GenericNerd
commented
1 year ago We will add the option to Central to disable a VA from being listed.
We will not be going for a 3-stage privacy system (Open, Unlisted, Private). Instead, we will try to find a way to have a link which will set smartCARS to launch to a specific community ID.
Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
Right now, all VA sites on smartCARS are available to be browsed, even those setup as development websites. This unnecessarily clutters the VA list when people are searching for their VA and see the production install and the development installs.
Describe the solution you'd like
In Central, create a select option to make the VA:
Describe alternatives you've considered
I have thought about a boolean flag where a VA can hide itself from the VA list and only allow login via smartCARS via a direct URL (just like how the smartCARS desktop icons work for directly logging into that VA). This link can then be placed on the pilot interface of the test install for the VA, which then can be clicked to launch SC3 for that VA.
Additional context
When I request my VAOS Development license, the goal is for only me to be using that license for the testing environment for when I'm working on the API and plugins in a production-like environment, before the final code for the version in development is released publicly. I don't want people to see the VA in the VA list and then be inclined to sign up for my development install, only for them to possibly screw with things.
The ability to hide my VA from the list is therefore a needed requirement for my development.
In addition, at Spark (my VA I share with a few others), we have a staging install, as well as a production install. Both the Staging and Production installs carry different versions of the APIs, plugins, and system so that we're not pushing test code to the live environment, therefore risking outages for our community. I want to restrict the view of our staging install so that pilots aren't confused when they see 2 Spark installs (Even though they're going to be named "Spark Virtual" and "Spark Virtual Development", I have a strong feeling someone's going to ask the question, "Which one do I use?").