Bug

[+cachew nut]

Well, maybe just poor design than a bug. The other day I submitted an entry in the Botanic Garden category.

 

The submission had required fields and would not work unless the fields were filled out.

 

I ran into 2 problems, the first required field asked for hours of operation. Currently the summer hours of operation are defined by hour, but when the season changes the closing time is at sunset. The required field only accepts a number, and you can't leave it blank. There is no way around this and no matter what you enter, you will be providing misinformation.

 

The second problem I see is the required field for admission price. Again this field must be filled out with a number. The garden I listed is free, but there are parking fees involved. In addition, the parking fees are not uniform, there are reduced parking fee days and different rates if you are a senior citizen, etc. So admission might be free, or not, depending if you consider parking costs.

 

I think mandatory fields need to be re-thought.

[+The Leprechauns]

Each category manager has the choice to include one or more of these input fields, called "variables," and then to decide whether or not to make them mandatory. For example, three of the categories I manage deal with history, and I am interested in links to websites that provide further background on the history of the place being waymarked. I included a block for a website URL. But, I made it optional rather than mandatory, since not every spot will have an associated web page.

 

I would suggest providing your feedback directly to the category manager, who has the ability to edit the category requirements. It's just a few mouseclicks to change "mandatory" to "optional."

[ju66l3r]

There will still be the bug of things like the one I described in a different post:

 

Price Range accepts a single numerical argument.

 

A "range" doesn't fit into a single numerical argument.

 

These class definitions need to be rethought. CNut's problems wouldn't exist if each field were treated as a text blob (length definition can help memory management if that's the issue). Then let the category manager/waypoint manager handle appropriateness of the text input instead of defining the variable as a specific type up front.