Troggle is the software which runs the the expo cave survey data management and website.
For earlier history see Website history.
On 15th March Wookey upgraded the server to the debian release 11 bullseye. At this point 'debian stable' is bullseye and has python 3.9 as standard. We will quickly migrate to Django 3.2 LTS which is now a year old and which will be supported until April 2024. Bullseye will be in support until June 2026.
Django migrations are not nearly as painful as they used to be, and troggle is already compatible with Django 4.0.3 (though we won't use that). So the presure to migrate from Django is now very greatly lessened. However, see troggle architecture speculations and possible migration from Django.
We should not need to anything until we move from Django 3.2 LTS to 4.2 LTS before April 2024.
Wookey at last, after much effort, got the loser repository converted from mercurial to git, with much tidying and history-reconfabulation. He says this will need to be done again, but it was good enough for the 2022 Expo. Also the troggle code was changed: survex files edited on a webpage now automatically commit to git with no user involvement.
Just before expo, we finished integrating the formerly-separate 'wallets' script. So now the progress of scanning and tunneling survey data can be managed more easily. This has turned out to be unexpectedly powerful. And it works on the data back to 1999 too.
Wookey's replacment WiFi antenna (previously we had used Sam's) turned out to be useless, so internet access was not available in the hut this year. This was a real pain.
Because Nadia asked nicely, we now have a rename form for uploaded files in wallets. This year we also have a 'create wallet' form.
In the potato hut the blue netbook crashed horribly during expo and although Mark Shinwell coaxed it back to life, repreated fsck means that it needs to be retired before next year. The netbook was running Wookey's carefully curated drivers for the replacement USB-WiFi antenna which restored reasonable internet access in the hut this year.
Too late for expo, but we now have a logbook entry creation and editing form running in a webpage. Hopefully this will reverse the trend in recent years for many fewer people writing up trips in the logbook and many fewer trip records in general. The whiteboard at topcamp is a wonderful thing, but it gets erased so we no longer have a callout book permant record of trips.
The online logbook data entry (typing entries instead of writing them in longhand) has been a great success and was used intensively duringt he 2024 expedition. Many, many glitches were discovered and fixed during expo. James Waite still manages to crash it when nobody else does and we don't know why.
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