Version .87 Update

ShotRunner v0.87 Update, 01-Jul-2009

Greetings,

Sorry for being out of touch for so long (since late March) -- we've been working really hard on probably the least fun aspect of a software system: testing everything, squashing bugs, making it all production worthy. We've gone through over 675 internal revisions since the v0.82 update, and just pushed out v0.87 which I wanted to summarize for you below.

Before that, however, I want to make you aware of the following resources:

• New Help/Support/Discussion Site: We now have a new support site at http://help.shotrunner.com/. Here you can report problems, ask questions, view or search the Knowledge Base articles or FAQ, or submit ideas and suggestions. You can get to the site via the 'Support' link in the upper right corner of any ShotRunner page. You can also email problems to: support@shotrunner.com which will open a trouble ticket at the help site also. Please! Ask questions and report problems early and often!

• The Blog: I will periodically post articles of interest to ShotRunner users at: http://www.shotrunner.com/blog. I recently posted the shot status codes that fxphd (excellent VFX training!) used on their recent Red Dwarf project, a 250+ shot project with 18 artists spread around the globe.

• Tutorials: I will be picking the pace of tutorials up during July . You can check them out at: http://www.shotrunner.com/tutorials.

• Twitter Feed: At the bottom of every ShotRunner page is a link to our Twitter Feed. When we are pushing updates, doing system maintenance or just need to alert our users, we post a note there. Notices are infrequent -- I strongly encourage you to follow.

And now for what's new:

• We have a new Python API that is in alpha-test. It lets you query , add, update and remove several objects in the system including: Project, Sequence, Shot, Element, Asset, Task, Note, Attachment, User, Company, Team, Role and Code. This includes access to property sheet (custom) fields! I have a number of samples built including a simple export to CSV (spreadsheet) file. I'm looking for folks with good Python skills who would like to test it out and tell us what else is needed.

• Most all description fields and notes messages now support Textile formatting. This means that you can put web links and bulleted lists and all kinds of formatting in your descriptions and messages. There is a little preview button next to most all text fields that you can use to check your formatting. For example, to insert a link into your text, you simply do this:

  [ShotRunner](http://www.shotrunner.com)
  

• The Dashboard and Project Overview pages have been redone to make a little more sense. When you first log in, you will see the Dashboard -- this is a user centric view of all your projects, tasks, workitems and recent email notices. The Project Overview, on the other hand, is project-centric and shows information and statistics for a given project.

• On the Shots Index Page there is a new 'Card' layout style that is especially good for printing. Also, we separated the filters and view modes.

• Printing: If you try to print any ShotRunner page, you'll notice that the output is a lot more printer-friendly.

• Avatars: All users now have avatars, via Gravatar. Set up your Gravatar once and any application that is wired in will show your custom avatar.

That's all for now. If you have a question on these, or any other
features, just ask!

As always, please let me know if there is anything I can do to
help you get organized and collaborate.

Thanks,
Cameron