The goals of JRaceman are:

To satisfy these goals, Jraceman:

JRaceman deals with eleven main types of data divided into two groups. There are eight data types relating to the events you manipulate, and three data types which cover the participants in events.

The eight main Event Data Types are:

The three main Participant Data Types are:

This section describes the database as used by JRaceman.

Progression refers to the manner in which the winners of early rounds in a race move on to the later rounds. For example, in an Event with Heats, Semi-Finals, and Finals, the Progression for the Event may specify that the first-place winners of each Heat go directly to the Final round, the second-place through sixth-place winners of the Heats go to the Semi-Finals, and the seventh-place and later finishers of the Heats are out of the Event. The same Progression would specify which finishers in the Semi-Final round move on the Final round. The Progression also specifies the lane assignments for the finishers who are advancing.

The set of rules which apply to a specific Event is refered to as the Progression Plan for that Event. A set of Progessions Plans taken together form a system of Progressions. For example, one Plan may determine how finishers advance from Heats through Semi-Finals to Finals when there are two Heats; another Plan in the same system may determine how finishers advance when there are three Heats; and another may determine it when there are four Heats.

If an Event has only one round, then there is no Progression for that Event.

JRaceman is capable of automatic or manual Progressions. In an automatic Progression, you specify the Progression system to use for an Event. JRaceman picks the Plan to use based on the number of Entries in that Event. After entering the data for a Round, a single button-press tells JRaceman to use the automatic Progression to do the lane assignments for the following Rounds.

When using manual progression, you must enter the lane assignements for each round yourself.

You can create a Custom automatic progression using Simplans or Complans. You can also use the manual progression tools to make changes to the lane assignments created by an automatic or custom progression.

JRaceman is set up to calculate scores for a meet. Scoring is based on the finishing place in the final round of an Event. Points are awarded to finishers in each Event, then added up based on Team to get totals for each team.

JRaceman is a 100% Java program, and requires Java in order to run. To install Java on your system, download JRE 5.0 (also known as 1.5) from Sun's Java web site and follow those installation directions.

JRaceman is delivered in a self-extracting JAR file. You must have Java running on your system in order to extract it.

To install JRaceman from the self-extracting JAR file (.jar extension), double-click on the JAR file, or run the command

java -jar jraceman-N_N_N.jar

This will open a dialog allowing you to specify a destination directory, and it will create a directory called jraceman-N_N_N in the specified directory, where N_N_N is replaced by the JRaceman version number.

To install the web registration module, see the Web Registration chapter.

If you want to build JRaceman yourself, or just look at the source code, you will have to unpack the source files from the src.zip archive file with the commands

cd jraceman-N_N_N;
unzip src.zip

This will create a src directory with all of the Java files, as well as adding a few other files (such as a Makefile) to your jraceman directory.

Similarly, if you want to look at the Javadoc-generated API documentation for the Java classes, you must first unpack those html files from the apidoc.zip archive file with the commands

cd jraceman-N_N_N;
unzip apidoc.zip

This will create the directory doc/api with all of the API documentation in it. Alternatively, you can unpack src.zip and then run the command

make doc

to run javadoc and create the API documents from the source files.

The JRaceman kit does not include the source to the Mckoi database. You can download the Mckoi database source from the Mckoi web site, or from the same location from which you downloaded JRaceman. You do not need the Mckoi source to compile JRaceman; the mckoidb.jar file included in the JRaceman kit is sufficient.

The JRaceman kit does not include the source to the jRegistryKey package. You can download the jRegistryKey source from the jRegistryKey web site, or from the same location from which you downloaded JRaceman. You do not need the jRegistryKey source to compile JRaceman; the jRegisgtryKey.jar file included in the JRaceman kit is sufficient.

If you have not already done so, you must install Java.

When you install a new version of JRaceman, you may need to upgrade your database. The new version of JRaceman may use new tables or columns, or, less likely, the format of the underlying Mckoi database may have changed.

Before upgrading to a newer version of JRaceman, be sure to back up your database with the old version in case there are database format changes. In particular, you should create an export file from your database (using the Export command in the Database menu) which can be used to import your data into a new database if required.

When you first run a new version of JRaceman, it checks to see if the database needs to be upgraded. If so, it opens a dialog asking you if you want to upgrade. Typically you will have to upgrade in order to run the new version of JRaceman.

You can force JRaceman to run an upgrade. After backing up your database and installing the new version of JRaceman, run this command:

java -jar jraceman.jar -db database -upgrade

This will add all necessary new tables and columns to your database. If you want to see what new tables and columns will be added without actually adding them, use the -checkupgrade command line option rather than the -upgrade command line option.

With an older database, you may receive a message something like this:

The state store for this database doesn't exist. This means the database version is pre version 1.0. Please see the README for the details for converting this database.

This message comes from the Mckoi database engine, and indicates that the underlying Mckoi database format has changed. The README file referred to in that message is the Mckoi README file, which tells how to perform the Mckoi database upgrade. Rather than doing this, you should probably export from your old database and import into a newly created database.

If the underlying Mckoi database format has changed, the simplest upgrade path is to create an export file with the old version of JRaceman (using the Export command in the Database menu), then create a new empty database with the new version of JRaceman, and finally import the previously created export file into the new database with the new version of JRaceman (using the Import command in the Database menu).

Some versions of JRaceman may have special upgrade instructions, which will be in the HISTORY file.

For smaller races, the simplest way to run JRaceman is to use the default database with a single user. This is how JRaceman runs if you do not specify any special command line options.

For larger races, you may want to allow multiple people to access the database simultaneously. In this situation, you can run a JRaceman database server, after which multiple clients can run and connect to that server.

To start a JRaceman server, run JRaceman on your server machine with this command line:

java -jar jraceman.jar -db database -runserver

This will start a JRaceman database server listening on TCP port 9157. After the server starts, you can start one or more JRaceman clients this this command:

java -jar jraceman.jar -dbhost servername

where servername is the name of the machine on which the JRaceman database server is running. When you want to shut down the server, first exit from all of the clients and then run this command:

java -jar jraceman.jar -dbhost servername -sql SHUTDOWN

If, when installing JRaceman on Windows, you left the "Install Shortcuts on Desktop" selected checked, there will be shortcuts to start the server, stop the server, start the client, and start in standalone mode. You can look at the Properties on these shortcuts to see how they work. For a multi-user system, copy the start-client shortcut and change the Properties to pass in the servername of the JRaceman host computer.

By default, JRaceman uses a built-in username of "jraceman" and password of "jraceman". For single-user systems and trusted networks, this is usually acceptable. For increased security, particularly when running a JRaceman database server, you can specify another user and password. To do so, use the -user and the -password options the first time you run JRaceman for a new database:

java -jar jraceman.jar -db database -user username -password password

After this, when running a client (or when running in single-user mode), you can either specify the user (and optionally the password) on the command line in the same manner, or you can simply start JRaceman and fill in the user name and password when it presents you with the dialog for that purpose.

The first time you use JRaceman for a meet, you must create a new database. If you start JRaceman with no command line options, it will look for a database in its default location. Alternatively, you can use the -db database-path command line option to specify the location of your database. In either case, if the database does not exist JRaceman will ask you if you want to create it. Say yes, and your new database will be created with all necessary tables but no data.

At some point you should visit the Backup tab in the Database tab to set up a backup directory. Once this has been set up, you can easily create a backup snapshot of the database by pressing a single button in the Backup tab, or by pressing the Backup button in the menu bar.

After creating a new database, you must set up the Sport definitions. The easiest way to do this is to load a standard set of sport data. JRaceman includes a sport definition file for USACK sprint canoe/kayak races. To load this file, open the Database menu and select the Import JRaceman Data File command. Navigate to the directory in which you installed JRaceman, then from there down into the data directory. Select the file called usack-sports.txt and press the Open button. This will import the USACK sport definition file.

If you already have a database, you may want to add your meet to that database. This has the advantage that much of the data may already be there, such as the Site and Team data. Or you can dump some or all of the data from your old database into a text file, possibly edit the text file to leave only the data you want to transfer, then import it into your new database.

After you have created your database you can start entering data about your Meet. First you must define the Site at which your Meet will be held, and possibly the Areas within that site. This is done in the Site Setup tab.

If your race course is non-standard, or for some reason you want lanes to be assigned in some other order than starting at 1 and counting up, you can specify the order of lane assignment (for initial lane draws and for Simplan and Complan progressions) using the Lane Order tab in the Site Setup tab.

After the Site is defined, you can start on the Meet. Use the Meets tab to define the Meet, then use the Events tab to enter all of your Events. Remember that an Event consists of multiple Races.

After your Events are defined you can start working on your race schedule. In order to do this, you must have some idea of how many people are entering each event in order to determine how many races there will be. You can estimate this number for now in order to create your preliminary schedule. Later, after you have the Entries data and thus have an exact count, you can easily go back and modify the schedule if necessary.

Select the Schedule tab in the Meet Setup tab to work on your schedule. Using that tab you can select one Event at a time, enter the estimated number of Entries for that Event, and create the Races for that many entries. Once all of the Races are created, you can assign numbers to each Race, order them by race number, and assign a date and time for each Race. For details on how to do this, see the section for the Schedule tab.

Before you can enter data for Entries (which tell who is racing in each Event), you must enter data for each Team and each Person who is competing. You do this using the tabs in the Team Setup tab.

After you have entered the People, you can use JRaceman to register them for a specific meet by using the Registration tab. This optional step allows you to see who has not yet paid or not yet turned in a signed waiver form. If these are not concerns for your meet, or if you are using another system rather than JRaceman to manage this data, then you can ignore registration.

If you are using web registration, you can have JRaceman automatically calculate the registration fees based on the number of entries for a person. To set this up, you must enter data into the Registration Fees tab.

After you have entered the Teams and People you can enter the Entries data. The Entries tab is in the Meet Setup tab.

There is one Entries record for each combination of Person and Event. For Group events, such as team boats or relay races, there is still a separate Entry for each person in that group. The Entries within a Group are identified by setting the same Group value on all of those Entries for that Event. The Group values themselves are arbitrary, and can be reused for multiple Events.

After you have entered all of the Entries, you may need (or wish) to go back to the Schedule tab to redo the number of Races in some Events, scratch some Events, or otherwise fix up the Schedule.

You may wish to assign lanes before your scratch meeting. The easiest way to do this is to use the Draw First Round for Matching Events command from the Schedule menu in the Schedule tab. In order to do this, you must already have created the Races for the Events. You may want to do this using the Create Races for Matching Events command from the Schedule menu in the Schedule tab.

You may wish to assigne lanes and print out Lane reports for your scratch meeting. To do this, see the Printing Lane Sheets section below. When printing Lane Sheets and Schedules for the scratch meeting, you probably want to set the Preliminary toggle so that the reports include the PRELIMINARY watermark in the background.

After completing all of the previous sections, you have entered all of data for the Meet, Teams and People, Events and Entries. At the scratch meeting just before the meet, you may have to modify some of this data. You can make these changes using only the tabs you have already used, or you can use the By Event tab.

To add, delete, or change Entries for a particular Event, use the By Event tab, select the Event of interest, and select the Entries/Progress task. That screen allows you to add, delete, and change Entries for that Event, and to change the group, alternate, and lane assignments for each Entry.

There are two ways you can scratch an Entry, depending on whether or not you want the Entry to appear as a Scratch in the reports for the Race. You can delete the Entry, in which case it will not appear anywhere, or you can mark it as a Scratch, in which case it will appear in reports as a scratch. You might want the Entry to appear as a scratch if you have already done lane assignments and are not planning on reassigning; showing the scratch explains an otherwise-empty lane.

To delete an Entry, use the By Event tab as described above. To mark an Entry as scratched, select the Event in the By Event tab and select the Entries/Progress task. Click on the checkbox in the Scratched column for the Entry to be scratched.

You can also use the Entries tab to add, edit and delete Entries. In particular, if you will be changing a number of Entries for one person, The Person Entries tab in the Entries tab is an easy way to do that.

If adding or removing an Entry changes the number of Races required for that Event, you can make that change. After changing the Entries in the By Event tab, select the Create Races task. This will display the number of Entries for that Event. Press the Create Races button. If the new number of Races is less than the existing number of Races, some of the existing Races are deleted. If the new number of Races is greater than the existing number of Races, new Races are created. If Races were deleted, you need not do anything to your Race Schedule, it will just have a few holes in it where those Races used to be. If, however, new Races were created, you will need to add those new Races to your Schedule using the Schedule tab. In this case, you will probably find the Auto-Increment features of the Schedule tab useful.

Once the scratch meeting has finished, you can print up the final schedule and the Lane Sheets. Use the Schedule tab to print up a schedule.

Before printing the Lane Sheets, you must make sure you have assigned lanes for all races. Note that assigning lanes is a separate step from creating the Races, which you have already done during the process of creating the schedule. You can manually assign lane numbers, or you can have JRaceman automatically assign lane numbers.

To automatically assign lane numbers for all Races, use the Schedule tab as described above. To assigne lane numbers for one events, you can use the Schedule tab and enter that Event number into the selection box on the left side of the form, then use the Draw First Round command, or you can use the By Event tab, select the Entries/Progress task, and then press the Draw First Round button.

To manually assign lane numbers for the first round, the simplest approach is to use automatic lane assigment, after which you can manually change those lane assignments using the Entries/Progress task in the By Event tab.

Once you have completed your lane assigments, you are ready to print out the Lane Sheets. This is done in the Reports tab. You can print up all of the Lane Sheets at once by selecting your Meet on the right side of the tab and selecting the desired report format on the left side. Press the Generate button to create the report into the Report tab. You can then use one of the commands in the Report menu to print the report directly or to save it to a file.

If you need to scratch an Event or a Race during a meet, you can do so by setting the "scratched" flag in the Event or Race. You should also set the comment for the scratched Event or Race so that it will appear on the schedule the next time you print it. To set these values for Events, use the Events tab. To set these values for Races, use the Schedule tab. When you reprint the revised schedule, you probably want to use the "Revised" annotation on it.

There are three ways to scratch a competitor from an Event, depending on when it happens. If the scratch happens before the lane assignments have been printed up and distributed, such as if it happens at the scratch meeting, you can simply delete the Entry for that person in that Event. You can do this from the Entries/Progress task in the Entries tab.

If the scratch happens after the lane assignments have been distributed but before the first race of the Event, you can set the "scratched" flag in the Entry for that competitor. The competitor's name will still be printed in the reports for that Event, but with a line through the name. You can do this from the Entries/Progress task in the Entries tab.

If a competitor is scratched from an Event after having raced in at least one Race in that Event, you should enter that as an exception in the Results task of the By Event tab. Select that tab, then select the Event and Race and select the Results task. For the Entry to be scratched, change the Exception value to SCR for scratched. The SCR indication will appear in the results column for that competitor in that Race only. Results of other Races are not affected.

The By Event tab provides the primary interface for managing the various steps in an Event. Select the desired Event, then select the appropriate task.

If you are manually entering results into JRaceman, use the By Event tab and the Results task. If you are using the FinishLynx automated finish-line system, use the Transfer tab; if you are using the Omega finish-line system, use the Results task in the By Event tab and select the Import Race Results command from the By Event menu. In either case you can see the results of the race in the ByEvent/Results tab, where you can sort by any column to confirm that you have the right data. If scores are not being auto-updated, press the Recalculate Scores button to calculate the scores for all lanes in the selected race.

After all results data for a race have been entered and the score has been calculated, you can print out a Results Sheet for the race from the Reports task of the By Event tab, or from the Reports tab. Select the "Results" report on the Selected Race and press the Generate button to generate a report into the Report tab. You can use the commands in the Report menu to print the report or to save it to a file.

For multi-round races, use the Entries/Progress task of the By Event tab to manage the progression to the next round. After the results data have been entered for all of the sections of the current round, the Progress button in the Progress task of the By Event tab will become enabled. Press this button to automatically progress finishers to the following rounds. To manually enter the progression for an Event, use the sheet in the Progress task of the By Event tab.

In order for automatic progression to work, you must have specified a Progression for the Event. This is normally done as part of the pre-meet preparation, but if you forgot earlier you can set it now using the Event tab.

After progressing to the next round, print the Lane Sheets for those Races using the Reports task in the By Event tab, or use the Reports tab, just as you did when printing up the original Lane Sheets.

The last stage of the process is to generate scores and calculate awards. You can do this at any time, either while the races are running or after they are all done.

Use the Score tab to generate score reports. The report will show the current point total for all Events which have been completed and scored. Choose the desired report format and press the Generate button to generate a report into the Report tab. You can use the commands in the Report menu to print the report or to save it to a file.

Use the "Awards" report format in the Reports task or the Reports tab to generate a report that lists all of the people who are to receive medals for an Event. Use the Award Labels tab to generate labels for awards for those people. You can generate these reports and labels as time permits after each completed Event. The Award Labels tab includes a Blank Label Count field that allows you to print additional labels onto a sheet which has been partially used already.

Don't forget to make your results available on the Web! You can easily generate HTML files for your web site by using the Web reports. You can wait until the end to do this, or you can do it while the Meet is in progress in order to provide up-to-the-minute results on your web site. See the chapter on Web Reports for details.

JRaceman produces reports in HTML format. You can view these reports directly in the Reports tab in JRaceman, or you can save the report to a file and view it with your favorite browser. To save a report, use the Save HTML As command in the Report menu.

The HTML produced by JRaceman includes some special markers which are used by JRaceman to control printing. These markers are ignored by standard browsers, so the results of printing a page from a standard browser may not be the same as printing the original report directly from JRaceman. To print a report directly from JRaceman, use the Print command from the Report menu.

JRaceman includes commands to make it easy to maintain a web site with up-to-the-minute race results. To use this capability, you must set up a Web Reports Directory. The Web Reports Directory is specified as one of the fields in a Meet record.

Once you have set up the Web Reports Directory, you can use Web Reports. Using Web Reports is easy. All you have to do is select a Web Report and press the Generate button, everything else is automatic:

You can find the tabs with Web Reports by clicking on the Report command from the Tabs menu. All of the tabs with Web reports are indicated by the word Web in that list of tabs. After going to that tab and selecting the desired Web report, pressing the Generate button does all the rest.

As with any program that uses a database, it is good practice to make backup copies of your data to protect you against power failures or system and program crashes as well as human errors. JRaceman makes it easy to do frequent backups with the push of a button. The Backup tab has the fields and buttons to allow you to do this. Once you have set up a backup directory using that tab, you can use the Backup button in the menu bar to quickly make a backup of the database.

JRaceman can check the data in the database for correctness and consistency. The commands in the Checks tab perform these checks. You should run these checks occasionally to make sure there are not errors in your data which could lead to problems or confusion later.

Each Check command displays the errors it finds in the Results tab. If you find an error in your data using a Check command, it is usually possible to double-click on a row in the Results tab and be taken directly to the editing form for that data. In some cases you may be able to look at the data to understand the cause of the error being reported, then use the tab of your choice to correct the error. If the data can not be corrected using one of the standard tabs, you can always edit the data using debugging mode.

JRaceman is designed to allow you to share your data with other people. You can export your data to text files, and you can import data from text files into your database. Here are some of the things you can do with this capability:

TODO

The top half of the JRaceman window consists of a set of tabs to access different categories of data. Within each of the top-level tabs there are subtabs for more specific access to one kind of data.

The Separator Bar between the Editing Tabs and the Output Tabs can be used to control the amount of space allocated to each set of tabs.

The bottom half of the JRaceman window consists of a set of tabs for displaying various kinds of output.

At the very bottom of the window is the status line. This line displays messages from the program, such as noting that a record was saved. Messages displayed in the Status Line are also recorded in the Messages tab, so you can see old status messages by selecting the Messages tab.

The following terms are used in this chapter:

A Tool Tip is a small box with text that may appear when you move the pointer over some component in the window and let it rest there for a moment. The Tool Tip text gives information about that component to help you know what it does. When you move the pointer, the Tool Tip box will disappear.

A Tool Prompt is text which appears in the Status Line at the bottom of the window when you move the pointer over some component in the window. As with a Tool Tip, the Tool Prompt text gives information about that component to help you know what it does. When you move the pointer, the Tool Prompt text will disappear and the previous contents of the Status Line will be restored.

Tool Tips are most commonly used in JRaceman on buttons and tabs. Tool Prompts are most commonly used in JRaceman on menus.

The main window includes a menu bar at top of the window. To see the contents of a menu, move the pointer over the menu keyword in the menu bar and press or click the left mouse button. The menu will open up below the pointer, after which you can move the pointer to the desired menu item. If you pressed the mouse button, select the desired menu item by releasing the mouse button when the pointer is over that item. If you clicked the mouse button, select the desired menu by clicking the mouse button again when the pointer is over that item.

You can see all of the menus with a single mouse press or click; you don't need to press or click the button again when moving to a different menu, just move the pointer to that menu and it will open in place of the previous menu.

Some menus contain additional menus. These additional menus are indicated by a small right-pointing arrowhead on the right side of the menu item. When you move the pointer to one of these items, another menu will open up to the right of the already-open menu. You can then move the pointer into this new menu in order to select an item from it.

Some menu items have a label which ends with an ellipsis, like this: ... This indicates that selecting that menu item will open a dialog box with additional questions. No other action will be taken for these commands until specified by accepting the dialog. Menu items which do not end with an ellipsis may take immediate action when selected.

Tabs are a mechanism for allowing multiple panels of components to share the same space in a window. You control which of those panels is visible by selecting the tab for that panel. You can think of the panels as a stack of papers, one of which is on top of the stack. You can see the panel on top of the stack, but you can't see the panels which are underneath; to see one of the panels underneath, you need to raise it to the top of the stack, at which point the previous top panel will no longer be visible.

In JRaceman, the tabs are just below the menu bar in the main window. Select a tab by moving the pointer to that tab and clicking the left mouse button. The panel for that tab will appear.

JRaceman uses hierachical tabs; in other words, many of the panels themselves contain a set of panels controlled by tabs. When this kind of panel is made visible by clicking on its tab, another set of tabs appears just below the previously selected tab. You can then select one of those tabs to see that sub-panel. JRaceman uses three levels of tabs, so you may have to click three times (once at each level of tabs) to get to the desired panel.

To simplify finding the right panel, there is a Tabs menu which display the tabs in "upside-down" order from how they appear in the main window. In the main window, the third row of tabs ususally includes entries such as Edit, Query, Sheet, and Export. The Tabs menu includes these items as second-level menus within the Tabs menu, allowing you to navaigate directly to one of these panels without having to remember the first and second-level tabs required to see the desired tab for your panel.

A Choice List is a component that allows you to select from a fixed number of choices. Choice Lists are used extensively in JRaceman for data fields that refer to other tables. Examples of where Choice Lists are used in JRaceman:

When you are entering data in a tab and a Choice List in that tab does not contain the data you want, you can switch to the tab where that type of data is defined, add a new record with the desired data, then switch back to the original tab. When you return to the original tab, the Choice List will be updated to include the newly added data.

When the data being displayed in a panel is too large to be visible all at once, scroll bars are added to allow the contents of the panel to be moved such that any part of it can be made visible. If the panel is too wide to fit, a horizontal scroll bar appears on the bottom of the panel; if too tall, a vertical scroll bar appears on the right of the panel. You control what part of the data is visible by manipulating the scroll bar.

The vertical scroll bar to the right is used to move the data vertically; the horizontal scroll bar below is used to move the data horizontally. The discussion below about how to control the scroll bar assumes a vertical scroll bar that moves the data up and down. The horizontal scroll bar works in exactly the same manner, but with "up" and "down" (or "above" and "below" ) replaced by "left" and "right", respectively.

A Scroll Bar contains two arrows and a scrolling region. The scrolling region has an active area called the thumb. The size of the thumb as a fraction of the size of the scrolling region indicates the amount of data visible at once as a fraction of the total amount of data. Thus, if the thumb takes up half of the scrolling region, then you can see half of the data at once; if the thumb takes up a tenth of the scrolling region, you can see a tenth of the data at once. The smaller the thumb, the more data there is.

To move the data by a small amount, click on the up or down arrow in the scroll bar. This will move the thumb by a small amount up or down, which will move the visible data in the other direction by a small amount (the viewing region moves through the data in the same direction as the thumb, so the visible data on the screen moves in the other direction).

To move the data by one page (i.e. by an amount equal to the height of the displayed data), move the pointer to the scrolling region above or below the thumb and click the left mouse button. This will move the thumb up or down by one thumb-length, which will move the visible data in the other direction by one page.

To move the data by an arbitrary amount, move the pointer on to the thumb, then press the left mouse button and drag the pointer up or down to move the thumb up or down. The data will move as you move the pointer. Release the button when you reach the desired point in the data.

A Split Pane allows two smaller areas to be viewed at the same time side by side or above and below. Between the two smaller areas is a separator bar. The separator bar is used to control how much of the viewing area is used for each of the two smaller areas. You can allocate all of the view to one, all to the other, or anywhere in between.

A pane which is split into top and bottom parts has a horizontal separator bar between the two parts; a pane which is split into side by side parts has a vertical separator bar between the two parts. The discussion below about how to control the separator bar assumes a horizontal separator bar which controls the size of the areas above and below. The vertical separator bar works in exactly the same manner, but with "up" and "down" (or "above" and "below" ) replaced by "left" and "right", respectively.

To move the separator bar, move the pointer to the stippled part of the bar, press on the left mouse button, and drag the mouse up or down.

To hide the upper area and show the maximum amount of the lower area, click on the little up-arrow at the left end of the separator bar. This will move the separator bar all the way up. To return to the split configuration showing both areas, click on the little down-arrow at the left end of the separator bar. Similarly, when the display shows both areas, click on the down-arrow to move the separator bar all the way down, hiding the lower area and showing the maximum about of the upper area. Click on the up-arrow to return to the split configuration.

To swap the positions of the upper and lower areas, double-click anywhere on the stippled part of the separator bar.

A table is a rectangular area with rows and columns, used to display data. The intersection of a row and a column is called a cell. Each column is labeled with a column name.

If there are too many rows of data to fit in the viewing area, a vertical scroll bar appears on the right side of the table. You can scroll through the data rows using this scroll bar. The column labels do not scroll, so are always visible at the top of the table.

To sort the data on a column, move the pointer into the label for that column and click the left mouse button. A small arrow will appear in that column indicating that the data is sorted on that column. To change the direction of the sort in the column, click again. Each time you click, the direction of the sort reverses. The direction of the arrow in the column label indicates the direction of the sort.

The sorting algorithm is a stable sort, which allows you to sort on a secondary column. To sort on a secondary column, click on that column first to sort it, then click on the primary sort column. The sorting indicator will only appear in the primary sort column, but rows with the same primary column value will remain sorted according to the secondary column.

To rearrange the columns in a table, move the pointer into the label for the column to be moved, then press the left mouse button and drag the column to its new location. As you move the column to the left or right, the other columns will move aside to make room for it. When the column is in the desired location, release the mouse button.

A sheet is a table in which some or all of the data can be edited, similar to a spreadsheet. A panel with a sheet in it allows you to edit the information about multiple records on one page, to simplify entering or editing a group of records.

To edit a set of records, press the "Search" button. A list of all matching records will appear just below the button.

As with any table, you can sort the sheet by any column by clicking on the header label for that column. See the section on tables above for more information on sorting and rearranging columns.

You can directly edit the value of the fields in any column with a header label in a bold font. To edit a value, click on the field, type in the new value (or select it from the drop-down list of choices), and press Enter or Tab. The new value is stored in the database when you press Enter. You can re-sort the table after making changes by clicking on the column header again.

To abort editing a field, press Escape.

To add a new record, push the Add button. This will add a new row to the end of the editing sheet and scroll the sheet to the end. If you have sorted on a column, the new row may be added at the beginning of the sheet rather than the end. In most cases, all fields in the new row will be blank. If there are Search fields in the tab above the Sheet, the selected values in the Search fields will often be set into the newly added row. After you have filled in values for all required fields an ID will be generated and the values in that row will be stored in the database.

Until you fill in all required fields in a new row, the record is not permanent; if you push the Search button again, the unstored row will be lost. Clicking on any column header will sort all rows, including the new rows, even when they are not yet stored. You can easily find new rows by looking for rows with no ID value.

Not all data for a record is necessarily displayed in the Sheet. To edit the remaining fields in the record, you must use the Edit tab for that record. To edit a record, click on that row in the Sheet, the push the Edit button. This will switch to the Edit tabe for the selected row. In that tab, you can edit any field for that record, or delete the record. To get back to the editing Sheet, select the Sheet tab again.

The File menu provides program-wide commands.

The Database menu provides commands to manipulate the database.

The Tabs menu provides an alternate navigation route to the tabs.

The Query Results menu provides commands to manipulate the contents of the Query Results tab.

The Report menu provides commands to manipulate the contents of the Report tab.

The Help menu provides information to help you understand how to use JRaceman, displaying it in the Help tab.

The By Event tab allows you to select an Event on which to operate, and then to choose the task to perform on that Event. On race days you will probably be using this tab more than any other.

The By Event tab has no subtabs. Instead, it has two choice lists. On the left, you select the Event or Race on which to operate. On the right, you select the task to perform on that Event or Race. Selecting a task will change the contents of the By Event tab to allow you to perform that task.

The Database tab is used to do general tasks on the database.

The Database tab includes the following subtabs:

The Debug tab allows you into the innards of the program. Most people probably won't have much use this tab.

The Debug tab includes the following subtabs:

The Meet Setup tab allows you to set up a meet and the events at that meet. This needs to be done once before each meet. You decide what events will be held at the meet and define them in these subtabs. Handling of registration of competitors is done in the Entries subtab.

The Meet Setup tab includes the following subtabs:

The Plan Setup tab is used to define progression plans (Simplans and Complans).

The Plan Setup tab includes the following subtabs:

The Reports tab allows you to generate reports.

The Reports tab includes the following subtabs:

The Site Setup tab allows you to define the locations where a meet is held. This information only needs to be entered the first time a meet is held at a site.

The Site Setup tab includes the following subtabs:

The Sport Setup tab is used to set up information which is typically the same for all users of the program within the same sport. You should be able to go through all of the subtabs of the Sports Setup tab once when you first set up your database, after which you should almost never have to make any changes.

The Sport Setup tab includes the following subtabs:

The Team Setup tab allows you to set up information about the competitors. If you have multiple meets with some of the same competitors (such as the people on your own team), you only need to enter the information about those people once. Thus, after the initial work of entering information for the first meet, there will be less information to be entered for subsequent meets, since many of the teams and people will be the same.

The Team Setup tab includes the following subtabs:

This tab is in the Site Setup tab.

The Areas tab is used to define the areas within a site at which events can take place. One site can contain multiple areas at which different events can occur simultaneously.

Events for an Area are scheduled using the Schedule tab.

This tab is in the Reports tab.

The Awards tab allows you to print labels for awards.

You can choose from the following label formats:

To print labels, select a value for the desired Meet, and for the desired Event number or numbers. To print labels for all events in a Meet, leave the Event number blank. On the right hand side of the form, select the desired label format from the list of available formats. The number of labels per page for that format is displayed immediately below the format name. Press the "Print Labels" button to generate the label pages and open the Print dialog. From the Print dialog you can select a printer, or print to a file.

To print labels for one event, enter the number of that event into the Event number field. To print labels for multiple events, enter the numbers of all desired events into the number field, separated by commas or spaces, and select the IN operator from the operator choices (between the "Event#" label and the Event number text entry field) for the Event number.

The "Labels For" choice allows you to choose to print labels only for Scoring finishers, only for Non-Scoring finishers, or for both. If both are printed, the Scoring finishers are printed first, matching the order of the Awards report in the Finish tab. The place printed for Scoring finishers is the scoring place; the place printed for Non-Scoring finishers is the overall place, followed by "(Non-Scoring)".

If you have printed a partial page of labels, you can later print on the rest of the labels by using the Blank Label Count field. Enter a number from in this field to skip that many labels on the printed page. (If you choose a number larger than the number of labels per page, the number will be reduced modulo the number of labels per page; it will not print out any blank pages.) For example, say you selected event number 11 (a K4 event) and printed out 8 labels (4 1st place and 4 2nd place) on a fresh page. The remaining 25 labels on the page are blank. Now you want to print labels for event 12 onto those unused labels. Insert that page into the printer, select event number 12 in the Awards tab, set the Blank Label Count to 8, and press the Print Labels button. The first 8 (already used) labels will be skipped, and the labels will start printing at label number 9. (Note, however, that the directions on some labels advise against running a sheet of labels through a printer more than once.)

For all labels other than the round labels, you can specify images to be used on the left and right ends of the labels. To specify an image to use on the left end of the label, use the Context Options tab to set the value of the option "Meets.Awards.labelImageLeft" to the URL of the image. If no matching Context Option is found, you can set that URL as the value of the Label Image Left field in the Meets tab. The right image can be specified similarly using the Context Option "Meets.Awards.labelImageRight" or the Label Image Right field of the Meets tab.

For round labels, the left image, when set as described above. is used as the background image for the label.

This tab is in the Database tab.

This tab is in the Team Setup tab.

The Challenges tab is used to define the names of the Challenges which are available for use in the Teams tab.

This tab is in the Database tab.

The Checks tab allows you to check the database for data entry errors and constraint violations.

To check the database, select a value for the desired Meet and, where applicable, for the desired Event number:

On the right hand side of the form, push the button to run the desired check. Problems are displayed in the Query Results output tab. If no problems are found, only the header row will be displayed, but there will be no data rows displayed.

You can run the following checks:

This tab is in the Sport Setup tab.

The Competitions tab is used to define the basic types of events used in this sport. The name field indicates the type of event, but not including the level or gender, which are specified as part of Event Setup.

This tab is in the Plan Setup tab.

The Complan Rules tab is used to define the progression rules for a plan in a complex progression plan.

For more information on Complans, see the Complans section.

This tab is in the Plan Setup tab.

The Complans tab is used to define the plans used in complex progressions.

Complans are defined in three tables: Complans, ComplanStages, and ComplanRules.

The Complans table defines the systems of plans. It contains one row for each plan within a system of plans. All plans in the same system share the same system name; each plan within a system specifies the number of entrants for which that plan applies. There can be multiple plans with the same number of entrants.

The ComplanStages table defines how many stages there are for a plan, the round number for each stage in the plan, and how many sections there are for each stage. Each row of the ComplanStages table represents one stage in one plan.

The ComplanRules table defines how finishers advance from one round to the next. Each row of the ComplanRules table specifies how one specific finisher progresses, from a specific round, section and finishing place to a specific round, section and lane.

This tab is in the Plan Setup tab.

The Complan Stages tab is used to define the number of sections at each Stage of a plan in a complex progression plan.

For more information on Complans, see the Complans section.

This tab is in the Database tab.

The Context Options tab is used to define option values that are optionally tied to specific hosts, Meets, or web contexts.

This tab is in the Debug tab.

The Change ID tab allows you to change the ID of a record in a table, along with changing all references to that ID.

To change an ID, fill in the fields that specify what row to change:

After filling in the above fields, press the Change ID button. The total number of rows changed will be shown in the status line.

This tab is in the Debug tab.

The Edit Field tab allows you to edit the contents ot a single database field. This is useful for text field that contain large amounts of text when you want to change only a few characters.

To edit a field, fill in the fields that specify what field to edit:

After filling in the above fields, press the Edit Field button. If the WHERE clause does not select exactly one row, an error dialog will be presented. If exactly one row is selected, a dialog will appear with the contents of the specified field of that row. After changing the contents as desired, press the OK to save your changes to the database.

This tab is in the Debug tab.

The Foreign Keys tab assists in finding and changing data that is the target of foreign key references.

To find the records that reference a specific row, enter the table containing that row into the Table Name field, enter the ID of the row into the ID A field, and press the Show References to ID A button.

If you have part of a table displayed in the Query Results tab, you can pick out the ID from that row and put it into the ID A field by pressing the Take Selected ID to A button.

The ID B field works just like the ID A field, but with its own set of buttons.

This tab is in the Debug tab.

The Generate tab allows you to generate pseudo-random Team and People records for testing and debugging.

Enter the number of Teams and People to create and press the Generate button. Each time you press the button, more records are generated.

The Random Seed field allows you to specify a seed value to the random number generator in order to cause it to generate the same records on two different runs. This assumes that the database on each run starts with identical Team and People entries.

This tab is in the Debug tab.

The Properties tab allows you to view and set Java System properties.

To view all system properties, press the View Properties button. The values of all system properties will be displayed in the Report output tab.

To change the value of a system property, fill in the name and value text fields, then press the Set Property button.

This tab is in the Debug tab.

The SQL tab allows you to enter arbitrary SQL commands. You can use this tab to make ad-hoc database queries, or to make corrections to the data to work around program bugs. Be careful when changing the database this way, as related updates which are normally handled automatically will not be made. For example, if you change the result value of a Lanes entry with an SQL command, the place values are not updated, as they are if you update it through the Finish tab.

Enter the command into the text area, then press the Execute button.

The results of SELECT commands are displayed in the Query Results tab in the lower half of the window.

This tab is in the Meet Setup tab.

The Entries tab is used to register people to participate in an Event.

This tab is in the Meet Setup tab.

The Events tab is used to define the events at a Meet. Each meet may include a different set of events.

You must select an Event when you add Entries.

This tab is in the Sport Setup tab.

The Exceptions tab is used to define the names used for the different exceptions used in events. These are reasons why an entrant did not finish an event. These entrants are not assigned finishing rankings in the event, and are typically disqualified from participating in further rounds.

The Finish tab allows you to edit the finish information for Races and to produce Lane and Result Reports. Much of the functionality of this tab is also included in the Results task of the By Event tab.

This tab is in the Sport Setup tab.

The Genders tab is used to define the names used for the different gender groups used in events. Your events may use "Men" and "Women", or you may use "Boys" and "Girls". Some events are open to participants of both sexes. You might call these events "Mixed", or you might call them "Open".

This tab is in the Site Setup tab.

The LaneOrder tab is used to specify an order in which lanes are to be assigned during first-round draw and for Simplan and Complan progressions.

For progressions other than Simplan and Complan, the progression can supply its own preferred lane order. If no LaneOrder is specified, and an Event uses the USACK progression, then the lane order preference is 5,4,6,3,7,2,8,1,9,10,0. For other progressions, the lane order preference when no LaneOrder is specified is 1,2,3 etc.

This tab is in the Debug tab.

The Lanes tab is used to place and manage Entries into Races.

Lanes are usually set up automatically by a Progression. You can use this screen to view the lanes that have been set up, or to make manual changes if there is a problem with the program.

For individual races, one Lane record corresponds to the use of one lane in one race. For group races, each member of the group has a Lane record with the same lane number as the other members of the group in that race; all of these Lane records together correspond to one lane in one race.

This tab is in the Sport Setup tab.

The Levels tab is used to define the competition levels (typically age groups) for the different events.

The age of each participant (the "qualifying age") is calculated based on the birthday field of the person's record in the People table as of the date specified as the Age Date in the Meets table. This age is then compared against the records in the Levels table to determine for which level the person qualifies.

The Minimum Age and Maximum Age values define the range of ages for the Level. People within this range are competitors at that Level. Typically the Min/Max Ages for the different Levels do not overlap, and together cover the entire age range for the sport. Sometimes there may be additional Levels based on additional criteria other than age.

The Min/Max Entry Age values are used to deteremine if a competitor is allowed to compete in an Event based on age. If the Levels are strictly done based on age, with no exceptions, then the Min/Max Entry Ages should be set to the same values as the Min/Max Ages. If people are allowed to compete in Levels outside of their own, the Min/Max Entry Ages should reflect that.

The Use Group Average field can be set to specify that, for group Events that use this Level, the qualifying age is the average (mean) of the qualifying age of all group members rather than the individual qualifying ages of group members.

This tab is in the Meet Setup tab.

The Meets tab is used to define a meet. You do not need to use a new database for each meet, but can keep the data for previous meets in your database. Because all results are tied to a meet, you can easily deal only with the current meet, or you can query for information across multiple meets.

This tab is in the Database tab.

This tab is in the Team Setup tab.

The People tab is used to record information about all of the people participating in a meet. Not all of the people in the table must be partcipating in a meet. If you use the program for multiple meets which are attended by mostly the same people, your database will already have information about those people so that you will not have to reenter it for every meet.

You will need to select a person when you set up Entries.

This tab is in the Sport Setup tab.

The Progressions tab is used to define the progressions used in Events.

This tab is in the Debug tab.

Races are created automatically by ao Progressions. You can use this tab to view the races that have been set up for an Event, or to make manual changes to a record if the Progression did not set up the race properly.

This tab is in the Meet Setup tab.

The Registration Fees tab is used to define the registration charges for the people entering a Meet.

If you are not using the Registrations. tab, you don't need to use the Registration Fees tab.

This tab is in the Meet Setup tab.

The Registrations tab is used to register entrants participating in a Meet.

You are not required to use the Registrations tab. JRaceman will work fine with no Registration data entered. By entering Registration data into JRaceman, you can use the Registrations check, which will tell you who has not yet paid, has not yet had their membership status confirmed, or has not yet turned in a signed waiver. This same information is printed out in the Registration Summary report.

This tab is in the Reports tab. The Reports.General tab allows you to generate a number of different reports. Depending on which report format has been selected, you can choose a set of values to select the data on which to report.

This tab is in the Meet Setup tab.

This tab is in the Reports tab.

The Score tab allows you to view team scores.

To see scores, select a value for the desired Meet, select a report format, then press the Generate button. If you have selected a non-Web report format, a Score Report will appear in the Report output tab. Web report formats are the same as the non-web version, but are generated directly into the "scores" subdirectory of the web reports directory (see the Meets tab).

This tab is in the Sport Setup tab.

The Scoring tab is used to define the scoring systems available for use in a Meet.

Scoring is defined in two tables: ScoringSystems and ScoringRules.

The ScoringSystems table defines the different available scoring systems. It contains one row for each available scoring system.

The ScoringRules tables defines the set of rules that make up the scoring system. Each rule specified how many points are received for specified values of important attributes, such as finishing place.

This tab is in the Team Setup tab.

The Seeding Lists tab is used to set up seeding lists associated with a seeding plan. Each list is associated with one seeding plan.

See the section on Seeding Plans for more information about seeding plans.

This tab is in the Team Setup tab.

The Seeding Plans tab is used to set up plans for seeding to seed lane assignments for Events. Multiple seeding plans can be defined. The seeding plan is independently specified for each Event to be seeded. One seeding plan can be used for multiple Events, or each Event can reference a separate seeding plan.

You can specify that an Event is to be seeded by setting the Seeding Plan in the record for that Event. When drawing lanes for that Event, the specified Seeding Plan will be used to determine the order in which entrants are assigned to lanes. Any entrants found in the seeding list associated with the specified plan will be assigned lanes first, in rank order starting with the lowest rank number into the preferred lanes. After all seeded entries have been assigned lanes, all other entries are assigned lanes in random order.

For group events, the rank for the group is calculated by taking the average (mean) of the rank for all members of the group, including alternates. If there are no seeded entries in the group, the group is an unseeded group and is assigned a lane in random order after all seeded groups have been assigned preferred lanes. If there are some seeded and some unseeded entries in a group, all unseeded entries in that group are treated as having been given a seeding rank of one larger than the largest seeding rank defined in the list being used (so are thus seeded at the end of the list), after which the group average rank is calculated.

This tab is in the Plan Setup tab.

The Simplan Rules tab is used to define the progression rules for a plan in a simple progression plan.

For more information on Simplans, see the Simplans section.

This tab is in the Plan Setup tab.

The Simplans tab is used to define the plans used in simple progressions.

Simplans are defined in three tables: Simplans, SimplanStages, and SimplanRules.

The Simplans table defines the systems of plans. It contains one row for each plan within a system of plans. All plans in the same system share the same system name; each plan within a system is for a different number of entrants.

The SimplanStages table defines how many stages there are for a plan, and how many sections there are for each stage. Each row of the SimplanStages table represents one stage in one plan.

The SimplanRules table defines how finishers advance from one round to the next. Each row of the SimplanRules table relates a from-round and a to-round within one plan.

This tab is in the Plan Setup tab.

The Simplan Stages tab is used to define the number of sections at each Stage of a plan in a simple progression plan.

For more information on Simplans, see the Simplans section.

This tab is in the Site Setup tab.

The Sites tab is used to define the sites at which a meet can take place. One site can contain multiple Areas at which different events can occur simultaneously.

You will need to select a Site when you set up records in the Areas table.

This tab is in the Sport Setup tab.

The Stages tab is used to define the names used for the different stages of progression in events. Typical names are "Heat" and "Final". You may also have "Semifinal", "Quarterfinal", or any other name.

This tab is in the Team Setup tab.

The Teams tab is used to define all of the teams that are participating in a meet. Not all of the teams in the table must be partcipating in a meet.

You will need to select a Team when you set up records in the People table.

This tab is in the Database tab. The Transfer tab allows you to interoperate with an automated finish-line system. The only system currently supported by this tab is the FinishLynx system. (The Omega system is supported with a different mechanism, see the By Event tab.)

In order to use the Transfer tab, you must fill in a value for the Transfer Directory field of the Meets tab. JRaceman uses a single directory for both input and output. Configure your FinishLynx system to use that same directory for both input and output.

The Messages tab displays status and information messages. You can scroll back through this tab to see earlier messages. When a message appears, the Messages tab is automatically raised.

Each message in the Messages tab includes the time and the source tab of the message.

The Query Results tab displays the results of searches from any of the Edit tabs. There is only one Query Results tab, so each time a search is performed from any Edit tab, the previous search results are discarded.

When the Query Results tab contains the results of a query from an Edit tab, the name of that tab is added to the name of the Query Results tab. The number of items currently displayed in the Query Results tab is included in square brackets after the Edit tab name.

When there is data displayed in the Query Results tab, you can operate on the data with the commands in the Query Results menu.

The Report tab displays reports generated by the program.

When there is data displayed in the Report tab, you can operate on the data with the commands in the Report menu.