Scoring Program Updates & XML upload to the NSRCA web site July 2013

Loading an existing contest The scoring program normally runs in the /pattern/ScoringProgram dir. When the program starts, sub dirs below the starting dir of score are assumed to contain existing contests. To load an existing contest enter the contest directory in the text box provided and press the initialize contest button. Enter the contest dir that contains the contest you would like to load or click on this box to see a list of existing contests. After the contest dir is defined press this button to load the contest. You will see the following confirmation box: After you select yes on the confirmation box the contest will load and the initialize button will be grayed out indicating the contest is loaded. When loading an existing contest these class options are ignored and should be left unchecked.

Unloading an existing contest A contest can be unloaded by closing all the spreadsheets and saving there contents. This can also be done by pressing the unload current contest button. This will unload all the current contest spreadsheets but the score program will not exit. This unload operation will put the score program in state ready to allow loading another contest or setting up a new contest. Press this button to save and unload all the current contest spreadsheets. These controls and text boxes are grayed out and disabled when a contest is loaded. When the unload button is pressed and after the unload completes these options will be reenabled.

Generating contest report XML files The NSRCA has developed a contest results reporting system that requires results be placed in a specific XML format. The score program will automatically generate these files and will even zip them up and attached them to an addressed to your district contact person for upload to the NSRCA web site. The following few slides define how to generate the files and the results. After the contest is complete and all scores have been entered press the reporting tab. Press the print standing report button to generate the XML reports. You will see the following message asking for your district number: Enter your district number only, 1 through 8 or Canada. The XML files will be generated and placed in the contest directory for the currently loaded contest.

Generating contest report XML files, cont. After the XML files are generated, all the files in the contest directory are placed in a zip file and this zip file is saved in the same directory as the score program, normally this is the /pattern/ScoringProgram directory. The contest worksheet of the score workbook contains a table of district contact addresses. This table is used to define an address to allow sending the results to your contact person. Before the score program sends or attempts to send the you will see the following message: If you would like to the results and you are connected to the internet press the yes button. You will see a couple of warning messages that you need to allow, these are messages from your system warning you that a program is trying to send . If there is no address in the district contacts table for your district the mail message will appear and you will need to manually enter the address. You can also navigate to the /pattern/ScoringProgram dir and select the zip file for manually if you like or if this operation fails.

Generating contest report XML files, cont. After the operation has completed you will see one more dialog box as shown below: The scoring program has created a summary of the contest results and this is saved on the standing summary worksheet of the score workbook. If you select Yes to this option the summary will be printed.

Uploading XML files to the NSRCA web site The procedure is pretty simple to upload the XML files to the NSRCA web site but you will need the following access privileges: 1.) FTP access to the web site, you will need to upload the XML files. FTP address: ftp.nsrca.usftp.nsrca.us User ID: Password: (Provided by webmaster) 2.) Administrator privileges to the event calendar on the joomla NSRCA web site (provided by the webmaster) Make sure you expand the zip file containing your XML files in a temporary directory (on your computer) for upload to the web site. You will be uploading all the individual XML files contained in the zip file to the proper directory on the web site using an FTP client. It is assumed that the contest you wish to upload to the web site has already been defined in the event calendar and the list of all your contests including the one you wish to update are shown on contest results option for the district and year you are selecting. Assuming this is true the following pages define the upload procedure in detail.

Uploading XML files to the NSRCA web site Uploading the XML files: Using an FTP client tool of your choice connect to ftp.nsrca.us and then navigate to the contest_results directory. An example picture for the 2013 year and D8 is shown below:

Uploading XML files to the NSRCA web site Uploading the XML files: In this directory you need to create a sub directory for the contest and files you are about to upload. For example if the files are from our Redmond contest I would create a Redmond sub directory and then upload all the xml files that are contained in the contest zip file to this new sub directory. So after this operation is complete the following directory would exist and contain all the XML files. /contest_results/2013/D8/Redmond Remember the sub directory name, we will need it later and case is also important!

Uploading XML files to the NSRCA web site, cont. Updating the event calendar: Using the browser of you choice go to the nsrca web site, nsrca.us. Make sure you log into the site. Next select the contest result option on the top menu and navigate to the year and district you want to update. You will see a page similar this the one show below: Select the contest you want to update by clicking on the contest name hyperlink.

After you select your contest you will see the following page: Press the edit button so that you can enter the path to the files you uploaded using the FTP process. If you do not see the edit button on this form then you do not have the needed privileges to do the updates. Uploading XML files to the NSRCA web site, cont.

After clicking the Edit button you should see the following popup… please select Edit Event. Uploading XML files to the NSRCA web site, cont.

After you select edit as outlined on the previous page you will see the form below. Enter the directory information as outlined below – you’ll have to scroll down the page to see the URL entry line After you have completed this update press the Save button at the top of the form. This will complete the upload process. Uploading XML files to the NSRCA web site, cont. Enter the path in this box. Use the same directory name (including case) that you used when you created the directory during the FTP process. This path also needs to include the XML file name that contains the results. This file name is always the same. So in this case the data entered into this box is Redmond/contestResults.XML.