Development
Bug Fixes & Prep work for new features!
So this week is kind of a light week for deployment. We have been working on cleaning up some loose ends and working towards some new features we are looking to deploy this month. Here is what we have deployed this week.
- Bug Fixes: Fixed a problem with points reports not allowing you to search for a person, introduced a fix and planning a better fix in the future. Fixed the comp scan screen lock up, causing the finish button to become unresponsive. Fixed the holding table logging, players will now have records of being in the casino but not at a table. Points will now be distributed based on very minute actions, previously you would get one point record for all activity in a session. Now you will get a point record for each individual action that earns the player points – allowing you to view a players earning history with much more detail. And many more.
- Export Points Report: You can now export the points report to be used in poker leader boards and reporting.
- Comps & Rewards: Added Comps & Rewards to the players transactions on the website to assist cage personell.
- Inactive Players: You can now reward & comp these players who are not sitting at a table.
- Magnetic Cards: You can now use magnetic cards with the iPad. We have had this for a while but recently finished testing.
The next 4 weeks will be exciting as we look to introduce some new poker & marketing features.
Jeremy
Raffles galore!
As is tradition, we wanted to reveal our new raffle system we finished up this past week along with a myriad of small fixes and improvements on our blog.
Raffle System
You can now print raffle tickets for physical drawings. The raffle works by logging into the iPad >> Click the Tools Drop Down >> Click Raffle. You’ll see a list of tables that you can use to select which tables to print tickets for. Once you select your tables, you can put in the number of tickets you want to print for each player at those tables, then click Print Selected. The raffles will be printed from the receipt printer you may use for your comps or rewards. You can also print individual tickets for players and write their name & contact information in the spot provided if they aren’t a member or just want to provide some players with extra tickets.
Registering a Player from Website
No more issues with registering a player from the website. Any player registered should seamlessly show up on the iPad when you need them.
Small Speed Improvements
We’ve been doing some query optimizations over the past week, increasing the speed at which you can access your data.
Jeremy
Printable Vouchers, Tiered Point Distribution and More!
This is the moment you have been waiting for. A weekly release post. I know, I know, exciting right? We figured we should keep everyone up to date with the new and exciting features we release weekly. Without further delay, here is the release for August 31st, 2011.
Rewards Vouchers
You can now create reward vouchers to hand out to your cutomers. These vouchers can be printed directly from our system if you have printing enabled on your iPads. We define a voucher as a redeemable item, either through a POS or our system that costs a member some of their rewards points. You can create a voucher by logging into your account >> clicking on promote at the top main menu >> clicking on rewards in the left hand menu.
Threshold Points
We are always looking for ways to distribute points to players that will incentivize them to do the things you want them to do. We have added a new points threshold mechanic that will distribute points to a player when they cross some line that you as a manager create. As an example, you could create a rule that says whenever a player buys in for more than $500 in a 1 day period, give him 500 bonus points. The buy in amount, period and amount of bonus points are customizable. The best part is you can have as many of these thresholds as you want.
Points Report
You can now view the points you have distributed to players through our web site. Points can be looked at by transactions, player or by the rule itself. This report is beneficial for those running free roll tournaments based on points.
Among other things, we fixed a few bugs and added a few other small items. Here is a small taste of the list.
- Fixed a bunch of crashes related to scanning/finding players in the system.
- Added profile pictures to iPad search results/transaction history
- Added player picture cacheing on the ipad, so no more flickering and loading of images
Jeremy
Product Development, How We Do
John Brunsfeld, CTO and fearless programmer, has spent many late nights developing our first and second versions of our iPad application and website. Here he describes our zen-like process of creating awesome products with “Pragmatic Programing.”
When developing a new feature or feature set, it is natural to imagine a simple linear development timeline that readily progresses devoid of serious bugs, and then, a spit polished final product well before your already optimistic timeline. Later, a week behind schedule and many stress clenched hours of debugging, you realize that what you thought was a straight forward connecting of two dots now resembled something more pollock-like.
In all reality your vision of the feature was in a certain state of flux, which is natural. Software development methodologies vary, common practice is trending towards agile development or short iteration cycles. RewardsForce dev cycles have evolved into our own disfigured breed of agile development, all attempting to optimize the creed: “Do More Faster” (inked with love in a heart on our arm thanks to TechStars).
Our strategy is simple: iterate quickly, build the most essential features first, plan well, shoot to be right the first time. And then, sit back, allow the code to break, reinvision the product, and go in for a complete rewrite. That’s pragmatic, it is the practical approach to delivering as much value in the quickest time according to what your customers want. Any design is wrong or can be improved, the most benefit is derived from direct feedback from the people that count most, people who have the good fortune to use your genre-defining product. You want to find out your code is worthless early, you hope you are scrapping a banged out piece of code, not your polished beauty. Get features done, let people look at them, rework them. Iterate. Wax on, Wax off.
John
We are hiring!
I am excited to announce that we are expanding! That’s right, we are bringing the world out of this tough recession by opening our doors and bringing on another developer to our team. If you feel you are a hard worker, love a good challenge and get excited about success then we invite you to apply to our growing team.
What are we looking for? Well, we are currently looking for a ninja level iOS Developer who can help increase our development agility. If this fits your modus operandi I encourage you to check out the details further and then fill out our 4 line application form!
If you have any questions jet us an inquiry at jobs@rewardsforce.com.
Jeremy
