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Thanks to Stefan's engagement, efa Version 2.4 delivers a large number of new features an an updated look & feel.
Martin implemented numerous small improvements and enhacements for efaCloud and efa version 2.3.1. In particular admins are now centrally managed, and with exception of the super-admin "admin" efa now uses the admins configured in efaCloud for any efaCloud-based projects.
The new version 2.8 includes the following changes:
Kay Hannay
After more than 10 years of development efaCloud now becomes reality. The reimplementation of efa (known as efa2) in the years of 2009-2012 laid the foundation for storing the data accessed by efa in arbitrary locations. The vision had been that one day the data would also reside "in the cloud". A remote access capability to another efa instance had been realized long ago. With efaCloud there is now also a centralized storage of data "in the cloud". The data is stored in a SQL-based database managed by a webserver, which manages access of various clients (efa, webbrowser, smartphone). efaCloud was developed by Martin Glade, consisting of a server-side implementation of efaCloud as well as client-side enhancements of efa to access the data in efaCloud.
Initially the long known efa will be the primary client to access data in efaCloud. From a user's perspective nothing changes: Rowers and paddlers use the traditional efa user interface in their club or at home with all its features without noticing any difference. Only the data is now stored on a server in the internet (as well as locally as a copy or "cache" for faster access and the possibility of offline work if internet connectivity is disturbed). This way also multiple efa clients can be used to access common data, for example when using multiple boathouses (more elegantly than previously with efaRemote).
efaCloud also provides a web UI to access the data through a webbrowser, tablet or smartphone. This web UI is still in development and currently only offers a fraction of the functionality provided by efa. Over time, the web UI will be further extended and will one day support all (or most, maybe even more) of what efa can do today.
Today efa Version 2.3.0 is being released. Besides the enhancements for efaCloud, version 2.3.0 also includes numerous small enhancements and bug fixes which have over time been released as patches to version 2.2.2.
Download efa 2.3 and efaCloud 2.3
The new version 2.7 includes the following changes:
Kay Hannay
The Raspberry Pi is a credit cardsized mini computer, which allows to build an extremly cheap low-power system to run efa in a boathouse. The new version 2.5 of efaLive adds support also for Raspberry Pi.
The new version 2.5 includes the following changes:
Eine vollständige Liste der Neuerungen kann hier eingesehen werden. Die neue Version kann unter http://efa.nmichael.de/download.html heruntergeladen werden.
Kay Hannay
The new version 2.4 includes the following changes:
A complete list of changes can be found here. The new version can be downloaded at http://efa.nmichael.de/download.html.
Kay Hannay
This version includes the following new features:
A complete list of changes can be found here. The new version can be installed through efa's Online Update functionality, or be downloaded at http://efa.nmichael.de/download.html.
Nicolas Michael
The new version 2.3 includes the following changes:
A complete list of changes can be found here. The new version can be downloaded at http://efa.nmichael.de/download.html.
Kay Hannay
This version of efa only incorporates updates needed for slightly changed rules for the German rowing associations competitions.
A complete list of changes can be found here. The new version can be installed through efa's Online Update functionality, or be downloaded at http://efa.nmichael.de/download.html.
Nicolas Michael
efa Version 2.2.0 now allows to also enter club work hours into efa. For this, efa provides a club work book, which specifies the amount of target hours per club member for a given time frame. Members can then enter their club work hours into efa, which provides new statistics functionality to calculate each member's current and target club work hours. This new feature has been developed by Velten Heyn, who I thank a lot for his contribution to efa.
Even though the efa usage statistic isn't that accurate as registering efa is purely optional, I am still very happy to announce that efa has recently exceeded 400 registred club users in 11 different countries. Among them are not only rowing clubs, but an increasing number of canoeing clubs as well (total of 35). Two thirds of all clubs now use efa2 , and two thirds of all clubs use efa in their boathouse, with more than 60 of them using efaLive.
Further changes in version 2.2.0:
A complete list of changes can be found here. The new version can be installed through efa's Online Update functionality, or be downloaded at http://efa.nmichael.de/download.html.
Nicolas Michael
The new version 2.2 includes the following changes:
A complete list of changes can be found here. The new version can be downloaded at http://efa.nmichael.de/download.html.
Kay Hannay
The new version 2.1.1 now allows to access boat status, damages and reservations through statistics and thus make these lists also accessible for normal users or automatically create them in the background for upload to the club homepage. Minor enhancements include the possibility to merge accidentally created duplicate boats or destinations into a single record.
A complete list of changes can be found here. The new version can be installed through efa's Online Update functionality, or be downloaded at http://efa.nmichael.de/download.html.
Nicolas Michael
Since the beginning of this year, many clubs have migrated to efa version 2, and more and more clubs use efaLive 2 in their boathouses. Initial issues of the new version 2 have long been fixed, and especially the enhanced features for using efa in the boathouse - remote access, weather information, email notifications and more - are much appreciated features of version 2. Almost one and a half years after the first release of version 2, we are today releasing the first major update of efa and efaLive, which further improves useability and security of efa in the boathouse and adds lots of new features.
efa Version 2.1
efaLive Version 2.1 not only inclused the new efa version 2.1, but is also based on a new version of Debian GNU/Linux, which greatly improves hardware support for modern computers. efaLive has also become international and now provides an English documentation of efaLive. All dialogs in efaLive are now available in both German and English. We're looking forward to our first non-German users of efaLive now!
A complete list of all new features can be found in the change history of efa and efaLive.
Nicolas Michael and Kay Hannay
A complete list of changes can be found here. The new version can be installed through efa's Online Update functionality, or be downloaded at http://efa.nmichael.de/download.html.
Nicolas Michael
Shortly before the new year, efa version 2.0.6 provides some interesting new features.
Admins who don't want to get up early January 1st to rush to the boathouse before the first crazy rower gets there may want to update to this new version immediately. It provides the possibility to configure an automatic logbook switch that will open a new logbook at a configured date. To do so, a new logbook has to be created in advance. In the last step of the logbook creation, the automatic logbook switch option needs to be enabled. efa will then at the configured date close all potentially open sessions (and record them in the logfile), close the current logbook and open the new one - without any further admin intervention.
Further enhancements include the possibility to ban individual persons from the usage of boats, and to easily show the last usage of a boat with just a mouse click in efa's main window. Also admins will now be notified whenever a boat has been repaired.
A complete list of changes can be found here. The new version can be installed through efa's Online Update functionality, or be downloaded at http://efa.nmichael.de/download.html.
Nicolas Michael
Version 2.0.5 of efa, the electronic logbook program for rowing and canoeing, has today been released.
Already since version 2.0.0, efa supports to access data of a remotely running efa installation. Given an internet connection in the boathouse, this allows easy and comfortable access to efa's data from home to administrate the data, or to connect multiple computers in a boathouse for simultaneous access. This remote access is still experimental, but has been improved a lot in version 2.0.5. While before it was sometimes extremely slow to retrieve data remotely, the new version speeds this up by 2-10x depending on network speed, and in some cases like the beginning and finishing of sessions or creating of statistics even by 10-100x.
A further enhancement is the possibility to separately count rowing/paddling and coxing mileage in statistics. It's now also possible to merge multiple (accidentally created) persons into a single record.
A complete list of changes can be found here. The new version can be installed through efa's Online Update functionality, or be downloaded at http://efa.nmichael.de/download.html.
Nicolas Michael
The Raspberry Pi is a credit cardsized mini computer, which allows to build an extremly cheap low-power system to run efa in a boathouse. Benjamin Marwell has described step-by-step in his blog how to install and configure efa on a Raspberry Pi (German only). Many thanks for this innovative idea!
Nicolas Michael
The newest efa2 update brings quite a few new features and improvements. Version 2.0.4 simplifies the use efa in multiple boathouses by allowing to assign boats and destinations to certain boathouses only, thus showing only boats and destinations relevant for each boathouse. Through assignment of a color to a group, boats being permitted to be used by only this group will now be marked in that color to allow for easier selection of boats. After Google decided to discontinue its weather API, new the efa version now fetches weather data from Yahoo! to continue delivering up-to-date weather data to the boathouse.
A complete list of changes can be found here. The new version can be installed through efa's Online Update functionality, or be downloaded at http://efa.nmichael.de/download.html.
Nicolas Michael
Today's update 2.0.3 mainly fixes some bugs, but also brings one new feature: The Bulk Edit Assistant. It allows to edit a bunch of persons, boats, sessions etc. that match certain criteria, without having to touch each of them manually. This way, for example the status of members can be easily updated, or certain boats be added to a group etc.
A complete list of changes can be found here. The new version can be installed through efa's Online Update functionality, or be downloaded at http://efa.nmichael.de/download.html.
More than 40 clubs have already upgraded to efa2. If your club already uses efa2, and this is not reflected in the user's list, I would appreciate if you could send me a quick update.
Nicolas Michael
The second update of efa2 brings - besides bugfixes - some new functionality you have asked for in the Support Forum. For example, it is now possible to import or export CSV or XML based logbooks into/from efa. When the last session is finished, efa now reminds to close the boathouse doors, and warns if a session is started shortly before it gets dark. It's now also possible to correct the session data when the session is finished. To ease the configuration of statistics settings, it is now possible to save existing settings under a new name while editing them. An email notification about all open boat damages is now sent once a week, so that no boat damage will be overlooked. The new possibility to run an arbitrary command before opening the weather popup window allows to fetch and pre-process weather data from the internet.
A complete list of changes can be found here. The new version can be installed through efa's Online Update functionality, or be downloaded at http://efa.nmichael.de/download.html.
Nicolas Michael
On February 28th, 2013 efa1 (version 1.x of efa) will reach end-of-life. After this date, no bugfixes, further development or support will be provided for efa1. All users are recommended to plan the upgrade to efa2 (version 2.x) in time and upgrade to efa2 no later than the start of the 2013 season. The further use of efa1 "as is" is technically possible, but explicitly not recommended and without any support.
efa2 can be downloaded at http://efa.nmichael.de. The upgrade from version 1.x to version 2.x is described at http://efa.nmichael.de/download/install_en.html#upgrade.
Nicolas Michael
Six weeks after the release of version 2.0 already 20 clubs have migrated to efa2. I'm very pleased that both the migration as well as the use of the new version have not caused any major problems. Obviously a newly developed software always has some minor issues, some bugs and some missing functinality. Today version 2.0.1 has been released, the first update to efa2, which corrects many of these errors and brings some of the missing functions to efa2 as well. More functionality will be added with the coming updates. Please see the Download page for a list of changes.
Nicolas Michael
efa, the electronic logbook heads into a new era. On February 26th, 2012, the all new version 2.0 has been released! Since its very first release in 2001, efa has established itself as the de facto standard for rowing logbook software in German-speaking countries, being used by more than 300 clubs. Started as a small tool, efa over time became a comprehensive logbook program to keep track of boat usage, damages, usage permissions, and reservations, individual rowing mileages of all club members and boats and a lot more. Intended both for a use directly in the boathouse, as well as private use at home, efa covers many different usage scenarios, is highly customizable, and - most importantly - very easy to use. With version 2.0, efa is now for the first time available in other languages than just German, including English, French, and Danish, with more translations being worked on, and supports both rowing and canoeing sports.
The most common deployment of efa is on a computer in the boathouse, where all members enter their sessions directly into efa whenever they go out on the water and come back in. efa has been optimized to make it extremely simple for members to select boats, enter sessions, and see up-to-date statistics on how much they have been rowing or paddling. Boats are displayed in lists, split into boats that are available, unavailable or currently on the water. For each boat, groups of persons can be defined which are allowed to use a boat. Additionally, boats can be reserved for individual persons - either once only for a specific date, or reocurring for certain times and days of the week. Boat damages can be reported and will - if the computer is connected to the internet - be directly emailed to a responsible person. An internet connection also allows administrators to remotely login from home and administrate data in efa - based on their assigned priviliges.
efa is Open Source software and can be downloaded free of charge from http://efa.nmichael.de.
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