Problems (setup checks)

Problems runs a set of automatic checks on your competition setup: participants, start numbers, classes, rounds, judge panels and the schedule. It lists every check that fails, together with the participants or rounds that caused it. The checks run on the server and update by themselves while you work, so you never have to start them.

Where to find it

Problems is at the top of the Manager sidebar, under Event overview, marked with a red warning icon. A badge shows how many checks are failing. When only warnings are left, the link stays, without the red icon, and its badge is orange and counts the warnings.

The link only appears while at least one check fails. When everything passes it disappears from the sidebar. You can still open the page directly at /manager/event/<event id>/validator, where each competition shows an empty result.

You need the Manager app for the event to see Problems.

Reading the page

If the event has several competitions, the page has one section per competition, headed with the competition’s name. Otherwise it shows a single section for the event.

Each failed check is a table headed Validating that what should be true - failed!, for example “Validating that there are no start number conflicts - failed!”. Checks that pass are not shown.

A few checks are warnings: something worth a look that does not stop the competition. A warning has an orange icon and ends in - warning instead of - failed!.

Under the heading, each failed check says in one line what is wrong and what to do, for example “These participants have no start number yet. Assign start numbers on the Participants page.” Where one page fixes every row, a link to it follows: Participants, Judges, Classes or Schedule conflicts. More in the guide opens the check’s section on this page.

The rows are what caused the check to fail:

Row type Columns Click to open
Participant # (start number), Participant name, club The participant
Round Round name, class, Schedule The round’s settings
Schedule conflict Dancer, Time (overlap in minutes), Round A, Round B Either round
Panel Panel, Open seats The panel on the Judges page

For judges on two floors the conflict table’s first column is Judge instead of Dancer.

Checks

These checks run for every competition. The name is the text shown after Validating that.

Check What it means How to fix it
there are no start number conflicts Two participants in the same class have the same start number. Cancelled participants are ignored. Open one of the participants and change Start number, or run Assign start numbers again. See Assign start numbers.
there are no invalid start numbers A participant has a class but no start number. Cancelled participants are ignored. Give the participant a Start number, or use Assign start numbers. See Assign start numbers.
participants without a placement have an existing class set to start in A participant has no class at all, or their class has been deleted. A participant whose class was deleted is not flagged if they are cancelled or already have a placement. Open the participant and pick a class in Starting in, or cancel the participant. See Participants.
the same person ID is always used with the same name One Person ID appears on participants under two different names, for example a typo in one registration. For a group entry (a crew name with members’ IDs), the crew name is not compared. Correct the name or the Person ID on the listed participants. If the data came from an import, fix the source file and import again. See Update/import participants.
finales have no participants through The last round of a class has Number to advance above 0 and no Round priority setting. A sub-round of the final with Number to advance above 0 also fails. Set Number to advance to 0 on the final and its sub-rounds. See Build rounds.
rounds before the finale has participants through A round before the final has Number to advance set to 0, so nobody would move on. Rounds with Best placement set, rounds with no judging, and sub-rounds of the final are not checked. Set Number to advance on the round. See Build rounds.
main rounds should share the same schedule group as the last sub round A main round with sub-rounds is on a different Schedule item from its last sub-round. The summary round would then appear in the schedule at the wrong time. Match-judged rounds are not checked. Put the main round on the same Schedule item as its last sub-round. See Build rounds.
classes with rounds have judges added A judged round has no judging panel, or nobody on its panel whose marks count: a Judge, Chief judge (in) or Audience. The panel is the round’s own panel if it has one, otherwise the class’s panel. Rounds of a Group whose child classes have no Class role are not checked, since their judges sit on the child classes. Choose a panel for the class or the round, and seat at least one Judge on it. See Classes.
group classes have no judges added A Group class (whose child classes have no Class role) has a round whose panel has judges on it. In such a group the judges belong on the child classes, not the group. Remove the panel from the group class and its rounds, or remove the judges from that panel. Put the judges on the child classes’ panels instead. See Judges and panels.
main rounds that sum points have subrounds that use points as well A main round with Judging type Sum points has a sub-round that is not judged with points. Change the sub-round to points judging, or change the main round’s Judging type. See Build rounds.
main rounds that use AJS have subrounds that use AJS as well A main round with Judging type JS 3.0 (AJS) has a sub-round that is not judged with AJS. Change the sub-round to AJS, or change the main round’s Judging type. See Build rounds.
child class round names match group round names For a Group whose child classes have no Class role, a child class has a main round whose Round name is not one of the group’s round names. For a leader/follower group, a child class’s main round names differ from those of its partner classes. Rename the listed rounds so the names match exactly, including spaces. See Build rounds.
priority settings are correct A round’s Round priority setting gives priority to a class that no longer exists. Open the round’s Priority settings and remove or replace the deleted class. See Build rounds.
each leader/follower class has exactly one partner class A class with a Class role (Leader or Follower) is in a group that has no other role class, or has more than one. Put exactly one leader class and one follower class under the same Group under. See Create classes.
leader and follower partner rounds have matching sub-round counts A leader class and its follower class both have a main round with the same name, but the two rounds have a different number of sub-rounds. Add or remove sub-rounds so both sides match. See Build rounds.
no dancer is scheduled in two overlapping rounds at the same time A dancer is in two rounds whose estimated times overlap. See Schedule conflicts. Move one of the rounds in the schedule, or put both on the same floor. See Several floors at once.
rounds decided by majority have an odd number of judges A round placed by a majority of the judges has an even number of judges on its panel. Often a judge who should be a Trainee judge is on the panel as Judge. See Even judge panels. On the panel, change the extra judge to Trainee judge, or add or remove a judge. See Judge types.
panels have all the seats they ask for (warning) A panel used by a round has fewer judges, chief judges, trainees or observers than its Seats wanted. See Panels short of seats. Fill open seats in the panel’s pop-up, seat someone yourself, or lower Seats wanted. See A panel’s settings.
no judge is on two floors at the same time A judge is on the panels of two rounds that run at the same time on different floors. See Judges on two floors. Put a different judge on one of the panels, or run the rounds one after the other. See Panels.

Panels short of seats

A warning, not a failure. On the Judges page each panel can say how many judges, which chief judge, and how many trainees and observers it wants (Seats wanted in the panel’s pop-up). This check lists the panels used by a round that have fewer seated than that, for example “2 × Judge, 1 × Observer” under Open seats. Panels without Seats wanted are not checked.

Click the panel to open it on the Judges page. The same warning shows above the tabs there, in orange.

DSF checks

These run only when the competition’s federation is DSF.

Check What it means How to fix it
there are no conflicting license numbers The same license number appears twice among the participants in one class. Cancelled participants are ignored. Correct the License on the listed participants, or cancel the duplicate entry. See Participants.
shared rounds WITH acrobatics (parent round uses sums) (DSF) A main round judged with Sum subtotal (full or partial judging) has sub-rounds, but none of them has acrobatics, or one of them is not full or partial judging. Give the sub-rounds full or partial judging with acrobatics, or change the main round’s Judging type. See Build rounds.
shared rounds WITHOUT acrobatics (parent round uses placements) (DSF) A main round has a sub-round with acrobatics, but the main round does not use Sum subtotal. Set the main round’s Judging type to Sum subtotal. See Build rounds.
collect stars results are only available for coach/team leader A round judged with collect stars does not hide its results from everyone but the coach. In the round’s Results settings, set Hide results from position to 0 and What to hide to Coach. See Build rounds.

WDSF checks

These run only when the competition’s federation is WDSF.

Check What it means How to fix it
parent round summarizing checkmarks A main round that sums checkmarks (Sum marks) has a sub-round with a different judging type. Give every sub-round checkmark judging, or change the main round. See Build rounds.
parent round summarizing placements A main round that sums placements (Sum placements) has a sub-round with a different judging type. Give every sub-round placement judging, or change the main round. See Build rounds.
finale is not using checkmarks A main round with Number to advance 0 (a final) uses checkmark judging. Change the final’s Judging type to placement judging. See Build rounds.

Schedule conflicts

The schedule conflict check covers the whole event, including clashes between rounds in different competitions. With several competitions, the same list therefore appears in each competition’s section.

What counts as a conflict:

  • The same dancer is in two rounds whose estimated times overlap. A dancer is recognised by their Person ID, or by their account when the participant is linked to a Competitor that has members with accounts.
  • The two rounds are in different classes, and not on the same floor. Two rounds on the same floor cannot actually run at the same time.

A round’s estimated time comes from its Schedule item, its place in the schedule, Number of heats and Heat length. A round that is not on a schedule item, or whose schedule item has no start time, is not checked.

The check is skipped entirely when no participant has a Person ID or a linked Competitor. Without them, dancers cannot be recognised across classes.

For the full report, open Open conflicts page at the top of Manager → Event → Schedule. It also lists Tight transitions, where a dancer has only a few minutes between two rounds.

Even judge panels

Some rounds are placed by a majority of the judges: a participant gets a place when more than half of the judges have placed them there or better (skating). With five judges the majority is three. With four it is also three, so a tie is much more likely. The tie is then broken further down the skating rules instead of by the judges’ majority.

The check looks at rounds judged with:

  • placement judging, where the judges place the participants
  • full or partial judging, where the judges’ scores are turned into places and skated, unless the judging type has skating turned off (disableSkating in the federation’s judging settings)
  • partial-input judging in a final (a round with Number to advance 0)

Rounds that add up marks, points or scores instead are not checked, whatever the number of judges.

Who counts. Only judges whose marks decide the result: Judge, Chief judge (in) and Audience. Trainee judge, Chief judge (out) and observers are left out, as they are when the result is calculated. A panel of four judges and one trainee judge therefore has four, and fails.

Which panel. The round’s own panel if it has one (see Round override), otherwise the class’s panel. A round without a panel, or whose panel has no judge that counts, is not listed by this check.

Rounds with dances. When the dances of a round (its sub-rounds) fail, the round they belong to is listed once, not each dance.

An audience judge counts from the start, but its marks only take part once audience votes have come in. Until then the panel that marks has one judge fewer than the check counts.

Judges on two floors

A judge can only watch one floor. The check fails when the same judge is on the panels of two rounds that:

  • are on the same Schedule item
  • are on different floors or floor sections
  • run at the same time: their estimated times overlap, or they start together

This happens when you run floors in parallel and the classes on the two floors share a panel, or share a judge between their panels.

Who counts. Everyone on the panel has to be at the floor, so every judge type counts, Trainee judge included. Audience is not a person at the floor and is left out.

The same person in several competitions. In an event with several competitions, a judge added to each of them is recognised as one person by their account. A clash between rounds in two competitions is listed in the section of each competition that has one of the rounds.

Times. Rounds are timed the same way as for schedule conflicts. A schedule item without a start time is still checked: its rounds are compared with each other only, and the Round A and Round B columns show no times for it. Rounds on different schedule items are never compared, and rounds that are not on a schedule item or a floor are not checked.

Two floor sections of the same floor count as two floors. If one panel judges both sections of a floor at the same time, the check fails for those rounds.

Severity

Problems has no severity levels. Every failed check is shown the same way and counts as one in the sidebar badge, however many rows it has.

Problems also does not block anything. You can publish the event and start rounds while checks are failing. Whether a failure matters is up to you. For example, a start-number conflict in a class that has already finished may be harmless.

The Schedule conflicts page does grade its findings:

Severity Meaning On Problems
Conflict The two rounds overlap. Yes
Tight The rounds do not overlap, but the gap between them is short. No, only on the conflicts page

When to run it

The checks run by themselves. The page updates when participants, classes, rounds, judges or the schedule change. Keep an eye on the sidebar badge, and open Problems at these points in particular:

  • After building the rounds of all classes, and after using the Round guide.
  • After importing or updating participants, and after assigning start numbers.
  • After setting up judge panels.
  • After building or changing the schedule, and after moving rounds between floors.
  • Before publishing the event, and again on the morning of the competition.
  • During the event, after late entries, cancellations or moved rounds.

Not in this version

  • Hiding or accepting a single failed check. A check stays on the list until the setup is changed.
  • Severity levels, or a way to mark a check as a warning only.