racerfid — RFID import

What it does

racerfid reads passing times from an RFID chip system and feeds them into the timing engine, so nobody has to key bibs in by hand at the start and finish.

It does not talk to the chips or the readers. The chip company runs its own system and writes to its own database; racerfid reads that database on a schedule and copies the passings across into race_time.

Requires / required by

Requires	Nothing — it is an independent plugin
Required by	Nothing
Owns	race_tracking (the local copy of the reader's records)

racerfid installs on its own and does nothing harmful if the timing plugins are absent — it simply has nowhere to write. When they are present, it writes into racetiming's race_time.

Installation notes

You need two things from your chip provider before this is useful:

1. Database access — host, port, user, password, database name, table name.

2. Which columns hold the bib and the passing times.

If your chip provider does not give you database access, this plugin cannot help you.

How the mapping works

The reader's table has one row per chip, with a column per reading point. racerfid maps those columns onto your checkpoints using the DB Import Field you set on each checkpoint in racetrack.

reader table column          racetrack checkpoint          race_time
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Start               ──►      checkpoint with              ──►  passing
                             DB Import Field = Start           at start

Ciel                ──►      checkpoint with              ──►  passing
                             DB Import Field = Ciel            at finish

The bib comes from the reader's tag column (TagID by default) and is treated as a string — a chip mapped to bib 0042 stays 0042.

Records already imported are skipped, so the import can run repeatedly without creating duplicates.

Admin area

Two screens: Main configuration and Test database access.

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Main configuration

Plugin settings — for the organizer

Field	LAN key	Admin help text	Notes
Plugin Active	LAN_RACETRACKING_PREF_001_HELP	When disabled, the import cron does not run and the manual import cannot be started.	The master switch. Turn it off outside race day.
Cron disabled	LAN_RACETRACKING_PREF_002_HELP	When enabled, the cron returns quietly without doing anything, even if the plugin is active.	Stops the scheduled import while leaving manual import available.
Seconds for manual import from the reader	LAN_RACETRACKING_PREF_REFRESH_HELP	0 - import will not run	How often the manual-import page re-runs. 0 means it never runs — this is the most common reason "nothing imports".

Database access — main administrator only

These fields are visible only to the main administrator (LAN_RACETRACKING_HELP_002). A plugin administrator can turn the plugin off and disable the cron, but cannot see or change the database credentials.

Field	LAN key	Default
Server	LAN_RACETRACKING_SERVER
Port	LAN_RACETRACKING_PORT
Username	LAN_RACETRACKING_USERNAME
Password	LAN_RACETRACKING_PASSWORD
Database	LAN_RACETRACKING_DATABASE
Table	LAN_RACETRACKING_TABLE	race_tracking
Name Field	LAN_RACETRACKING_FIELDNAME	Meno
Start Number Field	LAN_RACETRACKING_FIELDNUMBER	TagID

The defaults are those of the reader system this plugin was built against. Your provider's column names will differ — that is what these fields are for.

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Test database access

Runs the connection and reports what it found. Do this before race day, not on race morning.

If the connection fails and the settings look right, check the password: it must be entered literally, without HTML entities (LAN_RACETRACKING_HELP_001).

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The import itself

Two ways it runs:

Scheduled	An e107 cron task, Import RFID Tag Data. It imports start and finish records that do not exist yet. It must be enabled in e107's Schedule Tasks Manager.
Manual	A page that re-runs the import on the interval you set. The link is on the configuration screen (Link for manual import).

The main administrator can also trigger the cron by hand from the Schedule Tasks Manager.

Notes and limitations

• The chip data is not yours. It lives in the provider's database; this plugin only copies from it. If their system is down, nothing imports.

• The scheduled import needs e107 cron to actually be running on the server. A cron task that is never fired imports nothing, silently.

• Refresh interval 0 = disabled. Easy to overlook.

• The plugin was built for one specific reader system. Column names are configurable, but the shape of the data (one row per chip, a column per reading point) is assumed.