VACompanion.us Website 1.01.62
Official VA News now refreshes automatically, and the browser-extension page shows current store versions and user counts.
Automatic VA News and extension store status
Official news stays current without a manual admin refresh, while veterans can see the published browser versions and current store-listed user count.
- Added a least-privilege scheduled task that refreshes enabled official VA news feeds every four hours.
- Ran the first automatic catch-up and refreshed all four official news sources.
- Updated the browser-extension page to show Chrome 0.2.2 and Edge 0.2.1.
- Added a Current users label showing 212 combined store-listed users: 28 Chrome and 184 Edge, checked July 14, 2026.
- Kept the manual admin news refresh available as a fallback.
- No desktop installer was published with this website release.
Enterprise navigation and guided tool workflows
A broad website experience pass makes common veteran workflows easier to find, understand, save, and resume.
- Rebuilt the website navigation into a modern icon-led task rail with responsive desktop and mobile behavior.
- Increased the visual priority and contrast of Crisis Help so the life-safety action stays easy to find.
- Upgraded the Rating, VA Pay, and Benefits by Rating calculators with guided steps, clearer summaries, and saved-work recovery.
- Added focused C&P practice modes with private browser progress and notes.
- Added an immediate-action Death & Burial task hub and a copyable military funeral honors script.
- Improved TERA research with presets, guided filters, sorting, and a persistent shortlist.
- Added Saved Work shortcuts, filtering, and exact scenario restoration for member workflows.
- Verified updated workflows at phone, tablet, laptop, and wide-desktop widths without horizontal page overflow.
- No desktop installer was published with this website release.
Traffic report date windows and Pacific-time polish
- Added analytics and traffic-report windows for last 24 hours, last 7 days, last 30 days, last 180 days, and custom date ranges.
- Changed custom report ranges to use Pacific Time calendar days while keeping database timestamps stored in UTC.
- Updated the printable traffic report header with the VA Companion logo for a more polished board, grant, and outreach packet.
- Changed visible report timestamps to Pacific Time so California admins do not see the next UTC day as today's date.
- Corrected the website release-log dates affected by UTC/Pacific rollover.
- No desktop installer was published with this website reporting polish.
Traffic reporting and visitor-area analytics
- Added local DB-IP Lite visitor-area resolution for public analytics without sending visitor IP addresses to a third-party lookup API.
- Added a compact GeoIP visitor cache so VA Companion stores only observed visitor lookups instead of importing a large global IP-range table into SQL.
- Added an hourly server task to refresh visitor-area cache rows and backfill recent unresolved analytics events.
- Added a private admin Traffic Report that summarizes events, sessions, visitors, locations, referrers, device mix, tool usage, and daily activity.
- Kept the report privacy-safe for grant and outreach use by excluding raw IP addresses, visitor fingerprints, member names, VA.gov records, claim details, medical details, and typed form text.
- Added DB-IP attribution in the private analytics area and report.
- No desktop installer was published with this website analytics release.
Contact support and admin-only IP safety update
- Added a direct Email Support button on the public Support page.
- Added a clear Contact VA Companion card with admin@vacompanion.us for non-registered visitors.
- Added raw IP capture to VA Companion usage analytics for administrator-only review.
- Stored IP address, hashed fingerprint, and browser metadata on new chat-room threads and replies for moderation and credible safety response.
- Kept public forum responses free of IP fields; protected details are returned only through admin moderation and analytics endpoints.
- Updated the privacy page to explain IP safety logs and emergency moderation use.
- Verified analytics write/read, public forum read, admin analytics read, privacy page availability, and public forum leak check.
Medical provider result copy and paging polish
- Removed internal wording from provider result status copy so visitors see clear result counts, verification guidance, and View More actions.
- Hid the provider mode guidance after results load so the result toolbar no longer crowds nearby text.
- Shortened CHAMPVA and TRICARE provider card notes to focus on what users should do before scheduling care.
- Confirmed the first 25 results load with a View More path to 50, then 75, then 100 results.
- Ran a controlled concurrent-read check against provider searches; 16 simultaneous read requests returned HTTP 200 responses and provider result arrays.
- No desktop installer was published with this website polish.
Medical provider specialty search performance fix
- Optimized the provider lookup path used when a visitor chooses a specialty such as Obstetrics.
- Added VA Companion SQL indexes for state, category, and specialty provider searches.
- Added friendly specialty mapping for terms such as Cardiology and Psychiatry when source data uses different labels or care categories.
- Stopped live external provider seeding from blocking specialty searches; specialty searches now return from VA Companion SQL data first.
- Kept searches limited to fast first-page results so users get usable provider leads quickly.
- No desktop installer was published with this website fix.
TRICARE source and provider directory polish
- Added official TRICARE verification paths for Find a Doctor, all provider directories, East Region, West Region, overseas, pharmacy, dental, and Medicare/TRICARE For Life planning.
- Added those official source records to the VA Companion source tracker for admin review and future maintenance.
- Updated the official handoff allow-list so TRICARE, Medicare, pharmacy, dental, and milConnect links open cleanly through the VA Companion handoff page.
- Kept TRICARE provider search positioned as VA Companion provider leads plus official verification before care.
- Confirmed homepage directory metrics use spacing between counts and labels.
- No desktop installer was published with this website release.
Enterprise phone experience polish
- Hardened the mobile layout so the main content stays inside the phone viewport without clipped copy or oversized panels.
- Converted phone hero actions and product-page actions into a clean single-column stack.
- Reduced decorative guide-page bulk so CHAMPVA, TRICARE, desktop, and release pages reach useful content faster.
- Validated key mobile pages at phone width with no horizontal page overflow.
- No desktop installer was published with this website polish release.
Enterprise mobile and navigation polish
- Widened phone layouts so forms, guide pages, and tool panels use the available screen more effectively.
- Tightened the mobile shortcut rail and removed small group labels that took space away from the user task.
- Improved in-page scroll targeting so buttons land below the sticky header and mobile shortcut rail.
- Kept the desktop header on one clean row at standard desktop widths.
- Cleaned up remaining product copy that sounded like internal notes.
- No desktop installer was published with this website polish release.
Navigation and search polish
- Improved in-page navigation so tool buttons land on the intended workspace more reliably.
- Fixed mobile wrapping for guidance text and status notes in dense tool panels.
- Standardized Death & Burial Benefits labels for funeral homes, cemeteries, and military funeral honors coordinators.
- Clarified VSO data-quality and duplicate-review language in the admin workspace.
- No desktop installer was published with this website polish release.
Member workspace polish
- Cleaned up the signed-in member account workspace.
- Expanded the desktop download card so release notes no longer squeeze into a narrow column.
- Changed the desktop release summary into readable bullet points.
- Updated cache tokens so browsers receive the current layout immediately.
- No desktop installer was published with this website polish release.