Trying to generate an SDIF file to import entries into Meet Manager

[Britt Blankenship]

We are hosting a swim meet in early June where several of the entries are going be coming from a site that is note Meet Manager friendly.  In an attempt to avoid errors and the headaches associated with hand entering a bunch of entries, I'm trying to used the CSV data available from the registration site to generate an SDIF (*.SD3) file to import those entries.  I have been using the SDIF format document linked from the winSwim.com site as well as several valid *.SD3 files I have received from previous meets.  I was thinking that I had been successful until I tried to import my generated file and Meet Manager tells me that the file is NOT en Entries File.

I was going to try and check the file with the SDIF checker (also available on the winSwim site) but Chrome won't let me download the source as it is being flagged as dangerous.  It looks like it is also a source code archive with I'm also assuming would need to be compiled which may present an additional problem.  Is there another SDIF checker somewhere that is already compiled that Chrome may not consider "dangerous"

Thanks.

[William Arbaugh]

I can send you some Python code that I use for our annual HS meet. It takes a CSV file from Google Forms and emits a SD3 file. The code isn’t great, but it has worked for about 9 years now.

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[Britt Blankenship]

Sure, I can use Excel to message the data into whatever format your code needs.

I guess the most frustrating part is I really don't know what Meet Manager doesn't like.  I'm using the Meet Pyramid format in the SDIF spec.  One thing I DON'T have in my file are any Cx records as all the swimmers from this site are unattached.  Do I need to include one of these with the team name of "unattached" (or something like that) reguardless?  Also, many of the swimmers don't have USSIDs and some that do are Masters swimmers.  Not sure if that is adding an additional complication.

[Mike Walsh]

Meet Manager is a frustrating piece of software to use - Team Manager is in the same boat.  Both are very picky about importing data.

The WinSwim SDIF checker you mentioned is a useful tool to have around.  Unless it has changed since I retired from the Swim Team business a few years ago, it is a Windows executable, not source code you would need to compile.  I'd try another browser if Chrome won't let you download it.  It is pretty good at telling you if your SDIF if formatted correctly.  One character off or a record our of sequence and MM simply won't import it.

If you did through the archives there is quite a bit of information and algorithms implemented in several languages which allow you to generate MM or TM compatible files (with checksums) directly from your application.  More than likely, investing some into this will yield better results than trying to get MM to consume SDIF.  As I recall, even when you get MM to import your SDIF, there are a couple key fields it ignores.

Mike

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[Eddie Rowe]

FWIW - I have Perl code to export an HY3 entries file for MM.  it's how we did some of the high school regional entries here in NC this year.

[Britt Blankenship]

The problem is that I have data in a CSV format that in no way resembles anything that MM or TM can consume, so I have to process it in some way to get it to work.   

May try a different brower, but I've downloaded lots of stuff and it strange that Chrome would straight out block it rather than telling me there is a potential problem and giving me an option.  Make me hesitant.

The Winswim website points me to "Codeplex.com" with the note that the "source code" is available there.

As for SDIF vs Hy-Tek formats, many teams use TeamUnify for their registrations.  That application exports the entries in a *.sd3 format which is an SDIF format.

I finally got my SDIF to work.  I was actually working in Excel (VBA) rather than C++ or Pyhton (on  my list to learn), because I was already using Excel to run some statistics on the entries, and one thing led to another.  Planning to re-do this in Python as a way to help learn that language and add to may skill set.  So, it turns out that form Excel I was writing the lines using the "Write" function rather than the "Print".  Apparently the "Write" function outputs ASCII in Uni-Code (with extra hidden formatting).  When I switched to "Print" everything seems to work now.  Had a few small issues, but those were easy to correct.

Britt Blankenship
100 Davion Court
Madison, AL 35758

C: (256)426-9662

[Britt Blankenship]

So I just downloaded SDIF checker using Edge and it is indeed a code-base and not an executable.  :(

[Eddie Rowe]

Send me your spreadsheet, and I'll see if i can give you an hy3 and if it works, I'll give you the Perl code to repeat it

[William Arbaugh]

I’ve pushed my python2 code up to Github. It’s at https://github.com/warbaugh/MMImport

You’ll have to install the datetime, csv, and re packages into your python installation. 

I’ll write a detailed README later this week, but you invoke it via ‘python import.py’  I assume the name of the csv file is entries.csv. The format of the lines in the CSV is in the comments of the code but it is:

Timestamp,First Name,Last Name,Email,Cell Phone,School,Grade,Available for Relays,Gender,Event 1,Event 1,Event 2,Event 2

You can change the for loop at line 120 to handle any CSV format you like (beauty of the CSV package I’m leverage).

This was a quick hack done around 9 years ago for our annual HS meet (our county doesn’t have swimming as a varsity sport in HS). If people find this useful, I can start to clean it up a bit.

Bill

[Warren Phippen]

Hi All, i have been reading through this post and it seems a little confusing to me, i to have a CSV file that i need to convert to SD3 format to import into Meet Manager, i see there is perl code and python2 code, could someone explain how i use these codes to output a SD3 file or is there an easier way to do this conversion.

any help will be greatly appreciated

[Eddie Rowe]

What is your source file format and what is your goal?

[Warren Phippen]

Hi Eddie, i have a CSV file with all the athletes result information from a 3km open water swim, i now want to import these swimmers(names, team,date of birth, etc) into Swimming Meet Manager. the swimming meet mangaer does not have a the Semi-colon Delimited roster/ entries import function only the MM Track and Field has this function. so i am needing to convert the CSV file to a SD3 (SDIF) file that can be imported into MM  hope this helps

[Warren Phippen]

On Friday, November 8, 2019 at 10:28:16 AM UTC+2, Warren Phippen wrote:

Hi Eddie, i have a Excel file with all the athletes result information from a 3km open water swim, i now want to import these swimmers(names, team,date of birth, etc) into Swimming Meet Manager. the swimming meet mangaer does not have a the Semi-colon Delimited roster/ entries import function only the MM Track and Field has this function. so i am needing to convert the Excel file to a SD3 (SDIF) file that can be imported into MM  hope this helps