TDB help thread

[Matt Weiner]

If you have any questions about using the Hsquizbowl Tournament Database, please use this thread to ask them and we will answer as quickly as possible.

[PaladinQB]

I see that the Ohio State tournament was entered twice. Is there any way to delete an entry from the database?

bms

[theMoMA]

I suspect it would be much more useful to have tournament directors input their own password, than the current system, which requires that a TD remember (or not lose) a randomly generated alphanumeric password.

[cvdwightw]

Yes, also, contact addresses. I entered UCLA's high school tournament because I didn't think Chris would and I'm almost certain Ravi doesn't know that such a database exists. The first time, I entered Chris's email address. Then I hit the back button and added "NOSPAM" somewhere in his email, so the tournament is actually entered twice. I have no idea whether Chris was notified that this tournament was entered, I have no idea if the tournament database is going to reject addresses with "NOSPAM" somewhere in them, and I'm not sure that there are safeguards designed to keep spambots from harvesting the contact email addresses.

[BuzzerZen]

I suspect it would be much more useful to have tournament directors input their own password, than the current system, which requires that a TD remember (or not lose) a randomly generated alphanumeric password.

This is not the state of affairs because passwords are stored and transmitted in the clear. There's no user sessions, no cookies, and no HTTPS. Anyone who forgets or loses their password can email me for assistance. As the system evolves, a more rigorous authentication regime may be instituted. For now, random passwords.

[BuzzerZen]

safeguards designed to keep spambots from harvesting the contact email addresses.

There are: mailto links in the tournament details view are Javascript-encoded.

[cvdwightw]

Can someone delete the tournament mention I made for the Rancho Bernardo No Name Tournament? It has the wrong date and the TD has put in more and better information.

Done. —Mgmt.

[kcommo]

Where do we go to find past tournaments in the database? And where do I go to update my entry with results now that the tournament is over?

[BuzzerZen]

Where do we go to find past tournaments in the database? And where do I go to update my entry with results now that the tournament is over?

Ah, yeah, I knew I would need to get around to implementing that feature eventually. I will work on that tonight, I hope. Stay tuned.

[BuzzerZen]

Where do we go to find past tournaments in the database? And where do I go to update my entry with results now that the tournament is over?

This is now fixed, with the addition of an all tournaments page. Find your tournament and use your password to edit the results.

[cvdwightw]

Hey, I'm trying to put in a link to the stats for CBCT, and after I submit the link it still says "statistics not available". Am I doing something wrong or is this function not implemented yet?

Also, when I try to filter for tournaments in California (from the all tournaments page) I get an error message. Is this another function that has not been implemented yet, or is there a bug in the search program?

[BuzzerZen]

Hey, I'm trying to put in a link to the stats for CBCT, and after I submit the link it still says "statistics not available". Am I doing something wrong or is this function not implemented yet?

Also, when I try to filter for tournaments in California (from the all tournaments page) I get an error message. Is this another function that has not been implemented yet, or is there a bug in the search program?

These are likely both instances of me being shoddy. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

[BuzzerZen]

Hey, I'm trying to put in a link to the stats for CBCT, and after I submit the link it still says "statistics not available". Am I doing something wrong or is this function not implemented yet?

Also, when I try to filter for tournaments in California (from the all tournaments page) I get an error message. Is this another function that has not been implemented yet, or is there a bug in the search program?

Both these issues are resolved. Also, there is now a "trash" option for the tournament levels.

[kcommo]

I was posting the Vermont Green Mountain Regional but I got errors every time I tried to post indicating that the tournament dates were 10/22 and 10/29. I finally gave up and posted just with the later date (http://www.hsquizbowl.org/tdb/tournaments/124), but as the other upcoming Vermont Regionals are two-day events, is there a way to properly list multi-date events?

Thanks!

[BuzzerZen]

is there a way to properly list multi-date events?

Not at present. This is something I might look into in the future though.

[Important Bird Area]

I just tried to enter the ICT and got an error that the "Address could not be geocoded" even though I copied the address directly from the Hyatt Regency DFW page. What am I doing wrong?

How hard would it be to have separate fields for street address/state/ZIP code and then an override checkbox for non-US tournaments?

Also, I just tried to enter HSNCT and it keeps blanking out the date field and then refusing to let me submit the tournament because the date is blank.

[Important Bird Area]

I think I sorted out the above problems myself, to wit:

-tdb still doesn't like tournaments scheduled over multiple days. This is probably worth fixing soon, in the interest of actual schedules for ICT, HSNCT, and ACF nationals among others.

-the address for the Dallas airport Hyatt had some kind of fatal error (it doesn't show up in google maps either). I just gave it the airport address and it seemed to be ok with that.

Would it be possible to add a field to link to tournament announcements outside of hsquizbowl? I had to cram the naqt.com links with the details for these two into the description field, which seems less than ideal.

[BuzzerZen]

I think I sorted out the above problems myself, to wit:

-tdb still doesn't like tournaments scheduled over multiple days. This is probably worth fixing soon, in the interest of actual schedules for ICT, HSNCT, and ACF nationals among others.

Possibly. Duly noted.

-the address for the Dallas airport Hyatt had some kind of fatal error (it doesn't show up in google maps either). I just gave it the airport address and it seemed to be ok with that.

The geocoder employs Google Maps to do its job, so if Google doesn't believe in it, the TDB won't either.

Would it be possible to add a field to link to tournament announcements outside of hsquizbowl? I had to cram the naqt.com links with the details for these two into the description field, which seems less than ideal.

I am probably going to change how the "description" field works in order to allow a safe subset of HTML to be used. I intend on keeping the "forum post" link as only allowed to link to forum posts in order to encourage cross-posting.

[ScoBo]

If you have trouble uploading SQBS reports, please email me the reports along with the browser and operating system you are using and when I get a chance I'll see if I can figure out why it's not working. (My address is available in my forum profile)

[Excelsior (smack)]

It seems that creating a question set gives you ownership of the set, in the sense that only you are thereafter able to edit the set. This does not seem to be a good idea - I was the first person to post an ACF Fall mirror site on the database, and as such, I now have ownership of the 2011 ACF Fall set.

I think that it would be good to either create a mechanism for transferring set ownership (and it wouldn't be a bad idea to include a mechanism for transferring tournament ownership, either), or just make sets editable by anyone with an HSQB account. It might also be a good idea to include information on each question set page and each tournament page indicating who has ownership of that question set/tournament, in case said person needs to be contacted for whatever reason (e.g. updating stats links or whatnot).

[Adventure Temple Trail]

It seems that creating a question set gives you ownership of the set, in the sense that only you are thereafter able to edit the set. This does not seem to be a good idea - I was the first person to post an ACF Fall mirror site on the database, and as such, I now have ownership of the 2011 ACF Fall set.

I think that it would be good to either create a mechanism for transferring set ownership (and it wouldn't be a bad idea to include a mechanism for transferring tournament ownership, either), or just make sets editable by anyone with an HSQB account. It might also be a good idea to include information on each question set page and each tournament page indicating who has ownership of that question set/tournament, in case said person needs to be contacted for whatever reason (e.g. updating stats links or whatnot).

In this vein, it'd be nice if the creators of tournaments on the database could invite other users to share ownership of their tournaments, so that if, say, Ashvin posted an announcement for FAcT, he could invite me to share it, and thereafter, either of us could edit the details as needed. I'm thinking of something like the "Invite people to join" feature on Google docs, if that gives a better idea.

This isn't to insult or diminish the achievement of the existing Quizbowl Resource Database, which is absolutely excellent and is likely to be a total game-changer for involving people in quizbowl and the quizbowl Internet. Many thanks to Jeffrey and co.!

[ScoBo]

It seems that creating a question set gives you ownership of the set, in the sense that only you are thereafter able to edit the set. This does not seem to be a good idea - I was the first person to post an ACF Fall mirror site on the database, and as such, I now have ownership of the 2011 ACF Fall set.

I think that it would be good to either create a mechanism for transferring set ownership (and it wouldn't be a bad idea to include a mechanism for transferring tournament ownership, either), or just make sets editable by anyone with an HSQB account.

In this vein, it'd be nice if the creators of tournaments on the database could invite other users to share ownership of their tournaments, so that if, say, Ashvin posted an announcement for FAcT, he could invite me to share it, and thereafter, either of us could edit the details as needed. I'm thinking of something like the "Invite people to join" feature on Google docs, if that gives a better idea.

This isn't to insult or diminish the achievement of the existing Quizbowl Resource Database, which is absolutely excellent and is likely to be a total game-changer for involving people in quizbowl and the quizbowl Internet. Many thanks to Jeffrey and co.!

Yes, this is something I am planning to add at some point. (In fact, database admins don't even have the ability to transfer ownership yet!) I'll hopefully add simple transfer of ownership this weekend (and now that you mention it, allowing an entry owner to transfer ownership makes sense, of course with the caveat that you lose editing privileges after doing so). Eventually I'm hoping to add more flexible permissions so that multiple users are able to edit entries (for instance, allow all Yale people to edit the entry for FaCT VII).

It might also be a good idea to include information on each question set page and each tournament page indicating who has ownership of that question set/tournament, in case said person needs to be contacted for whatever reason (e.g. updating stats links or whatnot).

I think these would be great to add. Tournaments already have a contact email; are you suggesting that there should be a name specified as well, and/or the username of the person who owns the database entry?

I didn't spend too much time thinking about the question set side of things in the interest of getting the tournament database replaced as soon as possible, so there is definitely room for improvement. For instance, I'm not too thrilled with what I came up with for the main "question sets" page; right now I think it shows the first 6 sets at each level in the current season and a link to show the rest, which isn't nearly as useful as it could be.

[Excelsior (smack)]

I think these would be great to add. Tournaments already have a contact email; are you suggesting that there should be a name specified as well, and/or the username of the person who owns the database entry?

Yes - I think including the forum username of the person (or, once you implement multiple-ownership, people) who has editing privileges for a given tournament entry or question set entry ought to be displayed in some relatively inconspicuous location on the page. This is necessary, because: suppose somebody from ACF wants to edit the ACF Fall 2011 entry, and I hadn't posted that I currently have ownership of it. Currently, their options are either to create a new entry for ACF Fall 2011, thus causing fragmentation of the question set database and decreasing usability; or to aimlessly search for the owner of the existing entry (maybe by posting on the forums and hoping that the existing entry's owner identifies emself). Neither of these are ideal. If entry-owner names were displayed somewhere, at least the ACF people would know who to contact to get an entry changed (or have an entry transferred, once that is implemented).

[ScoBo]

Yes - I think including the forum username of the person (or, once you implement multiple-ownership, people) who has editing privileges for a given tournament entry or question set entry ought to be displayed in some relatively inconspicuous location on the page.

It is much more obvious to me how beneficial this would be now that the database has gone live and other people are posting to it. This will probably be the first thing I take care of this weekend. Thanks for the suggestion!

[Excelsior (smack)]

Awesome, thanks!

Very low-priority feature request - implement markdown or a similar lightweight text formatter for use in all <textarea>s (e.g. Additional Details and Entry Notes). Or, if that wouldn't be worth the effort, perhaps something that just linkifies URLs present in <textarea>s.

[vcuEvan]

I think it'd be helpful and maybe increase usage if there was a link to the db along the top of the forum.

[Important Bird Area]

This database looks terrific; thanks for creating it!

Minor feature requests:

1. Indicate next to the date field what the preferred format is. (I think it's mm/dd/yyyy based on the output.)

2. I set up pages for NAQT sets 111 and 112A, which displayed fine. Attempts to create entries for 113, 114A, and the 2012 HSNCT produced confirmation pages, but the sets don't display on the main listing page.

3. Requesting merger/standardization for the two NAQT tournaments marked with partial names: "110A" should be merged into "NAQT Invitational Series #110A" and "MS-02" should read "NAQT Middle School Series #2."

I can't help but wonder whether it's possible to write code that automatically uploads the schedule from naqt.com, which is already collecting almost all of the same information (and would save a bunch of duplicated labor re: tournaments that switch dates, etc.)

[Excelsior (smack)]

2. I set up pages for NAQT sets 111 and 112A, which displayed fine. Attempts to create entries for 113, 114A, and the 2012 HSNCT produced confirmation pages, but the sets don't display on the main listing page.

I'm guessing you didn't include a usage date for those sets, and the search query you linked only displays 2011-12 sets. When you search for all sets (http://www.hsquizbowl.org/db/questionsets/search/?name=&hs=1), 113, 114A, and HSNCT are displayed. (And it looks like you inadvertently created 113 twice in the process).

[Important Bird Area]

2. I set up pages for NAQT sets 111 and 112A, which displayed fine. Attempts to create entries for 113, 114A, and the 2012 HSNCT produced confirmation pages, but the sets don't display on the main listing page.

I'm guessing you didn't include a usage date for those sets, and the search query you linked only displays 2011-12 sets. When you search for all sets (http://www.hsquizbowl.org/db/questionsets/search/?name=&hs=1), 113, 114A, and HSNCT are displayed. (And it looks like you inadvertently created 113 twice in the process).

I tried and it wouldn't take the usage dates... I'll go try and clean up the resulting damage.

Edit: done.

[Important Bird Area]

OK, all standard-format NAQT sets now have entries in this database. Email me if you would like to add a tournament on one of our state-specific sets and I'll add appropriate entries.

[ScoBo]

All great suggestions; I'll add them to my list.

I tried and it wouldn't take the usage dates...

What do you mean by this?

[Important Bird Area]

It was generating a confirmation page with a blanked-out date field (thus producing the display bug diagnosed by Ashvin). I suspect this was happening because I was entering dates in the wrong format.

[ScoBo]

It was generating a confirmation page with a blanked-out date field (thus producing the display bug diagnosed by Ashvin). I suspect this was happening because I was entering dates in the wrong format.

I've added the mm/dd/yyyy tip.

Out of curiosity, this seems to be the interpretation (it's just using standard php strtotime):
- mm/dd/yyyy (the expected input)
- dd-mm-yyyy and dd.mm.yyyy
- yyyy-mm-dd and yyyy/mm/dd
- yyyymmdd
- mm/dd is interpreted as being part of the current year

[Excelsior (smack)]

Another very low-priority suggestion: staffer discounts are very common, but are not a default option in the discounts field (unlike buzzer, travel, and laptop discounts) when creating a tournament listing. I suspect they would be worth adding as a default as a UI improvement when you run out of more important things to do.

[jonpin]

OK, all standard-format NAQT sets now have entries in this database. Email me if you would like to add a tournament on one of our state-specific sets and I'll add appropriate entries.

There appear to be two entries for MS-03 and none for MS-02.

[ScoBo]

Another very low-priority suggestion: staffer discounts are very common, but are not a default option in the discounts field (unlike buzzer, travel, and laptop discounts) when creating a tournament listing. I suspect they would be worth adding as a default as a UI improvement when you run out of more important things to do.

I'm not sure how I came up with the defaults; that was decided a long time ago and I just went with it. The only thing I have against making staffer a default is that some tournaments offer discounts for providing scorekeepers only (HSNCT), or different discounts based on whether the staffer serves as a moderator or scorekeeper (Tiger Bowl IV), so it seems simpler to just let each tournament add those discounts as necessary. I'm open to suggestions though.

On a similar note, I've been wondering if individual fees/discounts need an additional field for comments (e.g. for a scorekeeper discount, the poster can provide "This can be a coach, parent, or any other person attending who isn’t playing. We will provide the scorekeeper with a breakfast and lunch.") or if the "additional entry information" area is sufficient for that (like this). I'm thinking it would be better to keep those details with the discounts they apply to rather than having to dump all the clarifying information at the end (in a different subsection, even). Thoughts?

OK, all standard-format NAQT sets now have entries in this database. Email me if you would like to add a tournament on one of our state-specific sets and I'll add appropriate entries.

There appear to be two entries for MS-03 and none for MS-02.

Wow, it would help when renaming "MS-02" that I change the number after copying from "NAQT Middle School Series #3" before saving This has been fixed; good catch.

[Rick]

I think it'd be helpful and maybe increase usage if there was a link to the db along the top of the forum.

I agree with this. I hate to be the guy that complains while not really contributing anything himself, but the database, at least for upcoming tournaments, is rather bare, missing a lot of tournaments already here on the forums. Anything to increase usage seems like a good idea to me, as it needs it, and I see quite a bit of potential here.

[I'm a goff (in case you couldn't tell)]

I think it'd be helpful and maybe increase usage if there was a link to the db along the top of the forum.

I agree with this. I hate to be the guy that complains while not really contributing anything himself, but the database, at least for upcoming tournaments, is rather bare, missing a lot of tournaments already here on the forums. Anything to increase usage seems like a good idea to me, as it needs it, and I see quite a bit of potential here.

Check the top of the forum.

[Rick]

My bad. Not sure how I missed that.

[ScoBo]

I finally deployed an update that allows you to transfer ownership of a tournament or question set entry to another user. (Naturally, I had to make the implementation more complex than it needed to be... ...but hopefully the result is more intuitive than the simple option would have been.) Once you transfer ownership for a particular entry you will no longer be able to edit it. The (user)name of the user who owns the entry is now displayed at the bottom of the details page. With this update I've transferred ownership of all NAQT question sets to Jeff.

This update will also prompt you to enter your name the next time you visit the database while logged in, so that your name will be displayed instead of your username on any entries you own.

I ended up rewriting quite a bit of core code to get this to work the way I wanted it to, so there's a chance I broke something completely unrelated in the process. Please let me know if you run into any problems with the update.

[Mike Bentley]

Would it be possible to set up an RSS feed with the latest tournament announcements and results (preferably in separate feeds)?

[ScoBo]

Would it be possible to set up an RSS feed with the latest tournament announcements and results (preferably in separate feeds)?

Yes, this is something I would like to do at some point.

[jonpin]

Could you change the "Upcoming tournaments" section on the main page to be all tournaments in the next N days for some N, 6 < N < 15? I have a tournament coming up on Sunday which won't show up because there are tournaments on Saturday, and there will from time to time be other events in this situation.

[ScoBo]

Could you change the "Upcoming tournaments" section on the main page to be all tournaments in the next N days for some N, 6 < N < 15? I have a tournament coming up on Sunday which won't show up because there are tournaments on Saturday, and there will from time to time be other events in this situation.

Because of significantly fewer tournaments in the summertime I opted not to go with a direct "show only tournaments within the next N days". The original algorithm was to get the next 12 tournaments, go through each of them, and on a date change, check if there were at least 6 tournaments displayed; if so, then bail out; otherwise continue until the next date change at which point the minimum check was done again. Of course, due to the number of tournaments that occur each Saturday this would typically only show the next Saturday's tournaments.

I updated this to add a minimum date threshold that doesn't allow bailing out until we pass the required date (currently 7 days). So, if the date changes and we have the minimum number of tournaments, but the date is within 7 days, we will show those tournaments as well. I also increased the maximum number of tournaments since there could be days with a whole bunch of tournaments (e.g. NAQT SCT day). I think this will typically result in all tournaments in the next 7 days showing up until we get to a dead time when it will end up showing the next 6 or so, and should rarely result in a listed date not including all of the tournaments on that date (which under the old algorithm easily could have happened if the next Saturday had 5 tournaments and the following Saturday had 8 or more.)

[Excelsior (smack)]

Apparent bug: uploading a stats report with a + (plus) sign in the title field fails silently during the upload process, as seen here: http://hsquizbowl.org/db/tournaments/66/stats/playoffs_%2B_finals_%28rounds_8-/. Attempting to view the stats report yields the error "Report "playoffs_ _finals_(rounds_8-" does not exist.", though it is possible to edit the stats report as the owner of the report. Attempting to upload a stats report with a + in the title field should either succeed correctly, or fail with an error message.

[ScoBo]

Apparent bug: uploading a stats report with a + (plus) sign in the title field fails silently during the upload process, as seen here: http://hsquizbowl.org/db/tournaments/66/stats/playoffs_%2B_finals_%28rounds_8-/. Attempting to view the stats report yields the error "Report "playoffs_ _finals_(rounds_8-" does not exist.", though it is possible to edit the stats report as the owner of the report. Attempting to upload a stats report with a + in the title field should either succeed correctly, or fail with an error message.

Thanks for reporting this. I know there are some oddities with encoding certain symbols in URLs and I'll take a look at this when I get a chance.

[ScoBo]

A database upgrade will be performed sometime tomorrow evening, currently planned for around 9 EDT. The database may be unavailable for a period of time during the upgrade, though I don't expect any major downtime.

[ScoBo]

Apparent bug: uploading a stats report with a + (plus) sign in the title field fails silently during the upload process, as seen here: http://hsquizbowl.org/db/tournaments/66/stats/playoffs_%2B_finals_%28rounds_8-/. Attempting to view the stats report yields the error "Report "playoffs_ _finals_(rounds_8-" does not exist.", though it is possible to edit the stats report as the owner of the report. Attempting to upload a stats report with a + in the title field should either succeed correctly, or fail with an error message.

Thanks for reporting this. I know there are some oddities with encoding certain symbols in URLs and I'll take a look at this when I get a chance.

I think this got fixed by the change I just made to fix another bug that William discovered today. There's a slight chance I may have broken something unanticipated with this change, so if anyone notices any broken links that previously worked, please let me know.

[Excelsior (smack)]

Very minor bug: ampersands in packet-download links (and possibly other places?) aren't being percent-encoded. Example:

Code: Select all

http://collegiate.quizbowlpackets.com/541/Chicago%20A%20&%20Illinois%20B.pdf

Should be:

Code: Select all

http://collegiate.quizbowlpackets.com/541/Chicago%20A%20%26%20Illinois%20B.pdf

i.e. with the `&` encoded to `%26`.

This causes some minor wonkiness, e.g. Chrome reports that the file linked above may be dangerous when downloaded using the first link (unencoded ampersand), but not when using the second link (encoded ampersand). I think this has to do with Chrome interpreting everything after the unencoded ampersand as part of the query, meaning it doesn't treat the `.pdf` as an extension and thinks it's downloading an extensionless (and possibly malicious/executable) file.

[ScoBo]

I've added the &/%26 issue to my list of things to look at.

Thanks to some feedback received in an IRC discussion last night, I've made some tweaks to the tournament search functionality. There is now a simple search box on the main page to quickly find a tournament by name, and the search page will search all tournaments by default instead of just upcoming tournaments.

If you have any feedback on database usability or suggestions for additional features, please be sure to post them in this thread. I already have a bunch of tasks on my list of things I want to do, so I'm not sure when I'd be able to get to your suggestions, but if something useful is simple enough to implement, I may be able to get it in sooner. Thanks!