[CQ-Contest] XML for real-time score reporting

[Pete Smith]

Hi Ken -- I bow to NOBODY in my claims to being the Lowest Common Denominator (hi).  Be that as it may, let me try to answer from my non-programmer's perspective.  Responses interspersed below.

At 08:33 AM 7/19/2006, Ken Alexander wrote:
>Thanks Pete and David for providing the link.
>
>Allow me to introduce myself:  I am The Lowest Common
>Denominator.  I'm the guy you have to dumb
>instructions down for so that everybody understands
>them, and I don't see anything on that page that
>explains what I have to do or how to do it.  For
>example:
>
>1.  What's a DTD?  


It defines the form the data will take between sender and receiver.  This enables logging software writers to conform to the standard, and anyone with desire to start a scoreboard to do so, knowing that all the logging software packages will provide their data in the same form.

>2.  Is there something I'm supposed to download,
>install and run to be able to participate?  If so,
>what and where?


No, not yet.  Eventually, our hope (my hope, certainly) is that all the major logging software will incorporate provision for transmitting data to scoreboards that will be set up either by contest sponsors or by private individuals.  This process will be essentially transparent, except that the user will decide whether to have his data displayed and precisely what data will be shown.  So, for example, if you only want to display your running score, that will be your choice; similarly if you want to display your band-by-band totals, you can do that.  Or you can opt out altogether.


>By comparison, W2EV's RFSport Logger is beauty and
>simplicity itself.  There's a clearly identified
>application that the user downloads, installs and
>runs.  Once you set it up (a trivial matter) it takes
>care of everything else.

Yes, but how many contesters do you know who are willing to change the logging program they use in order to be able to send results to a scoreboard?  This is the major reason why it was decided to go with a standard that everyone could work with separately.  It also avoids the situation where either the means of communication or the operation of the scoreboard are proprietary to any individual.  Instead, any contest sponsor could set up a scoreboard.  Say, for example, the Florida QSO Party wanted to let people keep track of the competition among rovers activating as many counties as they can.  Easy.


>If the XML thing (does it have a name?) reports
>results on HF contests to a website then I'm ready to
>get behind it.  Maybe there's a FAQ somewhere that
>explains all of this?


We ran tests all last fall and this spring, using a rudimentary scoreboard that had been set up on www.hornucopia.com.  Once the standard is finished (at least version 1), I'm sure there will be a proliferation of scoreboards.  N1MM Logger is the only major contest logging package that currently supports the evolving standard, and it was used for the tests, but the reporting is easy to implement, so I'm sure others will get on board once the standard is set.


73, Pete N4ZR