Athletes and import

Athletes

Where: History, second tab

The records in the database, shared with EVENT. A record is found by the athlete reference (the same as in the session files): this is how FINISH finds an athlete's photo for the animated track and the displays. A record created by FINISH (or when a session arrives) is provisional: EVENT confirms it or merges it. Delete only removes a record that nothing else uses.

• Athletes of the session only: checked automatically each time a session is loaded; uncheck it to see the whole database.
• Records completed automatically: on opening, a record without a country gets the session's, without a language the application's, without colors a random readable pair (contrast of at least 4.5:1). “N record(s) completed”. Two colors already chosen never change.
• One athlete selected: last name, first name, country (list with autocomplete: type CAN or the name; unknown text is refused), athlete reference, background and text colors (#RRGGBB, with a square of the color updated live; a click on the square or on “…” opens the Windows color picker; the contrast is shown, with a warning below 4.5:1), affiliations shown by their federation's logo; Full record… (or double-click the card).
• New athlete (Ctrl+N); Generate the competitors' avatars…: see below.

Show (records to complete) and bulk actions

Where: History › Athletes, “Show” list

All records, or only those without language, without country, without photo, without image, without photo or image, without gender, without date of birth, without transponder, without affiliation, without voice options. Then Ctrl+A and a bulk action completes them. With several athletes selected:

• Language and Country + Assign;
• Background color…, Text color… (the Windows picker; the other color stays; low contrast is flagged);
• Regenerate colors: new, clearly distinct colors for each one (below);
• Apply speech synthesis to the selection (only the options touched change): written to the records, not yet linked to VOICE (see below);
• Turn the reference into a member number…: for each athlete, a reference (FINISH file, SpeedSkatingResults ID, former avatar…) becomes their member number with the session's national federation, with a before / after preview; numbers already taken, duplicates and conflicts are listed, not written; Create the affiliations;
• Image (the photo is never touched): Assign a country's flag…, Assign a club's image… (clubs of the session's sport and country), Assign a province image… (country, then province; your own images are dropped in with Open the images folder, named by their code: CA-QC.png), Remove the image;
• “Delete the N records”: only those that nothing uses.

Each action asks for confirmation with the number, then is written in one go (all or nothing). Photos on the displays and the animated track follow immediately.

Regenerate colors

Where: History › Athletes, several athletes selected

Each selected athlete gets a new background and text: always readable (contrast of at least 4.5:1), in a hue clearly distinct from those of the other athletes in the selection (the hues are spread around the whole color wheel, alternating a dark and a light background), and two neighbouring athletes in the gallery never get close hues. Each click gives other colors. A confirmation gives the number before writing; the current colors are replaced in one go (all or nothing) and there is no undo: to go back to a specific color, choose it afterwards with Background color… or in the record.

Shared results

Where: History › Athletes › Full record…, right-hand column, under the affiliations

What the ChronoFEED results database keeps for this athlete: their official competition results, published by EVENT, encrypted (the server sees no names; FINISH itself never sends anything there: see Settings › Results server). An athlete, or a parent, can ask any timekeeper to see their results, delete them or refuse their publication: this is where (a FINISH licence and Internet are needed).

• Complete identity: the first name, last name, date of birth and country (chosen from the list) must be saved: the athlete's key is derived from them on the computer. Otherwise a red banner says what to complete (“complete the date of birth, then save the record”). A new record must be saved first. The athlete must be written as on the other computers (same spelling, same date of birth, same country): otherwise their results cannot be found.
• Publish results (ticked by default): unticked, the server refuses any result of theirs, from any computer (EVENT can no longer publish them); EVENT no longer reads anything of theirs. The change is written immediately in this computer's database and told to the server, which logs it (which computer, when). Without Internet, or if the server is not up to date, it is kept and sent later. Ticked again: back to normal.
• View their results on the server: the list, decrypted on this computer — competition, race, distance, date, time, received. Multiple selection (Ctrl / Shift + click).
• Delete selection and Delete all: a confirmation (irreversible) with an optional Reason (“parent's request”), written to this computer's log, never sent. The results are deleted on the server; it keeps a trace without content and will refuse to receive them again, from any computer. “Delete all” only blocks the past: so that nothing is published in future, also untick Publish results.

The scenario An athlete asks to see or delete their results walks through a complete case.

Coaches (ChronoFEED-COACH)

Where: History › Athletes › Full record…, under “Shared results”

Data visible to their coaches (ticked by default): the laps of their training sessions go to their coaches' tablets that you have accepted (Coaches panel), if their identity is complete. Unticked: nothing about them goes to any tablet any more, at once; the change is logged. Ticked again, the sessions of the unticked period are not sent by themselves: Resend to the tablet….

Import athletes…

Where: History › Athletes (also FileImport athletes…)

1. File and mappings

   Choose the file… (Excel, CSV or JSON; separator, encoding and header detected; the Sheet or the JSON array as needed). Each element of the file, with its preview, is mapped to an Athlete field (suggested from the heading). The File format is remembered automatically: a file of the same format gets its mappings back (“Format recognized…”); Start from suggestions, Forget this format. Settings: Federation of the member numbers (suggested from the session), Ambiguous dates (03/07/2004), Date format, Transponder type, and what happens to Records already in the database (fill in empty fields, replace, leave unchanged). The “SpeedSkatingResults ID” field is offered only in long track.

2. Preview ›

   The formatted rows (LAST NAME in capitals, first name with an initial capital, dates YYYY-MM-DD, country and language recognized) and their warnings. Nothing is written.

3. Match ›

   Each row compared with the records in the database: Found, Proposed, New, Ignored or in Conflict. For the selected row: the problem in plain words, the file row and the records side by side, and the suggested corrections (merge, keep the record and add the numbers, create a record, the number in the file is an error…). Only what needs a decision, Next to resolve ›.

4. Import

   One transaction; a refused row is canceled on its own; a conflict without a choice is not imported. The report (created, updated, unchanged, ignored, remaining conflicts, errors) can be copied (Copy the report). The imported records are then completed (country, language, colors).

The sample file athletes.csv (80 invented athletes, SKF / HSK) is recognized automatically. See the scenario Manage athletes.

Colours, transponders, min / max (2.0.24). The fields Transponder no. 1, Transponder no. 2, Background colour (fill), Text colour (font), Colour (background and text), Min lap time and Max lap time join Last name, First name, Birth date and Gender; their usual titles in French, English, Dutch and German are recognised (“Couleur fond”, “Background color”, “Achtergrondkleur”, “Hintergrundfarbe”, “Min tour”, “Max lap”…).

• Colours from an Excel file (.xlsx): the colour is read from the cell formatting — the fill for the background, the font for the text —, even when the cell is empty or holds the athlete's name. Theme colours (with their lighter or darker shade) and Excel palette colours are converted; “No fill” does not count. Without a colour in the formatting (and in a CSV or JSON file), the text is read: #FFCC00, FFCC00, 255,204,0 or a usual name (red, rouge, groen, Gelb…). A single Colour (background and text) column is enough: its fill gives the background, its font the text. The preview shows the badge as it will be.
• Dates: YYYY-MM-DD, DD/MM/YYYY, an Excel date; gender: M, F, H, X, Homme, Femme, Male, Female…; min / max: in seconds (8.5) or m:ss.fff (1:05.250).
• Transponders: at step 3, Transponders to note lists those not yet in the database (they are added on import, with their type) and those another record already carries (reported, not refused).
• Athletes already in the database (same last name, first name and birth date): the Records already in the database choice says whether they are updated (empty fields, or the file's values) or skipped (Skip athletes already in the database). Nothing is written before Import; the report details every line.

Create an Excel session…

Where: History › Athletes, after selecting one or more athletes (Ctrl / Shift + click, Ctrl+A)

The selected athletes become an Excel session file (.xlsx) that FINISH loads like any session: the list of racers, without any race (a training session; races are added in FINISH or in Excel). The window shows each athlete in their colours, with their transponders and min / max; Session name becomes the competition name.

• Save the file…: writes the workbook (to keep, to touch up in Excel, to open on another computer);
• Save and load into the session…: writes the workbook and opens it right away as a new session, like FileOpen a session… (the current session is closed; a confirmation reminds you).

The workbook: B1 the session name; row 3, the titles Nom, Prénom, # coureur, Naissance, Sexe, Référence, Équipe (club, otherwise country), Actif, Min. (sec.), Action Min, Max. (sec), Action Max, then Transpondeur 1, Transpondeur 2 (printed code), Couleur fond and Couleur texte (#RRGGBB, with the cell in that colour). On loading, a transponder missing from the transponder table takes the number its code gives. A min becomes “ENLEVER TOUR” (remove lap), a max “AJOUTER” (add); without min or max, the race's apply. A record without a first name is written with a dash (the loader requires last name, first name and reference) and reported.

Export photos and images…

Where: History › Athletes

Writes into the chosen folder one file per photo and one per image of the records, named after the athlete's normalised identity: FIRSTNAME_LASTNAME_YYYY-MM-DD_COUNTRY_PHOTO.png, …_IMAGE.jpg. First and last name in capitals, without accents, spaces or symbols (“Émile Côté-Lévesque” gives EMILE_COTELEVESQUE), the date of birth, the country code (XXX when missing); the extension follows the image's real format (png, jpg, gif, bmp, webp, otherwise bin). Nothing else is exported: no identifiers, no names, no races.

The work runs in the background, with its progress, then the report: the files written, and the records left out with the reason — incomplete identity (no first name, last name or date of birth), identity shared by several records (we do not guess which one is right). A merged record is never exported. Copy the report.

Import photos and images…

Where: History › Athletes

Choose the folder exported by the other computer. Each file is matched with the record of this computer that has the same identity (never by its identifier); a preview shows it before anything is written: File, Kind (photo or image), Athlete found, Already on the record, Planned action:

• Add: the record does not have this photo (or image) yet;
• Replace: it has one, and Replace existing photos and images is checked;
• Leave: it has one, the box is not checked;
• Not found: no record of this computer has this identity (name written differently, different date of birth…);
• Ambiguous: several records have it; nothing is written.

Import writes in one transaction: only the photo (or image) and the records' modification date change. Refused while a race is running. The import is written to the log, and the photos sent to the scoreboards and to the animated track follow at once. The report gives the photos added, replaced, and each file left out with its reason. A folder written by the Photos-Athletes.ps1 script imports here, and the other way round. See the scenario Transfer the photos from one computer to another.