You already know how to import participant and result data, through the powerful file import wizard. But did you know you can simply paste some data when working on the grids?
You sometimes have an Excel sheet already open with some participant lists, for example. Want to import them in your Wiclax event? Means opening the file import dialog for participants, and then lookup for the file through the Explorer. Great, but you can do quicker by copying the original list into the clipboard, and then simply pressing the usual Control+V shortcut after you put the focus on the competitors grid. That will show up the filedata import wizard, with the Import from clipboard option checked. And from that point you know how to proceed.
And this way is not only quicker, it's also a necessary helper when you want to import only a selection of what's in the original file.
Last thing to say, it can as well be used to move some participant/result data from a Wiclax event to another, selecting them and playing with the Control+C and Control+V shortcuts.
Starting to give a flavour of the new features already implemented, but not yet in a public release. So that you can wait for them, and give us a feedback in between.
Focusing this one today: if you are a user of Australian RFID Timing systems as we do, you will soon enjoy this new layout for your acquisitions. Not taking more place, the row will show up with the device's battery level, the visualization of the active antennas, the readers current mode, the power of each reader and the reading ON/OFF status.
Here we come with spring and a new 8.1 release of the software.
Once again we’ve been developing hard to come out with new powerful features and stick to the various needs you’re gathering with us, while remaining committed to high quality standards. Hence this new delivery not only brings quite a lot of enhancements and new features, but also improves global performances and reliability.
Emphasizing some of the coolest changes:
An old project finalized: the event creation wizard has been completely reshaped. It’s more straight forward than ever to get any standard race type ready in a few clicks. More flexible also to get enriched with new templates and with data from your beloved sport federations worldwide. We’re looking forward your comments and ideas!
For your professional requirements, the G-Live module can now embed some user-defined exporters. They can make automatic file exports or send live network data. Successfully used to feed some TV overlays at French national Cross championships.
Saving time on setting the GPS coordinates of your split points, now selectable on the map.
And making your life easier, the quick access toolbar will now hold your favorite features for instant access.
In its previous delivery, Wiclax introduced a new powerful framework to help with live data projection. Whatever your video device looks like, being it a wide led screen with a limited resolution or a big TV screen, you can freely design what you want to get displayed in live. Remember that the solution relies on the G-Live module, so you only need a Web browser somewhere on your local network which will broadcast the screening.
Thanks to this nice architecture in place, we can now go forward with new features.
A screen configuration was already able to include some pictures and some basic animations programmed to be displayed with some transition effects. Of course the text sizes, the background and foreground colors were customizable but you may expect more possibilities. Hence here what’s will come with the next release: the ability to attach your own CSS styles to any element, for example a text label but also rows and cells of a result list.
CSS is the standard language used to style every Web page. It’s not too difficult to learn and of course you’ll find thousands of resources to help you in discovering what it can achieve. Just imagine you can play with gradient backgrounds, borders, rotations, paddings and margins, text shadows, font styling, transparencies and much more.
Better a picture than a thousand words, here’s a sample to illustrate that:
Last but not least, we’ll plan to deliver such samples for your inspiration, as well as some other ready to use configurations. Then we’re waiting for your next wishes!
Not the most well known feature of the Wiclax solution, the Championships module can nonetheless be very helpful to you. You may already need it, or it can happen that you get suddenly requested for a tricky classification to perform over multiple events.
Getting started
The module is accessible from your Windows Start menu, searching for Championships or looking into the Wiclax submenu.
You'll basically create a new championship ranking in two steps:
Feed the list of events to work on. These will be the .clax files you used to time them.
Specify which rules apply for the ranking computation.
Computing a ranking
Once the setup is completed, just click the calculate button.
The ranking gets calculated and you can then export the result as a new Wiclax event file.
All possibilities
The module helps you with a variety of powerful features:
Defining some points to grant to competitors based on their ranks in each event - overall or in the category. If necessary you will be able to differentiate each race in the events, typically when it's about different distances.
Defining some additional rules like a minimal number of events participated, or a bonus granted for at least n events participated. This list is not exhaustive and may evolve based on new needs you'll encounter.
Dealing with competitor merging: a major issue with informal championships, when anyone can participate to the events without being registered at a global level, is that you're dependent on the data you get as input. And of course you cannot expect a same participant to have his name spelled in the exact same way through the different events he runned. So here comes the merging feature: after a primary level of computation you will be prompted with a list of individuals being likely the same person. Just remains you to decide and the final ranking will be made accordingly.
New in version 8 is the ability to open a network service that makes your participant data editable from a remote station/device.
This can be a great help for example if you want to dedicate a member of your team for a participant registration follow up, while you can strictly focus on timing the current race.
How to make it work
Almost nothing to do for that: the service is opened by default when Wiclax gets launched and as soon as an event is active, the participant data can be edited remotely.
Simply find the Network button in the Registrations tab, and you'll get the address of the service in the dropdown menu. Type this address in the browser of a tablet connected to your local network and here you go.
You're getting this kind of screen, showing the name of the active event and a minimal registration form:
What can you do with the service?
The application can do the following:
Lookup some existing participant data: either typing a bib number or part of a name
Modify the data for a registered participant
Register a new participant, providing his/her bib number (an alert will tell if it's already allocated)
Register a new participant, letting Wiclax allocate him/her an available bib number. This number will be determined by the races' bib ranges if any, and will be displayed right after the validation.
Display the history of the registrations made on the device, for an easy go-back when necessary.
On Wiclax side, a greenmark icon appears on a participant row when he's been added remotely. The mark disappears at the next file saving. Remember that only this file saving operation makes the remote modifications definitely saved.
Note: to simplify, only one single service is active at a given time on your PC. So in case you're working with multiple instances of Wiclax, remember that the last one that was alone when launched owns the service. Having a doubt or wishing to switch for another event: check the Network menu. It will propose to hijack the active event in case it's not the current one.
