It used to be the case that (depending on your browser settings) quite often when clicking a link to generate a PDF you'd be directed away from OpenWater to view the PDF, forcing your users and yourself to manually navigate back to OpenWater. . 

Thanks to a recent feature request by @Adam Don. and a quick developer response all PDF links now act as file downloads. This means you won't be routed away from whatever OpenWater page you're working in and you can easily open the downloaded PDF in your preferred manner (another tab, adobe, a different browser or just save for later). 

We hope you and your users enjoy this feature and we're looking forward to seeing more quality of life improvements to come!

Most folks are unaware there is a System Logs > Stuck Payment log. 

It would be helpful to have a link to the log added to Finance > Invoices. 

Adding some type of indication next to System Logs and Stuck Payments when there are stuck payments could also serve to alert admins when needed.

An option to enforce email verification when creating an account should exist. This would ensure emails used belong to the folks using them. 

In System Settings > User Profile the primary email address field should have an additional option to enforce email verification, similar to how require confirmation exists now. This would prevent an applicant from starting or submitting their applications until they've confirmed they have access to the email they're claiming.  

While at it we should enable the Confirmation option on the primary email in the User Profile. It makes sense that this option is disabled on the submission form for the User Profile primary email field but it seems like an oversite to have it disabled on the User Profile.

I've highlighted the primary email field on this user profile screenshot and mocked up how the Confirmation and Verification options should be presented. 

After building a program I recommend soliciting feedback from one or two invested parties, if you can find them.

It's incredibly helpful even if they're not familiar with your program. The questions that come up from seeing the applicant side of things are hard to consider when you've been focused on the admin side. 

I just finished speaking with a client that runs a "Program Testing Contest" each year before relaunching their actual contest program. Once the program has been updated the admin sends the direct to program link with info on what to look out for and test while submitting entries into the program. The deal is sweetened with the chance to win a gift card for participating!

They've been doing this for years with great results! Have any thoughts on using such a strategy to prepare for a program launch?

Sample Launch Email the admin was kind enough to share:

Esteemed colleagues:

Please assist us by testing the operation of the photo contest sites for Program Name. Please do so by February 12; those contests will open once the March/April editions of the magazines begin arriving in homes around February 20.

To access the site, go to URL. That should take you directly to the hosted page. If it doesn’t, please make a note of it to me in an email (see below) and use this link instead: Direct URL.

At the site, please poke around the various pages and let me know if you detect any typos and/or instructions that are unclear or are out of date by referencing an earlier contest. On the rules page, please try links in the prize section to ensure that they go to the right place and open in new screens. There are email links at the bottom of each FAQ page and each page of the entry process; please use one of those to make your comments.

Then please attempt an entry. If you did this before, the system might remember you. See me if you encounter any difficulties. It would be very helpful if you entered at least one of the contests from your home computer. I’m told that it’s also possible to do this by cellphone, so try that if you’re so inclined.

Upload any photo that you’d like, but for photos that adhere to the contest parameters for subject matter in the rules, I will conduct an internal contest and offer minor prizes of gift cards to the winners’ preferred caffeine provider and/or bookstore. Deadline is 5 p.m. on February 12. As in the actual contests, the decision of the judge is final.

Thanks!

You can download PDFs from all over:

• Viewing a submission as an admin.
• Viewing assignments as a judge.
• Viewing submissions in any status as an applicant.
• Viewing a gallery and exporting a submission.
• Pulling judging or submission reports as an admin or by using public links.

In all of the places you can download/export a PDF the link used opens in the same window, which kicks people out of the platform before they might be ready to go.

If all of these opened in new tabs by default the experience would be simpler.

When more than one applicant or admin is accessing an entry the system will display a read-only view and a "System Admin is currently editing this Application. Do you wish to take over editing and switch System Admin to a read-only view? Yes, I want to take over editing" message and link.

I think it'd be really nice to have a similar feature for when more than one admin is building or updating a submission form page, something like this:

It would be nice to see this functionality spread to other parts of the system.

Here’s another interesting workflow, Price Rule edition:

Each entry costs $200. Each additional entry (only after a full price entry) is $100. The first entry in Category B is free. 

Implemented with one Round Settings > Price Rule and three Round Settings > Coupon > No Coupon Rules.

Price Rule: 
Charge $200, applies to all entries.

No Coupon Rules:
Additional Entry Discount, $100 Off. 
Meets All, Overall Item is greater than 2.
Meets Any, User Previously Submitted is Yes, In This Program, In Any Category Group.

Second Additional Entry Discount, $100 Off. 
Meets All, Overall Item is 2.
Meets Any, User Previously Submitted is Yes, In This Program, In Any Category Group except Category B’s category group.

First Category B Entry, $200 off. 
Meets All, Entry with the same Category has been submitted by this user, Overall in Program is 0. 

Result:

• The first (free) Category B entry is not counted when applying Additional Entry discounts.
• The second Category B or any other category entry will be full price.
• Additional entries in any category after the first full price entry will be discounted.
• The charges are consistent no matter what order the entries are added to cart or checked out in.
• Early bird / Late Fees still apply like normal, ‘before or after date’ for all entries.

We’re always coming up with clever ways to implement price rules but I really enjoyed this one in particular. 

Similar to how you can add class names to submission and evaluation form fields to style them, it would be nice if you could do the same for navigation menu items in Public Settings > Websites > Menu and Pages.

Common use case is wanting to draw attention to a "Enter Now" link. Currently those are implemented based on the order of the items in the menu which isn't great. 

Quick mockup:

Mine would probably be a funding program I helped set up a while back. 

It's set to run year-round with no close dates.

The only task the admin has is updating judges once every year or two. 

1. Submissions come into one of ten areas.
2. They're automatically assigned to a judge for that area, judge is automatically notified they need to login and review. 
3. Once reviewed, the final judge is automatically emailed with a prompt to review.
4. The final judge is actually using an admin account. The email they receive contains the admin url to view the submission.
5. The final judge reviews the submission and judge scores/comments from the admin view of the submission.
6. The final judge answers a few questions on an admin-only page of the submission form.
7. The final judge tabs over to Email and sends the Approved/Not Approved email using a template. The template uses the answers the final judge filled in on the admin-only sub form page.
8. The approved email goes to the submitter, an accounts person (to process payment), the area judge, and the area supervisor. Not Approved is sent to just the applicant and area supervisor.

Bit wonky but works with their specific requirements, which were mostly "admin is as hands off as possible" - which turns out is completely hands off.

Do you have any non-standard workflows worth sharing?

When pulling a canned report from Judging > Reports rank is not included no matter the options selected. 

When exporting from Tools > Scores / Results rank is included but individual judge scores and comments are not. 

Saving the hassle of calculating or manually entering the rank in a report pulled from Judging > Reports would reduce the chance of mistakes and could save a ton of time depending on the size of the program/number of programs.

Since this variable is already available elsewhere in the system it would be nice to have it in Judging > Reports without needing a custom python script. 

The opposite would also be nice, being able to export individual judge scores in Tools > Scores / Results but I suppose that is meant to be more of a summary so individual items don't really fit there.