July 2011
1 post
5 tags
Challenges of a Simple E-Commerce System: Part 1
So I just wrapped up creating an online shopping cart / store / e-commerce system for our teams which is integrated with Amazon Simple Payments. The plan was to do something fairly simple which allowed users to create items that had a few options, and let it evolve from there if enough teams wanted more features.
I have built a couple of e-commerce systems in the past so I had a decent...
May 2011
2 posts
Moving Servers Again
FreeTeams originally started on a shared server way back in June 2007. Shared servers are very inexpensive, and great for starting new blogs, personal websites, and small business sites. It was something like $7 per month at the time, and for a bootstrapped company with no business loans or outside investors giving us money to splurge on infrastructure, that is a great selling point. We were...
1 tag
New Events and Invitation Features
We have released the Event & Invitation system into the wild. From the events menu you can create new events, and invite users and non-FreeTeams account holders to your various events. You may enable or disable the events system through the Main Options & Features page in your admin area.
When you create your event, you have the option to make it all day, or with a specific start and end...
November 2010
1 post
1 tag
Copying Rosters From Season to Season & Form Menu...
I have added in a new feature that has been requested a few times - copying rosters from season to season. Before you had to enter in your roster by hand each season, but now if you have a roster from last season, just go into this season’s roster in the admin area and you should now see an area titled “Import Roster” which will let you import a roster from any other season....
September 2010
2 posts
1 tag
User Comments Are Now Live For News Stories and...
We have launched the user comment system for your teams and their associated users. Currently users can comment on photos and news stories, and eventually on events when that system is completed. If you have other suggested uses for users comments (such as on game results, maybe a Facebook Wall-like page for your team) please let us know. You can set the comments system settings in the...
1 tag
New Features Are Being Rolled Out!
Despite recently starting grad school, I’ve been able to put in a lot of work on the site over the past couple of weeks. I have been finally rolling out a lot of our promised features, and a few new ones that weren’t hinted at before. Some are live, and others I will be releasing into the wild over the next couple of weeks so be on the look out! I apologize if there have been some...
August 2010
1 post
2 tags
New Twitter Integration
We have added in Twitter integration so that viewers can check out your tweets without leaving your team’s site. To enable it, go to the main options page in your admin area (the first page you normally see when you edit your site) and under “Website Features” you should see “Twitter” as the third option down. Enable this, then go to “Static Content”...
February 2010
3 posts
1 tag
You Can Now Add Other Admins and Members On Your...
One thing that has been requested in the past is the ability to let owners add in other admins and users on their own. We have added in the ability to do this now. Go into the admin area and go to “Options” -> “Member Associations”. At the top you will see a form to add in a new user association. Type in the username, select what association they will be, and click...
1 tag
The Revolution is Blogged: Unlimited Photo Storage
We have some fantastic news. We have moved our photo storage to Amazon S3 which allows us to store all your photos (some ~60,000 currently) relatively inexpensively and with easy scalability. This relieves the storage load from our server and keeps us from having to continually upgrade or add more hard drives to keep up with all the files everyone is uploading.
What this means for you is that...
1 tag
Privacy Settings Added for Custom Pages
We have added privacy settings for your custom pages. You can now set any custom page to be viewable by anyone or by specific user types. For example you may put up playbooks so only your players can view it or a phone tree for only your parents, or restrict any other sensitive info you may have in your custom pages. In the admin area, go to “Options” -> “Privacy...
October 2009
3 posts
New Team Stores Provided By Prep Sportswear. Your...
We have added in an exciting new feature - the Prep Sportswear Store! We have partnered up with Prep Sportswear to provide you with a team store that allows you, your team, and anyone else to buy embroided and screenprinted apparel, gear, and other items with your team’s colors and logos. The best part is that you can make money for your team! You can make between 7% and 17% off every...
1 tag
Purchase Prints of Your Photos! This Also Changes...
We have integrated with Digibug to provide you with high quality prints and other items using your photos. You can order different sized prints and posters, shirts, sweatshirts, mugs, mousepads, and much more. DigiBug will then create the products and ship them to you.
To order a print or other item using your photo, simply go to the photo galleries on your site. Under each individual photo...
Display Photo Galleries Across Multiple Seasons
We’ve had a few requests to make photo galleries a static option. While we think there are cases where this is needed, we also think there’s still quite a number of times when photos are topical only for a particular season (team and player photos, specific game photos, etc.) As a compromise, we’ve created a new feature in the galleries that will allow both. There’s a...
April 2009
1 post
You Can Delete Your Own Websites
You can now delete as many of your own websites as your heart desires. The best part? You can now do this without having to deal with the (sometimes very slow) tech support department. On the main options page of your admin area (the first page you see when you are editing a website, or go to “Options” -> “Main Options”,) you will now see a “Delete...
January 2009
2 posts
1 tag
Upload Your Own Favicon
I’ve added in the ability to upload your own favicon - it’s a small detail but it helps you brand your webpage a little more to your liking. Don’t know what a favicon is? Look up in the URL bar (where you type in web addresses, like http://freeteams.net .) To the left of the website’s address you should see a little icon. The FreeTeams favicon is a combination of the...
1 tag
More Space To Upload Photos and Files!
We’ve increased the amount of space you have to upload your files and photo galleries from 300 megabytes to 500 megabytes. We’ve also updated our file manager a bit to look a little nicer. You can also now create subdirectories in the file manager as well. Enjoy!
April 2008
1 post
Custom Online Forms Are Now Available
I have completed work on the online form system. If you’re curious, this allows you to add a number of questions to a form page that allows people to submit answers. Common uses for forms such as these include recruiting forms, contact us forms, online registration for your team or league, etc. It is marked as Beta because I haven’t been able to test it thoroughly, and some extra...
March 2008
1 post
A Few New Privacy Settings
I have added in new privacy settings for the Schedule and Photo Galleries. By default these are viewable by anyone, but if you would like to restrict these pages, you can edit the settings in your admin area. Simply visit the “Privacy Settings” page in the “Options” menu and you can set what users can view these sections.
Look for more privacy settings in the coming...
February 2008
3 posts
I Feel the Need, the Need for Speed
So you may have noticed something new in the admin area - we are in the process of changing our drag & drop sorting script for such features as our Officers, Team Types, Menu Links & Custom Pages. This will hopefully make things a bit less cumbersome for you by reducing the number of actions you have to perform when saving certain items. We have started with our Team Types feature and...
1 tag
New Servers!
Freeteams.net has grown by leaps and bounds since opening our doors in June of 2007. As of writing more than 1,040 users have signed up and almost 800 teams have signed up. More than half of those teams have been active in the past 3 months.
When we added the user association feature, a new issue arose - namely that of notifications. As it stands now, you have to log in and check your website...
2 tags
New Roster & Bio Privacy Settings
Having your team’s information and on-field exploits in a professional looking website can be exciting. Sometimes though, having your or your child’s information displayed on the web for anyone to view can be a scary thought - and justifiably so. Well worry no more! We have expanded our privacy settings to include your team’s roster and player bios.
Currently, every...
December 2007
1 post
1 tag
Your Team Website Now Has a Message Board
After much hoopla and fanfare, the Forum system is now active for your team’s website, which you can enable or disable from your administration panel. All forum, thread and post creation happens on the public-facing part of your team’s website. Just visit your team’s page and click on the “Forums” link in your left hand menu. Depending upon the privacy settings you...
November 2007
1 post
Team/User Networking is Here! Also, A New Photo...
YOU MUST VISIT YOUR PRIVACY SETTINGS PAGE IN YOUR ADMINISTRATION PANEL BEFORE ANY ASSOCIATION FEATURES ARE ENABLED. Even though caps lock is obviously cruise control for awesome, I apologize for the previous sentence. I wanted it to stand out though.
You may have noticed a small menu bar at the top of your team’s website. This is the beginning of the community interaction I have been...
September 2007
1 post
1 tag
New Look & Feel and Your Front Page Feed
In case you didn’t notice, I have updated the look and feel of the home page area for Free Teams. This is the second in a series of updates to Free Teams. The first was an updated front page feed which includes listing new photo albums as well as your news stories on the front page of your team’s website (if you have those features enabled). It will include any newly created photo...
August 2007
2 posts
1 tag
Color Picker Issues Resolved
If you use Internet Explorer 6 or 7, you may have noticed a few bugs with the color picker we use in the style section of the administration panel. Â Well fret no more - earlier this evening I updated the color picker and all seemed well when I tested the picker in the following browsers:
Internet Explorer 6
Internet Explorer 7
Firefox 2
Opera 9
Safari 3 (for Windows)
If you encounter any...
1 tag
New Feature: Locale Settings
Free Teams is based in sunny Southern California, but we are trying to develop an international product that spans cultures and countries. We have been advertising in countries with a large English speaking population, and will hopefully get the Administration Panel and team websites translated in the future to reach an even larger population across the globe.
That being said, there are...
July 2007
1 post
An Open Letter to the Free Teams Community
I launched Free Teams in the middle of June to very little fanfare. Free Teams is not a large corporation or backed by a lot of money or developers. This is my own personal project and I do all the work, from running all the Board Meetings to sweeping up the mailroom floor. That being said, the software is in good shape, and as of writing I am ironing out a few remaining bugs and adding a few new...