Today's release includes a few other fixes:

  • On the Messages page, the Message log now works.
  • On the Login page, disable auto-capitalization on the Login name field.
  • On the Map page, fix a bug that occurred when editing a route and changing its color more than once.
  • On the Edit Unit page:
    • Disallow use of the AS status when no incident is assigned.
    • When selecting the OL status, don't change the unit's Location if the unit's destination wasn't set.

12/4/2022

Pre-DLD updates

A quick round of updates before the Dairyland Dare tomorrow:

  • Clock removed from the Map page. It overlaps with the admin controls.
  • When a New Incident's reporting party is a known unit, you can now simultaneously update the unit's current location.
  • :AS now refuses to assign a unit to an incident that is not open.
  • Cleaned up a lock conflict issue when creating a New Incident.
  • Cleaned up a column alignment issue on the Main Page.
  • Dialed back the opacity of routes on the Map.

8/5/2022

Enhancements

A few enhancements have been completed:

  • Each page now displays a clock at the top.
  • Creating a new incident now skips the Edit Incident page if the incident is not marked as open.
  • :AS command added. Shortcut for assigning a unit to an incident.
  • :TR command added. Shortcut for marking a unit as Transporting.

8/4/2022

Bug fixes complete

All of the bugs that we found during the Horribly Hilly Hundreds have been fixed:

  • Fixed: Main Page was not allowing line wrapping when many units were assigned to an incident.
  • Fixed: Main Page was incorrectly handling unit status updates, resulting in duplicate assignments being listed.
  • Fixed: New Incident and Edit Incident claimed that the new Event Time that you entered was invalid, no matter what it was.
  • Fixed: New Incident failed to save when you would navigate away from it and then come back.
  • Fixed: Edit Incident was line-wrapping the assigned units in the middle of one unit's status buttons. It now wraps between units only.
  • Fixed: Clearing an incoming message from another user was problematic when more than one tab was opened.
  • Fixed: Certain database queries failed due to a bug in the routine that escaped special characters.

A few enhancements have also been made:

  • Edit Incident now shows a more helpful response when you try to assign a unit that is already locked by another user.
  • Edit Incident now accepts line breaks in the Add a log entry box.
  • Edit Incident now excludes unit status/assignment buttons from the tab order, making updates to text fields smoother.
  • The Recently-updated Incidents table on the Main Page now indicates whether the given incident is open or closed.

7/11/2022

Skylog at the Horribly Hilly Hundreds 2022

We had a successful shake-down day for Skylog Gen3 at the Horribly Hilly Hundreds yesterday! The HHH involves cycling courses of 100k, 150k and 200k distances spread out over 80 square miles of tough terrain. It's a challenge both for the cyclists and the communication systems that we use to support the event.

There were no show-stopping bugs encountered. We did have a number of issues to work around and I have a raft of feature enhancements on the to-do list. Not bad for its very first time being used in a real-life setting.

I've got two short months to accomplish this list before the Dairland Dare happens in August.

6/19/2022

Live system restored

I have restored and converted all of the data from the previous live system. If you had a group on the previous Skylog version, you now have it on the new version.

Start by going to the usual URL and using the password reset feature. After you reset your password, everything should be self-explanatory.

6/16/2022

Demo system operational

The demo system is up and running! If you would like to try it out, E-mail me to request a login account.

If you used the old version, you should be able to use the new one without difficulty. The big thing to realize is that a bunch of the functionality won't be there right out of the gate. The old version had 10+ years of development, and it'll take a while to re-create all of it.

I'm running NCO for a big bike event on June 18th, so that's my big deadline to have the system ready for real use.

6/4/2022

Colon commands

No, I'm not talking about medical procedures.

The colon commands are the tricks for speeding up the use of Skylog. The less you need to move your hand between the keyboard and mouse, the faster you can work.

Click here for the list.

Upgrades from 1st geneation

  • The reporting party for an incident no longer needs to be a station/unit that is checked in! You could type in a random person's name. If you happen to type in a known unit's callsign, Skylog recognizes it and takes appropriate actions.
  • Status updates are now real-time. Rather than the browser needing to ask for updates or the users hitting Refresh, the server proactively sends updates to every client as soon as they happen.

A word of caution

Please be aware that Skylog runs on a virtual server at a third-party hosting company, and it relies on the Internet. There are many circumstances which can affect the reliability and availability of Skylog, most of which are outside of my control.

Do not use Skylog in an environment where its operation would be critical to maintaining life safety. Be sure that you are able to maintain life safety in the event that Skylog would become unavailable with no warning.