Blog

Opentime Alert

• Opentime Alerts are being sent for tech crew.
• Opentime Alerts will shortly begin for cabin crew.

Roster Calendar

• Working for all crew.
• New bid period rosters should be loaded when published.
• If you have Unnotified Duties relating to "X Patterns", then these need to be cleared before your roster will automatically update.

New Roster Alert

• This service will be discontinued.
• Refunds will be paid in the next few weeks.

Unnotified Duties

• This service will be discontinued for now.
• Refunds will be paid in the next few weeks.
• I am still discussing with the company possible solutions to re-instate the service.
• The technical changes required on the company IT systems are currently blocked by higher priority work.

Let me know if you have any problems with the Opentime Alert or Roster Calendar functions.

A few updates:

1. Opentime Alerts

I am about to turn on the new Opentime Alert system. For the first few weeks please confirm all information on the WebCIS website before calling Scheduling. Report all anomalies with the system with as much information as possible. (Please don't assume somebody else will report the issue).

2. Apple RosterSMS Update App

Reiterating my 13May email:

"The RosterSMS Update app will also cease to function. It uses QAccess to connect to WebCIS. This will be blocked."

The company has no plans to allow access to WebCIS without MFA. If I can find the time, I may be able to come up with a solution for the app but that is some time away.

3. AIPA Roster Calendar

The Roster Calendar service has now resumed normal operation. Your calendar will update whenever your roster is changed by notified duties. Un-notified Duties do not change your calendar.

There is no need to set the import@rostersms.com email address in WebCIS. You do not need to manually send your roster.

Due to the co-operation of Flight Operations this service has actually improved. Previously, the calendar was updated once every 16 hours. Now roster changes will be shown on your calendar within 5-10 minutes.

TL;DR

• Opentime Alert system will shortly become operational.
• The Apple RosterSMS Update App does not work due to the MFA login requirement.
• AIPA Roster Calendar now updates quickly after roster changes.

There are a few improvements to the Roster Calendar service that haven't been listed here previously.

I have added an option to change the times displayed in the headings of the calendar entries for each sector. Note that this is per sector - not the trip summary. Some people prefer the local time and others prefer zulu time. This is now an option. You can also choose to have both.

Many people have been asking about controlling the colour of their roster on their Apple iOS devices. There is now an option to set the display colour. This was a particular problem because Apple chooses to store the colour setting on the calendar server. Other devices (eg. Android) store the colour choice in the device. Since the server is read-only in order to avoid unauthorised changes by the people you share your calendar with, the Apple devices cannot store the colour preference. This is fixed by choosing the colour through the website. If you only use Android devices then you can ignore this option.

Both these new options are on the Settings - Calendar page.

The system has now been upgraded to offer Opentime Alerts from multiple bases.

If you want to receive alerts from a second (or third, or fourth!) base, just add extra Opentime Alert subscriptions. On the Settings page for Opentime you will see extra base dropdown boxes appear. Configure each one to your desired base. (Note: the extra selections are not displayed if you only have one Opentime Alert subscription.)

As well as the SMS alerts, you will receive a Daily Summary email for each base every morning.

In May the RosterSMS web server and the Calendar server was upgraded. The operating system and the underlying server components were upgraded to the latest and greatest versions.

If you see any problems - especially with the Calendar server - please email support@rostersms.com

I've been making some improvements to the RosterSMS system.

The Open Time Alert system now has two extra features:

• Your Opentime base is now selectable. This has been requested by many people who are commuting/living out of base.
• You can now apply a port filter to the trips that will be SMS'ed to you. eg. An A380 pilot might filter LHR due to the trip length.

The Roster Calendar system has two extra features:

• Home Transport trips can be annotated with TRANSPORT. (Note: currently only trips that ARMS reports as having transport are annotated.)
• "Last X Day" events can be added to remind you of the call in requirement.

All the above features can be controlled from the Profile page.

Are you having trouble updating your RosterSMS Calendar?

It looks like iOS 7 contains a change that silently fails calendar updates for people using spaces in their user names. This affects all iOS devices including iPads, iPhones and iPods.

The fix is to:

1. Delete your RosterSMS calendar on the device affected.
2. Re-enter your calendar details on the iOS device, without entering any of the spaces in your user name.

Sorry for the inconvenience. Your complete calendar (including previous bid periods) will be still be visible after re-subscribing your calendar.

As always, if you have any problems please email me. (Don't forget to include your user name).

I have done a major upgrade to the website software over the last few days. This is in preparation for some additions to the website.

Please report any problems via email to support@rostersms.com

The Trial RosterSMS Roster Change Alert service has been running for 9 months now. The trial has massively overrun it's original planned time due to other commitments.

Now that I have experience running the system over a reasonable number of bid periods I have enough data to predict costs. I can also see the major hole in the bank account from running the system.

So, this is the long way of saying that the Roster Change Alert trial is complete. It is being replaced with a separate service called Unnotified Duties Alert. I am hoping you will find it useful. You can subscribe by following the link: https://rostersms.com/product/unnotified-duties-alert/

NOTE: When you have unnotified duties on your roster, RosterSMS Calendar cannot be updated until you accept those duties.