NW Scheduler/Publisher - Updates, Support, and Suggestions

[foghorn]

7 hours ago, Floyd said:

It seems to me that is if you set all the territories to Congregation then it allows anybody to work the territory randomly.

Yes, it does allow that - but it is fairly orderly. But the benefits outweigh the downsides. BENEFIT: Publishers ALWAYS have access to territory to work. Since the addresses are marked and displayed in real time, publishers can go into a partially-worked territory and readily know where to work. The publisher who checked out the territory (often a group overseer) can later tell what was done and what is remaining. This is especially beneficial to publishers who don't go out very often, because they don't need to check out a territory. BENEFIT: Since everyone working the territory can mark the addresses as they go, the record is much more accurate and timely. BENEFIT: All publishers can plainly see which addresses are "Do Not Call" addresses. DOWNSIDE: The publisher who originally checked out the territory may unexpectedly find out it was mostly completed by others. So he has to pay attention to how many addresses remain. But really, all he has to do is check out another territory. A certain amount of etiquette is needed, but it is working very well for us.

[Floyd]

This morning I woke up to weekend meeting schedule gone from the app and field service schedules gone from the app and territories gone from the app and a nice error at the bottom.

 

 

[foghorn]

No such problem here. Just to double-check: Latest NW Pub version is 3.5.6 #255?

Edited June 23 by foghorn
correct the version number

[Floyd]

Being the tech guy I am I have already tried the simple things such updating and trying to force a sync by changing data in NWS. And its affecting others in the congregation. I was alerted when I got calls and texts from others in the congregation.

[foghorn]

Definitely sounds like problem originates at the server. We are on ver 7.5 #1365. Is problem concentrated on iPhone or Android phones? or both?

[Floyd]

43 minutes ago, foghorn said:

Definitely sounds like problem originates at the server. We are on ver 7.5 #1365. Is problem concentrated on iPhone or Android phones? or both?

Both. A nearby congregation is not having an issue.

[Tortuga]

2 hours ago, Floyd said:

This morning I woke up to weekend meeting schedule gone from the app and field service schedules gone from the app and territories gone from the app and a nice error at the bottom.

 

 

My guess would be a poor connection to the server while pushing data to NWP. Have you had one of the Administrators make a minor change on the schedule and Send Data again?

[Floyd]

I am the administrator.

 

1 hour ago, Floyd said:

and trying to force a sync by changing data in NWS.

 

[Tortuga]

8 minutes ago, Floyd said:

I am the administrator.

Sorry, I missed your comment about forcing a sync by changing data. 

[Floyd]

I am concerned about the error at the bottom.

[Tortuga]

1 minute ago, Floyd said:

I am concerned about the error at the bottom.

What happened when you made a minor change to the Weekend Meeting and Sent Data to NWP?

[Floyd]

2 hours ago, Tortuga said:

What happened when you made a minor change to the Weekend Meeting and Sent Data to NWP?

 

Nothing changed on the app.

[carlos]

We use for territories a software made by a local brother. Although it's a bit outdated in some senses, it has some features that really show the brother put much thought in this app. 

 

One of those well-thought features is the possibility of sharing a territory. You click "share" and select the amount of time you wish to share it, from 1 to 8 hours. Then you get a link that you can send by WhatsApp or email. Anyone with the link will have access to the territory as if it were theirs for those few hours. That way it's easy to share a territory with your whole group, for example. 

 

It would be nice if NW publisher included something like that.

[carlos]

This week we changed our meeting day since our neighbor congregation had its CO visit. We used a Change Meeting Day event to change it from Tuesday to Wednesday just for that week, and it worked like a charm.

 

Then a sister who was an assistant in the second school could not attend and I had to pick someone else. The software usually shows an orange sign next to publishers who already had a part in that same meeting, and a grey exclamation sign next to publishers who had (or will have) a talk in the timeframe you select, which in my case is three weeks.

 

Well, in this case it showed most of the sisters with a grey exclamation sign, although when hovering the mouse over them in some cases it said they had a part five, eight or ten weeks ago. Only the first three sisters in the list did not have the sign, so they were the obvious choices... except that all of them had a part in the main school that same evening, but the orange sign did not show.

 

I contacted NW Scheduler support about that, and they answered in a couple days:

 

"Meeting Day Change events change and affect the auto-assign and Recent. There is nothing we can do about this."

 

So it seems the issue is with the Meeting Day Change event. I don't really understand the reply and why they can't do anything to correct a clear misbehavior of the application, but anyway I appreciate that they replied so quickly. I thought this might be useful for others facing the same issue.

[Aja]

On 6/22/2024 at 8:02 AM, Floyd said:

Senario: Husband is assigned a territory. Of course the wife wants to work it as well. Maybe they do not always go out on the same day or maybe working with another couple and the 2 husbands are together and the 2 wives are together.

 

It seems to me that there should be a way for the husband and wife to both see the territory in the app even though its assigned to the husband. The are other small groups of people that might need to see a territory.

 

I know it can be a congregation territory but didn't want the entire congregation to see it.

Our congregation just made a change to the way we do it. Previously, if a map was assigned to my FSG I could not share that map with other publishers not in my FSG if I took the group out mid-week when we all met together. So we had to assign to individuals and then make it visible to the congregation. But with the most recent updates, you can now assign to field service groups but make it visible to the congregation. This has several benefits. The friends have been reminded to always wait to be given a territory assignment by one of the brothers and so the territory being covered still has some oversight. We also now only assign one map to each FSG so all brothers who take the group out, whether the Overseer, his assistant, or another brother work from the same map. This means that each map is worked in a more consistent manner. Before the assistant may only work his territory once a month and so the map assigned to him might not get worked within the recommended 4 month window (od ch9 par33). 

[Aja]

7 hours ago, carlos said:

We use for territories a software made by a local brother. Although it's a bit outdated in some senses, it has some features that really show the brother put much thought in this app. 

 

One of those well-thought features is the possibility of sharing a territory. You click "share" and select the amount of time you wish to share it, from 1 to 8 hours. Then you get a link that you can send by WhatsApp or email. Anyone with the link will have access to the territory as if it were theirs for those few hours. That way it's easy to share a territory with your whole group, for example. 

 

It would be nice if NW publisher included something like that.

The only feature I've thought of would be a simple "percentage complete" displayed somewhere on the map that has been assigned. Just a nice QOL feature but one that would be appreciated, especially during campaigns.

[Tonis]

update #1366 is available. so far no information what is fixed with this update. 

[Floyd]

I woke up this morning and everything was fixed in the app. No reply from support yet. But it seems the app updated overnight automatically. Maybe that fixed it. But I didn't do anything manually to trigger the fix. 

[carlos]

56 minutes ago, Floyd said:

I woke up this morning and everything was fixed in the app. No reply from support yet. But it seems the app updated overnight automatically. Maybe that fixed it. But I didn't do anything manually to trigger the fix. 

 

Floyd, I had a similar situation a couple weeks ago and it also was automatically fixed some hours later. I think sometimes the servers are overloaded or do not respond for some reason, and the info doesn't appear on the app.

[computerwiz]

4 hours ago, Floyd said:

I woke up this morning and everything was fixed in the app. No reply from support yet. But it seems the app updated overnight automatically. Maybe that fixed it. But I didn't do anything manually to trigger the fix. 

 

I had a similar issue fixed up by them.  Their response was "the answer was in help".  But I already did the things in help.  Funny how there was an update shortly after my support request, and now things are working.  😝

[Brother Den]

If we input a brother's name as William, but he initially logs in as Bill, will it cause a login problem?

[Tortuga]

28 minutes ago, Brother Den said:

If we input a brother's name as William, but he initially logs in as Bill, will it cause a login problem?

If it does, then just tell him to try the other name. We had several in our congregation that tried to use their full name when they initially logged on, but it gets resolved pretty quickly after a few attempts.

[foghorn]

I just tried sending a publisher their personal PIN, and it is missing!! The column in App Persons that normally lists all the PIN's is empty! What changed?

 

NEVER MIND - I just saw an update to #1366 - fixed the problem.

Edited June 24 by foghorn
updated information

[AndyCase]

Is there a way for a brother to decline an assignment? We currently use Hourglass, and if they are assigned a talk or duty such as Attendant, they can decline it (for example if they are away, or ill, or some other reason). I cant see to see that in the NW Publisher app / Scheduler

[Mike]

28 minutes ago, AndyCase said:

Is there a way for a brother to decline an assignment? We currently use Hourglass, and if they are assigned a talk or duty such as Attendant, they can decline it (for example if they are away, or ill, or some other reason). I cant see to see that in the NW Publisher app / Scheduler

In the NWS app any publisher can mark Away Periods so they cannot be assigned during those dates.