Map Cards Update (1-25-23)

1/25/23

Example Template

We wanted to share an update on the status of the map cards and other ongoing site work. It’s taken a long time to get things running, but we are making progress.

In summary, because of the ransomware attack that occured in September 2022, some portions of the site needed to be rebuilt. Right now, we are working on the map card generation portions of the site, and we hope to share it with everyone soon.

If you are looking for more details on what has been happening, please continue reading.

How we got here:

As you may remember, around September 2022, this website was hit by a ransomware attack. The servers were accessed, likely by an automated system. Server data was encrypted, and a ransom was demanded for access to be returned. While most data was backed up, some was lost.

All of this happened while it was still just one brother maintaining the service. But before the site went down, work had started for a new version of Territory Assistant. After the outage occured, this new version was brought up. It was not ideal to do it this way, as it was not finished, but at the time it was in the best position to quickly restore congregations’ access to their data.

Another by-product of the new system is that it will fundamentally be more secure than the old version. The technology used to access the site and cause the outage is no longer in use. In addition to that, our first order of business was to make other security related improvements to the app overall.

Now that much of that has been completed, many volunteers are working very hard to finish restoring map features as quickly as possible.

Why the need for a new map card system?

The previous version of TA had a few limitations. One was that making changes and customizations to map cards was very difficult. Any changes meant rewriting code, which is difficult to do and outside the possibility of most poeple. Also, changes to the map cards would affect all congregations. So changes took a lot of effort and care.

Another limitation was in the engine. Behind the scenes, only one process could generate the map cards, one at a time. When, for example, there was a memorial, and everyone was creating many map cards, the system would get bogged and it would take a long time for all the cards to be generated. Maybe hours. Sometimes the system would get overloaded and go down.

Work had begun on a new system that would address these two issues. However, after the outage happened things were moved over ahead of time, before everything was ready. In the beginning, other major issues relate to the site had to be addressed. Many of the issues have finally been resolved. Now, over the past several weeks, focus has been placed on completing the new map card engine.

The Work:

First, we had to continue work on the new system’s ability to render, or create, multiple map cards simultaniously. The goal here is for the system to automatically adjust when load is high or low. When load is low, perhaps one map card generator will be running. When load becomes high, the system will automatically create as many map card generators as needed to keep up with the load. It runs on a system called “kubernetes,” which works on a totally different premise than the old one.

This should, hopefully, drastically reduce the time for cards to be generated. But it is difficult. The system must track how many generators are running, which ones are working on which cards, and so on; which is something the app had never done before. A lot of this was being done over the last several weeks. This is why it appeared the map cards themselves were not changing- they weren’t.

After that we had to continue work on the new map card template system. That is what you see in the picture above. This map card templating system could allow each congregation to create their own cards as they desire. If you needed certain information for your contacts, for example, you could do that. If you needed certain text around the map, you could do that.

All of this was not completely ready after the outage. It is still not completely ready. For example, various parts of the interface are not finished yet. But it has progressed enough that it can successfully create map cards.

What we have decided to do is create a limited set of basic templates that work, that all congregations can use as soon as possible. They will not be customizable, but they will allow everyone to generate cards.

Over the next couple of weeks a group of friends will be creating these basic templates that everyone can share. As we said, the template interface still has quirks, so the template creator page will only be available to them for now.

While they are working on these starter templates for everyone to use, other developers will be working along side them to continue improving the templating system and work on other issues remaining with the site.

Looking forward:

We all really do understand how difficult it has been for everyone while things are being restored. Even the site appearance is different than before. We wish for you all to know work continues weekly to restore the site and bring other improvments. We also know that March is a busy month and it is our goal to have as much running as possible. Just this week someone has kindly helped with adjusting the site to help make it easier to read.

We also pray constantly. Most of us helping also depend on Territory Assistant at our own congregations. And yet, we also have to continue our other responsibilities as well. With guidance we hope to keep moving forward so that everyone has the tools they need to go from working on territories- to just working the territories as soon as possible.