Software project to manage (non-water) regattas of my current rowing club. It is currently used to do events like a just for fun triathlon (swimming, rowing on an ergometer, running) or an indoor rowing event where the competitors have to run afterwards.
Why did we not use existing software on the market?
On the one hand, I am not aware of any good solution for the organization and realization of such (on land/ indoor) rowing events. In my club we usualy got an consultant that is doing this kind of events on every weekend since many years and who has his own home-grown software. However, this software is not for sale.
Secondly, we wanted to use RFID wristbands for better time tracking. We decided for wristbands since they are much cheeper than a timing mat and are good enough for our use case. The RFID chips work like bar codes but are much easier to handle, both for the organizers and the competitors. Organizers just have to hand out a wristband (similar to e.g. public swimming pools or libraries) and to register the ID in the system. Competitors to not have to care about a piece of paper or remembering their number any more. Instead they just hold their wristband against a sensor until it beeps, e.g. when passing a checkpoint or at the finishing line. Of course, you have to have more than one sensor at the finishing line to guarantee fair results and so that other competitors can register in parallel.
The software is based on Symfony 3 and needs at least the following:
- PHP 5.4 or higher
- a database supported by Symfony - I currently use MariaDB
- Python 3 to run the time tracking script
The software is designed to run "offline", meaning in a local area network without internet connection.
After checking out the project, cd into the folder and run composer.phar install (see Composer website for more information).
To start a local PHP server, do a php bin/console server:start from the root directory of this project.
We use multiple RaspberryPi with a small Linux installation to run the time tracking app. These get one to many RFID readers connected via USB, depending on the checkpoint.
Keep in mind to syncronize the clocks of the computers before starting races!
This can be done by system software like NTP or by using the server as master and calling the /api/timing/server URL like so:
date --set=@`curl -s http://<server:port>/api/timing/server`This tool has several security roles that can do different kind of actions. In the following sections the different working areas are explained based on the specific role that a user has to have in the system. A user can have multiple roles.
As the name suggests, an event organizer is responsible for the organization of an event. This includes the tasks of
- creating new events
- changing existing events
- creating new races in one event
- changing existing races
- creating new sections in a race
- importing registrations from other systems
Users at the registration desk are in direct contact with trainers and competitors. They are responsible for
- registering and de-registering of competitors for a specific race
- creation of new competitors in the system
- creation of new clubs in the system
- assignment of (existing) competitors to (existing) clubs
Each competition has at least one referee. People with this role are able to
- start races
- cancel races
- register give-ups of single competitors
There are two types of races supported at the moment:
- regular
- indoor rowing plus running
Regular races are those, that use the build-in registration functionality to start races. The start will be done via the web interface. Nothing special.
In a Row & Run event there are indoor rowing races and outdoor running activities. Usually, first all indoor rowing events will take place and later there are 1..n running races. The results/timings of a competitor in a run are added to the result/timing of his/her rowing race to get an overall rating.
This type of event is technically different because the indoor races are performed with the Concept 2 Venue Racing Application while the outdoor races are regular races (see section above).
When you want to create such an event, you currently have to edit races multiple times to be able to set all needed options. Otherwise the software will not be able to calculate the total results correctly.