Pathfindersonline

I don't know about you all, but I think that there should be a Pathfinder app! An app that has every Pathfinder honor listed with all requirements for them and allows you check them off as you complete each requirement. It would also be neat to sort through the honors by region like South Pacific or NAD, etc. Then by the category or how about by skill level??? If I had the time and knowledge of how to make iPad or iPhone apps like this, then I would do it. I think it would be really cool to have an app like this available to all Pathfinders!

That sounds like a good idea.

I have been thinking about something similar, and have even taken the initial steps to develop it - but it's still very much in the conceptual stages. Rather than an "app" this would be available on the Internet. My concept is that you could create an account for your yourself, for your club (if necessary), and for your parents (optional). All the honors and requirements would be available on the site and you could check them off as they are earned. It would also have Investiture Achievement requirements as well.

Maybe there would also be a field that the staff could check to verify that the requirement had been met. Or maybe there would be a text area there so that the web site could serve as a worksheet.

It would also tell you when you earn a Master Award.

I also wanted to put inventory in there, so that at the end of the year, it could tell me what patches to order for Investiture (including AdventSource catalog numbers). I've been doing some of this on a spreadsheet, but it's HUGE, and it's not easy to add new honors or new Pathfinders. And spreadsheets aren't really that great for doing things a database is designed to do.

I don't know when I will be able to finish this, but I will announce it here when I have something. I have a lot of other projects I'm juggling though, so it could be a while.

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Jim Thomas
The sooner you get behind, the more time you have to catch up.

Oh - one other thing. If you go to Wikibooks, you can get the requirements for all the honors as well as answer keys. If you scroll down to the bottom of the page, there is a table that will give you a list of all the honors at a given skill level in a given category.

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Jim Thomas
The sooner you get behind, the more time you have to catch up.

Oh - and one more other thing. This database/web site would also keep tabs on overlapping requirements. In other words, once you've made bread on a stick, it would check that off for Camping Skills I as well as for Fire Building and Camp Cookery. It would also be able to list all the honors for which you have done any of the requirements.

With the new Investiture Achievement curricula, this cross-checking will be extra nice, because some of those requirements are to meet particular honor requirements.

And perhaps it will prompt the user to see if what he has been doing might meet a requirement for something else as well. For instance, if you are working on Adventurer for Christ, maybe whatever you're doing applies to Serving Others in IA (or vice versa).

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Jim Thomas
The sooner you get behind, the more time you have to catch up.

I was just talking to my wife about this last night. I am researching how to create one on the Android platform. I have experience with php / mysql as well as coding websites. This app would be like a mini website. It doesn't look like it will be that hard to code it, just going to take lots of time and patience!

I have started working on an iOS app for this. The development tool chain I use would not make it hard to port to Android if there was sufficient interest. I'm trying to find out if there is a copyright holder for the honor requirements or honor images--does anyone know with certainty if these are released to the public domain or who the copyright holder(s) is/are?

The NAD holds the copyright to both. They allow the use of the insignia as long as it is connected to Pathfinder ministries.

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Jim Thomas
The sooner you get behind, the more time you have to catch up.

I am interested in making the android port...I have started on doing a web based system

I am excited about the direction of this discussion. As the webmaster for most of the last 15 years, I know the incredible investment of energy and time to make all the honors available. This kind of app would be INCREDIBLE....

Mark

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Pathfindersonline.org Website Administrator
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We are His Hands, touching the World Wide Web around us. . . .

I love the "cross referencing" feature you mention in several locations...HOW ABSOLUTELY AWESOME!

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Pathfindersonline.org Website Administrator
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We are His Hands, touching the World Wide Web around us. . . .

We're hosting the project at http://sourceforge.net/p/achievementmgr - so if anyone out there knows PHP, MySql, HTML, and/or javascript, please feel free to join the discussion there an contribute code. So far all we have are a partial database schema definition and a mock-up page.

I have tentatively named the project "Achievement Manager" and we're trying to keep it generic enough that it will be equally useful to any group that offers insignia to recognize structured achievements (such as Boy Scouts, Girls Scouts, Brownies, Cub Scouts, Webelos, Royal Rangers, and who knows... maybe even sheep dog trials). The idea there is that the data in the database will define the achievements/requirements. By structuring it this way we may be able to attract help from any of the organizations listed above.

Once the schema is completely defined, we can develop some web pages to support data entry. We will also need pages to add user accounts and enter/track individual achievements.

The project is still very much in the planning stage, and I have not had any time to work on it this week. I need to get past the beginning of the PF year before I can exhale again.

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Jim Thomas
The sooner you get behind, the more time you have to catch up.

just left Pathfinder Bible Camp and saw a brochure with this site on it: http://gc.bigfoottech.com/Ministries/Pa ... fault.aspx

good site with all the honors

That's the General Conference Pathfinder website. It's a good place to find the honors. You can also find them on www.pathfindersonline.org or http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Adventist_ ... nswer_Book.

Jomegat, how's the app coming along?

I haven't done anything with it since.. like September. I think Jamie may have done some development though. He took it in a slightly different (and simpler) direction, but I don't know how he's faring. Hopefully he has something good!

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Jim Thomas
The sooner you get behind, the more time you have to catch up.

I have done some development...mainly just copying and paste'ing honor reqs...before i build an app...piggybacking on jomegat's idea of building a web app first. I had to do it simplier....he has soo much more experience in coding than I do...so I had to go with what I could handle...

LOL. I'm glad you did Jamie. I do hope to dust it off again, but I have just been buried since September. Hopefully yours will do all that's needed, and mine can just rest in peace.

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Jim Thomas
The sooner you get behind, the more time you have to catch up.

I am hoping that soon this will be COMPLETELY true. I have been SOOO SNOWED with other website projects for the NAD YM dept. that getting the honors BACK up on the website has fallen by the wayside. My apologies of course...but I've got to get SOME sleep each day my wife says! LOL.

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Pathfindersonline.org Website Administrator
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We are His Hands, touching the World Wide Web around us. . . .

lol...well mine is really basic...it is right now just a database of individual reqs mainly...haven't developed it past there yet...I hope it will help with populating the new site with reqs...

I have found an awesome Droid app on Google Playstore called GC Youth Ministries. It's got the requirements to almost all Pathfinder/Adventurer honors/awards. The one blooper it has is that the logos/links are incorrectly listed on the main menu: Selecting the "Pathfinder Club" will display Adventure awards & vice versa. This is a free app.

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Marcie
Pathfinder Club Director & Master Guide
Chippewa Valley Lightning Pathfinder Club

I've noticed some wonderful apps that have requirements for honors for Apple products. I don't have android right now, so I cannot speak for any in that area. However, I've noticed that there haven't been updates to the Apple app since I've downloaded it.

For those looking for an app for the Investiture Achievement, I've come up with a decent solution. I've got the Kindle app on my iPad & iPhone. All you have to do is go to the IA website and select the downloads. Everything is available for free in PDFs. I can now open the director's guide on my phone anytime, without internet. I'm sure almost any PDF software/app would allow you to do this.

I've seen an Apple app called PDF expert that allows you to write text & add signatures to any PDF. You could probably use this to keep the PDF record cards up to date from your device as well. Come to think of it, that would be great for permission forms as well...

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"Jesus answered, 'Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.' " John 13:8b

There may be monies available in 2015/2016 for an NAD Pathfinder/Adventurer app. What would it need in your opinion?

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Pathfindersonline.org Website Administrator
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We are His Hands, touching the World Wide Web around us. . . .

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-- Conquistadores, ¡al cielo!

I think it should not only include a link, but it should draw its data from there. That way it will always be synced to the wiki, and only one resource would have to be maintained (data-wise).

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Jim Thomas
The sooner you get behind, the more time you have to catch up.

Hi all,

I've noticed the GYC app has not been updated in awhile and some of the honours are under the wrong honour name. I was thinking of building up my own. Just wondering if there would be any issue, once its completed if I uploaded it onto the android app network?

Here's a sample so far of one honour.


Thanks,
Tyler

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-- Conquistadores, ¡al cielo!