Now you can show average scores and pie charts in your Score Script results!

Upgrade instructions are included in this article. 

I have released Mad Blanks 1.3.0 Beta 1.

This release adds several new features to the Score Scripting capabilities, including the ability to display aggregate statistics. Now you can display statistics about all the collected records, such as averages, a count of how many records have been submitted, and the standard deviation of the dataset. Perhaps most exciting, Mad Blanks now has the ability to display bar graphs and pie charts to help your users visualize the data you have collected!

Since this is brand new functionality and the documentation for it is limited, please go ahead and use the support forum to ask your questions about how to use it if you cannot figure it out. I am also looking for your suggestions for improvements on the forum!

The following major features have been added or modified in Mad Blanks 1.3.0 Beta 1:

• The aggregate tag for statistics about all the records in a category [:aggregate:function{function name}:field{database_field}:]
  
  See the linked forum thread for information on how to use aggregate tags. Also see the documentation available on the Score Script edit page when editing a Score Script with the component for full details on this and other tags. The available functions are as follows:
  
  AVG
      The average (mean) of all the values meeting the criteria specified in the other tag elements
  AVG-DISTINCT
      The average (mean) of all the distinct values (repeated values are ignored) meeting the criteria specified in the other tag elements
  COUNT
      How many answers there are that meet the criteria specified in the other tag elements
  COUNT-DISTINCT
      How many distinct answers (repeated values are ignored) there are that meet the criteria specified in the other tag elements
  MAX
      The highest value that meets the criteria specified in the other tag elements
  MIN
      The lowest value that meets the criteria specified in the other tag elements
  SUM
      The sum of all the values that meet the criteria specified in the other tag elements
  STD
      The population standard deviation of all the values that meet the criteria specified in the other tag elements
  MODE
      The value that appears most often in the data that meets the criteria specified in the other tag elements. Only one mode will be shown, even though more than one may exist in the data.
  CONCAT
      Show each value in a dataset in sequence one after another.
  CONCAT-DISTINCT
      Show each distinct value (repeated values are ignored) in a dataset in sequence one after another.
  GOOGLE-CHART
      Show an image of a chart generated by the Google Chart API based on data specified in the other tag elements
  GOOGLE-CHART-PERCENTAGE
      Show an image of a chart generated by the Google Chart API based on data specified in the other tag elements, where the data is represented as a percentage relative to the other data in a dataset
  MEDIAN
      The middle value calculated after numerically ordering the data specified in the other tag elements
  MEDIAN-DISTINCT
      The middle value calculated after numerically ordering the data specified in the other tag elements, where repeated values are ignored
  COUNT-VALUE
      The count of how many times a particular value appears in the data set that meets the criteria specified in the other tag elements
  COUNT-VALUE-RATIO
      The ratio of how many times a particular value appears relative to the total number of values in the data set that meets the criteria specified in the other tag elements
  COUNT-VALUE-PERCENTAGE
      The percentage of how many times a particular value appears relative to the total number of values in the data set that meets the criteria specified in the other tag elements
  
• Added the ability to award Alpha User Points directly from the Score Script: [:alphauserpoints:points{number of points}:] (See the documentation for the Alpha User Points component for more information.)
• Added a basic way to determine how long it has taken a user to take a quiz or complete a survey with the use of the timeout tag: [:timeout:timeout{relative time}:]
  
      This special tag displays a 1 if a specified time between when the user first loaded the Create Single Record module and now has already passed, or a 0 if the timeout has not yet occurred (the user still has time to complete the task). The 1 or 0 output can be used as input to other Score Script tags such as the comparison tag.
  

How to upgrade the Mad Blanks component and modules to version 1.3.0 Beta 1

Before making any changes to your Joomla! website, it is always wise to back up your Joomla! directory tree and your website's database.

If you have custom configuration settings in <Joomla! root directory>/administrator/components/com_madblanks/madblanksconfig.php or custom CSS in <Joomla! root directory>/components/com_madblanks/madblanks.css, be sure to save a copy of those files in particular.

Once you have backed up your data, you can simply uninstall the previously installed version of the component and then install com_madblanks-1.3.0-Beta1.zip in the Installers->Components section of your Joomla! administrator interface. No data is removed from the Mad Blanks database tables when uninstalling the Mad Blanks component.

When installing the new version of the component, the installer will attempt to update the existing Mad Blanks database tables, if necessary. In most cases this should succeed without a problem. In the event that the installer is unable to apply the needed updates, the post-installation screen will provide you with an SQL query or queries that you should run on your database using your database manager.

There are no changes to the structures of the existing Mad Blanks database tables in this (version 1.3.0 Beta 1) release. However, a new data table named jos_madblanks_timeout will be added when installing the new version.

How to upgrade the modules to version 1.3.0 Beta 1

To upgrade the modules, you can uninstall them and install the new ones using the Installers->Modules section of your Joomla! administrator interface. The disadvantage of this is that any module parameters you have saved will be lost. If you wish to preserve the parameters you have saved in your older-version Mad Blanks modules, in a temporary directory manually unzip the Mad Blanks 1.3.0 Beta 1 modules you will be installing and then manually copy those files to the <Joomla! root directory>/modules directory, overwriting the existing Mad Blanks module files. Note that each module consists of two files: a PHP and an XML file.

Once you have copied the module files, edit each Mad Blanks module on your website and resave the module parameters in order to be sure all the new parameters as well as the original parameters have values saved in the database. In general, failure to (re)save the parameters of any newly installed or upgraded module or plugin in Joomla! can cause strange behavior.