Forums >Technical Support>Equipment screen doesn't take 2 digit years or prices with $
I discovered tonight that none of the equipment I've added in the last year has a Purchase Date. I've entered dates every time, so I thought it might be a data loss bug with the screen. After playing around with the equipment editing screen some, I've discovered that the Purchase Date control just ignores dates entered with 2 digit years.
I realize the control shows a M/d/yyyy mask, but I just always assumed it would parse a two digit year. Instead it silently fails.
This may be true for all date controls on RA, but equipment purchase date is the only one I manually edit. Can you change the screen and/or date controls to do one or more of the following:
I still consider this a data loss bug. A date edit control that silently throws away data it can't parse is dangerous.
I can still determine an approximate age of my equipment by looking at the date of the first workout that uses it. But it would be nicer if the screen remembered what I entered (and told me if there was data it couldn't validate).
The Price control has a similar bug. If I enter 100, it remembers the value, and the Equipment Info screen will display the price as $100.00. However, if I manually enter $100 (with the leading dollar sign), then the edit equipment screen silently fails to save the data. This is another data loss bug, and the reason most of my equipment for the last year has no price information.
Good Bad & The Monkey
I'm running somewhere tomorrow. It's going to be beautiful. I can't wait.
Poor baby
Okay. I suppose running the Monkey is a valid excuse for most any questionable behavior.
Maybe Tiger could plead the Monkey.
I love RA and want it to be the best site it can be. As a programmer, I consider it dangerous when controls silently drop data. The level of "danger" clearly depends on the importance of the data. Obviously, running data isn't as important as medical, mortgage, or other business data. But my mindset is always "data loss is evil".
As a programmer, I prefer to get detailed bug reports, especially if they involve control/site-level issues. And I don't take them personally. I've met Eric (at the Monkey), and he seems pretty cool. I certainly would not want to offend him, and I am certainly grateful for his work. I'm pretty sure he wants RA to be the best site it can be too.
I will enter the data in the correct format now that I know the controls aren't saving it if it's entered in any alternate format. The point of this thread is that the controls and screens provide no validation feedback to let the user know that invalid data is being thrown away.
Hi Bill,
Thank you for bring this up. Just because it's free software doesn't mean I should be allowed to get away with bugs.
I made changes in the upcoming release that made data field processing more consistent. Depending on time constraints, it may take me another release cylcle or two before I can get to handle all the error conditions. For now, just be careful what you're entering.
eric :-)
A Saucy Wench
Take heart eric....the major financial company where my company stock is held also has "dangerous data loss". Except in that case the requested format is 123.45 but if you enter 123.45 it silently fails. Actually the software automatically fills in 123.45 FOR you, you have erase the .45 for it to work or the transaction just silently fails and they never tell you why.
Thanks eric for always taking feedback generously!
I have become Death, the destroyer of electronic gadgets
"When I got too tired to run anymore I just pretended I wasnt tired and kept running anyway" - dd, age 7
I love RA and want it to be the best site it can be. As a programmer, I consider it dangerous when controls silently drop data. The level of "danger" clearly depends on the importance of the data. Obviously, running data isn't as important as medical, mortgage, or other business data. But my mindset is always "data loss is evil". As a programmer, I prefer to get detailed bug reports, especially if they involve control/site-level issues. And I don't take them personally. I've met Eric (at the Monkey), and he seems pretty cool. I certainly would not want to offend him, and I am certainly grateful for his work. I'm pretty sure he wants RA to be the best site it can be too. I will enter the data in the correct format now that I know the controls aren't saving it if it's entered in any alternate format. The point of this thread is that the controls and screens provide no validation feedback to let the user know that invalid data is being thrown away.
Ah, I didn't know you knew each other (at least somewhat). I retract my rebuke. I shouldn't have opened my mouth (fingers). Sorry.
Take heart eric....the major financial company where my company stock is held also has "dangerous data loss". Except in that case the requested format is 123.45 but if you enter 123.45 it silently fails. Actually the software automatically fills in 123.45 FOR you, you have erase the .45 for it to work or the transaction just silently fails and they never tell you why. Thanks eric for always taking feedback generously!
maybe somebody, somewhere is getting all those failed 45 cent transfers! haha!