Federation Rules

Use this section for the federation rules the system enforces automatically: which teams may enter a class (age composition), how a class’s rounds are generated, and how battles are built. Promotion points, license requirements and rankings are also federation rules, but each has its own guide, linked under Related below.

Rules work as a hierarchy of layers. The broadest setting sits at the federation level; narrower layers override it for that specific scope. Only set a rule where it genuinely differs from the layer above — empty fields inherit.

Federation
  └── Division
        └── Discipline
              └── Category
                    └── Age group
                          └── Class level
                                └── Federation class  (most specific, always wins)

The most specific layer that sets a value wins. Not every rule can be set at every layer; the Rulebook lists the layers each rule accepts.

Each layer’s own overrides are edited in its Rules section under Federation → Structure. Check the merged result in Federation → Rulebook before going live: for every rule it shows the value that applies, the layer that set it and the value it displaced. Rules nobody has set are marked as the platform default.

Start here

How class rules work — read this first. The thinking behind class rules, a worked example, a step-by-step method, and a reference of every condition, action and setting.
Age category rules — how the age category is decided for solos, duos, and groups, and where to set the rules.
Battle class rules — how to configure class rules so the Round Guide auto-generates the correct skeleton for each competitor count in a 1v1 battle discipline.
Battle sub-rounds — battles danced in several rounds with a tie-break, and a final made of a bronze and a gold battle.
Round setups — describe a ladder of rounds as a table instead of class rules, preview it, compare it with today’s rules and switch over.

Checking the whole setup

The Rulebook has six tabs: Rules (the merged result for one division or class, above), Setup map, Age bands, Setup check, Where rules are set and Timed profiles. The four in the middle look at every class in the federation at once, so you do not have to open classes one at a time. Each reads the whole setup when you open it (“Reading every class…”) and says when it was read. Press Run again after you change something.

Setup check

A list of checks over every class and every rule it inherits. The top line counts the problems, warnings, notes and checks that passed. Each check that finds something says what it found, why it matters, and under How to fix what to do, with links such as Open class, Open rules or Open level that go straight to the class or level concerned.

It checks for:

class codes used by more than one class (retired classes are left out)
classes missing a category, age group or class level
stored rules the platform no longer has. Nothing reads them, and the rule editors do not show them, so an Administrator can remove them here with Remove. Removing one does not change how any class behaves.
rules stored at a level they cannot be set at. The stored value still applies, but it is dropped the next time that level’s rules are saved.
classes with a progression warning, the same warnings the Progression panel shows per division
rules set for some divisions only. Often deliberate.
categories, age groups and class levels with the same name in several divisions that are set up differently. Often deliberate.
active classes that sit on a division, discipline, category, age group or class level that is still a draft or already retired
classes with no licence item. This only matters if dancers need a licence to register.
classes that are still drafts

Setup map

The whole federation as one picture: a column per division and a block per discipline, sized by its number of classes. Pick what to colour the blocks by: Draft levels, Promotion (classes that advance but have no class to move into), Progression warnings, Team size (no member limit anywhere in the rules), Licence (no licence item) or Draft classes. Each block shows how many of its classes are affected. Click a block to open its classes, or a division name to open the division. Most affected disciplines lists the worst ones.

Age bands

Every division’s age groups on one age axis, so you can compare them. Use Highlight to pick an age group name and see it in every division. Below the chart the tab lists:

Same name, different ages: a name that covers different ages in different divisions
Bands that partly overlap within a division. A band that lies inside another is a split of it and is not counted.
Gaps between bands: ages in a division that no age group covers

Age groups that are drafts or retired are drawn as an outline. See Age category rules.

Where rules are set

Every rule against every level it can be set at, for the whole federation. Each cell says whether the rule is set at that level, and how many times, whether it could be set there, or whether that level is not allowed for the rule. The counters at the top show how many rules are in use, how many are set at several levels, how many are set to different values, and how many are stored but no longer on the platform. Filter on All rules, Set somewhere or Set nowhere.

Click a rule to open its details: what it does, where it can be set, the platform default, how many classes it reaches, and every place it is set. A rule the platform no longer has can be removed there by an Administrator.

Export setup

Export setup, in the Rulebook’s header, downloads the whole setup as a CSV file, to check in a spreadsheet. Pick one of three:

Export	One row per
Classes	class: where it sits, how it advances, and every rule that applies as a column
Rules by class	class and rule: the value, the level that set it, and what it overrides
Where rules are set	rule set at each level, with how many classes it reaches

In Rules by class, a rule whose value was put together from several levels, such as an age composition set partly on the category and partly on the class, has merged as the level that set it, with every contributing level named, and no overridden value.

The file is named after the federation, the export and the date, for example DSF-rules-2026-09-28.csv.

Promotion points — the points source, points table, threshold and target class that move couples up a class ladder.
Age moves — the season batch that moves competitors up an age group, checked against the age category rules.
License rules per class — which license items a class requires for registration or progression (section 4).
Federation admin rankings — the rule set behind each published ranking.