Timing Setup FAQ
Posted on: 2020-03-22 Source: https://rtrt.me/docs/faq/timing
Q - WHAT ARE CATEGORIES?
Categories are logical 'groupings' of participants in RTRT.
Kinds of Categories:
* Wave - for sorting out who starts at what time. Initially, you should assign the scheduled Start Time to your Wave category. On race day, after the start, update the category with the actual gun time.
* Leaderboard - for building Leaderboards showing the Top XX runners in a particular group in the tracker. Also creates Top XX scoring reports under Results-> Leaders in the console.
* Both (Wave & Leaderboard) - categories that serve both purposes. Often, it makes good sense to create a "Top Men" and "Top Women" for each course that is both a ‘Wave’ and ‘Leaderboard’ category.
* Report Only - Grouping for purpose of creating reports via the Results->Leaders view. These categories will not affect start times and are not available to be selected for use in the mobile app leaderboard. PLEASE NOTE: Report Only categories do not support "LATEST POINT" option, so you must select the point to report on.
Q - WHAT IS A WAVECODE?
Wavecodes are used for grouping participants into "Wave" Categories for the purpose of assigning a start time. Wavecodes can also be used for assigning participants to “Leaderboards". Normally, each roster entry will automatically get a ‘wavecode’ assigned during import. Wavecodes are for internal purposes only and are not displayed to the public. “wavecode" is a combo of [course]-[sex]-[class].
*Wavecodes, need category assignment. Otherwise, if present in the roster, they are allowed the earliest category start
Assigning participants to a Category:
* AFTER you import your roster, you can set up Categories and specify one or more ‘wavecodes’ using the “Where wavecode is:” setting. Any roster entry with a matching a wavecode will become part of the Category.
* Every wavecode in the roster needs to be included in a “Wave" category for the purpose of ensuring each participant has a 'gun’ start time. NOTE: You will see warnings in Overview when this is not the case.
* "Leaderboard Only" Categories do not need a start time (unless they are also marked as Wave).
* For Leaderboard Categories, there are additional grouping features:
1) SMART CATEGORIES: RTRT can automatically generate Leaderboard subcategories based on the values in any roster field. Enter the roster field enclosed in brackets in Subtitle. For example, entering [agegroup] will dynamically build a drop down and provide Leaderboard scoring for every ‘agegroup’ value in your roster.
2) The “And Where” filter can be used as an additional special filter for a particular category. A typical use of this Leaderboard filter might be to set ‘And where “country”===“XYZ”’ to only show leaders in a specific country.
Q - WHAT IS A PLACE TYPE?
Place Types in the Timing & Scoring section in an optional feature that can calculate instant results for each participant as they cross the finish. Place Types can be created based on any combination fields. Places are preliminary and will update as more participants complete the course.
Q - HOW A SEPARATE RESULTS PER AGE GROUP (16-19;20;24…)?
Q - HOW A SEPARATE RESULTS PER CITY?
There are 2 kinds of results/scoring that we can generate.
1) Leaderboards - These are showing only the Top XX participants in categories (the number XX can be specified). These are good for showing Leaders in the Tracker and for doing Awards via our Results->Leaders). Setup Leaderboards in Categories as explained above.
2) Place Types - Place Types define how scoring is done in for individuals as (as seen in tracker) and in general Results reports [POINT]_place fields. You can build a Place Type using any combination of fields from the roster in order to create a results grouping. Scoring can be done by net time or gun (wave) time. Setup Place Types under Timing & Scoring.
Example: If you need to get winners by City in a Top XX style Leaderboard, then you would create a special Leaderboard Category, and perhaps use a SMART CATEGORY Subtitle of ‘[city]’. If you only need results by city in the Tracker and final Resureports, then you can use the Place Types setting.
Q - DO I NEED TO PUT A 'CATEGORY' IN THE IMPORT FILE?
No. Since categories in RTRT are 'groupings' typically based on wavecode, our import process will attempt to create a ‘wavecode'. Assigning wavecode to categories, as explained above, is the best way to setup categories. Instead, we recommend including a ‘Race’ field that explains what course/activity the participant is doing. Race is what participants will see, but we also use ‘race’ during the import to help us figure out what course assignment is (if there is no course assigned). This might be worth a quick read: http://rtrt.me/docs/api/profile-fields See Import Logic at bottom.
Q - I WAS OF THE UNDERSTANDING THAT IF WE HAD ANY COLUMN IN THE IMPORT FILE THAT PROVIDED A RACE DESCRIPTION, RTRT WOULD DETECT THE REST AND PUT THE ATHLETES IN THE PROPER CATEGORIES.
Kind-of. Our system does try to fill in the missing pieces. . For example, if you don’t give it a ‘course’, it will scan over other fields you provide like 'race’ or ‘divisions’ to try to figure out a course to map during imports. If you only give us a ‘course’ we will try to figure out a ‘race’ name for you. However, the best strategy for success is to explicitly set these important fields and let our system build wavecodes for you (Roster->Options: Auto Wave Codes). Also, you’ll have the most success if you always import Complete files with all participants and always the same set of required fields...not partials.
Q - IN MY ROSTER FILE, CAN I PUT ONLY A 'COURSE'?
Course only may be OK, but using your own ‘Race’ field is also an opportunity to ‘localize’ race name. For example, if in France, you might want people to see a race name of 'Semi-Marathon' instead of our word ‘Half Marathon’. Therefore, you should make sure to set a ‘race’ on import to use your own wording along with course: ‘halfmarathon’. Also read how to change course label here.
Q - WHAT EXACTLY IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN COURSE AND RACE?
Course is a route. Race is the 'activity' . For example, on course:‘10k’ you might have a race: "10K Walk" and a race: "10K Run”.
More details:
course - Always a lowercase string with no spaces or punctuation (other than '_') that defines a route in the event. You must choose from our current list of courses available. You can find the list available when choosing from the picker in the category. https://goo.gl/v7sYTc If you need something different, let us know.
sex - Every participant will have a sex of 'M' or 'F' or 'U' if not specified. You can also use ‘MF’ for co-ed teams.
class - Always a lowercase string with no spaces or punctuation (other than '_’) that defines a generalized type for the participant. This value can be anything you choose. Common examples include 'open', 'wheel', ‘walk', ‘cyldesdale’, or ‘elite’. NOTE: There is one special class--- ‘relay’. If used, ‘relay’ class has the effect of disabling ‘pace change' filters and also point notifications will post using the ‘team’ instead of participants ‘name’ if a team name is set.
The 3 fields above are combined to automatically create ‘wavecodes’.
race - Every participant will have a ‘race’ name. The ‘race' is the public facing description of the particular type of activity. You can use any race name that you (or your race director) might dream up. Case and punctuation are preserved. Race names appear in tracking and, by default, are used in point notification templates. A few examples: '5K', 'Marathon', '10K Walk', ‘Fairy Tale Challenge’, 'IRONMAN® 70.3’, ‘Half Marathon Relay’, ‘Mudathlon’, etc.
Having these 4 basic fields in place is satisfactory for most events to do categorizations. However, if you wish to use RTRT for live scoring or for leaderboards with drop-downs ("smart categories”) you will need at least one addition field. The most common example is to import a ‘division’ that combines gender and age group into one value.
division - Optional field that can be used for place calculations. Commonly, this field may have values such as ‘F15-20’, ‘M55-59’, or ‘M-PRO’ — whatever values that you want to group participants by for scoring.
NOTE: Using ‘division’ is the most common field used, but the field does not have to be called ‘division’, e.g. some people use ‘agegroup’. However, whichever fields you choose must be configured in Timing & Scoring->Participant Places and/or in leaderboard Category-> Subtitle as ’Smart Categories’
Q - CAN I CHANGE THE LABEL OF A COURSE. E.G. WHAT IF I HAVE A SPECIAL NAME FOR MY RACE?
If you want to change the label on a course, you can by clicking the label in Points editor. https://www.screencast.com/t/0XqRG16vIG NOTE: Doing this updates the map legend. Also during import, we will assign this new race name to participants in this course if you don't explicitly specify a 'race' field import.
Q - WHAT CAN WE DO WHEN SOME PARTICIPANTS WILL BE DOING MORE THAN ONE 'COURSE' IN THE SAME EVENT?
There is a tequnique that can be done on RFID races. See here https://rtrt.me/timer-faq-multicourse
GPS 'multi-course' is not currently available but we are working on some new features to allow it.
Q - WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A 'DIVISION' AND AN 'AGEGROUP'?
Generally, we don’t have a hard-fast rule about what people do with scoring fields. However, if a division field is included, we may use it to try to automatically figure out the class, race & course during import. In our experience, timers use the term “division" in many different ways. For example, a “division” might be a combo of gender and age range like "M20-25", but others might do something like sex and classification like "M Elite" or “F Wheel”, and some might just put some a race name like 'Marathon". However, one goal in RTRT is to be as flexible as possible by letting you use fields however you see fit.
Options->Auto Age Grouping which builds an agegroup field automatically based on participants specified 'birthdate' or 'age' field provided. Having agegroup be a range without a sex included is bit more flexible for giving stats. For example, if your agegroup is 70-75, and your gender is Female, we could potentially give you your ranking in both your ‘agegroup’ as well as ‘sex + agegroup’. Having more fields just gives more options to build combinations. Of course, you can also import your own agegroup as desired instead having us calculate it and use it for scoring with Place Types.
Q - OUR CHIP NUMBER FROM MYLAPS, HAVE A GROUPID = 01, THAN MY CHIPNUMBER IS 102551, BECAUSE IS GROUPID + BIBNUMBER
Just make sure to include an keep both ‘tag’ and ‘bib’ both in the import. Tag will be internal, but bib is what people see. Check the ‘Keep Roster Fields’ list in Roster->Import : Roster Options to ensure both are in the list.
Also, it is a good idea to test before race by sending in some data and looking at the 'Raw Times' for the participant in Roster editor.
Q - I PLOTTED THE MAP BUT THE TIMING POINTS ARE NOT SHOWING IN THE CORRECT LOCATION.
During plotting, we auto-place timing mats and mile markers based on some simple calculations. This does not always come out exactly right (due to hills, elevations, cut corners, etc). Therefore, we give you a way to adjust each element.
When map is in Edit mode, you can click on a Timing point, and ‘Shift’ it one way or the other.
You can also do this for distance markers: https://goo.gl/2BMNp8 Notice, things that have been shifted will show a little yellow dot when in edit mode. You can undo shifting and put back to default position with ‘Reset’.
NOTE: DO SHIFTING ONLY AFTER YOU ARE COMPLETELY DONE ADJUSTING THE COURSE LINES. If you move the lines again, you’ll have to re-shift points.
Q - THE RACE DISTANCE HAS BEEN CHANGED. HOW DO I UPDATE IN RTRT?
For example, you have a 10k that is now going to be a 5k.
• General Info:Full Name — Change full name (if necessary)
• General Info:Short Name— Change short name (if necessary)
• Roster->Options: Default Race. Change default race selection in Roster options
• Timing & Scoring->Points:
• Delete old points from cancelled course.
• Add new start, intermediate points, finish with correct course
~OR~
• Top of the page, “COPY COURSE FROM ANOTHER EVENT”
• Choose a previous 5K
• Adjust intermediate points/aliases as needed
• Map
• Import Map for new course.
• NOTE: old course will be gone once all Points from the course are removed.
• Roster->Import new roster to update course assignment for participants
• Timing & Scoring->Categories:
• Change Race Description and Course, System ID (suggest) of each category as needed.
• Update / reselect wave codes
~OR~
• Top of the page, “COPY CATEGORIES FROM ANOTHER EVENT”
• Choose a previous 5K
• Adjust as needed