Uploading an event

The organiser's job. Two timing rules decide whether everybody else's analysis works.

One organiser publishes the event and every runner in the class can then add their run to it.

The two timing rules below are conventions rather than things the software enforces.

Rule 1 — release time is the last start

Set release to the moment the last competitor starts

Not the first start, not the prize-giving, not "when I get home". The last start time in the whole event, plus a minute or two of margin if the start list is likely to slip.

Until the release time passes, the event page shows a countdown and nothing else: no map, no courses, no runs. Every surface that would show a map thumbnail — the events list, the home page, the club page — shows a placeholder and does not request the map.

When the countdown reaches zero the page unlocks and refetches itself.

Why the last start specifically:

Earlier lets a competitor still waiting to start open the event and read the course.
Later keeps finished runners waiting, and relies on the organiser unlocking it by hand.
The last start is on the start list, so it is known in advance.

Event admins are exempt from the lock, so the upload can be checked beforehand. Who counts as an admin is the admin scope setting: just you, or every member of the organising club.

An event with no release time is visible immediately

There is no default lock: without a release time the map is live the moment you save. Leaving it off suits a training run published afterwards, not an event with a start list.

Rule 2 — result file within an hour of the last finish

Upload the IOF result list within an hour of the last runner finishing

One export from your timing system, one drop into the event. Do it at the arena, before the equipment is packed.

Without split times a runner gets their own line on a map. With them they get leg ranks, place progression, time lost measured against their own level, and an AI review that can discuss the field. Four things depend on the file:

Depends on splits	Without them
Field comparison — leg ranks, place progression, the whole split-times panel	Not shown at all
Time lost per leg, measured against the runner's own level	Falls back to the GPS mistake detector, which is a weaker signal
The mistake count in the headline	Counted from GPS heuristics instead of from the class's own times
The AI coach	Held back entirely, by default, until splits arrive

Within the hour, runners are still at the arena and will open their analysis the same evening. Anyone who opens the event before the file lands gets the reduced version described above.

What to upload

An IOF XML 3.0 result list. In MeOS: export, then choose the IOF XML 3.0 result-list variant. One file covers every class in the event.

The parser is strict about what it will accept, and says why when it refuses:

What you dropped	What you get told
A start list	That is a start list, which has no split times in it
A course file	That is a course file, not results — it belongs in the course step
IOF XML version 2	Export as IOF XML 3.0 — in MeOS, choose the 3.0 variant
An entry list	No class results in that file

After parsing, the wizard lists the classes it found with a runner count each, and you map your event's classes onto them. Names rarely match exactly; the mapping step exists so they do not have to.

A WinSplits link is accepted where a result file is not available. The file is preferable: it arrives sooner and covers every class in one go.

Forking is read from the file

Where runners in a class disagree about the control sequence, the wizard flags the affected legs. That flag travels into the analysis, so the leg comparison and the AI coach both know a split-sheet leg may cover several course legs.

The wizard, step by step

Step 1. Basics

Name, date, location, and the club that owns the event. Then the settings that decide who sees it and when:

Setting	Default	Description
Visibility	Public	Public, club only, or invite only. Invite-only events need no club; you invite by email address, set a shared access password, or both. An invitation is claimed automatically when that address signs in.
Admin scope	Creator only	Who can edit the event, moderate runs, and see the map before release. Widen it to club members if more than one person is running the event.
Competition level	Local	Training, local, regional, national or international. Training is what makes an event a training session rather than a race; it also unlocks the training-type field.
Discipline	Middle	Sprint, middle, long, ultra-long, relay, night or other. Sprint is not cosmetic — it enables the sprint analysis pipeline and changes the mistake detector's tolerances for tight corners.
Release at	Off	Rule 1 above. Set it to the last start.
Wait for split times before the AI review	On	Holds the AI coach until the event has splits, so its first review sees the whole field. Everything else in the analysis works immediately. Turn it off for a training run that will never have a results list.

Step 2. Map

One drop zone, with format detection. What you upload decides how much work the rest of the wizard is:

Format	What happens	Georeference
.ocd (and .omap / .xmap)	Uploaded and rendered server-side at 300 DPI by a worker running OpenOrienteering Mapper. A rough browser preview appears immediately so you can carry on working.	Automatic, from the file's own anchoring — when its coordinate system is one we recognise
.pdf	The first page is rasterised in the browser	Manual, or from a world file
.png / .jpg	Uploaded as-is	Manual, or drop a .wld / .jgw / .pgw / .tfw sidecar afterwards

Upload the OCAD file if you have it. It is the only route that produces an automatic georeference, and the render is a 300 DPI raster.

The browser preview carries a real georeference, fitted from the OCAD file's own anchoring, so courses placed against it and extra layers aligned to it stay correct when the finished render replaces it. You can advance the wizard on the preview; publish on the finished render.

Once a transform exists, an overlay against satellite imagery is drawn to confirm the alignment — see Georeferencing.

The map step also holds the advanced section: extra layers, tiles and presentation maps. That is a topic of its own — Layers, tiles and presentation maps.

Step 3. Courses

Upload a course file and the controls come with it. If you do not have one, place the controls by hand on the map.

A course is a sequence of controls; a class is a name that runs on one. Several classes routinely share a course. This step covers the courses only.

If the event uses loops (slingor) or forking, set that here. Both change how a runner's track is matched to the course.

Step 4. Classes

By default the wizard creates one class per course with the same name. Where the course file declares classes as well as courses, those names and their course links are used instead.

Renaming a course carries the rename into the classes linked to it, and a deleted class does not reappear when you navigate back and forth.

Step 5. Split times

Rule 2 above. Drop the IOF result file, then map your classes onto the ones in it.

The step can be revisited. Publishing the event before the results exist and returning an hour later is the normal sequence: the event works from the moment the map and courses are up.

Step 6. Review

A last look before the event goes live. The three worth checking are the georeference overlay, the control count per class, and the release time.

A publishing timeline that works

Week before   Create the event. Map, courses, classes.
              Set release_at = last start time on the start list.
              Confirm the georeference against satellite imagery.

Race morning  Adjust release_at if the start list moved.

Last start    Event unlocks itself. Nothing to do.

Last finish   Export IOF XML 3.0 from MeOS.
   + 1 hour   Drop it into the event's split-times step.
              Map the classes. Done.

That evening  Runners upload tracks. AI reviews run.

Common mistakes

Mistake	What people see	Fix
Release time left off on a race	The map is public from the moment you save	Always set it; the last start is the answer
Release time set to the first start	Late starters can read the course	Last start, not first
Discipline left at middle for a sprint	No optimal paths, no ghost, no GPS snapping, and a mistake detector tuned for forest	Set the discipline before runners upload
A start list uploaded instead of a result list	The parser refuses it and says so	Export the result list variant
Splits uploaded days later	Everyone who looked early saw the weaker analysis, and the AI review never ran for them	Rule 2
A map with the course already printed on it	The course is drawn twice — once by the print, once by Routster	Tick “the course is already printed on this map”

Editing after publishing

Reopening the wizard on a live event does not disturb runs already uploaded. Class edits match on name, so each run's link to its class survives. Avoid renaming a class to a name another class already uses.