This user guide describes how to seamlessly integrate the Roster Athletics platform with the TimeTronics Argus timing system.


This guide is divided into a few sections below:


What do you need to do to set up the integration?

  • You have already created the meeting/meet on the Roster Athletics platform.
  • You have downloaded and installed the Roster/timing data transfer program named Roster Athletics Agent (you can download the program here: Download and install the RosterAgent).
  • You have a full license to use the TimeTronics Argus software (note that TimeTronics only works with Windows). You can download it here: https://www.timetronics.be/support.

 

The RosterAgent program is a small program that allows communications between the Roster platform and TimeTronics so that they can stay in sync with each other during the competition for start lists upload from Roster to TimeTronics and results download and sync from TimeTronics to the Roster platform (and immediately in the app).

 

Now you should have everything ready to start the integration. Make sure you have the following three programs open: 

  1. Roster Athletics in a browser
  2. TimeTronics Argus running
  3. RosterAgent running

 


Integration type


The RosterAgent shares information data between TimeTronics and Roster using shared PAR files (start lists) and TXT files (results). It works if you are using the same computer or a shared file folder between computers (e.g. one computer running Roster/Roster Agent and another running TimeTronics).


To start integration, you must select the Input directory (start list updates) for PAR files and the Output directory (result files) for TXT files while using the PAR sub-directory name, and have them point to the same locations as the corresponding "parfilesdir" and resfilesdir" directory structure in the Argus Sync file.


TIP: the input and output directories should be folders or sub-folders on a drive (e.g., C:), and you should avoid adding the folder directly to your desktop. 



Starting integration


1. Choose participants you want to export from Roster Athletics to TimeTronics. You can find this setting on the meeting Details in the Timing system integration section.

You can export all participants or exclude participants with DNS and SCR statuses (e.g. when you already know before the competition that the athlete will not show up but do not want to remove him/her).



2. In the Exported events field, you can choose an option for the category of events you want to send to the Agent for timing. You can export all events or exclude finished events.


3. In the same section below, choose the format that will be used for PAR files.



There are 3 Event description format types to choose from. PAR files name will be displayed as follows:


  • Detailed format: event time, event name, gender (if more than one gender), age group (if more than one age group), event title (if a title is assigned), group/heat number (if they have been assigned).
  • Simple format: event name, gender (if more than one gender), age group (if more than one age group), group/heat number (if they have been assigned).
  • Custom format: allows you to choose your file format.



The Custom format field allows you to pick the file format. Click on the descriptors of your choice to add them to the field. Erase by simply deleting them. Please note that the field format requires colons around each descriptor, and a single space must separate the descriptors. Thus :EventName: :Gender: would display only the event names and gender for each event. The options are as follows:

  • Age group: always display the event age group
  • Age group opt.: display the event age group if only there is more than one age group in the meeting (Note: recommend choosing either Age group or Age group opt., but not both)
  • Combined prefix opt.: display the combined parent event if a combined event is used
  • Date: always display the event date in YYYYMMDD format
  • Event label opt.: display the event title if one exists for the event
  • Event name: always display the event name
  • Gender: always display the event's gender
  • Gender opt.: display the event gender only if only there is more than one gender in the meeting (Note: recommend choosing either Gender or Gender opt., but not both).
  • Group opt.: display the group/heat number only if they are used for the event
  • Stage: always display the event stage
  • Time: always display the event time


If you need to reset the Custom setting, press the Default symbol to return to the initial set of recommended default parameters.


3. Now, you are ready to load and integrate your meeting/meet data.


Open the relevant meeting and go to Details. On the left-hand side, click the Agent config button and select TimeTronics (Argus).



This will download an authentication .roster file for your specific meeting/meet that lets the RosterAgent know to use this meeting to connect with TimeTronics Argus. Save the file in a place where you can easily find it again. 


Please note: It is critical that you use the LAST downloaded authentication file to load into the RosterAgent. Otherwise, the permissions will not match and you will not be able to connect to your meeting (“Can’t connect - permission denied”).

 

Once the authentication file is downloaded, go to the RosterAgent. Click on Load configuration and select the latest .roster file (e.g., meeting-xxx-auth.roster) for this meeting/meet that you downloaded (as soon as you load the configuration, a ".roster" file will be saved. This file stores the directory information so you don't need to enter directory settings every time.).


Click Start. TimeTronics Argus and Roster Athletics are connected if the Result monitor status is Active and the Connection status is Connected.


Note that Stop will stop the connection, and Quit will exit the program completely. To change a configuration file or to change input/output directories, the connection must be stopped (i.e. no active connection).


 

If you have Show notifications enabled by default, you will see status messages such as:



You can disable notifications by pressing the Show notifications button, which will then appear as a lighter shade button.


When the Roster Agent is running, pay attention to the Result monitor and Connection statuses:


Result monitor:

  • Active - normal operational mode
  • Idle
  • Initialising
  • Stopping


Connection:

  • Connecting
  • Connected - normal operational mode
  • Disconnecting
  • Disconnected
  • Reconnecting - the agent will automatically attempt to reconnect
  • Invalid - using the outdated configuration file: try to re-download and then reload the config file


Once you have prepared your start lists in Roster Athletics, go to TimeTronics Argus, select the desired PAR-file (.par) and continue in the standard TimeTronics procedure.


Each start list has a unique PAR-file. You can identify the correct file via the name, which has the following information: "meeting ID - event details with data that you can select in the Event description format - [event ID]" (e.g., [meet1023] 1000 100m - Senior - Heat 1 [10012].par).


 

When the start list for a particular event is loaded into TimeTronics Argus, you can start assigning times. Once the event has finished and TimeTronics has marked the results, click the upload results icon within the Results Table top icon bar. After saving, wait approximately 10 seconds or less while the data is synced to Roster Athletics.


You can now go back to Roster Athletics and see the times and rankings for the athletes that have been updated from TimeTronics. The results are also immediately available in the Roster Athletics App.


Important note: every time an update to the start list is made in Roster Athletics, it is automatically pushed to the Roster Athletics Agent, but you will still need to open the latest generated PAR-file in TimeTronics Argus to load these changes. Also please note that field events are not supported.


If a wind reading is available in TimeTronics, this information will be automatically transferred to Roster Athletics. 


BIB numbers: If you have added BIB numbers in Roster Athletics, they will be under the field BIB. This field may also include a lane in parentheses if assigned.


Competitor status: in TimeTronics Argus, the status for each athlete can be set under Rank or Time → `click CTRL` + select the Status. These status options translate to Roster in the following manner:

  • A time is added, and no status → OK + result
  • did not start (DNS) → DNS
  • did not finish (DNF) → DNF
  • disqualified (DQ) → DQ (+ selection of DQ rule)


DQ rules can be added in Roster but not directly from TimeTronics.



Troubleshooting Tips & Tricks


  • Make sure you are running the latest version of the RosterAgent (please see the Download and install RosterAgent for the latest version number).
  • If a message of "Can't connect - permission denied" message pops up while trying to connect the RosterAgent, make you have loaded the latest version of the meeting/meet agent configuration file. This file is downloaded from meeting Details → Agent config.
  • The Roster Agent has the ability to queue up saved TimeTronics results if you lose connectivity (e.g. bad or very slow internet). If you lose the connection, the saved TXT files will be queued up and uploaded automatically once the reconnection has been detected and re-established by the Agent. The upload queue is visible in the RosterAgent and will normally be empty when there are no connection issues or cleared once any queued results are automatically uploaded.