I’ve just completed the USCF dbase3 file creation in my TDX app, now I’m curious if there is a way I can test the validity of my files somehow. Is there a way I can do some sort of test run anywhere on the USCF site?
You will need to be a certified TD and have a login ID to the TD/Affiliate Support Area, then you can upload and validate your rating report files. As long as you don’t submit them for rating, you can test with any data you want.
I actually encourage newcomers to try uploading and validating a few test events (or entering them online) before trying a real one.
Great, thanks! I just tried it, and got an error saying I was not authorized to submit for affiliate A6022618. I was logged in as id 12464982, which does show in the list of TDs allowed to submit for this affiliate. Any idea why I’m getting this error?
A6022618 does not have a login ID for TD/A yet, so there is no list of TDs authorized to submit events on behalf of that affiliate.
Being listed as an officer for an affiliate does NOT carry with it the right to submit events as a TD for that affiliate. Affiliate/Club officers do not have to be TDs or even USCF members.
It DOES give a current USCF member the authority to create the login ID for the affiliate, at which point the affiliate login ID can be used to set up the list of authorized TDs.
At times some of the USCF office staff have incorrectly told people that adding them as an officer of the affiliate solves the ‘not authorized’ problem. It does not.
Further, the USCF office CANNOT update the list of authorized TDs for an affiliate, only the affiliate can, using the online interface in TD/A.
Well, A6022618 does have a logon, and when I logon to the TD/A area I see the member ID I listed for a TD in the left column. When I logon as that TD, it also says I’m authorized for A6022618. What gives?
Somehow our external and internal databases for TD/A had gotten out of sync. I fixed your record, I’ll have to check to see if there are others.
Thanks, it’s now trying to parse the data, but fails trying to insert the first section. I’ve gone over my file with a hex editor, it looks fine to me, and the data listed in the error looks to have been parsed ok from my file:
All files present, checking for valid format
Uploading tournament to USCF server
1 Header record 15 fields
Event Name: Swag Open
Affiliate: A6022618
Event Dates: 20050507 - 20050507
Event ID assigned: 200505077501
USCF Event ID = 200505077501
2 Section records 13 fields
error loading section data
INSERT into incoming_tsexport (s_login,s_batchid, S_EVENT_ID, S_SEC_NUM, S_SEC_NAME, S_K_FACTOR, S_R_SYSTEM, S_CTD_ID, S_ATD_ID, S_TRN_TYPE, S_TOT_RNDS, S_LST_PAIR, S_DTLREC01, S_OPER, S_STATUS, s_beg_date, s_end_date, S_TIMECTL) values (‘twinfeats’,‘SWAGOPENTEST’,‘200505077501’, lpad(trim(’ 1’),2),‘Open ‘,‘F’,‘R’,‘12464982’,‘12704555’,‘S’,‘4’,‘8’,‘1’,‘UU’,’#’,‘20050507’,‘20050507’,‘GAME/60’)
17 Detail records 15 fields
Tournament Upload failed
I don’t see anything wrong with any of these data fields, and I should point out that even though my section file indicates the above section had a rating system of R, I have to select that option from the drop down or it doesn’t show up in the above data properly.
Thanks!
It looks like I had a scripting error on the ‘S_OPER’ field, I think it’s fixed. (I’m not quite sure why it took until now for that to surface, though.)
Because WinTD and Swis-Sys don’t know to offer the ‘D’ rating system option and because the time control field (used to verify quick and dual rating eligibility) isn’t in the dBase file, you will have to manually select the rating system type, at least until the new dBase file format is implemented. That’s why it was added to the overrides prior to the upload.
Looks like TDX is producing valid files - thanks Mike!
Mike,
Is there any way to test the tab-delimited files yet?
Regards.
Steve
No, and I wouldn’t expect it any time soon. We have a way to submit events that is compatible with all of the existing/major pairing programs. Anything beyond that is a luxury, not a necessity.
Steve,
I just finished adding the DBase3 file creation code to TDX, I could write a standalone app that uses the same core java to convert a tab delimited file to a dbase3 file in the format USCF wants. What do you have in mind for the tab delimited file format?
Kent
Mike,
Are you referring to the dBase files or is there some other method you are referring to?
Thanks.
Steve
Correct, all of the major pairing programs (WinTD, Swis-Sys and any copies of PairPlus still in use) can create the dBase (.DBF) format that we currently accept. There are a few in-development programs, but until they’ve been battle-tested I’d be very reluctant to use them. (I remember too well what it was like when PairPlus was first being used at the nationals.)
Eventually there will be a new file format which will be published in both DBF and tab-delimited form, but finalizing the format got bogged down and I don’t have time to write two additional parsing routines right now anyway.
Kent,
I’m sorry but I do not know what TDX is. To make a long story short, I am running Linux exclusively and there is a pairing program called Vega ,http://www.vegachess.com/en/index.htm, that is a cross platform program. The author, Luigi Forlano, is a TD for the Italian Chess Federation. He has incorporated the the latest USCF pairing rules in the code but the results are all standard text files. Mike, had published a preliminary dBase/tab-delimited format spec (secure.uschess.org/TD_Affil/fileformat.php) and Luigi has incorporated a module to output the required files in that format but has no way of testing it until the USCF accepts tab-delimited files. So that’s the story in a nutshell.
Thanks for your interest.
Steve
Thanks Mike. I’m sorry to hear that.
As you know, I have been trying to get the tab-delimited format available for use in Vega. The program is used extensively in Italy and the author has taken the time to incorporate the USCF rules. The program is free on Linux and there is a nominal charge for Windows machines.
I don’t have access to WinTD or Swiss-Sys but if a few people here would download the program from vegachess.com/en/index.htm and compare the results with that of either of the other two programs it would be a great help in possibly getting the tab-delimited format accepted. The program has a verbose mode where it cites the rules it implements to determine the pairings. So any discrepancies between what WinTD or Swiss-Sys does should be easy to determine why Vega did what it did.
Regards.
Steve
TDX is my own free pairing program I recently released, written in Java, so it runs on all platforms. It can output the dbase3 format required by the USCF. I’m a Mac OSX user, so I can’t try Vega to see the format it outputs. What I could do is write a small stand alone java application that could convert the tab delimited files into the dbase3 files.
Kent,
Is TDX downloadable from some site?
Regards.
Steve
Yes. twinfeats.com
I actually used in a small club tourney as a test and it works fine. It has some minor quirks and annoyances, but in general it works fine for running the tournament.
But the bottom line is that its free, and it works great for those who run small club tournaments that don’t want to pay out $100 for a pairing program like WinTD and SwissSys.
I haven’t expiremented with the uploading to the USCF with it yet. PLus, its only at Version 1.5 i think, and i’m sure the creator is still working on making it better. But even at 1.5 you can run tournaments with it.
I have nothing against TDX, but if you are running a small club tournament you probably shouldn’t be using a computer. A lot of TDs these days are getting certified without ever leaning to pair. And, setting the minimum required equipment at a $500 computer instead of a $.25 pen is a bad idea.