Biathlon-In-A-Box

What's New in v7.0.5?

This is a very minor revision of BIAB.

Changed the way that BIAB creates results, so that, if you happen to create two different competitions that have identical names, you can still create separate results, rather than having the results of those two competition intermixed. This will have no affect upon most users.

Added to the description of the Trails, a field for Height Difference on each trail.

Changed the Final Results Cover Sheet to give you a bilingual presentation and to better reflect the information required in the IBU rules and current practise.

What's New in v7.0.4?

This is a minor revision of BIAB.

Added options when dealing with Unqualified Entries in Pursuit Competitions. BIAB now clearly distinguishes between allowing entry into Pursuit Competitions for Competitors who have not completed the Qualifying Competition, and whether such Unqualified entries should be treated as 'unofficial' entries with no status, or to allow full status to such entries. The ToolTips associated with these choices have been updated, to provide better guidance. Finally, you can now, from the Form View in the Competition File, declare any Pursuit Competitor to be "Official" or "<unofficial>. This last capability allows you to deal properly with last minute entries that might be added to the Competition File after the Draw.

Changed the scripts used to process Finish Times entered from the keyboard, so that data will be properly accepted from both English and French (Canada) system settings on the host computer. This means that either the comma (",") or the period (".") can be used to represent the decimal point in Finish Times that are entered through the keyboard or a keypad.

Changed the Agenda-for-the-Team-Captains'-Meeting capability so that you can now produce the Agenda in your choice of English or French.

Changed the Daily Activities Poster so that it can now be produced in both French and English. In association with this made a number of cosmetic changes and added new fields for French text to the form views of the Main File>Enter Data>Dates.

Changed, in Main File>Enter Data>Dates the buttons that facilitate copying data, such as the names of Jury Members, from one record to another. Now there is one button per page that will replicate all the fields that appear in the tabbed portion of the screen.

Added an option, when working with a Network of Summit Timers, that gives you options when using one of the timers to enter Penalty Loop data. You can now enter the Bib Number, a space, and the Number of Loops that were skied, or use the existing option in which the Bib Number of each competitor is entered every time that he/she passes the observation point on the Penalty Loop. The new option makes Penalty Loop entry almost the same as the entry of shooting results.

Added a new form that can be used to consolidate the data from the Recording Teams on the Penalty Loop.

Corrected the routine from processing data from a single Summit Timer so that the software properly counts and displays the number of records that have been received from the timer. This was a cosmetic issue that only affected users of single Summit Timers.

Corrected a minor issue with the resetting of the identification of the Timer Device for a single Summit Timer. The software now always expects that timer to be Device #1.

Corrected a minor problem with display seen in the selection field for Concurrent Results, and with the Event Title that appeared on the Concurrent Results.

Changed some of the warning text and ToolTips that are related to the deletion of data entries that are shown within Portals on a page. Any entry within a Portal must be deleted by using the button that has been provided for that purpose. The "Delete Record" button that is within the standard Header on each screen will delete the record that is associated with the screen, not the entry that contained within the Portal. This would not be the outcome that you were seeking were you to attempt to use it for this purpose.

Updated the script that is used to import records from previous versions of BIAB, to ensure that the version number of BIAB cannot be inadvertently changed during this process.

Made cosmetic changes to several views that appear in Competition Files, to make it easier to read some of the header information.

Made cosmetic changes to several of the Main File.JGL screens associated with Pursuit Draws.

What's New in v7.0.3?

This is a minor revision of BIAB.

Changed the way that BIAB validates range data that has been entered into a competition file using the keyboard. BIAB now immediately notifies you if you incorrectly enter a non-numerical value, or a value greater than 5. It will no longer allow you to accidentally enter digits twice, such as 22 instead of 2. You have the option of using the validation, or you can turn it off if you find it bothersome.

In list views of data, in most parts of BIAB, I have added extra highlights so that the record that is currently selected, and active, is more obvious to you.

Fixed an issue in which, if you were electronically importing range data from a target system or a Summit Timer, you could get an error message if you copied and process some of the shooting data before it had all been received within BIAB.

The demo version of BIAB is now available as v7.0.3.

What's New in v7.0.2?

This is a minor revision of BIAB.

The list of trails to follow, which can be created from within a Competition File and which is intended to be displayed at the Start Line to assist Competitors, now is available in either French or English, depending upon the setting chosen for the language of Start Lists and Results.

A new button has been added to the screen within the Competition File that is used to monitor timer data coming from Summit Timers at the Finish Line. This button will allow you to force a re-sort, into ascending order of bib number, of the bib numbers that have been entered into BIAB as having finished.

In the spreadsheet that shows the aggregated results of Cadet qualifying competitions, the gender of the competitor is now included, and the order in which the fields are listed has been modified.

Minor cosmetic changes have been made to the appearance of some of the screens that show data that has been collected from electronic timing systems.

What's New in v7.0.1?

This is a major revision of BIAB. The interface that you see within a Competition File has been extensively changed. BIAB now uses the same graphic interface model throughout its structure, whether you are just starting to set up for an event, or are in the middle of gathering results data during a competition. Navigation within the Competition File is much easier and more direct with this new interface. In addition, I have streamlined the code behind many of the processes within BIAB, including Draws, and Results creation, making them faster.

BIAB can now utilize two different serial ports at the same time. This means that BIAB can connect directly to electronic target systems, such as the Kurvinen Electronic System in Canmore or the HoRa 2000e system in Whistler Olympic Park, while using the other serial port to connect to a network of Summit timers.

BIAB can now deal with the standard Relay Competition output of the HoRa 2000e target system, so that it no longer requires a special work-around set-up to the HoRa software. BIAB now will infer the colour of the relay bib from the volume of data that has been received from the HoRa system, so that there is no longer a need to enter an extra number as part of the Competitor’s bib number to indicate the colour of the bib (a consequence of which was that the HoRa-provided software lost some it its utility).

All the interfaces used for setting up electronic timers, together with the code that is used for processing electronic data from timers and from timing systems, have been extensively re-vamped to make it easier to navigate within BIAB, and to reduce processing times. It is now much easier to monitor and confirm data coming from an electronic timer, and to copy the electronically received data into the rest of the competition file, which you must do in order to create results.

BIAB now uses a dedicated, but separate and continuously visible, window to allow you to control the flow of data from an electronic timing system. You can interrupt and resume the flow of data at any time, and, provided you do not grossly extend the interruption, the data that was generated during the period that the flow was interrupted will still be available to you as soon as you resume accumulation of the data.

The processes used to amalgamate the performance results achieved during a number of Cadet competitions, to aid in Cadet Region representational team selection processes, have been improved and expanded. You are now permitted to have an unlimited number of individual and relay qualifying competitions, and the data from those competitions is now directly transferred during the amalgamation process, without the use of intermediate files. Previously, the user was forced to manually manipulate data contained in the intermediate files, if it was necessary to hold more than one qualifying competition of each type.

You can now, using a Script Menu command in a Competition File, produce an electronic version of results data, with a choice of two file formats: either as a comma separated values (.csv) file, or as an MS Excel worksheet.

I have made extensive changes to the BIAB capability that allows you to create Agendas for Team Captain’s Meetings. You now have total control over the Agenda items, including the ability to create a hierarchy of Agenda sub-items, and can add brief remarks to any individual Agenda item.

The number of Classes of Competitors that can be associated with any Competition Class which has the words ‘Mixed’, ‘Unit’ or ‘Composite’ in its title, has been increased from 4 to 8, which will properly support the needs of Mixed Relays, as well as other competitions. Within BIAB the meaning of these terms is: ‘Mixed’ refers to more than one gender, ‘Composite’ refers to more than one competitor class, and ‘Unit’ is normally associated with Cadet units, indicating all competitors are from the same unit. In terms of usage this capability effectively allows the flexible creation of Classes of Competitors which have constituent sub-classes, in which you can have mixtures of ages, genders and other competitor attributes.

Some minor changes have been made to some reports and to the way data is displayed, to make BIAB more consistent with the emerging standards that are established by the IBU. In addition, the way that times are displayed in Results has been changed, so that, in general, any leading zeros within the time are suppressed.

Cadet Youth Male and Cadet Youth Female categories have been added to the selection list of available competitor classes, to accommodate the emerging new Cadet Competitor Classes.

The user has been given easier access to the information needed to change the actual names of Competitor Classes (Cadets, Mixed, Bantams, Composite, Youth Women, Midgets, etc.) that are used within BIAB, within the drop-down menu systems.

Changes were made in the way that BIAB determines the data that is needed to calculate the performance percentages that are displayed on results. This change eliminates the possibility of an error in a Pursuit competition, which could have occurred if there were ‘unofficial’ entries that placed amongst the top three finishers.

BIAB will now accept up to two different Bib Number look-ups for each transponder that is part of the AMB ChipX competitor identification system. One list is made for normal bibs, and the other is made for relay bibs, each linked to the same transponder identifier. Depending upon the type of bibs normally worn for the particular competition, BIAB will automatically use the appropriate list.

If you elect to Display the Draw for any single-start Competition which features a random draw for start times (e.g. an Individual or a Sprint), you will see an entirely new display of the Draw, as it progresses. The display in now meaningful, in that it depicts the double-random nature of the Draw, as if you were conducting it manually.

A large number of cosmetic changes have been made to various screens, and numerous additional tool-tips have been incorporated to provide more assistance to the user. A number of the existing tool-tips have been updated to clarify and further refine the information presented.

If you are interested in other changes to BIAB over its life, please see version_information.pdf.