Orienteering Events UK (a working title, but of the “does what it says on the tin” variety) is an app to assist in setting your “orienteering schedule” in the UK. It’s specifically for iPad, at least for now.
First of all, why make it at all, and why for iPad only?
Well, there’s already an app (Event-O) that runs on iPhone (but not iPad, at least not full screen) and on Android devices, so it’s a differentiating factor there (I have no wish to tread on anyone’s toes). Added to that, some of the tings I want to do become uncomfortably cramped on a smaller screen.
Also, the way I like to search is a little different to what Event-O offers: I have taken inspiration in this from the web based oevents.info, which allows searching at different event levels for different clubs and regions, while adding some features that are more readily achieved in an app, such as adding and removing events to or from my calendar, and route planning from my present location to an event.
To give you a flavour of what the app can do, here are some screen shots:
This is where the events that match the currently active filter are listed. You can take various actions on an event:
- hide it (for example, you may not want to see night events, or schools events, or whatever) – hidden events can be revealed as here, when they are shown with a grey background;
- show the distance to the event (as the crow flies), either from where you are or from a specific postcode;
- show the route (and actual mileage) to the event (these last two require the event to have been given a postcode location in the BO database – not always the case!)
- show the event details page on the BO web site;
- add a note to the event (for example to note the closing date, travel share arrangements, volunteer role or whatever you want);
- add the event to your calendar (or remove it once added);
- mark the event as a favourite – there are two “levels” of favourite, so you can distinguish between “maybe” and “definite”
This tab shows all your “favourited” events, which may have been selected from any of your search filters. You can toggle between all or just “definites”, and print the list. Aside from that, you can perform any of the same actions on events as in the Events tab.
This is where you can create, edit and delete filters, and set which one is active. Each filter allows you to select events depending on level and club or association. You can also choose only events that fall on certain days of the week (for example, mid-week regional or above is a useful trick for spotting multi-day events) or within a given number of days.
Here you can see your last 50 results held on the BO system, once you have entered your membership number set in the Settings tab (see below). Your six highest ranking scores within the last 12 months are highlighted in green, and your top nine have their rank shown. Your current ranking score is shown at the top of the page. (At the time of writing, the ranking system is paused due to COVID-19, so an adjustment will be needed for the date range. This will be done soon).
As the name says, the place to make settings so the app works the way you like it.
