Tutorial - Post .TXT results to Webscorer.com

expand collapse
expand collapse

OVERVIEW

expand collapse

Introduction

There are several reasons why you may wish to post .TXT results to Webscorer.com:
  • You want to download results posted from Webscorer PRO as .TXT, make corrections in Excel and repost
  • You want to repost results to Webscorer.com for the purposes of using the results series tool
  • You want your enable results to be downloadable to the free Webscorer FAN results app
  • Your chip-timing results don't provide separate category results breakdown and it's quicker / easier to allow Webscorer.com to handle it
expand collapse

Use of Excel to create start list

Use of Excel as the authoring tool to create the results file is recommended but not required
  • You can use either the Windows or Mac version of Excel
  • In Windows Excel, save as file type = Unicode text
  • In Mac Excel, save as file type = UTF-16 Unicode Text (.txt)
  • Note that if you use the file type = Text (tab-delimited), this will work but special characters such a ä and ö will not display correctly
expand collapse

Pricing / licensing

  • Posting results via .TXT file to Webscorer.com is free
    • All you need is to sign up for a free Webscorer account to so we can keep track of your own races under your user ID
    • To sign up for an account, all you need is to supply an email address and pick a password
  • Downloading results to Webscorer FAN is free
  • Downloading results to Webscorer PRO requires a PRO subscription
expand collapse

POST .TXT RESULTS PAGE

expand collapse

Introduction

  • To post .TXT results to Webscorer.com, you'll need to first sign in to Webscorer.com with your email address / password
    • If you don't yet have a Webscorer account, you can sign up as follows:
    • Click on the Sign in link on the top right corner of Webscorer.com
    • On the next page, click on the green Sign up now button
    • Type in your email address and choose a password (minimum of 6 characters)
  • Click on the Race organizers section and choose the My results option, and then click on Post .TXT results menu button
  • When your .TXT start list file is ready, first click on the Browse... button to locate the file on your computer
  • Once located, click Upload to transfer the contents of the file from your computer to the web page
expand collapse

Race info

  • Race name
    • Default name is the name of your .TXT file
    • Max length is 40 characters
  • Race date
  • Race time
    • Enter start time of the race
  • Time zone
    • GMT is the standard time in England
    • Note that daylight savings time is GMT-1 in England
  • Race location
    • Click the green button to locate the race site on a map
    • Or enter a location to get close, then drag the pin to the exact race spot
  • Sport type
    • This is used to find your race on the website, app
    • If you can't find your sport type on the list, choose Other
  • Start type
    • How the racers were started
    • Individual, wave, mass, interval, relay
  • Race visibility
    • Public races are searchable by anyone
    • Private races are accessible only by knowing the URL
    • Note that the URL changes when you change the setting from public to private
  • Timed on
    • Choose device / platform used for race timing
  • Timed with
    • Choose software / method used for race timing
expand collapse

Pace calculation

  • This is an optional feature that will display the racer's pace on the results page:
    • time / km
    • time / mile
    • km / hour
    • miles / hour
  • Specify the length of each distance in km or miles
  • You can use up to 3 decimals of accuracy (e.g. 10.195 km)
  • Once set, you can find the "Pace" on the results page drop-down that shows Difference as the default item
  • All distances must use the same pace metric, so if you have a 5 mile and 10 km distance, you must specify both as miles or km
expand collapse

Team scoring

  • This option will be available if racers have the Team name field defined
  • For details on the team scoring feature, see www.webscorer.com/resources/tutorial-pro: TIME A RACE / Team scoring section
  • While the instructions are for the Webscorer PRO app, the same rules can be applies for results posted via .TXT
  • In short, you can have Webscorer show a separate team results page based on either combined times or combined points
  • The combined times option allows you to specify how many racers form a team; all must have the same "Team name"
  • The combined points option allocates "points per place" and adds the points together for members of the same team
    • In addition, you can setup rules that mimic the scoring system used in high-school cross country running
    • To use a straight "points per place" scoring, set # of displacers to 0
  • The scoring is done by distance / category, i.e. racers in the same team must be racing the same distance & category
expand collapse

Penalties

  • This option is available if the uploaded .TXT file includes data in the Penalty column
  • You can specify penalties as numeric (e.g. 1+2+1+1) or as time (+0:30, +1:25)
  • A negative time value (-0:30) will be interpreted as a time bonus
  • A numeric penalty can be configured to result in a time adjustment (time penalty)
  • The penalty for each racer is shown on the results page dropdown that by default shows the "Difference"
  • If penalties cause time adjustments, the results page will have two options to view the times:
    • Finish time, which is the racer's time without penalty
    • Adjusted time, which is the racer's time with the penalty applied
  • If multiple penalties are specified, they will be added together, but shown in the dropdown separately (e.g. 1+2+1+1=4)
expand collapse

Handicaps

  • This option is available if:
    • You have data in the Handicap column of the uploaded .TXT file
    • You have specified Age for each of the racers (for an age-graded time calculation)
  • For details about the handicaps feature, see www.webscorer.com/resources/tutorial-pro: TIME A RACE / Handicaps section
  • While the instructions are for the Webscorer PRO app, the same rules can be applies for results posted via .TXT
  • In short, you can have Webscorer calculate an "Adjusted time" for each racer based on the specified handicap
    • Finish time is the racer's time without the handicap
    • Adjusted time is the racer's time with the handicap applied / calculated
  • The handicap for each racer is shown on the results page dropdown that by default shows the "Difference"
  • You can also specify whether the default results view is "Finish time" or "Adjusted time"
    • Both are always available, but the specified time is shown when you first enter the results page
    • You can change the view by clicking on the dropdown that specifies either "Finish time" or "Adjusted time"
expand collapse

Optional info

  • Organized by
    • Enter club name or race organizer name
    • This is an optional field
  • Race website
    • Enter your own website, e.g. www.webscorer.com
    • This is an optional field
  • Race photo
    • Upload a custom photo to be displayed on the results page
    • If no photo is supplied, a stock sports photo is used
  • Race notes
    • Enter up to 2000 characters to describe the event, course info, race conditions, etc.
    • The notes are text only
expand collapse

Editing / deleting

  • Note that after posting the results, you can click on the Edit race info button on the results page to make changes
  • If you make changes to the .TXT file, click on the Edit race info, upload the updated file again and click on Save changes
  • You can delete your own posted results via the Race organizers section, under the My results option
  • If you accidentally delete posted results, it can be recovered by emailing us at support@webscorer.com
expand collapse

.TXT RESULTS FILE

expand collapse

How to use the sample files

  • Go to Webscorer.com / Help resources / .TXT results
  • The sample files are offered both in .XLS (Excel 97-2003) and tab-delimited .TXT (Unicode) file formats
  • There are 2 sample files:
    • Sample results for individual races
    • Sample results for relay races (coming soon)
  • Load the sample file that matches your race into Excel and replace the sample racer data with your own
  • Or, use your own results file by modifying the column headers to match with what Webscorer requires
  • Note that you can download the results as .TXT from any race posted to Webscorer.com:
  • Click on the Download results as .TXT menu button on any results page
  • To download just the overall results, click on the Overall category link and download the .TXT results from that page
expand collapse

Valid column headers

  • Place
  • Bib
  • Name
  • First name
  • Last name
  • Team name
  • Team name 2
  • Distance
  • Category
  • Age
  • Gender
  • Handicap
  • Penalty
  • Time
  • Chip time
  • Lap 1, Lap 2, Lap 3 and so on
    • Note that these are lap times, not split times
    • The sum of lap times = Time
expand collapse

Additional column notes

  • Most of the columns are optional, the only required fields are as follows:
    • Name, or First name / Last name (if both are provided, the Name field is used)
    • Time
    • Note that the Place column is optional, the tool will calculate the place based on the racer's time within the distance / category
    • If Place is supplied, you can choose whether to use the Place value, or allow the tool to calculate the place
  • Column name & data issues:
    • The column headers must have the exact same text as shown on the sample files
    • If you're not using an optional field, you can leave the column header in the file, with no data in the column
    • Or you can delete the column altogether
    • The order of the columns does not matter
    • If the uploaded file has additional columns with unknown column headers, they will be ignored during the upload
expand collapse

Valid data

  • Names that are longer than the specified limit will be truncated from the end:
    • Name, Team name and Team name 2 entries can be maximum of 40 characters
    • Distance and Category names can be a maximum of 25 characters
  • Bib can be any number from 1 to 99999
    • Duplicate bib numbers are not allowed
    • Duplicate racer name is ok if the assigned bib is different
  • Valid values for the gender column are Male, Female - or M, F
  • Age is a number from 0 to 100
  • Time and "Lap x" can be any time from 00:00:00.000 to 999:59:59.999
    • Time can have up to 1/1000th of a second accuracy
    • Times don't have to be in finish order in the uploaded file
  • Penalty can be numeric (1+2), or time (1:30)
  • Handicap can be any number from 0.0001 to 999.99
expand collapse

Reading .TXT file into Excel

  • When reading in a .TXT file into Excel, make sure all the columns containing times are specified as type=Text, as the default type=General will lose the hh from any time in the format hh:mm:ss
  • If there are any special characters in the file, the website assumes these to be in UTF-8 or UTF-16 format
  • If you're using Excel as the authoring tool, use file type = Unicode text in Windows Excel and UTF-16 Unicode Text (.txt) in Mac Excel
  • If you are using some other tool, the easiest way to convert the file to UTF-8 is to open the saved .TXT file in Windows Notepad or Mac Text Edit
    • Once loaded, do a Save as and choose the Encoding to be UTF-8
    • On Windows Notepad, the Encoding option is next to the Save button
expand collapse

Saving .TXT file from Excel

  • Once you've entered all your racer data in Excel, save the file as:
    • Windows Excel - Unicode Text
    • Mac Excel - UTF-16 Unicode Text (.txt)
    • Excel will give you a warning that the saved file may not be compatible with Unicode Text. Choose Yes to save anyway.
    • If special characters (e.g. ä, ö) are not showing properly, your uploaded .TXT file was not saved as Unicode text
  • When saving the .TXT file as Unicode text, Excel may give two warning popups - answer Yes / OK to each:
    • The [Race name] may contain features that are not compatible with Unicode text. Do you want to keep the workbook in this format?
    • The selected file type does not support workbooks that contain multiple sheets. To save only the active sheet, click OK