Biathlon-In-A-Box

BIAB v7.1.2 – 29 January 2012

This is a very minor revision of BIAB.

Added the capability, for Mass Start Competitions, to force the allocation of specific bib numbers to specific competitors, in addition to the random allocation of bibs that already existed.

Changed the way that the names of Competitions (eg: Men's 20km Sprint) are assembled, to allow easy identification of Air Rifle Competitions, by adding "(AR)" to the competition title.

Fixed an issue in the Clubs database in which, under certain circumstances, you might encounter an error when you were trying to create a new Club/Division after having preserved data from a previous version of BIAB.

Updated the 'Aggregate Data from Cadet Competitions' capability so that the points that are earned are also aggregated, in addition to the aggregation of competition times.

Changed the names of some scripts, inserted dialog boxes within those scripts to better explain their functions and actions, and updated the names of some of the provided associated files, all related to Importing the Names of Competitors from MS Excel files, as part of a distributed Competitor Entry/Registration system.

Made some cosmetic changes to the Agenda for Team Captains' Meetings.

Updated the list of Clubs and Divisions to reflect better those on the Biathlon Canada web site.

BIAB v7.1.1 – 14 January 2012

This is a very minor revision of BIAB.

Fixed a problem with the application of the Cadet Rules for the suggested class for a competitor, and improved the means by which the Cadet Rules category change date was entered into BIAB.

BIAB v7.1.0 – 7 January 2012

This is a minor revision of BIAB, notwithstanding the way the version number has been incremented.

Added, as a script in the Main File that is run from the Scripts Menu, the ability to import the names, gender and date-of-birth of Divisional Athletes, Coaches and Officials, from the data in the Biathlon Canada On-Line membership database. You will need to contact Biathlon Canada to arrange access to the data (information@biathloncanada.ca), then, when needed, you run the Script in the Main File to import the basic registration data into BIAB, and as part of that process, type-in or Paste the URL that provides data access.

Added, under Main File > Enter Data > Preferences > Miscellaneous the ability to set the default entries used in new records for the type of rifle for competitions (options are 'None', '.22 Rifle' and 'Air Rifle), and the default language that is specified for any new Clubs/Divisions that are created (options are 'English' and 'Français').

Changed, in Main File > Enter Data > Dates > Competitions, the sort order in which competitions on that date are shown. The sequence of the competitions is now reflected, rather than showing them in alphabetic order.

Changed the format for exported MS Excel files from .xls to .xlsx (Office 2007 and later versions) to update to the more recent standard, and to ensure continued operability of the Macintosh version of BIAB if it is run under Mac OSX v10.7 (Lion).

Fixed a minor problem on printed reports of Zeroing Lane assignments which, on rare occasions, caused some text to appear in the wrong language.

Corrected minor problems on the Penalty Loop Consolidation Sheet, renamed it to the Penalty Loop Team Data Reconciliation Form, and relocated it so that it is now available from the Competition File, rather than from the Forms page in BIAB's main file. Since the form is now generated from within the Competition File it already has the correct Bib Numbers for that particular set of competitions.
The Range and Penalty Loop Communicator form, and the Penalty Loop Recording Team Data Reconciliation Form are now printable in either French or English.

Added the ability, under Main File > Enter Data > Preferences > Miscellaneous, to change the date that is used as the basis of calculating the class of a competitor when using the Cadet Rules.

Fixed a minor problem with the Range/Penalty Loop Communicator Form to correct the issue that arose if you printed it after you had created results, in which the sort order of the Bib Number was incorrect.

Some cosmetic changes have been made to the Main File > Enter Data > Trails screen.

BIAB v7.0.9 – 10 August 2011

This is a minor revision of BIAB. The significant and generous contributions of Serge Le Guellec, who helped me make all the Reports and Forms available in both French or English, are hereby acknowledged. Serge; Merci mille fois!

Added a new capability and associated report. When you are entering the details for a Club or Division, you can now enter local contact details (contact name, phone number, and address) and create a report listing this detail for all the Teams/Divisions that have entered athletes in your competitions. This will allow you to print and distribute a contact list to help communicate with the visiting Teams/Divisions, and assist them in communicating with each other.

Added flexibility to the choice of titles/designations for the members of the Competition Jury, so that the new IBU rules (2 elected members and the Course Referee plus the TD and Competition Chief) or the customary practise for Canada (three elected members plus the TD and Competition Chief) can be selected for display on Reports and Daily Agendas.

Added the capability to use BIAB to aggregate/maintain a running total of all the CWG Team Points that are used to determine Provincial/Territorial results at the Canada Winter Games. BIAB now fully supports on-command the gathering and reporting of these points as they are accumulated during the Games. You simply need to change one of BIAB's default points lists (in Main File > Enter Data > Preferences) to match the CWG's scale of points.

Added the capability to force a particular Start Order of Teams in a Relay or other team competition. This facilitates the process of creating a competition file with the relay team order-of-start based upon the results of a previous competition, or perhaps upon overall championship points.

Improved the processes used to import data from previous versions of BIAB, using the Transfer Data from Previous Version of BIAB script found in the Main File. Upon transfer of data, the records in the data tables are re-serialized, and the relationships of data from one table to another are modified to reflect the re-serialization.

Added the ability to select a preferred language-of-contact for each Club/Division, which then enables BIAB to generate written correspondence in that language for that Club/Division. This supports creating Grouping Questionnaires and Relay Entry Questionnaires in French for Teams/Divisions for whom a Questionnaire in French is appropriate, and in English for others. In order to do this, you can specify either French or English (the default) as the Language of Contact for any Club/Division.

All reports that BIAB creates to facilitate the verification of data that have been entered into the databases can now be produced in either English or French.

The Bib Sorting Sheet is now produced in either English or French, according to the language selection that you make when Start Lists and Results are produced.

Added the capability to produce all the Forms, e.g. Range, Course and Penalty Loop data acquisition forms, in either French or English versions.

For a network of Summit Timers, added the capability to change the initial time settings on the timer to any time that you specify, rather than only resetting the timers to 0:00:00.0 hours.

Fixed a bug that affected the sort order of finished Bib Numbers when inputting data electronically from a timer, which occurred if you were using a Chronomix, Alge, Tag Heuer, single Summit, or TimeTech USA timer. This bug did not affect data received with a network of Summit Timers.

Fixed a couple of bugs associated with Zeroing Lane Allocations and with Questionnaires for Relay Teams, that occurred under certain sets of circumstances.

Made a number of minor cosmetic changes to screens and to processes in both the Main File and in the Competition Files.

BIAB v7.0.8 - 16 January 2011

This is a minor revision of BIAB, but is a bug fix.

This version fixes a bug that caused errors if you tried to print a Start List for a Pursuit competition from within the Competition File. The bug only affected Pursuit competitions.

This version further refines the menus that give you the opportunity to redefine competitors from the form view that is contained in a competition file. Now the Type of Competition drop-down menu is linked to and limits the choices in the Competition Name drop-down menu, which, in turn, is linked to and limits the choices of Competitors from the Competitor Name drop-down menu.

A number of cosmetic changes have been made within the processes that display Start Lists, to hide distracting activity that occurred in the background processes as Start Lists are created.

BIAB v7.0.7 – 2 January 2011

This is a minor revision of BIAB.

Changes have been made to the Cadet competition aggregation feature at the request of the Cadet Eastern Region and the Cadet Central Region.

Excel files, showing the aggregation that has been completed to that point, can be produced at any time, and they can be produced either from within a competition file, or from the Main File.JGL, using the new scripts in the Scripts Menu.

The Second Qualification Competition can be an individual entry competition, such as a Sprint or an Individual, or a team competition, such as a Relay. In previous versions of BIAB the second competition had to be a Relay.

Capability has been added, by way of a script accessible from the Scripts Menu in the Main File.JGL, to produce an Excel file that contains the Club/Division information, as well as the actual names of the Competitions, so that they can be pasted into the "BIAB Team Entries Template" so that registration can be completed by having the clubs or divisions return to you Excel files in which they have provided you with the necessary registration information.

Additional data validation routines have been added to the competition files, specifically on the entry of range data. Now, when entering range data manually in the list view, or from Summit Timers, if the data string contains more than one digit, the background colour of the field turns RED to indicate to the operator that the data needs to be fixed.

Fixed the issue of trying to display a draw from a French operating system.

Cosmetic changes have been made to the screen in which you select the options for Draws for Pursuit competitions.

What's New in v7.0.6?

This is a minor revision of BIAB.

Fixed two non-working buttons that were supposed to change the sort-order of listed Relay and Patrol Teams.

Corrected some errors in the French text that was added in v7.0.4. If you are aware of other errors, or better translations, please let me know and I will be happy to change them.

Added on the Main File>Enter Data>Preferences>Miscellaneous section an option for turning the ToolTips feature on or off. This capability was added for those who have grown tired of ToolTips being displayed whenever you manoeuvre around the application. This control also available by clicking the ToolTips On/ToolTips Off text that appears on some of the screen views.

BIAB is now based upon the latest version of FileMaker Pro, which is 11.0v2.

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.