Downloads

PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING:

I hope this finds each and every one of you well. I know I apologize profusely for the temperamental behavior of Blasto. I will continue to do so as we all wrestle with the clunky bidding system, human error, poor programming skills etc… This project is a beast that I’ve come to love wrestling with. I know it’s not as fun for all of you though which is why I don’t charge you a subscription fee or promise that it’ll always work perfectly. Thank you all for sticking with me!

NEWS: NDBL (No Duty Bid Lines) – These are going to wreak havoc with Blastro’s award predictions if people actually volunteer for them. I know you’ll all take it in stride, but please expect your awards to possibly jump a few notches when senior folks drop off on a NDBL.

I get lots of people saying “Blastro’s saying I’m not eligible to bid.” I can assure you that if you are on the crewbids list as eligible to bid then Blastro should work for you. Your name must appear the same in this list as it appears in the title of the home page. If you have odd suffixes or unconventional punctuation, it is possible for that to raise an issue but not usually. Please try logging in manually and checking the names list under “Reports” -> “View Other Bids” and if your name is not appearing, or is out of order then contacting crew resources should resolve your issue. Additionally make sure you don’t have vacation you forgot about or something to that effect. If you’ve exhausted your options, feel free to contact me and I’ll see if I can track down the issue. UPDATE ON THIS: I’ve modified the name matching code to allow for variances in spelling and punctuation. This could induce other problems like matching a name that isn’t you when you aren’t on the bid list, but hopefully it’ll resolve the “Not Eligible to bid” error for some.

-JIm

MAC INSTALL INSTRUCTIONS PDF FILE – Click for initial detailed install instructions

Version 2.0.5

• Tons of little changes — too many to list. I screwed up pilot bidlist identification and had to fix.
• Added the ability to choose a pilot from a pull down menu to designate as “junior to me” so Blastro can make a bid prediction even when ineligible to bid. Needs a bit of cleanup… Currently you have to download bids and files then restart for it to be available. Bid away everyone! Fingers crossed…

Version 2.0.4

• The new currency list feature was looking for a currency file prior to downloading one and failing. This has been fixed in 2.0.4. No other significant changes.

Version 2.0.3

• Rolled back some name recognition code to simplify it. Created a display name function to correct for extraneous commas and periods in names.
• Blastro can now detect online when someone isn’t on the bid list and respond more accordingly if they should be
• More time is allowed for the Bids to be downloaded as some seem to be encountering bid files not coming through.
• Still not sure why some aren’t getting updated lines files.
• Blastro can check for an employee number on the currency list and alert those individuals.

Version 2.0.2

• Recompiled the python packager to reduce false virus warnings – This only affects the Windows version

Version 2.0.1

• Lots of simplification. Upgraded Python development environment to 3.12 and fixed a bunch of broken libraries as a result. Selenium NO LONGER REQUIRES chromedriver!!! THIS IS HUGE! No more chromedriver downloads, errors etc.
• Both versions are tested on Mac and PC. Bid submitting not yet tested.

Version 2.0.0

• Name matching has been rewritten. Hoping to solve the “Not on the bid list” some people are receiving.
• Import bid choices saved online using the Web Version of Blastro
• Removed unnecessary menu items like pay sheet creation.
• Known issue: There may be problems when downloading a schedule for importing into a logbook.
• The web version is up and running and is working fairly well. Sometimes needs an extra refresh (F5) to apply a filter though.

Version 1.9.9

• We’re making lots of progress. More fixes for people with chrome issues.
• Integration with the server to update web version bids
• Better instructions for people who have the automatic updates fail

Version 1.9.8

• I never actually got this out officially. There were a few fixes that some people received but we’re skipping the version number so everyone’s app prompts for an update.

Version 1.9.7

• After the previous fix, chromedriver was not updating on machines that retained the older version folder when Chrome was updated. Blastro now simply looks for the newest version and updates based on that.

Version 1.9.6

• Building on the chromedriver relocation issue from last month, some of my code handling the update process was missing a small step which decodes text as a UTF-8 string. This was causing the available version number for new downloads to be unreadable.
• When Blastro detected that the chromedriver version exceeded the Browser version, it was a bit too aggressive about forcing a browser update. It now warns you that you might want to upgrade but it still tries to open a connection.
• The Mac version was still showing a troubleshooting message for a certificate file from last month. I removed it.
• The Mac version also fails to restart itself due to how it runs. I removed the attempt and simply prompted the user to restart the program and wait patiently. (Mac version takes a long time to launch and doesn’t display the splash icon)

Version 1.9.5

• Further Automatic Updating work. The zipfile library was incorrectly showing “BadCRC” for large files. This has been resolved.
• MacOS is terrible at finding the SSL certificate for verifying downloads using urllib library. I figured out a way to point at the included certificate file and prevent errors using an environment variable.

Version 1.9.4 — This whole version was a bust for MacOS. Please skip it and go to 1.9.5

• As with every revision, you can’t test everything… I received and addressed some major issues with the 1.9.3 update. Namely improving legacy browser compatibility.
• The Windows Uninstaller should now ask if the user wants to remove the folder containing settings.
• The Mac version of 1.9.4 I previously released was misbehaving due to wanting to verify the SSL certificate for the web driver. I was hanging on to old technology for those who had older laptops but the it has become too cumbersome and time consuming to maintain two Mac versions. I have decided to depreciate the so-called “32” bit version. The download below will most likely still work on OS versions as far back as Mavericks but I can’t promise that will be the case. If it doesn’t, then please still send me error reports but I may not be able to address everything.

Version 1.9.3

• chromedriver deployment changed. New installations weren’t finding it and updated browsers weren’t updating. The links have been corrected. This should fix the “Problem downloading one or more elements” and “No internet connection” errors.
• Automatic updating has once again been revised. After installing 1.9.3 You should be able to enable auto update again in the Help menu. The program will then automatically check for updates but it will still prompt to begin the download.

Version 1.9.2

• Due to multiple lines file revisions being posted with differing names, Blastro now prioritizes files indicating a revision in the name and promotes higher numbers so hopefully the highest revision gets downloaded. Emailed revisions aren’t automatically downloaded. Only revisions posted to the crewbids site. For instructions on manually updating bid files, see the general troubleshooting section.
• A recent change to how times were displayed on the scheduling site broke logbook and schedule downloads. I fixed it.
• I implemented a slightly different timeout method for updating the lines and bids to try to prevent people who commonly experience the “Expected element was not found” error. Hopefully this resolves it. It now waits for up to 30 seconds for the page to load and has a bit more specific error code.

Version 1.9.1

• I renewed my Code signing certificate to try to prevent the security issues people have been experiencing.
• 747 Line revision was not automatically downloading due to being named “Line Rev.” Blastro looked for “Lines” The trailing “s” has been removed to allow more variance in naming conventions. This is a moving target since there is no nami
• Redirected the update feature to the website download section rather than attempting to “Auto Update” which never really fully worked properly due to strict windows security requirements.

Version 1.9.0

• Resolved “None” appearing in the submitted bids list when double clicking on a line was out of bounds.
• Added the option to redirect to the new pay system when downloading or generating a pay form.

Version 1.8.9

• Minor Bug cleanup.
• Vacation Bidding!!
  • When the vacation bid package comes out, refresh using the black refresh circle arrow (Rightmost button)
  • Under the pay menu, choose “Vacation”
  • Choose how many weeks you are bidding for, up to the number you are eligible to bid
  • Choose the weeks you want in priority order. If you deselect a week and reselect it, it’ll go to the end of the list
  • When you are done, ensure you’re connected to the internet and click OK – It’ll log you in an type all the combinations of the desired weeks in the priority order you set.

Version 1.8.8

• Added the ability to display ONLY training lines upon user request. It’s in the drop down filter list. The ability to remove training lines by clicking the “Hide Training Lines” checkbox has not been changed.
• Added the ability to filter out the lines exceeding a set maximum number of carry-in days. The default is (6) – no filter. The number picker for the count can get hidden under the action buttons on the top right. Maximizing the program will reveal the box in this case. Clicking the calendar button to clear filters will set this back to 6 and reveal all lines.

Version 1.8.7

• Blastro now attempts to download the newest pay form itself based on the date. This update is required to use auto-fill with the newest form.
• Repaired auto-updates. There was an SSL certificate issue that prevented downloads from occurring. This should now be fixed. I tried to thoroughly test it and I added the feature to the MacOS versions as well. Ensure “Disable Auto Update” is OFF in the help menu for this to function properly.
• Added an admin function to verify bid award accuracy against the actual award to ensure parity.
• Re-implemented the code signing certificate on the legacy version. It was not working properly.

Version 1.8.6

• Improved download interface to be “more patient” with slow page loading when downloading bid choices.
• Added a feature to sort by split lines or avoid split lines.
• Fixed a problem where “Award Insufficient Bidders” wouldn’t award anyone junior to you.
• Implemented a couple more error handlers to help explain why they might be occurring based on user reported errors. Thanks all!

Version 1.8.5

• Some formatting changed in the trips files that caused a date reader to fail. Accommodations have ben implemented to properly read, or handle bad text in this area to prevent crashes.
• Fixed the “Define Pay Month” box layout. Input boxes were moved around when I was fixing day checkboxes which caused this dialog box to rearrange itself.
• I started implementing a vacation bid tool. It doesn’t fully work yet, but I didn’t deactivate it since it won’t harm anything to leave it visible.
• I thought that automatic updates on the PC were fixed but I was wrong. ugblastro.exe which facilitates the update freezes when downloading the update. More work to do here.

Version 1.8.4

• Error reports now send a LOT more info on what caused a crash. This should make program improvements easier.
• Fixed a problem reading trips that didn’t get assigned a trip number (“Not Set”)
• Added a display in the upper right corner that shows the month of the files being used.
• Submitting a bid on a training month requires checking the “Days Off” or “Days On” radio button. The user is now prompted about this. I can’t test it so hopefully it works. Let me know!
• The bid server looks like it is down. The program should ignore instances where this happens instead of crashing.
• Check box placement was adjusted. There used to be an empty label next to the last day of the month. It is now fixed.
• The method for checking for internet has been changed yet again. Asynchronous checking was rather complicated and didn’t work very well. Now it just looks for a page header and checks the status code.
• Auto update prompts have been re-instated.
• Rewrote the entire lines and trips download routine for better adapting to file name changes, and to simplify the code.

Version 1.8.3

• Previously corrected the Lines download problem without correcting Trips also. Fixed that.
• MacOS and MacOS Legacy versions were compiled.

Version 1.8.2

• Fixed the “No Internet Connection” error.
• Fixed an issue where lines wouldn’t download due to differing file name cases.
• Fixed an issue where lines with carryover days ending past 1900z would trigger a 7th day.
• Added the ability to filter out lines that have been chosen – effectively gets it out of the way.
• Improved the downloaded schedule viewer. It uses a custom text view rather than notepad or textedit.

Version 1.8.1

• Code Signing – I’ve received a certificate for digitally signing my code. Hopefully this will prevent Anti-Virus warnings.
• Right click on a line and you can choose to open just that page of the original PDF. Quick and easy!
• Splash icon on startup – This is mainly for the Mac which takes longer to load. It’s so you know it’s trying!
• Under the main menu there is now an ‘iPad View’ which opens an online display of lines in a browser. You can drag the lines around and order them, but you can’t submit anything from here. It’s really just for future development.
• Option to force the download of the most recent pay form. Due to inconsistent file naming, subsequent forms will still require a program update.
• Fixed Trips and Lines files sometimes being rotated incorrectly.
• Ability to check for an update in the menu and/or to disable auto-updates (Auto-updates are for PC version only)

Version 1.8.0