Because V-MAST is beta-quality software, it takes advanced technical understanding to properly support a V-MAST event. This is not intended to frighten you, but so that you understand that there is much that doesn't work as it should.
Fundamentally, to support V-MAST it is helpful to understand MySQL, and MySQL databases. The data for V-MAST is primarily stored in a MySQL database, and standard installations include phpMyAdmin to interact with the database. You can feel free to use other tools (such as MySQL Workbench) if you prefer.
Some of the issues with V-MAST have to do with the error messages and notifications given to the users. Since most of our users have weak English skills, the terse error and notification messages often don't communicate enough information for them to understand what is happening. If V-MAST training is thorough enough, some of these problems can be avoided (especially with pro-active facilitators), but it is to be expected that you will encounter situations where a translator or checker has clicked to move to the next check when they're not really finished with the current check. Since V-MAST frequently prevents the administrator from setting the translator back to an earlier stage, this must be done in the database itself.
A more serious bug involves the keyword checking step. Since V-MAST enforces refreshing the source text periodically, it is possible, or even likely, that the source text will change from one stage of the translation process to the next. Particularly, when coming to the Level 2 check it is likely that some words that were highlighted as keywords in Level 1 no longer exist in the source during Level 2 checking.
Suppose a checker is stuck because he has removed all of the highlights from a chapter, but V-MAST insists that there are still keywords to be checked. If he is working in Matthew chapter 4, you would execute the following MySQL query:
SELECT * FROM `vm_keywords` WHERE eventID=(SELECT eventID FROM vm_events WHERE vm_events.bookCode="mat") AND chapter=4
This will return a list of records representing the keywords in Matthew chapter 4 that have not been cleared. At this point you can read the keywords aloud (giving verse reference from the record) for the checker to verify the meaning of the keyword in the sentence, and then verify its presence in the translation, or you can simply delete the returned records, allowing the checkers to proceed.
While this kind of manipulation violates some of the principles upon which V-MAST is developed, it is unfortunately necessary in order to complete the checking process.
An issue arose at a vMAST event recently, where USFM was imported to set the project forward and run a Level 2 event. After a book had been imported, and work had begun it was discovered that one of the chapters was missing from the USFM.
My solution was to import the complete book (including the missing chapter) into vMAST on a clean instance. Then, I exported the sql for that book, and edited the export to remove everything except the chapter that had been missing. The final steps were to edit the projectID and eventID fields to match those of the existing installation so that the sql file could be imported into the database using phpMyAdmin (or the mysql console in the terminal).
I understand that Maks came up with a solution while I was working on mine, so I will try to post his solution here when I learn what it was.
