Recreation Properties Application
| Recreation Properties Project edit | |
Introduction
Although the Church has more than 150 properties, from camps to lodges to ranches, there isn't a single content management system that centralizes all Church property information. Instead, many of the Web sites are independent of one another, inconsistent with each other and often incomplete, and maintained by different groups. When you try to locate a property, it can be hard to see the specific rules, availability, cost, activities, and amenities from one property to the next. The product will be know as Recreational Properties 2.
The Beta release 2.0 can by going to camping.lds.org
The Recreation Properties project will provide a central content management system to manage all the recreation property sites for the Church from a single administrative interface. Each of the recreation properties will contain standard information about the property, including:
- Map and location
- Activity areas and amenities
- Camp sites, cabins, lodges
- Rules about the property
- Reservation details and cost
- Schedule and availability
- Rooms and sleeping capacity
- Restrooms and showers
- Amphitheaters
The recreation properties sites - eventually centralized at properties.lds.org - will use a standard Church template to maintain the look and feel from one site to the next. Web administrators will be able to manage information for each property site, adding pictures, coordinating schedules, updating property details, responding to queries, and providing other details about the properties.
As people browse the different sites, it will be similar to looking at a rack of brochures for the Church's properties, with all the information they need at hand to make informed decisions. People will be able to search all Church properties and filter by different property features, such as location, capacity, or availability. People will also be able to reserve Church properties and submit payments online through the property's Web site.
As people make reservations, the reservations will be tracked and compiled for the property. The usage data will then be generated into various reports, including financial reports, usage reports, vacancy and cancelation reports, and more. These reports will assist property managers in planning and managing properties.
Project news
Talk:Recreation Properties Application
Recreation Properties Key Documents Index
Recreation Properties user stories
Recreation Properties wire frames
Jira Recreation Properties Link
Project description
This project is to create a Recreation Properties Web application to:
- Provide Church recreational property managers with the means to advertise their properties to unit leaders and members with brochure-like information
- Allow church units, families, other groups to reserve properties and facilities, make payments.
- Administer reservations components and property information.
- Capture usage data and generate reports for priesthood leaders and property managers
- Ability for “Camp Scheduler” to schedule week-long stake girls camps for optimum utilization of available space on the property.
Guiding principles for the solution
- Developed by member-volunteers working under the direction of the ICS department.
- Should facilitate priesthood and auxiliary leaders collecting useful and meaningful reports with as little "administrative" effort as possible.
Security risk assessment
A review of security risks has been conducted. The decisions from the resulting discussions should be included in the design and development of the application.
Current needs
- Designer
- Programmers
Implementation Plan
Version 2.0 Basic Brochure (99% Complete)
- Provide Church recreational property managers with the means to advertise their properties to unit leaders and members with brochure-like information
- picture of the property
- Google map with push-pin showing property location
- capacity
- Provide contact information and method for stakes to request a girls’ camp reservation including calling, e-mailing, for a reservation request.
- General description of each property
- high level availability of each property (May - Oct)
- Purpose of Church Recreational Properties
- Links to Girls Camp manuals
- Description of Young Women Camp
Version 2.01 LDS Account (30% Complete)
- LDS Account authentication for Property Managers
- Include Near In Context Editing (NICE) for the following features:
- Property Landing Photo
- Property Description
- Property Contacts such at Manager & Scheduler including display order
- A nearby city
- GPS Coordinates and GPS comments
- Property Capacity
- Property Star Rating & Comments
- Include Near In Context Editing (NICE) for the following features:
Version 2.02 Campsites and Campgrounds (10% Complete)
- Listing of camp sites at each property
- Including individual site capacity
- Optional photo
- Space for a brief description
- Name of each campsite
Version 2.03 Facilities & Amenities
- list of facilities & amenities
- Including facility capacity
- Optional photo
- Space for a brief description
- Name of each facility or amenity
Version 2.04 Activities
- Listing of activities available at or near the property
- Optional photo
- Space for a brief description
- Name of each activity
Version 2.05 Driving Direction & Maps
- Overview map of the property
- Description of how to drive to the property
- Optional Map showing how to drive there
Version 2.06 Property Photo Gallery
- Space for multiple photos a, or around the property
Scheduling
- Allow church units, families, other groups to reserve properties and facilities, make payments. (need more detail)
- stakes make payment over the phone or by electronic transfer
- other groups pay online (PayPal)
- different groups allow to register at certain times
- Allow other church groups to schedule activities when property is not used for girls’ camps.
- in priority order
- Ward girls camps from the member stakes
- Girls camps from other wards or stakes
- Member stakes other activities
- Everyone else
- create accounts linked to LDS account
- how to reserve amenities? for qty of people?
- in priority order
- Allow other church groups to schedule activities when property is not used for girls’ camps.
- Administer reservations components and property information.
- Content management system
- upload images
- change dates
- move reservations around
- change descriptions and qty
- camp information
- Send confirmation to stake leaders, families and other groups regarding their assigned days and camp location and qty allowed
- stops two different people making same requests
- Capture usage data and generate reports for priesthood leaders and property managers
- weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly reports
- % of usage
- What group and who reserved it
- How many cancellations and who they are
- Manage by properties
- Reports by stake, property, area, property assigned stakes
- Track vacancy information and history of usage by date, property, camp ground, and camp site.
- financial reports
- total revenue
- weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly reports
- Ability for “Camp Scheduler” to schedule week-long stake girls camps for optimum utilization of available space on the property.
- groups send availability request (camp scheduler has final say on what requests are approved?)
- Reservations may not be tied to certain camps sites.
- Provide a map of the property displaying camp sites, cabins, lodges, parking, activity areas, trails, showers, restrooms, amphitheaters, etc
Phase 2
Valuable functions:
- Encourage full utilization of the available properties when not used for girls’ camps
- Provide driving directions to the property from local communities.
- Provide usage instructions and property rules
- Show a busy schedule for individual camp sites, cabins, and lodges.
- Scheduling function for reserving activity sites such as challenge courses, pools, amphitheaters, waterfront, etc. Some may require an additional fee.
- e-mail back all important information
- Satellite View Map - each camp will provide a satellite view Google map (or equivalent) with tags showing landmarks important to those selecting sites such as bathrooms, cliffs, hiking paths, restricted areas, etc. for use to overaly with a chart showing reserved and available campsites. This map will be different from the map view that will be used to provide directions to the camp.
Phase 3
Additional Functions:
- Provide the ability to search within a preferred date range and geographic area for available sleeping accommodations for a provided number of guests across multiple properties.
- Provide method to schedule trek events at properties anywhere in the world.
- Waiting list notification function based on specific camp site, cabin or lodge.
- Website user manual for Camp Managers/Schedulers
- Be able to schedule activities and other campsites (additional fee sometimes)
- Be able to select date and state and all available camps shown up
- Waiting list
Required integrations
- LDS Account: All scheduling requesters, property managers, property schedulers, and administrators must login using an LDS Account.
- Church Directory of Organizations and Leaders (CDOL): Because Stakes and Wards change frequently it is important that this site query data from the authoritative source so this data does not need to be updated manually.
- Email: The website must be able to send email to requesters.
- Online Payments: For events other than YW Camps payments can be received in advance through Pay-Pal.
Getting started
- Developers
Steve Gallafent is currently coordinating development efforts. Developers interested in participating should contact him directly to get started.
Developers that are interested in contributing should see Community Development Best Practices. Since this is not a Java-based project, not everything in that article will apply.
The current development environment is detailed at Recreation Properties build environment.
Active members of this project are on an email alias: recprop@compguy.com (we can add new people to this as needed).
Team members
General support and oversight
- Steven Knudsen - Product Manager
- Alan Smoot - Technology Community Manager
Project management
- Burdette Haderlie, PMP - Project Management
Web design / features / front-end engineering
- Matt Porter - JavaScript, DMS, development
- Alan Taylor - Interaction Design
- Diego Moretti -(Brazil) - web design, Photoshop
- Jim Jones - product functionality & features
- Keith Van Orden - design & product management
Technical writing
- Dan Holgate - technical writing
- Diane Orzepowski - technical writing
- Gerry Benner - technical writing
Quality assurance / testing
- Joseph Lamb - testing/QA, C++, Oracle, Perl, Java, PHP
- Cynthia Cerenzie - user interface and usability testing
- Larry Peterson - user interface and usability testing
Database / schema
- Mark Richmond -data architecture, MySQL
Programming / coding
- Krysta Hunt - PHP developer, SQL & web development
- Jake Haldeman - web design & development
- Randall Oakes - PHP developer, MySQL & web development
- Cameron Watson - Developer
- Steven Gallafent - PHP, CODA, CDOL
- Todd Thelin - PHP, XML, HTML, CSS, Javascript
- Oscar Schultz - PHP, SQL, Web, C++
Security
- Mike Clark