Application for trail-o punching and timed control operation

Version: 4.11.12
Translation: Libor Forst, Radka Hacklová, Adam Dingle
Acknowledgements: Antonín Forst, Lenka Forstová, Ján Furucz, Sami Hyvönen, Martin Jullum, Zuzana Kosová

Introduction This help is for application users, i.e. marshals and competitors. Help for organizers is on the application web page http://ant.yq.cz. ANT can run in several modes: Event supervising (results files management, preliminary result calculation, ToePunch system chip readout, presentation of the startlist for competitors etc.). Timed control answer recording and time keeping by a marshal. Timed control answer selection and time keeping by a competitor. Punching classic course (PreO) answers by a competitor on a device carried by him/her (mobile e-card mode). Punching classic course (PreO) answers by a competitor on a device placed at a punching station. As a start and finish point device. The application must be configured for an event. If you just want to test the application, press the Sample button on the initial screen and select an appropriate sample. ANT will configure himself, a basic screen according to the selected sample will appear and the application will be prepared for testing. If you have a configuration from the organizer, press the Event button on the initial screen, select the resource where the configuration is stored (typically one of web servers ant.yq.cz, top.yq.cz or preoresultat.se), choose the right event and ANT will download the configuration. If you are a timed control marshal, you will then see the Stations button on your main screen because you should activate station(s) which you will work at (see Stations and Courses Configuration chapter). If you want to use a previously downloaded configuration, you can choose Saved configuration source and find the configuration by event name. If you want to use a configuration transferred to the smartphone/tablet as a file, you can find it on the local filesystem. If you want to test your own configuration, you will have to visit more menu items including Preferences, Event, Stations, Courses and maybe Startlist and Maps (see the corresponding help topics). When your configuration is complete, an initial page appears. If you are a marshal at a timed control, the initial page is a competitor selection screen (see Selecting Competitors chapter). You can select a competitor and start the procedure (see Marshal at a Timed Control chapter). If you are a competitor using ANT as a mobile e-card, the initial page is a competitor selection screen (see Selecting Competitors chapter). You can select yourself and start your race (see Punching on a mobile card chapter). If you are a competitor using ANT at a start, punching or finish station, the initial page is a competitor selection screen (see Selecting Competitors chapter). You can select yourself and punch your start, answer or finish (see Punching at a punching station chapter). If you are a marshal using ANT in the event supervisor mode, the initial page is a screen with a set of buttons for invoking operations that, in our opinion, you will need most often. Before the competition, charge your phone/tablet fully and cut your fingernails. :-) Or keep in mind that you can use your fingertips instead.
Setting Preferences The Preferences menu item allows you to adapt some functions or behavior of the app according to your wish. If you don't like using your phone/tablet's default language, or this language is not supported, you can choose one of the supported languages. ANT needs a working directory to be set. Normally ANT chooses it by himself, but sometimes a publicly accessible directory must be set manually. At timed controls, ANT displays instructions and questions that marshals must give to competitors. They have two parts: one is given before showing the scene, the other afterward. You can choose whether ANT shows them on two separate screens, or together on a single screen. To prevent unintentional answers selection when punching, you can choose to protect task selection by configuring ANT either to require a double click when you select a task, or to have you confirm each task selection using an extra button. After reading out a ToePunch system chipset, competitor's result can be printed on a Bluetooth printer. You can switch this feature on or off and select a printer in the menu Preferences.
Setting System Permissions ANT needs some system permissions to be set for him so that he can control mobile behavior during the work. Dialogs for these settings are automacially invoked only if they are needed in the current mode and should be accepted by the user. ANT needs permission to change the general settings of the phone/tablet so that it can disable automatic sleep mode. If access to this setting is not permitted, you should manually set the screen off timeout to several minutes. ANT needs access to the "Do Not Disturb" mode setting so that it can reject incoming calls solely for the period of running the timer. ⚠ Some phone applications are so invasive that they ignore this setting. We recommended making a test call to the device while measuring times! ⚠ If access to this setting is not permitted, you should disable incoming calls manually. ANT needs access to Bluetooth, if you want to print competitors' punching on a BT printer. If access to Bluetooth is not permitted, you cannot print competitors' punching.
Event Configuration The Event menu item allows you to change event configuration, i.e. to choose a new event, or change some attributes of an already loaded configuration. Most users will never need it. Before using ANT for a new event, you should use the Clear Event button to clear the old configuration. If there are also old result files, the program will ask you whether to delete them or not. Respond No in typical cases. Files from old events cause no problem and they might be used later for further analysis. Respond Yes if you tried the application before the event and you have stored meaningless data related to the current event. If you have a configuration file prepared, you need only configure the Configuration File item according to the instructions from the organizer (see Selecting Resources/Targets) and the application will load the configuration by itself. This will complete the configuration and you can leave the dialog via the Done button. The following steps are typically needed only if you create a configuration by yourself. The Event ID item is needed for distinguishing events when processing multiple result files. If you configure an event on another day than on the day of the competition, you can change the date. Depending on the current application mode you can change some event settings, e.g. whether competitors can answer in free order and whether they can change their answers. For testing purposes you can enable the Test mode in which ANT does not set the Do Not Disturb mode and screen off timeout. You can choose a method of competitor identification. Besides identifying by name or startnumber it is also possible to use general NFC chips or ToePunch chips. In this case you can choose whether unknown chips are to be assigned to competitors in the startlist. ToePunch system chips can be used purely for identification, or for saving competitors' result at a timed station. You can lock the menu so that competitors cannot change event settings. You must then set a PIN and/or set of chip numbers for marshals to be able to unlock the menu. For timed controls, you can specify that there will be a second timekeeper and both times will be stored to the result file. Instructions to be displayed or told to competitors may be in English or in the application language. At timed controls, ANT displays instructions and questions that marshals must give to competitors. They have two parts: one is given before showing the scene, the other afterward. You can choose whether ANT shows them on two separate screens, or together on a single screen. It is also possible to choose which information and questions will be displayed and in what order. If ANT calculates results, you can choose whether they will be displayed in complete form, or without answers, points and times.
Stations and Courses Configuration The Stations and Courses menu items allows an organizer to change various parameters of the event. Regular user usually does not need it. The only exception is when a marshal activates the timed control station(s) where (s)he will work. This is done by clicking a button at the beginning of appropriate row(s). A similar approach is used when an organizer activates punching, start and finish stations when ANT is used as a punching device. If you configure an event by yourself, you must enter station/course data in editing mode, which you can switch to by pressing the "gear" button in the top right corner. Station parameters: Class (if defined by the organizer, e.g. category, stage, heat) Station/course part number, Number of flags at station, Zero answers, Number of tasks at station/in course part, Time limit in seconds (timed controls only), Number of seconds before time limit to warn competitors (timed controls only), Correct answers (if ANT calculates race results). If two marshals are timing, you can determine which device will send the results to the server (by ticking the checkbox in the column with the upload icon). New stations/course parts can be added by the Add button. You must confirm your changes by pressing the Done button.
Startlist Management The Startlist menu item allows you to view the startlist (or rather "the list of participants") by clicking the magnifier icon button in the row with requested class. If the configuration contains an external link to the startlist source, it can be repeatedly downloaded by clicking the download icon. The Starter button can be used to start the "starter clock". After starting, a possible start delay is entered and then the running time and the current cut-out of the startlist corresponding to the current time appear on the screen. The application can work with a startlist in several modes: The startlist is a part of the configuration file. This is the most common way. In this case, no special action is needed since the startlist will be loaded automatically and can be reloaded by loading an updated configuration if needed. No startlist is used (option No startlist), all competitors names or numbers must be entered manually. The organizer has published a startlist on a web server and specified its URL address in the configuration file. In this case you can load the startlist by clicking the download button. The organizer has provided a startlist in a separate file. In this case you should enter/select its path (see the help for the Selecting Resources/Targets dialog) and it will be loaded.
Map Configuration If you want to use maps shown at ANT display at a timed control you have to define a map source: In the case of a web source, you enter the URL and after the tarball with maps is downloaded, it will be extracted to an internal directory. If the maps are already present on the local filesystem, you have to specify the root directory (with maps or with per-class directories with maps). While registering answers, the device display orientation is fixed. You can choose portrait or landscape orientation according to which one is better for your particular map format. For each station, you have to set the following attributes: Map image zoom (in %). A flag indicating whether maps are complete (they include control descriptions and a north arrow), or whether the maps and descriptions are in separate files. The counterclockwise rotation angle requested (i.e. viewing direction in degrees). A flag indicating whether the map is to be cut in a circular shape. You can preview maps for a station by clicking the magnifier button. You must confirm your changes by clicking the Done button.
Selecting Resources/Targets This dialog appears in several situations where a resource (for data input or output) is to be chosen. If you are a marshal or a competitor, you will typically use it just once, to select the location of event data provided by organizers. The resource can be located in various places: If the resource is on a web server, you should enter the URL address (except the case of servers ant.yq.cz, top.yq.cz and preoresultat.se whose URL is known). Besides the address, the event ID is usually also required. If the server supports this function, you can download the list of events (using the button with the magnifier icon) and select the proper one by clicking on a particular list item. If the resource is on a server running on another ANT device (ANT Master Server) you must check and possibly correct the IP address in the URL. If the resource is on the local filesystem, you can enter a file or directory path manually, or select it by browsing the disk (using the magnifier icon button). If the resource is on a device connected via Bluetooth you will need to switch Bluetooth on and pair the devices. ANT will bring up the appropriate system setting dialog. Any additional data (e.g. password, character set etc.) provided by the organizer should be entered into the appropriate fields. For HTTP uploads, you can specify a timeout to prevent an extremely long wait in case of network problems.
Selecting Competitors A competitor name and/or start number can be either selected from the startlist or entered manually, or (s)he can be identified by putting an NFC chip to the device. You can switch between these modes using the buttons with the NFC and keyboard icons. If ANT knows your mobile/tablet type, a green marker on the screen helps to indicate the NFC reader position. It is placed either approximately in the middle of the device, or at the edge or corner in the arrow direction. The chip has to be placed at the reverse side of the device. In case of Toe chips, any chip from the set can be used. If you have a startlist, you can type any part of the name or number (and thus avoid typing any non-ASCII/national alphabet characters) and a scrollable filtered list of competitors will appear. If you use a single space as the pattern, you will get the entire startlist. If the list of competitors occurs and you don't want to select from it, you can press the Back button or click out of the list. If you use the application buttons with digits, the filtered list is shown only after you click the filter button (funnel icon), or when the selection is unique. Clicking the full funnel shows all competitors; clicking the empty one only those who haven't finished a particular station/course part yet. Application buttons with digits sometimes do not show the filtered list. In this case just click to the editbox for a competitor name to show the keyboard and press Back to hide it again. Then the filter should work. Selecting competitors in the vertical orientation of your phone/tablet is better because the list of competitors appears immediately. In horizontal orientation, you can achieve a similar effect by pressing the Done button after entering enough characters of the name or number. If a new competitor comes who is not present in the startlist (or if you have no startlist) you must enter their whole name or number manually. By pressing the Back key, you can return back to the main menu. From there, you can use the Marshal button to return back to competitor selection.
Marshal at a Timed Control As soon as you press the NOW! button, the timer starts and answer buttons (incl. the X button for any invalid answer) appear. Since this moment you cannot return and have to finish the procedure. After the last answer or when the time limit is over, the Stop button (with a black square) appears, however the timer doesn't stop and any additional answers and times will still be recorded (so that they will be available in any case). If you press a wrong answer button, press the correct one afterwards and keep going. If you press a button by mistake, keep going. ANT lets you correct mistakes such as these before saving the data. If you pressed the NOW! button prematurely, you have two choices: Either just click any answer buttons and after the "measurement" you choose to edit the record (see Updating Answers and Times), but you delete the record. Then you return back to the start of timing. If only a few seconds have passed, let the timer run, finish the start procedure with the competitor and press the X button at the moment when the timing actually starts. Later you can remove this initial part including the first "answer" and move the start (using the Move start button). If a call arrives while you are measuring time, a phone application window may pop up temporarily, covering the display. In such case, no action is required, the window will disappear right away without disrupting the measuring process. The only way to exit this dialog is to press the Stop button.
Recording Answers and Times After stopping the time, the competitor's answers and time will appear and you have to finish the result recording operation. If everything was OK, you simply press the Save button. Successful saving the record to the internal disc is confirmed by ANT and you can rewrite the record to the competitor's backup paper card. If there is the second timekeeper at the station, you have to check and, if necessary, adjust the time recorded by the second marshal. In the exceptional case that a problem has occurred, you can and should change any wrong data in the record prior to saving and sending to a server. If an automatic upload is set by the organizer, it starts when you click the OK button. If it fails, ANT allows you to change the upload settings. If the automatic upload is not set, you will send the results manually according to the organizer's instruction (see Results Management). The organizer can also decide to store timed control results to competitors' ToePunch system chips (see Recording Result to Toe Chips chapter). If you close the window too early (e.g. before writing data to a paper record or chip), you can restart this dialog using the Review Last Record action of the main menu Special Actions item. If you want to see the results later, you can visit the Results and look at the result file.
Updating Answers and Times If you chose a wrong competitor before starting, you can change the name manually, or select the correct one from the startlist using the magnifier icon (after finishing the selection you can return to edit mode via the icon with a "tick"). You can insert an unrecorded answer (by clicking a button with the "+" symbol). A typical usage is when the competitor turns over two maps at a time. You can change any answer by clicking the answer button. You can remove an answer clicked by mistake and the application will let you keep the original time, or use the later one. Respond Yes, if you pressed the wrong button right when a competitor was answering and you corrected the answer afterwards. Respond No, if you pressed a button by mistake, although the competitor did not answer. In front of the buttons for deleting answers is a button to move the start. This is used if you accidentally started the stopwatch earlier, and pressed a nonsensical answer (X) at the moment of actual start. The button causes the deletion of the entire section from the early start to the actual start. Using the +1/-1 buttons, you can adjust the total time by one second up and down. It is recommended to note changes in the Comment field. All changes can be revoked using the Restore button. The whole record can be also irrevocably deleted by the Remove button. The only way to exit this dialog after making some changes is to press the Save button.
Recording Result to Toe Chips The organizer can decide to store timed control results to competitors' ToePunch system chips so that they can be read out and processed together with the data from the course. In this case, immediately after saving the data to the internal file, the marshal should touch the competitor's Start/Finish/Info chip to the mobile so ANT will save the competitor's answers and time to the chip. If the operation fails, the marshal can touch the chip again or continue without saving the data to the chip.
Punching on a mobile card In mobile card mode (the phone/tablet is carried by a competitor) you identify yourself before the start (see Selecting Competitors chapter), then you select the (part of a) course to compete in (if there is just a single part, this step is skipped) and then a screen with a start (triangle) button appears. After starting the timer, you see buttons for all tasks in the selected (part of the) course. To initiate punching an answer, first click the button with the corresponding task number. Then, all possible answer buttons appear and you can select one by clicking on it. After punching an answer, it is shown on the corresponding task button. You can later change the answer by clicking on it again, if it is permitted by the organizer. To prevent accidental unwanted punches, you can press the Back key or Lock button between individual punchings. The application becomes hidden and you can recall it later. After completing all tasks, you stop the timer by clicking on the stop (black square) button. WARNING! Stopping the timer must be approved by clicking a special button within 5 sec. There are other methods for preventing unintentional screen touches. You can activate them in the Preferences menu (see Setting Preferences chapter).
Punching at a punching station When punching at a punching station, you identify yourself by an NFC chip or by name and/or startnumber (see Selecting Competitors chapter) and a list of tasks to be answered at this station appears. You select a task by clicking anywhere on its row. WARNING! The task must be selected within ca 5 sec. after which ANT will log you off. If there is just a single task at a station, this step is skipped. As soon as you select a task, answer letter buttons appear and you can choose an answer by clicking one of them. The result is immediately saved to the local disc of the device and ANT lets you continue by answering another task (Next button) or logging off (End button).
Toe Chips Readout ANT can be used as a ToePunch system read-out point operated by a marshal (or a competitor). If ANT knows your mobile/tablet type, a green marker on the screen helps to indicate the NFC reader position. It is placed either approximately in the middle of the device, or at the edge or corner in the arrow direction. The chip has to be placed at the reverse side of the device. The chips can be read in any order. When it reads the first chip, ANT tries to find the chip number in the startlist. If it is not found, the number can be newly assigned to a competitor. After reading all chips, the competitor's result can be stored to a result file. This file is listed with an identifier "TR0". In case of any problem, reading a chipset can be retried. The read-out result file can be processed in the Results screen and preliminary results can be calculated from it.
Clearing Toe Chips ANT can be used as a ToePunch system chipsets clearing unit. This operation is among Special Actions in the menu. If ANT knows your mobile/tablet type, a green marker on the screen helps to indicate the NFC reader position. It is placed either approximately in the middle of the device, or at the edge or corner in the arrow direction. The chip has to be placed at the reverse side of the device. The chips can be cleared in any order but all of them have to be cleared. If you try to stop before all chips in the set have been cleared, ANT will warn you.
Results Management The Results page shows you all result files saved in the internal storage of the phone/tablet. You can review, remove and upload them. Reviewing result file can be helpful when you need to check some previously recorded result. The essential data follows a competitor name, in the result file line. The total time is in the 2nd field after the name. The answers start in the 4th field after the name. The complete result record format is described on page ant.yq.cz. For uploading results you have three possibilities: Uploading to a web server (it might be secured by a password that you must enter in the upload configuration dialog). Transferring to a device connected via Bluetooth. Uploading (e.g. to a PC) over USB. If a file contains results which have not yet been uploaded, the corresponding button has a green border. All result files that have not yet been uploaded can be sent to the server using the button at the bottom right corner (with a double arrow). If your device contains result files from punching stations (either ANT ones or the ToePunch system ones) you can merge them into a single result file by clicking an icon in the bottom left corner. This action includes the calculation of preliminary results in the form of an HTML file. This file is stored in the 'pub' subdirectory and can be published by a HTTP server started locally on the smartphone. If you have accidentally misconfigured a station number, you can change the station number in the existing result file by clicking to the station number on the file line. WARNING! Uninstalling the application will remove all these files!
Results Upload The application has several modes for uploading results; you can switch among them according to your needs and connection quality: Manual - The marshal can start an upload manually by clicking the upload button on a line on the Results screen. Automatic - The upload is started after saving each competitor's result. Batch - The upload occurs automatically after every few competitors; the application will ask you for permission to make an upload attempt. You can specify the number of competitors in this case. In automatic and batch mode, you can specify a timeout to prevent an extremely long wait in case of network problems. If the automatic or batch transfer fails, the application offers to open this dialog where you can change the parameters of future uploads. The Package Content option is usually defined by the organizer. It controls whether every transfer contains the entire result file, or just the records saved after the last successful transfer. If the organizer wants, sending to the server after each answer can be configured. However, this option must be supported by the target result server. All changes must be confirmed by the Done button.
ANT Master Server The ANT Master Server item of the Special Actions menu invokes a mode, where the application acts as an HTTP server which can be used to download the configuration and upload results on other ANT devices. This mode is used in a situation where there is no good signal coverage in the competition area and mobile phones cannot communicate with the result server directly. A WiFi hotspot will be set up on the device with AMS and the slave devices will set this network for connecting to WiFi. At the same time, the IP address of the device with AMS is set as the target server on them. In the moment when a device with AMS is close, the slave device can download configuration or send results. Before starting the server you can adjust the configuration sent to the clients. Specifically, you can set whether they will send the results back to the mobile with AMS or to the same server as the device with AMS. After starting, the server begins accepting result files and counting the number of received records. At a suitable moment, you can stop the server and if you have enabled automatic uploading to the final server, ANT will try to send all new results. ANT Master Server can also receive and collect data from ToePunch system units.
Problem reporting If you encounter a problematic behavior of the app, we would appreciate it if you could save the application log as soon as possible and then send it to us with some comment. You can start the log management module from the menu using the Problem reporting item. The Save log button saves a copy of the current system log to a new file so that it can be later sent to developers and also lets you add a comment directly. For uploading logs you have three possibilities: Uploading to a web server (ant.yq.cz). Transferring to a device connected via Bluetooth. Uploading (e.g. to a PC) over USB. WARNING! Uninstalling the application will remove all log files!