Apporter la puissance d'une application bureau et la souplesse du cloud dans le même outil : c'est ce que nous nous efforçons de faire avec Wiclax.

Aujourd'hui, après des retours très positifs de nos beta testeur, nous sommes heureux de vous offrir une nouvelle fonctionnalité : la possibilité de saisir de nouveaux engagés depuis un navigateur, où que vous soyez, pour peu que vous ayez accès à Internet.
La fonctionnalité est également étendue à la saisie des abandons.

Notez que l'objectif de cette fonctionnalité est de permettre de saisir des engagés depuis plusieurs sites avant le départ de la course. L'ambition n'est pas d'en faire un système d'inscription en ligne.

Comment mettre en œuvre la saisie des engagés via le cloud ?

• la fonctionnalité est associée à l'option "Live" de la licence Wiclax.
• dans l'onglet "Engagement", cliquez sur l'icône Réseau et activé l'édition des données d'inscription en réseau via Internet.
  
  

Dans le menu réseau, vous pouvez retrouver l'URL d'accès à la saisie/modification des engagées de votre épreuve ainsi qu'un code d'accès unique par épreuve.

La fenêtre qui s'ouvre se présente exactement comme celle qui existe déjà en accès local réseau.
Il est possible d'entrer toutes les informations d'un coureur. Sa catégorie est calculée et affichée automatiquement.
Suivant le paramétrage, le dossard suivant immédiatement disponible est affecté ou il est possible de l'ouvrir à la saisie.

Une fonction de recherche permet de sélectionner un coureur déjà engagé et de le modifier.

Les coureurs saisis apparaîtront directement dans Wiclax avec une marque signalant que la donnée provient d'une source extérieure.

Et pour finir sur le sujet, un menu sur le côté de la fenêtre permet de visualiser un historique des saisies et d'ouvrir une nouvelle fenêtre pour saisir des coureurs en abandon.

All about keeping the pace, despite all. So here we continue with an additional release upon our successful v9. Wishing it to add up on the software strong basis - with a number of fixes included - and to continue bringing valuable new features for all of you.

As usual, a list of things to extend the range of race configuration possibilities and to maximize the ergonomics of the solution - not to say the pleasure to use it.

Some new implementation for acquisitions

The BeChronized acquisition is updated to comply with the new system Ceres G3.

Still through the same Online passings acquisition, you can connect to DotVision API and take advantage of their geo-fencing timing capacities. The passings get down to your event file just like any regular acquisition.

Tag Heuer devices equipped with a modem can be set up to synchronize their data with your Génialp cloud service. Backup and import service, but best of all instant forward to your Wiclax event. More to see in your service administration page if you're still to discover it.

New design extensions for G-Live

No new release without bonus gifts to the most visible part of the solution! We've worked this time on these topics, as you've probably noticed already through our Facebook posts:

Athletes pictures

Making some progress on this feature, aiming to enrich your results online with some pictures of participants.

Currently possible in one way, which reuses the fact that the athlete summary is looking for a <bib-number>.jpg file in the event folder. In case the picture found is less than 150px, it's assumed it's something like a user profile picture and is positioned and styled this way:

Of course limited as you won't often have such a set of pictures, named after bib numbers. So we're working on more flexible options like looking up in a centralized folder, having something else than the bib as an identifier, or calling a custom URL that will return an image (from a DB or whatever). More on that soon, waiting for that don't hesitate to share your own use cases.

Custom color palette

Want to present your race results in a more colorful way, or to get them closer to your brand colors? This is now possible! More information about it in this post.

New settings menu

The new menu - intended to remain discrete on the main page - gives a definitely simpler access to those features mainly useful on the local area: switching the dark/light color themes, running the TV mode - auto scrolling or not.

Points on rankings

2 different concepts are getting developed in parallel:

• Some points based events, where point values are the primary ranking criteria and they actually replace time performances. Available from the Points ranking entry of the event creation assistant. So far intended for some collateral use cases when you need to publish such a ranking. Latest changes allow the points entry through the result input form or through data file import.
• A points allocation as a secondary data, when the primary ranking is still based on timing.

This second concept is now coming live, opening some new possibilities to manage sports where points are participating to the rankings.

Some details about the implementation:

• A new Points tab in the event options form allow for specifying which point values are allocated. Based on final ranks, and point series can be specified either globally or based on rank by category/by level group.
• As of now the allocation is applied after a manual action and not automatically (exception made of an allocation on the general ranking).
• A new Points column can be displayed in the result grid. If necessary, some point values can be entered manually in grid cells.
• Different point series can be specified by stage/heat in a stage race, and the general ranking can be set to be calculated on points (i.e. the sum of points for each stage is used to order the ranking).
• A team ranking can be set to be calculated from individual point values (note that the previous point allocation grid that was there is now moved)
• An option of the Championship module allows it to work on point values extracted from the events, instead of being (re)calculated locally.

Passings to ignore on acquisitions

Useful feature when an acquisition is running as an automated file import, or is plugged on a cloud data service: when a passing has to be eliminated for some reason, the risk exists that it keeps coming down again and again if it's still in the original data and in the time period scope.

To avoid that, you can now put an 'ignore' flag on some passings from the history.

New menu is available at the bottom of the result entry form, below the time lists. Click All first to display the whole history and then you can locate some records by filtering a bib number for example.

Miscellaneous

On printout: ability to print only selected rows from the current grid. Simply by launching a print preview after selection is made. A confirmation will be prompted.

Team ranking: for the case of a points based ranking, you can now specify a number of best results to keep.

Emails: new context menu item Send an email for a competitor or a selection of competitors in the grid. Opens the system's default mail client and initializes the message.

Races without ranking: the option to publish an event without ranking (i.e. only performances are displayed for athletes, which are simply sorted by their registration order) is now available at the race level. Allowing to manage such a race among regular ones in the same event file.

Continuer à faire la course en tête, coûte que coûte, malgré la difficulté du moment et en attendant des jours meilleurs ! On enchaîne avec la sortie d'une nouvelle version après le succès de la V9. Objectif : renforcer les fondamentaux avec un certain nombre de corrections incluses et apporter encore et encore de nouvelles fonctionnalités de grande valeur pour votre utilisation de Wiclax.

Comme d'habitude, une liste d'items pour étendre les possibilités de configuration de course et optimiser l'ergonomie de la solution, sans parler du plaisir d'utilisation.

De nouveaux développement pour les acquisitions

L'acquisition BeChronized est mise à jour pour se conformer au nouveau système Ceres G3.

Toujours par le biais de l'acquisition en ligne, vous pouvez vous connecter à l'API DotVision et tirer avantage de leur offre de chronométrage par Geofencing. Les passages alimentent votre fichier de course tout comme une acquisition standard.

Les chrono-imprimantes Tag Heuer équipés d'un socle GPRS (CP540 et CP545) peuvent être paramétrés pour synchroniser leurs données avec le service cloud Génialp. Le cloud Génialp fournit un service de sauvegarde et d'import, mais c'est surtout la possibilité de recevoir en instantané les données dans Wiclax. Découvrez-en plus sur la page d'administration du service si vous ne la connaissez pas encore.

Nouvelles possibilités de présentation pour le G-Live

Pas de nouvelle version sans un bonus cadeau pour la partie la plus visible de notre solution ! Nous avons travaillé cette fois sur les points suivants, comme vous l'avez probablement déjà remarqué sur nos derniers posts Facebook :

Photos des coureurs

Progrès en cours sur cette fonctionnalité, afin d'enrichir vos classements en ligne avec des images de coureurs.

Actuellement possible en réutilisant la possibilité offerte par le résumé du coureur, qui recherche un fichier <numero-de-dossard>.jpg dans le répertoire événement. Si l'image trouvée fait moins de 150 px, on présume que c'est une photo de profil et elle est automatiquement positionnée et formatée de cette manière :

C'est limité, bien-sûr, parce que vous allez rarement avoir un jeu de photos nommées à partir du numéro de dossard des coureurs. Nous travaillons sur d'autres options plus flexibles comme une recherche dans un dossier centralisé avec autre chose que le numéro de dossard comme identifiant, ou en appelant une URL personnalisée qui va retourner une image (d'une base de donnée ou autre). Plus d'info sur le sujet prochainement, et n'hésitez pas à partager vos propres cas de figure dans l'attente.

Palette de couleurs personnalisée

Vous voulez présenter vos classements d'une manière plus colorée, ou les rapprocher de votre charte graphique ? C'est possible maintenant ! Plus d'information à ce sujet dans ce post.

Nouveau menu de paramétrage

Le nouveau menu - conçu pour rester discret sur la page principale - donne un accès véritablement simplifié, utile en mode local : bascule en mode clair/sombre, passage en mode TV, affichage auto-déroulant ou non.

Points sur les classement

2 concepts différents sont développés en parallèle :

• Des épreuves basées sur les points, où la valeur des points est la première clé de classement et remplace de fait les performances de temps. On peut créer ce type d'épreuve en choisissant l'entrée Autres/Classement par points dans l'assistant de création d'épreuve. Adapté pour des usages annexes quand vous avez besoin de publier de tels classements, les derniers changements permettent maintenant de saisir les points depuis le formulaire de saisie des résultats ou par l'import d'un fichier.
• Une attribution de points en tant que donnée secondaire, avec un classement qui reste basé sur les performances de temps.

Ce deuxième concept devient maintenant réalité, e ouvre de nouvelles possibilités pour gérer certaines disciplines où les points entrent en compte pour les classements.

Quelques détails concernant cette implémentation :

• Un nouvel onglet Points dans les options de l'événement permet de spécifier quelles valeurs de points sont attribuées. Sur la base des rangs finaux, les séries de points pouvant être spécifiées globalement ou bien pour chaque catégorie ou chaque groupe de niveau.
• Pour le moment l'affectation des points se fait sur une action manuelle, plutôt qu'automatiquement (exception faite d'une affectation sur le classement général).
• Une nouvelle colonne Points peut être affichée dans la grille des résultats. Si nécessaire, des valeurs de points peuvent y être saisies manuellement en éditant les cellules.
• Des séries de points distinctes peuvent être spécifiées pour chaque manche/étape dans le cas d'une courses à étapes, et le classement général peut être calculé aux points (cad la somme des points de chaque manche est utilisée pour ordonner le classement).
• Un classement par équipes peut être calculé à partir des points individuels (à noter que la grille d'attribution des points qui était auparavant disponible à cet endroit est logiquement déplacée)
• Une option du module Championnats permet d'indiquer qu'on souhaite extraire les valeurs de points des épreuves elles-mêmes, plutôt que de les (re)calculer au niveau du module.

Passage à ignorer sur les acquisitions

Fonctionnalité utile quand une acquisition tourne en import automatique de fichier ou bien est branchée sur un service de données cloud : lorsqu'un passage doit être éliminé pour une certaine raison, le risque existe qu'il continue de revenir encore et encore s'il fait toujours partie des données d'origine et de la fenêtre de temps paramétrée pour l'import.

Pour éviter ce désagrément, vous pouvez maintenant mettre un 'flag' ignorer sur certains passages dans l'historique.

Un nouveau menu est disponible au pied du formulaire de saisie des résultats, sous la liste des temps. Cliquez sur Tous pour afficher tout l'historique et recherchez l'enregistrement en filtrant par exemple la grille selon un numéro de dossard.

Divers

Sur les impressions : possibilité d'imprimer seulement les lignes sélectionnées dans la grille courante. Simplement en ouvrant l'aperçu avant impression après avoir fait la sélection. Une confirmation est demandée.

Classement par équipes : dans le cas d'un classement basé sur les points, vous pouvez maintenant renseigner un nombre de meilleurs résultats à conserver.

Emails : nouvel item de menu contextuel Envoyer un email à un coureur pour envoyer un email à un compétiteur ou à une sélection de compétiteurs dans la grille. Le client mail par défaut s'ouvre et initialise le message.

Course sans classement : l'option pour publier un événement sans classement (les performances sont affichées individuellement mais sont simplement triées par ordre d'inscription) est maintenant disponible au niveau d'une course. Ce qui permet de gérer ce type de course parmi d'autres courses publiées de manière classique.

Important milestone for those of you enjoying the way G-Live empowers your website with fast, efficient, appealing and controlled result publication. Almost all of you indeed, as this is one of the key parts of Wiclax solution.

We all know how much branding is important, and how much it's necessary to differentiate our own business from the competition. So we've refactored the styling of G-Live app to let you customize its color palette. Possible outcome in picture:

How to get it?

As of now, the custom palette can be inserted as a new variable of the usual file g-live.settings.js. CSS color values, those not provided keeping their value from the default theme.

You can see it marked as Beta in new version 9: providing the address of a 'Master' PC, you can open a copy of the event file currently edited remotely.

The file will be locally considered as read-only, meaning it won't ask you to save changes though you're free to do some.

Data update on demand for now, so you remain in control of what you're doing. A simple click on the new data notification.

Quick showcase of the new UI elements:

access from the startup screen

status bar in action

and fast retrieval in the recent file list

A first use case: making printouts from a secondary station

In most cases, you're simply enjoying the software robustness and you're not afraid to manage all printouts from the same Wiclax instance, which is handling acquisitions and Live streaming at the same time. Print previews and printout are highly optimized so everything can be operated smoothly.

Different conditions can occur on some more official events, like championships. Short races are starting quickly one after the other, and there are tight rules to follow for the output formats.

In this case you're also more likely to operate as a team, hence it will be good that someone is dedicated to the printout while someone else can stay strictly focused on the race management itself. This is what the new feature is already making possible.

With one appreciable bonus: any print option that you'll change from the slave PC will be synced back to the master Wiclax, so no worry that they get lost with the next file refresh.

Coming next

The feature as it is will also be suitable for some data export scenarios that don't require a live emission.

For Live streaming or smartphone notification sending purposes however, the architecture is not ready yet. But we'll work on it soon, hoping we can extend all this with the same simplicity.

Not much to say about this Covid period that you'd not have already heard... So just hoping you took (you're taking) time to read some good books and change your mind.

On our side, here's what we managed to achieve: a new release 9 with some hopefully interesting changes, and a big framework update.

Biggest items in detail:

New event notifications

Following one of our users suggestion, we've implemented a new kind of visual notification/alarm.

It's intended for useful but not vital/blocking race events, thus it's designed in a non intrusive way. Not popping over the main display.

3 cases plugged on the feature for now, more can easily be added so waiting for your ideas:

• a participant flagged as withdrawal crosses the finish line: may trigger a further verification
• a participant with its category data missing crosses the finish line: may be interesting to jump out and ask for his/her birth date
• you've manually flagged some participants for whom you want to be notified when they're seen somewhere. Notification + sound will be played.

The idea behind the feature is that you don't have to stick to the screen in fear of missing something. Instead these notifications will remain available for later browsing. A quick search field will help if necessary.

Split points on the map

The GPS location picker for split points was no longer usable because of changes on the Google Maps policy.

On this release a new component is introduced in replacement, so hopefully the feature is working again and with a smooth interface. Furthermore, you can quickly load here some GPX tracks to help with the process, typically ensuring that the split points will correctly stick to the race track for a more serious rendering.

Next on the road map, we'll likely extend this track selection so that tracks association to races and stages can be done in Wiclax, then opening the way to an automatic upload of the files in the event folder (for those of you using the G-Live Map option).

Some UI enhancements

The lookup field is now located on top of the main window, and it gives a better access and visibility to the other useful command lookup feature. Remember the Control+P shortcut allows a very convenient way to execute something after typing a few letters.

The column selection menu for the grids is now accessed from a more obvious button on their top right corner. Still you can drop it down by a single click on the grid upper panel (shorter mouse travelling). The display for the menu itself is also modernized.

Shortcuts for races: the access for setting the start time of a race or its terminated status are no longer in a drop down menu but more smoothly integrated in the information panel.

New grid filters

New UX for Championships

The Championships module comes with a brand new interface, or a big re-lifting as you wish.

Enhancements on Live Screens design

Always looking for making the screen design as easy as possible, most noticeable improvements in this release:

• column sizes can be adjusted with the mouse on the screen preview (result list widget)
• the color picking control now allows to specify a transparency level (alpha channel)

Easier certificate designs handling

A nice enhancement for those of you dealing with race certificates online. Templates designed with the new version will now directly embed their images.

So you'll no longer have to care about the original image files, as they won't have anymore to be uploaded alongside the template file.

Additional improvements for the certificates: new variables can be selected to get the event name and dates, and all variables can now be inserted in the text of a standard label item.

Filter for podiums

Sometimes an event requires all official podiums to be based on a selection of athletes only. Like the race is opened to unaffiliated people, but they can't pretend to prizes.

Hence there's a new level of filtering directly bound to the podiums, where you can set any kind of filter condition. This makes everything easier, as you no longer have to juggle with a bunch of additional rankings to declare.

PDF reports online

When launching the publication of PDF reports online - i.e. generation and upload through FTP, a selection dialog is now presented.

This allows a better control of which reports you actually want to be published for the event.

With a great bonus feature: a print preview shortcut is available while hovering any of the reports of the list. Means you can quickly check if their layout is as you expect it, with the right template, ...

Team details

Enhancement for the Teams grid view: passing the mouse over the teammates number cells displays a list of participant names. Themselves giving fast access to their data summary or their entry/results management forms.

Split point as a counter

A split point on the track can now be set as a simple "counter", meaning that instead of registering a single passing of each participant it will instead increment a number of passings. When the race itself is not managed as a lap race.

This can be used for example in the context of a penalty loop, where you need to monitor how many loops have been made by an athlete.

As a result, the grid column for the split will display the number of passings. And the result entry form gives access to the passing detail, allowing to make a manual correction if necessary.

New Starts management module

Big change if you've been sometimes using the Starts module! Quick remind for those who don't know it: its purpose is to provide a start line management screen, for time trial races. Basically showing who's next to start - teams or individuals - and raise a countdown when every actual start time is due.

What's new then: the old module made as an executable is replaced by a brand new web accessible App. Not only more interesting for design/UX aspects, but mainly because it can be launched on any connected device, like a tablet or a smart TV.

Used on the local network, it doesn't need a Wiclax instance to run on the device. Clock synchronization will happen automatically, based on the master PC system time.

Looking forward your feedback on that. Next on the road map could be the ability to report some changes in the start session (typically somebody non-starter), and eventually a cloud based architecture so that it would work without a local network installation.

New Web publication assistant

Big step forward to make Web result publishing more comfortable than ever: a newly designed assistant groups everything related to it in a single screen. Gives you an instant picture of what will appear under G-Live for the event, and moreover it will make using an external FTP client useless for most of the usual operations.

Note: it fully replaces the Web publication tab from the event options form.

Some cool features highlighted:

• shortcut to the FTP settings and definition of the remote folder
• status shown for the main file (.clax), if present online and if up-to-date
• easy upload of GPX track files (when your license includes the Map option for G-Live): you no longer have to know about file naming rules as this will happen automatically, and the files get compressed on the fly - removing unnecessary data like timestamps.
• same thing for certificate templates, whether you have a single one for the event or a race by race scheme. Direct edition from the screen, and upload back after a modification.
• quick preview for the race videos, which are now entered as a platform + ID combination. Compliant with Youtube and Vimeo so far.
• GPX tracks can be enriched with any additional points of interest - a food station, a summit, ... that will show up on the G-Live maps.

Alge Timy 3 integration

Always extending the range of external stopwatches you can connect to Wiclax as an acquisition, this time we've added support for the Timy 3 devices plugged in USB mode.

Miscellaneous

• Average calculation option: a new option to specify explicitly whether the average speed has to be calculated from the chip time or the gun time.
• Printout templates in the cloud: that was already possible for G-Live custom screens, now you can also save some printout templates on your user account online. Making them backed up there and easily accessible from any of your workstations.
• Start line acquisition option: new option for use with an external stopwatch acquisition, which is sending bib-less passing information. In a time trial race mode, for instance a ski competition, it will allow the start time received to be automatically assigned to the next competitor on the start list.
• Network participant entry: the page can now let a user reallocate bib numbers for existing participants. Secured by an option - not enabled by default. The form also includes the real bib number data field, when used for the event.
• Network participant entry: new option on the page to deactivate automatic uppercasing of the last name.
• Athlete photos online: released in our previous delivery, this feature receives some useful enhancements. Responsiveness is now optimized by indexing of big photo folders, and you can customize on the event options the time delay values used to locate the photos on a split point (i.e. how many seconds before and after the line crossing time).
• Grids state: the state of main grids - i.e. column grouping and sorting - is now saved with the event file. And hence is restored when the file is reopened.
• Race videos: now possible to bind a video for the start line, useful in the case of a time trial race.