Restarters.net software updates (changelog)

[Restart]

Restarters․net is a work in progress. We’ve already come a long way but are constantly working to add new features and improve the platform.

At the moment, we release improvements and new features once or twice a month and update this topic every three months or so. Keep an eye on this topic to stay up to date with all the latest changes.

Pro-tip: if you’d like to be notified every time we announce an update here, simply click the bell icon under the timeline on the right (if you’re on a laptop or desktop) or below the final post to choose your notification settings for this topic.

So, what are we working on?

Here’s a quick overview of some of the bigger changes we’re currently working on:

Support for recording non-electronic/electrical items

We know lots of you don’t just fix toasters, kettles and other electronic or electrical devices. We recently expanded the kinds of items you can record in the Fixometer to include textiles, bicycles, furniture and more! Learn more about recording unpowered items.

Features for repair networks

Not all groups work alone, and for those of you who belong to or manage a repair network, we’re expanding our suite of network management features that turns this site into a network-wide event management tool and can help you communicate with your members. We’ve also added the ability to sync your network’s groups and events to your own website.

Making it easier to record repair data & see your impact

Recording repair data is incredibly important to measure the impact of your events and strengthen the global Right to Repair movement. We’re working to make it even easier to add data about the items you see at events as well as new ways to learn about your impact.

Better localisation

Restarters.net is already available in a number of different languages. But we’re working to expand this number and are making the Wiki multilingual for the first time. We’re also working on adding better support for different time zones.

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Suggest new features and vote for other people’s ideas in Feature requests

Report any bugs or errors you find in Bug reports

Find the latest Restarters software updates here

[james]

November 2018

v4.1 (full release notes on Github)

Record more repair information

Added new fields to Fixometer

We’ve added new fields for recording more detail about the devices we see at events:

• spare parts information
• barriers to repair
• sources of repair information

Teach the Fixometer your language

Added support for localisation of the Fixometer

Restarters.net is going multilingual! We’ve added a translation function, which will allow us to collectively work on versions in any language.

Better notifications

Improved Fixometer notifications

We’ve made some improvements to how in-site notifications work. Previously, notifications only showed past events without devices added. But now:

• we also show any notification that was previously an email notification (e.g. received invitation to event, new event created, etc.)
• notifications can be marked as read
• if opted in to receive emails, will also receive an email notification as well
• hosts will get a notification for events that have no data entered after 3 days

Understand your data better

Improved data visualisation on Fixometer

Did you know you can embed your group’s stats from the Fixometer into your external website? Well now, you get a bit more control over how this works. Here’s what’s new:

• CO2 equivalance visualisation split into two separate visualisations (manufacturing equivalence, and consumption equivalence)
• manufacturing equivalence visualisation shows progress towards ‘next level’ of equivalence

If you’re already using these data embeds, they will continue to work as normal

Bug Fixes

Click/tap for full list

• broken event links on Dashboard
• users with host role and member of a group but not host of the group, see ‘Update group’ link on dashboard
• error message when requesting contributions to an event
• spare parts field not dynamically updated when editing devices on event screen
• editing a device gets stuck on ‘Saving…’ for a host of the group that didn’t attend the event
• host who is host of multiple groups gets error when creating an event
• when a device has been saved as Misc, can’t amend the weight when returning to edit it
• devices saved as None of the above displayed as ‘None of the above’ in the list until page refresh
• group tags filter lost when paging
• filtering by group country
• can’t remove group tags from a group
• error when updating a device via the devices page
• users can create new skills in their profile and this subsequently causes error on group page
• improved subject line and copy on new event notification
• improved subject line and copy on new group notification

[james]

January 2019

Repair Data Navigator

Added the ability to search & filter the Fixometer repair database

We’re really excited to announce the launch of a new feature on the Fixometer: the Repair Data Navigator. The Repair Data Navigator allows searching and filtering of all previous repair attempts recorded in the Fixometer.

You can filter by device details (product category, brand, model), repair details (repair status, problem/solution), and event details (group, event dates):

So for example, if you’re doing a fix on an iPhone with a cracked screen, you could search iPhone in the model filter, ‘screen’ in the problem/solution filter, and see all past attempts on these fixes, find out what worked, what didn’t, and what were useful sources of information, etc. If you’re just interested in the successful (or potentially successful) repairs, you could filter repair status by both ‘Fixed’ and ‘Repairable’.

As another example: as a host if you’re interested in seeing how many mobiles have been fixed across all of your events, you can could filter by the device category ‘Mobile’ and the repair status ‘Fixed’.

You can access the Repair Data Navigator in the main menu - either at the top on desktop:

Or the bottom on mobile:

Some ideas for the future

• linking through to the event the repair took place at
• displaying environmental impact statistics for the filtered repairs
• breaking up the problem and solution into individual fields
• and more - please share your ideas!

If you’re keen to explore any of our/your data in more detail, take a look at this discussion:
Exploring our repair data - what do you want to know?

Better integrated Talk into the Fixometer

Added notifications and latest discussions from Talk on the Fixometer

This forum (Restarters Talk) is one of the three core modules of Restarters.net - it’s where the latest conversations around community repair and our right to repair are happening. We’ve added in direct integration to the Restarters dashboard to keep you posted on hot topics and new notifications from Restarters Talk.

Ability to vote on discussions on Talk

Added a plugin to Talk to allow voting on discussions in selected categories

All details in this discussion

Automatic translation of discussions on Talk

Added inline translation plugin on Talk

All details in this discussion

[james]

April 2019

Invite people to your event/group with a just a link

Added ability to generate individual invitation links for groups and events

You could already invite anyone to your event or to follow your group by sending them an email from the group or event page. Now, we’ve added the ability to do this with a special link that you can use anywhere you want.

Add events to your personal calendar

Added ability to download a calendar file readable by common calendar applications

You can now add any event to your personal calendar (Google, Outlook, iCal or Yahoo). This is particularly useful for group members who don’t log in to the platform very often but want to remember when events are happening.

Custom branding for different repair networks

Added basic whitelabelling option for repair network partners

We’ve been working with the two main repair networks in Belgium on a slightly re-branded version of Restarters․net for groups in their respective regions. This includes setting the language and using a custom logo. Have a look at Repair Together’s version to see what this looks like.

Using Restarters․net data on other websites

Added a Restarters․net API

We’ve built a Restarters․net API! It’s now possible to include groups and/or events from Restarters․net on external websites (in a similar way to what we do on our own site). This will allow repair networks to display their groups and events from Restarters․net on their own websites.

Send Talk notifications to 3rd party chat apps

Added chatbot plugin to Talk that allows integration with common IM applications

All details in this discussion.

[james]

July 2019

click/tap on the triangles ︎ to display more info on each update

New, super-customisable event feeds

Have events from any group(s) and/or area(s) appear in your personal calendar

• subscribe to calendar feeds in your Google/Apple/Outlook/Yahoo calendar apps
• curate your own personal calendar feed for events organised by groups you follow
• add event feeds from any individual group
• add event feeds from any city or region (e.g. London)
• find calendar links on main events page, individual group pages, or your own personal Calendar section in your preferences

Improved main events page

Made events that appear on the events page more relevant

Past events

• past events now filtered to show only events from your groups or events that you attended
• new ‘all past events’ page created
• past events with missing data now are now highlighted (if there are no registered participants, no repair data or fewer than 2 volunteers)

Upcoming events

• added section to show ‘upcoming events near you’ (if you have added a location to your profile)
• upcoming events for groups you follow are now highlighted if you haven’t RSVPed to them yet

Improved main groups page

Made the groups page more useful by adding events and 'follow' buttons

• added a link to each group’s next event
• added a ‘follow’ button for each group listed
• no. of hosts/restarters removed from the main groups page to reduce clutter

Better welcome emails

New series of welcome emails

• after signing up, new members will now be able to choose to receive guidance on how to use Restarters․net for a variety of purposes.

Minor changes

A few small 'quality of life' improvements to make things more intuitive

• improved the way hosts ask repair volunteers to review repair data (‘request contributions’ changed to ‘request review’ & added a confirmation dialog when sending a request
• name of event changed to ‘Venue name’
• dismissable new feature notification to help explain new features

Bug fixes

We applied our repair philosophy to our own software.

• Sometimes an event’s location didn’t geocode properly, which caused all kinds of havoc. We now trap these errors.
• The email invite to volunteers didn’t allow line breaks, which made emails a bit too ‘stream of consciousness’. You can now unleash your inner Austen and send perfectly formatted, letter-style email invites with paragraphs and everything.
• The column for brand was too narrow when changing brand on existing device. To avoid having to invent a whole system for abbreviations, we’ve just made the column wider.
• Previously, you couldn’t add two new brands in a row. It turns out there are a lot of brands out there, so now you can add as many new brands as you find. #GottaCatchEmAll

[james]

Note: Updates to Restarters․net have been ongoing since the last post above, but this topic hasn’t been maintained. We’re now reviving this topic and will be resuming regular updates.

May 2020

click/tap on the triangles ︎ to display more info on each update

Networks have arrived

Life is now easier for people who look after lots of groups and list their events on their own site

Not all groups work alone, and for those of you who belong to or manage a repair network, we have exciting news: we’ve added networks to Restarters․net!

For network coordinators, this means being able to have an overview of all your groups on Restarters․net. For now, this includes features like seeing when events are created or creating events for any of your groups yourself. We’ve also created an API, which lets you pull through information about your groups and events to display on your own website.

For group organisers, this means you’ll be dealing directly with your own network leads instead of having to go through the team here at Restart.

This is very much a work in progress and we’re working on adding lots more features in the near future! We’re also excited to have teamed up with our friends at Repair Together, the Belgian Repair Café network that covers Brussels and Wallonia. Repair Together will be helping us test these features for networks before we make them more widely available.

Create & find online events

Events can now be labelled as 'online', making them easier to manage and find

With all in-person events currently cancelled or postponed, we’re working to make it easier to list online events on Restarters․net. We’ve now added a checkbox labelled ‘Online event?’ to the event creation page. Ticking this box will mark your event as being online and do two things:

• online events don’t require a physical venue address. You can leave this blank.
• online events will be listed together on a new page we’ve created to make them easier to find

Be sure to add a detailed event description including the aims of the session, who it’s for, how it works and any links to registration forms and/or videoconference links (such as a Zoom link).

We’ve also added new filters to the upcoming events page. There, you can now search for events by whether they’re online or offline and by date. Find online events here

Bug fixes

We’ve been walking through our code with a glass and a piece of paper to catch and remove numerous bugs

[james]

Early June 2020

New features for networks

• we created a network for London with @Vanessa_Ternes as the network coordinator
• following a group belonging to a network will now automatically you to that network’s discussion group here on Talk (such as the London group)

Redesign

• We’ll be starting to roll out the long-promised redesign over the next few weeks! Look out for a new navigation menu and fresh look.

Notifications

• We’ve added a new page to view all your group and event notifications and mark them all as read (see it here).

Bug fixes

We said goodbye to a couple of particularly annoying bugs (click/tap for details)

• Some Belgian events were geocoded as being in Kazakhstan. To save visitors a trip (and wild geese from being chased), we’ve returned these to Belgium.
• Network coordinators found they were able to demote themselves by adding new skills to their profile. We think new skills are a good thing, so we’ve patched this loophole.

[james]

Late June 2020

Redesign

• We rolled out the first stage of the long-promised redesign! Learn more about this here.

Email invites

• We improved layout of the automatic event email invites you can send from the event’s page. It now begins with your personal message to give the recipient some more context.

Bug fixes

• fixed an issue with wiki account creation & login

[james]

Early July 2020

MobiFix: a new microtask

• We built and released MobiFix - a super simple way you can help improve the data we’ve all collected on broken smartphones. Read all about it here: Get involved in Repair Data with MobiFix! 🐳

Minor improvements

• We’ve updated some older text around the site (e.g. changing ‘A new Restart Group near to you’ to ‘a new repair group near to you’)

[james]

Late July 2020

Redesign

• We’ve redesigned the Fixometer page to highlight the impact we all have as global community and to make it easier to add new data and browse the database of repair attempts.

Localisation

• You can now set your preferred language in your main profile, which will also set your language on this forum, Talk.

  Don’t see your preferred language in the list? We’re looking for people to help us add new languages - if you’re happy to help, send me a message

Bug fixes

• Restarters.net and therestartproject.org had a falling out. We worked with both of them and now they’re talking to each other again.
• The main menu forgot how to speak human language, reverting back to code. We’ve taught it English again and will introduce new languages soon.

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Suggest new features and vote for other people’s ideas in Feature requests

Report any bugs or errors you find in Bug reports

[james]

Early August 2020

Localisation

• We’ve improved our process for adding new languages on Restarters.net and extended translation to the main menu here on Talk.

  If you’d like to help us add your language, get in touch! And if you already use the site in a language other than English, you can report any untranslated text you find.

Bug Fixes

• Our system didn’t quite understand how big the globe is, so couldn’t believe how far away some people are based. We’ve now taught it how to read a globe properly and fixed the location for those of your previously identified as living in the ocean.
• Group hosts who want to add themselves to their group’s past events can now do so (they couldn’t previously)
• We fixed the language switcher and sent a few other small bugs to live on a farm upstate.

Coming soon…

Record unpowered items at events

We’re working hard on adding support for recording non-electrical/electronic (‘unpowered’) items at events. The first phase of this work will let you record any item you see at an event on the Fixometer.

This will go live in September !

Future updates will extend this across other parts of the site, for example, by displaying basic stats for unpowered items along with your powered devices.

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Suggest new features and vote for other people’s ideas in Feature requests

Report any bugs or errors you find in Bug reports

[james]

Late August 2020

Localisation

• We published updates to a number of languages, most notably French (Belgian) - thanks @Florine_Paquay for your help with that! More updates on the way
• We also neatened up the navigation menu in different languages and made some bits of text translatable that weren’t previously

Recording unpowered items at events

• We continued to working hard on this behind the scenes - keep your eyes peeled for news in this soon!

Suggest new features and vote for other people’s ideas in Feature requests

Report any bugs or errors you find in Bug reports

[james]

Early September 2020

Record unpowered items at events

• We added support for recording non-electrical/electronic items seen at repair events
• We redesigned the section on event pages that displays event stats (items repaired and environmental impact)

  Learn more about these changes here

Localisation

• We made some bits of text translatable that weren’t previously. If you use the site in French, you should now see less English!

Bug fixes

• We fixed some illegible text on the forgotten password page; forgetting your password is frustrating enough without dealing with invisible instructions!

[james]

Late September 2020

Redesign

• We’ve updated event pages to reflect the new design. They should now be easier to read and it’s more obvious how to record how many people attended.

Events

• Events in CET (Central European Time) or CEST will now become active when the event actually starts, not an hour later

Bug fixes

• People who sign up now automatically get a Talk account without having to visit Talk first
• We fixed an issue with deleting certain items from the Fixometer

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Suggest new features and vote for other people’s ideas in Feature requests

Report any bugs or errors you find in Bug reports

[james]

Early October 2020

Redesign

• We’ve started updating group pages. They now look more consistent with event pages and we’ve improved the readability of impact stats (we’ll be reworking the bottom half of group pages next).

Bug fixes

• Some translations were coming through as code. None of us are robots, so we’ve reintroduced human languages for people not using the site in English.
• This month’s bug-hunter award goes to @Estelle_Vercez1 for finding some bugs in the event-creation process. We’ve fixed some of these and will get to the rest soon.

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Suggest new features and vote for other people’s ideas in Feature requests

Report any bugs or errors you find in Bug reports

[james]

Late October 2020

Redesign

• We continued to update group pages, this time focusing on the events section. Your group’s upcoming and past events are now easier to browse and look more consistent with the rest of the new design.

Impact stats

• We’ve done a lot of work behind the scenes to improve how certain interactive parts of the site work. The result of this means that adding new repairs to an event will now automatically update that event’s environmental stats instantly without having to refresh the page.

Bug fixes

• Good news for you repair detectives: when adding items to events, you can now record as many sources of repair information as you like for each item. Happy sleuthing!
• We cleaned out a few bugs clogging up some parts the site with errors. Things should flow more smoothly now.

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Suggest new features and vote for other people’s ideas in Feature requests

Report any bugs or errors you find in Bug reports

[james]

Early November 2020

Redesign

• We’ve updated the way your group’s device stats appear on your group page. This should make your stats clearer and more screenshot-friendly if you like to share them elsewhere (check it out)

Localisation

• Product categories are now translatable and we’ve already added French translations (thanks again to @Florine_Paquay for your help here). If you’d like to see product categories in your language too, get in touch!

Bug fixes

• The navigation menu on Talk hid the Wiki icon when viewed on mobile. Knowledge should be accessible to everyone no matter the device being used, so we’ve brought it back!

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Suggest new features and vote for other people’s ideas in Feature requests

Report any bugs or errors you find in Bug reports

[james]

Late November 2020

Redesign

• We’ve redesigned page that shows the groups you follow, the groups nearest to you and a list of all the groups on the site. It should now be easier to use and it’s much quicker to search for groups in the ‘All groups’ tab thanks to @Edward_Hibbert’s tech wizardry
  Take a look for yourself

New Features

• You can now unfollow groups (for example, if you move away and no longer want to receive notifications about events in the area)
• If you’re a network coordinators, you can now make people hosts of their groups (thanks for the feature request @Manu_RepairTogether )

Bug fixes

• We fixed a link on the dashboard that promised guidance on running repair events, but only led to a disappointment and a 404 error page. The new link is the real deal.

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Suggest new features and vote for other people’s ideas in Feature requests

Report any bugs or errors you find in Bug reports

[james]

Early December 2020

Redesign

• We’ve redesigned the global impact section on the Fixometer page (see it here). This should make it easier to understand our collective impact.

Bug fixes

• We fixed a broken link on Network pages. If you’re a network coordinator, viewing your groups should require less sleuthing now.
• An ‘add new event’ button kept falling off. We’ve stuck it down with some CSS (Considerably Stickier Stuff).

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Suggest new features and vote for other people’s ideas in Feature requests

Report any bugs or errors you find in Bug reports

[james]

Late December 2020 / Early January 2021

Introducing the Workbench

• We’ve added a new section to the site: the Data Workbench. The Data Workbench is home to microtask activities—quests—that let anyone analyse the repair data we all record. Each quest helps us learn more about why products break and how they could be made easier to fix.

While some experience with repair is often helpful, you don’t need to be an expert to get involved. Head to the Data Workbench to discover the latest activity!

Wiki

• We’ve changed the navigation tabs on the repair wiki to make getting around more intuitive.

Bug fixes

• We fixed an issue that broke some calendar feeds (thanks again for reporting this @panda )
• We removed a bug with a sense of irony that hid certain data when searching the Fixometer
• We removed a more humourless bug that prevented events being created if they lacked a postal address

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Suggest new features and vote for other people’s ideas in Feature requests

Report any bugs or errors you find in Bug reports