Changing a start time
Closing the entries gives every match on every ring a start time, and those times are printed on the schedules, on the ring documents and on the exhibitor cards.
Then the day interferes. A judge arrives late, a breed takes longer than anyone expected, a ring waits for the one before it to clear. This chapter is about moving a start time after the fact — without reopening the entries and without recalculating the whole show.
Before you start
Three things have to be true.
- The event has its entries closed and the dogs assigned to the rings. Before that there are no times to move.
- The event is not suspended for reassignments. Finish or resume them first: resuming recalculates the times and would throw your change away.
- You are signed in as an administrator.
How a ring schedule is built
A ring is a physical space, so everything that happens on it forms a single queue. The application fills that queue one match at a time, a match being a combination of breed, class and sex — Briard, junior, male. Each match lasts as long as its number of dogs multiplied by the judging time per dog, and the next one starts when the previous one ends.
That is why the times are all connected, and why moving one match moves everything behind it. There is no slack in the queue to absorb a change.
Where the button is
Open the ring and go to the Breeds tab. A clock button sits next to the start time in two places.
On a breed row, in the Breeds table at the top. It moves the earliest match of that breed, which is the time shown on the row. It works only when all the matches of that breed follow one another on the ring with nothing in between; otherwise the application refuses and sends you to the individual match.
On a match row, in the Matches for breed table at the bottom left. It moves that single match.
The button is greyed out on matches that have already been judged, and on breeds whose best of breed has been assigned.
Moving a match
- Click the clock on the row you want to move.
- The dialog names what you are moving, as breed code, class and sex.
- Type the new time, or use -30, -10, +10 and +30 to shift it.
- Press save.
The shift buttons add up — pressing +10 twice moves the match by twenty minutes — and however you use them the field always shows the resulting time, so you can see exactly where the match will land before you commit to it.
The list refreshes at once. The ring tablets pick the change up on their own: nothing has to be done on them.
What moves and what does not
Everything on that ring that starts after the match you moved shifts by the same amount, and the gaps between those matches stay exactly as they were. You are sliding a block, not recalculating it, so the shape of the day survives the change.
Matches that start before the one you moved are not touched.
Matches that have already been judged are never moved: their time is a record of what happened. If one of them sits after the match you are moving, the application refuses the change rather than let the sequence fall out of order.
Other rings are not touched, and that is deliberate: the same breed can be split across two rings, with one judge taking a class and another taking the rest, so a change on one ring must not disturb the other. If the shift would run a judge into another ring where that same judge is expected later, the application refuses.
If the match you moved is the first one of that judge on the ring, the judge's own start time on the ring moves with it.
After you save
The documents that print the times are deleted. They are the ring breed list, the dog results and their blackboard version, the breeds schedule for rings and the ring entrance control. They reappear in the count of missing documents for the event, and you recreate them with the usual button — see Documents and catalog.
The catalog is not deleted. It carries the times as well, but regenerating it is a heavy operation, so the decision is left to you. If it has already gone to print or been published, weigh whether the change is worth a new edition.
Exhibitor cards already emailed cannot be recalled. Whoever received a card before the change still has the old time on it. If the change is significant, tell them by some other means.
When the change is refused
The application refuses a change rather than produce a schedule that cannot be judged.
| Message | What it means |
|---|---|
| The time must be after the previous match | The new time would overlap or overtake the match before it on the ring. Choose a time at least a minute later, or move that one first. |
| The time is out of the event interval | The new time, or the last match dragged along by it, falls outside the start and end of the event. Extend the event, or move less. |
| There is a match already judged after this one | A match further down the ring has been judged. Its time cannot move, so nothing behind it can move either. |
| The judge is engaged on another ring | The shift would push this judge past the time at which the same judge is due to begin on another ring. Rearrange that ring first. |
| The match is already judged | That match has been judged and its time is now a record. |
| The breed is already closed with best of breed | Judging for that breed is complete. |
| The matches of the breed are not consecutive on the ring | Another breed is scheduled in between, so moving the breed as a block would not mean anything. Use the clock on the individual matches. |
| The event is not with entries closed | Times exist only after the entries have been closed and the dogs assigned. |
| The event is suspended for reassignments | Finish the reassignments first. Resuming them recalculates the times and would discard the change. |
What it does not touch
Changing a time never alters entries, dogs, classes or judging results. It only moves when things happen.
The times live in a schedule that is rebuilt from scratch whenever the entries are closed again. Closing the entries a second time discards every manual change to the times and rebuilds the whole schedule from the assignments — worth knowing before you accept a late entry and close again.
There is no undo. To put a time back, move it again to its original value: everything behind it comes back with it.