racers — competitors and categories

What it does

racers holds the people: the competitor roster and the categories they compete in. One competitor belongs to one track and one category.

It produces the start lists — the roster grouped by track and category, ready to publish online or print — and provides an on-site registration screen for signing people up at check-in on race day.

Requires / required by

Requires	raceevent, racetrack
Required by	racereports
Owns	racer (competitors), race_category (categories)

Installation notes

Install after racetrack — a competitor cannot exist without a track to run on.

Set up your categories before adding competitors. The competitor form asks for a category and there is no useful default.

The bib number

The bib (start number) is stored as a string, not a number. 0042 and 42 are different bibs and the leading zeros are preserved everywhere — in the timing engine, in reports, in the RFID import.

Do not think of it as "competitor number 42". Think of it as a code printed on a shirt.

Admin area

Six items: Settings, List, Add racer, Categories, Start lists, Racer overview, On-site registration.

---

Settings

Plugin preferences, split across two tabs.

Field	LAN key	Admin help text	Notes
Anonymize names?	LAN_RACERS_ADMIN_005_HELP	Replaces personal data (names) with unreadable characters	Privacy switch — use it if you must publish start lists without exposing full names.
Show team next to the name?	LAN_RACERS_ADMIN_006_HELP	Adds the team to the displayed name
Show the local flag next to the name?	LAN_RACERS_ADMIN_007_HELP	If a racer is marked as local, the code entered below is shown next to their name.	Works together with Text for a local racer below and the Local checkbox on the competitor.
Text for a local racer	LAN_RACERS_ADMIN_021	—	The marker shown next to a local competitor's name (e.g. a club abbreviation).
Country codes (for statistics)	LAN_RACERS_ADMIN_022	—	Comma-separated list offered in the Nationality dropdown. Default: SVK,CZE,POL,HUN,RUS,AUS,USA,FRA,AUT,UKR.
Age calculation method	LAN_RACERS_ADMIN_027	—	How age is worked out when placing a competitor into an age-bounded category.
Allow manual entry of participants	LAN_RACERS_ADMIN_030	—	Enables adding competitors by hand (as opposed to importing them).
Počet znakov	hardcoded	11 - dve tisiciny	Number of characters used when displaying a time. Label and help are hardcoded in Slovak.
CSS pre export	hardcoded	—	Styling used when printing / exporting start lists. Label hardcoded in Slovak.
HTML pre export	hardcoded	—	Markup wrapper used when printing / exporting. Label hardcoded in Slovak.

---

Categories

The categories competitors are ranked in — typically by gender and age band, per track.

Field	LAN key	Admin help text	Notes
Trať (track)	hardcoded	—	Which track the category belongs to. Categories are per track.
Názov kategórie	hardcoded	—	The category name shown on start lists and results.
Gender	hardcoded	—	Restricts the category to one gender, or leave open.
Vek od / Vek do	hardcoded	—	Age band. Combined with Age calculation method in Settings.
Farba kategórie	hardcoded	—	Colour used to distinguish the category visually.
SEF URL	LAN_SEFURL (core)	—	The URL segment for this category's start list and result list.

Labels on this screen are hardcoded in Slovak and do not follow the site language.

---

List / Add racer

The competitor roster.

Field	LAN key	Admin help text	Notes
Bib number	LAN_RACERS_ADMIN_026	—	A string. Leading zeros matter. This is what the timing engine keys on.
First name	LAN_RACERS_ADMIN_009	—
Surname	LAN_RACERS_ADMIN_010	—
Date of birth	LAN_RACERS_ADMIN_011_HELP	Enter the date of birth in D.M.YYYY format or pick it from the calendar	Used to place the competitor in an age-bounded category.
Track	LAN_RACERS_ADMIN_023_HELP	Which track they will run on	One track per competitor.
Category	LAN_RACERS_ADMIN_025	—	One category per competitor. Must belong to the same track.
Type (Individual/Relay)	LAN_RACERS_ADMIN_014	—
Nationality	LAN_RACERS_ADMIN_017	—	Values come from Country codes in Settings.
Local	LAN_RACERS_ADMIN_018	—	Marks a home competitor; shown with the marker from Settings.
Team / Club	LAN_RACERS_ADMIN_019	—	Shown next to the name if Show team is on.
Special tags / Relay member list	LAN_RACERS_ADMIN_020	—	For relay teams: the members.
Ext. ID	LAN_RACERS_ADMIN_013_HELP	External application ID (terminovka.sk) for the API	Filled by the terminovka export. Leave alone unless you use it.
Nastúpil (started)	hardcoded	—	Whether the competitor actually turned up. Label hardcoded in Slovak.

---

Start lists

The roster grouped by track and category, with links to each published start list. Use this to check the lists before race day and to print them.

Start lists show the start time as an extra column when racetiming is installed — who has already reported to the start.

---

Racer overview

A quick read-only view of the roster, linking to the public racer list.

---

On-site registration

The check-in desk screen: sign someone up on race day, at the event. Distinct from racereg, which is the online sign-up before the event.

The two are deliberately separate. racereg collects sign-ups (which may still be unpaid or unapproved); racers holds the people who will actually start.

Front-end

Page	URL	Route key	File
Racer list	/racers/list/	index	racers.php
Start list	(per track + category)	startlist	startlist.php
On-site registration		registracia	registracia.php

racers also ships a categories menu (race_categories_menu.php) for the Menu Manager, linking each category to its start list and result list.

Notes and limitations

• One track, one category per competitor. Someone running two tracks is two competitor records with two bibs.

• The Categories screen is restricted to the main administrator. A user with plugin-admin rights cannot reach it. This is deliberate, not an oversight.

• Several admin labels are hardcoded in Slovak (the Categories screen, three Settings fields, the "Nastúpil" column) and do not follow the site language.