RunSignup integration questions

[Chris Roney]

I've been using RunSignup for registration and results the last 3 races and have 3 more in the coming month. This is a much more professional way to push results that Arrowlive. I have a few questions that I haven't been able to find in these forums.

1) Is there an auto publish option like for Arrowlive results to auto update results or does it always require "Publish Results" to be refreshed for results?

2) Is there a way to modify the the result set information descriptions instead of the "Overall Results" description as the name for each race? My race is in the blue screenshot and an example I found on RunSignup of another race with what I'm trying to accomplish. It seems that if I modify the metadata or result set information within Runsignup, ART then publishes a new result set ID.

3) When using the Runsignup environment for results, what is the best way to make changes that need to be done to participant data? Make changes in ART and push up to Runsignup or edit in Runsignup and sync it back down to ART during a race. I see that in order to make changes, you have to exit the timing screen and stop listening basically to make the athlete changes and then reopen the timing screen and start listening again. Is there a better way to do this?

[Brian Agee]

"Is there an auto publish option like for Arrowlive results to auto update results or does it always require "Publish Results" to be refreshed for results?"

Currently there is not.

Eventually I would like to add that in as an option, however to do this I would like to overhaul the submission process so that it only sends what's changed since the last submission instead of clearing out and republishing all results. So it's not a quick and easy thing I can knock out in a day unfortunately. Luckily publishing full results is fast and easy, and of course there are some benefits with doing a full clean and republish. However I would like to eventually have an auto-publish option that sends small batches of results up, and of course still have the option there in the timing screen to do a full clear and republish all results too.

"Is there a way to modify the the result set information descriptions instead of the "Overall Results" description as the name for each race?"

Currently there is not.

In order for the software to be able to push the right results up to existing result sets on RunSignUp (which is critical to use their Live Leaderboard and probably other race day tools they offer), the software has to know what to look for.  For example if I allow users to enter whatever they want for a result set name, how do I know which result set (if any) is for pushing "Overall Results" and which result set is for "Male 40-45".

So I hard code "Overall Results" as the master result set that includes everyone and then I give the rest of the result sets (if you choose to create them by checking the 'Include Athlete Type Results' and 'Include Division Results') names based on the description entered into the timing software.

"When using the Runsignup environment for results, what is the best way to make changes that need to be done to participant data? Make changes in ART and push up to Runsignup or edit in Runsignup and sync it back down to ART during a race. I see that in order to make changes, you have to exit the timing screen and stop listening basically to make the athlete changes and then reopen the timing screen and start listening again. Is there a better way to do this?"

I definitely WOULD NOT close down the timing screen to make changes. :)

You can do the change in either locations and "sync" it up, but here is what I would recommend:

It's not terribly uncommon for a timer to be informed that a person's name is spelled wrong, their age or gender is wrong, or something else needs to be fixed for a participant that more than likely registered online incorrectly. I personally just whip out my phone and make the change in the "Check In" app (or have a volunteer do it if they have the check in app), then during a break in the action I minimize the clock screen and click "Sync" to pull that change into the timing software (when prompted, tell the software you want to use the Website's Record).

Alternatively, you could just minimize the clock screen and change the person's info in the timing software. Then click 'Sync' to push that change up to RunSignUp. Clicking on the "Time Race" button again simply brings back up the timing screen that was minimized.

If you've already published results, just click Publish Results again to send up the latest and greatest info.

[Chris Roney]

Brian, thank you for that information. I just tested on dual screens and now see what you mean about leaving the timing screen open and still being able to access the Sync options. I'm not sure what I did but it was alerting me that I couldn't access that because of an open window and the timing screen was the only one open. Well that make sense now to just update in the CheckIn app or edit directly on the Runsignup website for late paper addins and still sync while the readers keep on going.

I did modify my custom reports to remove the "Athlete Type" column as it seems RunSignup only treats everyone as a "Runner" when pulled in to ART even though the separate races are designated as a Walk and and Run. I don't see where that can be changed when imported in to ART. I still have races that want results printed through the race.