codeforamerica / recordtrac

Manage and display public record requests, built by the Code for America 2013 Oakland team, maintained by @richaagarwal

RecordTrac

This is the home page for documentation for the RecordTrac application.

• What is RecordTrac
• How to create a new RecordTrac app
• Technical details and developer documentation
• How to use RecordTrac

For help contact Code for America

What is RecordTrac?

RecordTrac is a public record request management tool for government agencies.
This web application allows government employees manage, respond to, and fulfill incoming requests. It also provides a quick, simple way for individuals to submit public record requests. RecordTrac displays all requests and responsive documents so that members of the public may find what they need without submitting additional public record requests.

More about RecordTrac...

How to create a new RecordTrac app for your agency

• Groundwork
• Best Practices
• Redeploy on Heroku

To create a development environment, you can install RecordTrac locally.

Technical details

RecordTrac is primarily a Python application built on a backend Flask framework and a frontend Bootstrap framework.

RecordTrac is compatible with most modern browsers, including Internet Explorer 8 and above.

Platform pieces

• Flask 0.10 is used as the backend Python framework.
• Bootstrap 2.3.2 is used as the frontend HTML/CSS/JS framework.
• Postgres 9.3.0 is used to manage the database.
• Python 2.7.5 is used as the foundational programming language.

Plugins

• Font Awesome 3.2.1 is used to render all the icons on the site.
• A number of Javascript libraries like Backbone.js 1.1.2 are used, primarily for the search function.

Service dependencies

• SendGrid is used for all email notifications about requests.
• Akismet is used as a spam filter.
• Captcha is used to allow requesters to override the spam filter if necessary.
• Mozilla Persona is used to manage user authentication and password management.

Feature backlog

Issues and feature backlog are tracked through GitHub issues.

Developer documentation

• Browse full source code on GitHub
• Technical docs

How to use RecordTrac... as a requester

• Search for a record
• Make a new request

How to use RecordTrac... as an agency employee

• Search for a record
• Manage your request list
• Make a new request
• Respond to a request
• Admin

recordtrac's Issues

tabs not displaying active location

When landing on "Your Request" page from link or after logging in, the navigation tab at the top is not selected.

Track fulfillment on an individual request by department

This would be used for multi-departmental requests. Able to see who still needs to do work.

Mark request as duplicate when closing out>

The requestor sent two requests, but after clarification he is looking for the same information in both of them. The system does not allow you to close the request unless you select a reason. None of the reasons apply to this situation (since the request has not been fulfilled yet, and it will be answered through the other one).

Make a distinction between requests for records and information

The public should know a difference between a request for public records and general questions and comments.

"Your Request" Table Not Displaying All Information

"When I click “All requests” and I sort them, I have 6 requests. However, when I click “Your requests” only 4 of them appear."

Attaching requests not submitted through the system

Is there a way to attach a request not submitted through the system? Or submitted in through email or a letter?

On submit, redirect user to issue permalink

I submitted a new issue and the URL stayed /new. Can my browser be redirected (303) to /request/<number> instead?

Trouble uploading .xls file

The Open Government Coordinator is having trouble uploading an .xls file.

Template for requests received in-person or over the phone?

"For example, “Request received via phone by _______ on ______ and entered for tracking purposes by ______. Requestor asked for _______________________."

Drag and drop for file uploads

Arly would like this.

Warn requesters they have to pay for hard copies

Warn requesters before they submit, if they ask for hard copies of a document they have to pay.

Sample copy: “If documents only exist in hard copy form, do you want to pay for copies at your expense, or do you want to review originals in City offices by appointment?”

Add Information About Oakland Answers?

Will it be useful to indicate how to access or where to locate Oakland Answers?

batch upload records to request

Upload multiple records at one time. Requested by city staff.

Save request and response as PDF?

Some city employees like to save copies records requests and responses as PDFs. They want to know if there is a simple way of saving the response as a PDF.

Require an email for submitting a request?

Should users be required to provide an email?

Include time in date stamp

Include the time when a request was submitted.

click-to-popover elements require clicking the element again to dismiss popover

Should be able dismiss a popover by clicking anywhere outside the popover.

Wrap text for all boxes to enter messages?

All of the boxed need to be text wrap because it just continue in one long line to the right.

Right alignment of close request box?

The close request box need to move more to the right. It is currently align left and one user can barely see it.

Table Not Displaying the Number of Records User Indicated

I was testing the search feature, and then I put to have 25 records displayed by page, and only 10 got displayed.

unsubscribe option is showing up in emails for city employees

Unsubscribe should only be an option for requester, not city employee.

Pre-Selected Response for "Summary" field when you add a record?

Many times the explanation of the responsive documents is included in the Note If the “Summary” field is mandatory, then have a drop down menu that says “See explanation below”.

Section for private communication with staff members

This would make it possible for city staff members to receive advice from the City Attorney's office (attorney-client privilege).

You need a Scribd account to download or print records.

Is there another service that won't require individuals to set up an account?

carriage returns in textarea field missing

carriage returns in new_request textarea (id="requestTextarea") aren't captured/displayed when called

Form for Submitting Request - Make Field Larger

"Make the first field (What are you trying to find?) longer because it hard to read what was typed in."

Drop Down menu for "Say Why" field

The capability to have a drop down menu with pre-assigned responses for “Say Why” field for the re-routing feature. It could include “ Public records Liaison” ; “Custodian of Records”, etc. It is also important to allow us to type if necessary.

Make staff cards link to a new staff page

So that it's possible to see/copy/click someone's email.

links showing up as documents

Uploading a link to a case shows up visually as a "document" as opposed to a "link". Icon should be http://fortawesome.github.io/Font-Awesome/icon/link/

Reroute dropdown doesn't go away unless you click on the name

Probably a javascript thing

Due Date

"We need a column for due date of response time and extension of due date."

Why not re-use existing open source projects?

If you like Python: http://stefanw.github.io/froide/

If you like Ruby: http://www.alaveteli.org/

Re-opening a closed request

If a request is accidentally closed (or the wrong or no document is posted), should a city employee be allowed to reopen a request?

Remove City Login for Public Pages?

Remove the City Login and password because it miss leading for the requestor that they could login into the system.

Allow city employees to view requester's email address?

"Ask a question" function makes city employee feel as if they are tweeting at requester.

How do we capture new requests that don't come through the system?

Ex. letters mailed to the city and faxes

Alerts when someone is out of the office

A feature that informs both city staff and/or the public when an owner of a PRR is out of the office, so that proper follow up could be done with other city staff.

Make close-out section a pull-down menu?

A request to make the close-out section a pull-down menu. Some find it more convenient to select from a list instead of scrolling down.

"all requests" table numbering not sequential

1, 11, 12, 2, 3, etc.
instead of
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc.

Multi-departmental requests - Routing to more than one person at a time

This feature could be used to handle multi-departmental requests

responses are not listed chronologically

For any given record, it lists [links + uploaded files] chronologically and then notes chronologically.

All Request Table to Display Only Certain Departments

"Can we select from seeing our department only but then choose see all the City requests? If we do see all city request it should only be view only with no editing abilities."

Unable to respond to question posted by city employee

According to one of the requesters:

"An "Internal Server error" appears every time I try to respond the question."

http://oakland-public-records.herokuapp.com/request/14

To work around it, he re-submitted his request and directly mailed Deidre.

Make pending requests more visible?

"To have a column or feature that indicates at first browse which requests are pending to have a letter of extension, and which ones have already one, without having to open individually each one to find this out."

Display Date and Time Notes Added

Each time that a comment, or note is added, in a column to the right a text saying how long ago it was posted appears. For ex. 9 mins. Ago, 8 days ago, etc. Could it be possible to include in addition to this text, the date and time in which it was posted? This is information is very useful, especially when you are dealing with public records requests submitted by attorneys.

Table Not Sorting in Chronological Order

When you try to sort the "All Requests" table by the "Updated" column, it does not sort by chronological order.

Editing submitted request

City employees have the ability to enter public records requests on behalf of the public. Once a city employee enters a request, they should have the ability to edit the request if they make a mistake or accidentally reveal sensitive information.

Summary field should be required for adding a record

Database Migrations

How are you going to handle DB updates? Will you be using migrations?

https://github.com/adamrt/flask-evolution

Urge users to submit detailed requests

Some city staff members believe the requests they are receiving now through the system are too brief. It forces them to ask the requester questions.