Nice bug finding again.

About the important one:

First time I've seen this code, but what happened: it stored the servers in the correct order but extracted from the database in a basically random order. At the same time, passwords were extracted preserving their order, so in fact if you had more than one host with different passwords, the passwords could be assigned to the wrong host.

I've changed the code to reassemble the list of servers in the order they were stored, so this should fix the problem. I recreated your test in my Round signup season and the bug appears fixed. Also my fake passwords have remained with the correct hosts, if I look in Edit Season.

You are right, it needed to be made clear if a league is inactive (which basically means hidden). I also was wondering about a separate switch to make each season hidden or not, but I decided not to do that in a hurry, as it's not really necessary for now.

Anyway, along with that I found a few more presentation issues and did a few more updates today. Don't worry everyone, I'm aware that this has dragged on a few more days than hoped, but I've been thinking about the next updates to get the Retro model ready for release.

Minor updates:

Added avatars to the signup administration pages
The text (inactive) is displayed beside the name of inactive leagues
Links to league, season, forum, website on signup info pages (as on round or season pages)
FIX: Confusion around first event and number of events on round signup pages
FIX: After editing a round it went back to season page instead of round page

Quote from Bass-Driver :

I signed up for your test event, but when i click on My Signups. I dont see to...

That is because my whole league is marked as "inactive" which I have set so it doesn't appear in the calendar.

For ordinary leagues, you would see your signups there.

I have just changed it so you can see signups in inactive leagues too, so now you can see your signup to my league, in My Signups section.

I'm not sure if that is a bad idea or not.

Great to have all these entries! I couldn't help but do a little more work and now your avatars are visible there!
https://www.lfs.net/leagues/22/season/1219/signup/view

You can see in season details!
https://www.lfs.net/leagues/22/season/1219

Maybe not the best of events as it consists of a 5 minute practice and nothing else.

No prizes for this one!

Thank you all for the feedback. I've finished this work for now, other than minor updates that may be needed.

I've written a new thread in the Leagues & Events section, talking a bit about the updates and reasons for them, listing features and including a few example screenshots. https://www.lfs.net/forum/thread/110231

Hello League Administrators,

For a long time we have had a race entry system that can be enabled to allow people to sign up for league seasons or individual rounds. Although it has many features and could be useful, it has not been used very often, partly because of certain flaws and missing features.

Organisers who require participants to sign up would be more likely to use a forum thread or something on another website. The trouble with a forum thread is the need to copy and paste details for each participant. Until now, this was not helped by the on-site system, but now we have a CSV export to easily extract the entries into a spreadsheet. One of the benefits of a forum thread is that it seemed easier to contact the users about any errors in their entries. The on-site system didn't help with that either but now there is a simple button to send a personal message to any or all participants who have signed up to your league.

There were other issues too, for example the in-game sign-up link would take people directly to the sign-up page, without presenting them with any information to read. Now the link takes them to the round information page which has been improved and information and links are readily available. Navigation around the leagues section has been improved so visitors should be able to find all the info they need and links to forum threads and other websites if needed.

The entry form can be customised to include as many fields as you need (e.g. race number, real name, country, team, etc... whatever you want). These can be for individuals, or team entries are also supported, e.g. for endurance races, so for example you could allow 40 teams of up to 4 people each.

The entry data of anyone who has signed up are visible with a single click from the season or round pages (depending on whether you selected entry per season or per round) and the link can be posted anywhere.

List of sign-up features:

Additional administrators can be specified by the owner of the league
Set up a customised race entry format, for individual or team entries
Entries can be set to be for the whole season or for individual rounds
Round or season entries can be seen by anyone who visits the round or season page
Any number of required fields may be set, per team or per racer (e.g. name, country, number, etc)
For team-based entries, a minimum and maximum number of racers per team can be set
An opening and closing time for entries can be specified
There is an option for entries to require approval by an admin
Entries can be deleted by an admin (or the person who signed up)
The person who signed up can edit their entry at any time or remove or add team members
Admins can download a CSV file containing the info of all entrants, to paste into a spreadsheet
Admins can now send a message to any or all participants from the signup administration page

The attached images show an example of a single-entry (not team) per season (not per round) setup.

Further development:

I am working on other things now, but if there are simple features that are still missing for your purposes, or any more issues I should consider, I would like to hear about it. Maybe you need another type of data export, maybe there should be another link or option, or you have an idea to improve presentation.

Thank you for your support!

Last edited by Scawen, Fri 17 Jan 2025, 14:48. Reason : updated images

As mentioned, the signups can be seen by anyone, so could be linked from a forum discussion thread.

Examples: (the required fields per entry are all editable)

1) Here is a list of signups for a test season in which you can enter as a single racer (1 per team).
https://www.lfs.net/leagues/22/season/1219/signup/view

2) Here is a list of signups for a test season in which you can sign up in teams of up to 4 racers per team:
https://www.lfs.net/leagues/22/season/1218/signup/view

3) Here is a list of signups for a test season in which you can sign up for individual rounds:
https://www.lfs.net/leagues/22/season/1223/round/1/signup/view

OK, I have completed the to do list now, including "Send message to all" participants.

Added links 'Website' and 'Discussion forum' to season and round pages
- Info is there for anyone who gets to the page from the calendar or by clicking signup in game

Improved some button placements for consistency of navigation around league section
- Trying to make it easier and clearer for participants and admins

Admins can now send a message to participants on signup administration page
- Send message to all participants
- Sent message to a single participant
- The list of recipients can be adjusted

Do you have InSim connected and can update the code on it?

By using the IS_MAL and TINY_MAL packets you can get or set the allowed mods in a single packet.

Or you could use the /mods command (see Commands.txt).

I can't get into updating the website code to store mod lists.

Good point, I think those options (fee and prize) are not needed and as they are never displayed, I have removed them from the league edit page.

If a league has prizes or entry fees, the organisers can express that in text somewhere.

I think all points have been made and I will now close this thread.

This is a game for entertainment and users should not use images or words with negative connotations for other users, even if the perception is different in different cultures.

The idea is we should all get along in Live for Speed, without culture battles. LFS is a place where people from around the world can get together.

Addressing the point of this thread, I would like to emphasise that the incident described was not a discrimination against Islamic culture. We have many Turkish and Islamic players who are very welcome.

All cultures are welcome in Live for Speed, along with their customs. This is part of the point of the game, the good it can do in the world. Let's all make sure we are not upsetting people in different cultures.

Thank you.

I thought I would write a summary of the on-site entry system, for anyone who is interested. I list the features and recent updates. I might post this list somewhere else, maybe the leagues section. Please let me know if I've missed some important features to mention, or if my description is unclear. I still want to add one feature, for admins to be able to send a message to all racers who are signed up.


On-site entry system for league seasons or individual rounds

Additional administrators can be specified by the owner of the league
Admins can setup a customised race entry format, for individual or team entries
Entries can be set to be for the whole season or for individual rounds
Round or season entries can be seen by anyone who visits the round or season page
Any number of required fields may be set, per team or per racer (e.g. name, country, number, etc)
For team-based entries, a maximum team number can be set
An opening and closing time for entries can be specified
There is an option for entries to require approval by an admin
Entries can be deleted by an admin (or the person who signed up)
The person who signed up can edit their entry at any time or remove or add team members
Admins can download a CSV file containing the info of all entrants, to paste into a spreadsheet


Recent updates:

Website:
Removed "Racer 1" display above every racer if set to 1 racer per entry (not team entry)
Now possible to remove a signup entry (from season or round signups) on signup edit pages
For signup per round, added button to sign up for round, on the round signups info page
FIX: Information about round signups was not visible on the individual round details page

Admin:
Download a CSV file containing the info of all entrants, to paste into a spreadsheet
FIX: Signup options appeared on "Edit Season" when set to "No Signup" or "Invite only"

In-game:
In-game signup link now goes to season or round info page instead of direct to signup
Removed "Sign up" button from in-game event list if the season is set to "Invite only"

More updates and fixes for the on-site signup system:

Now possible to remove a signup entry (from season or round signups) on signup edit pages

FIX: Information about round signups was not visible on the individual round details page

For signup per round, added button to sign up for round, on the round signups info page

In-game signup link now goes to season or round info page instead of direct to signup

Minor updates:

FIX: Signup options appeared on "Edit Season" when set to "No Signup" or "Invite only"

Removed "Sign up" button from in-game event list if the season is set to "Invite only"

Removed "Racer 1" display above every racer if set to 1 racer per entry (not team entry)

About entering races using our on-site entry system, there is one 'feature' I think is missing.

If I enter as someone who is not a league admin, I can't find any way to remove my entry. I can edit it, and remove extra team members of a team entry, but not remove the whole entry.

As a league admin I can remove a whole entry from my season or round but I think this quite important option is missing for non-admins.


EDIT: Fixed this, now you can remove your entry. https://www.lfs.net/forum/post/2113416#post2113416

Last edited by Scawen, Sat 11 Jan 2025, 18:58.

Thanks, I've seen a screenshot like this from our database before but I don't have access.

I've only been able to make database changes directly through SQL queries (which I have done quite a lot in the past year).

I will ask Victor if he can give me access as it could be useful for adding fields or editing a value manually.

Nice one, thanks, fixed now.

Quote from r3zp3k7 :

...some events are missing description, when you open them...

Thanks for the suggestion. I've now made it so that if there is no season description, then the league description is used.

Quote from Flame CZE :

In the weekly calendar overview, if the event description is missing, the season description is used, if that's missing too then the league description is used. https://www.lfs.net/leagues/810

Close but in fact rounds don't have a description field, so it's just season description, and if not then the league one.

Quote from tankslacno :

So league admins might need the possibility to add a description for each round individually. Especially if rules for that one round are significantly different compared to the others. So, the possibility to add a description for each round individually would solve most needs.

This is a good idea but I haven't yet graduated to adding new fields to the database tables. Of course, Victor could be called upon to add an optional round description, or I could in future when my skills are up a little more.

As I don't know anything about REST, and I'm not even a web developer by trade (and Victor isn't an active LFS developer at this time) that is way beyond the scope of what I could do. My question is more about if there is something I could add in an hour or two, for league admins who could nearly use our on-site signup system but it's just missing something small that they need.

One more feature, if you use the on-site signup system, you can now export a CSV of all the racer details.

The CSV comes out something like this:


I think the signup system Victor made is quite good and has a lot to it, but unfortunately it is rarely used, partly because it misses a few features (discussed earlier in this thread).

I was able to add this CSV output quite simply. The other thing that seems important and simple is for the race organiser (league admins) to be able to send a PM to all signed up racers.

For anyone unfamiliar with this, you can see in the attachment, you can add any required fields. Then there is an on-site signup and everyone can see who has entered.

Questions, to anyone who might use the on-site signup, now or if it is improved a bit more:

- Is the CSV output adequate for your needs?
- What other features are necessary to make this system more convenient than your existing methods?

I've added a "Time zone" display in account settings: https://www.lfs.net/account/settings

You can see what the server thinks your offset is.

The result is:
- if I change my time zone, that offset is unaffected (even refresh page)
- exit the browser and go back to that page, offset is still at old time zone
- log out from LFS.net and lock back in, my new time zone offset is acquired

As far as I can tell, this only affects calendar display and something to do with poll expiry times, so I think it's not worth further investigation.

No, not about formatting the string, I just want to know the actual offset of the client's computer compared with UTC. It seems our website knows that already but it isn't updated if I change my computer's time zone.

EDIT: Maybe it's cached and gets corrected after a while, I don't know. I suppose it's a bit complicated because the php is of course running on the server but we are talking about the client computer's time zone, so perhaps that isn't readily available on the server.

OK I think I'm starting to get the picture, it must be updated by the ajax request, as Flame said though that's not something I am familiar with yet. I suppose there is a mechanism for the client computer to inform the web server of its timezone, but we don't want to do that all the time.

EDIT2: Maybe it's not a bug at all. Maybe LFS website just isn't very quick to get the timezone right if the client adjusts their time zone. But it would be good to know if it eventually gets corrected.

Last edited by Scawen, Fri 10 Jan 2025, 00:51.

Thanks, I can reproduce that and will check it out tomorrow. I didn't realise the leagues system had quite a few bugs in it! Apparently in this case it prepares that list of tracks but doesn't specify which one is selected, so that information is lost when you submit the form.

EDIT: That is fixed now. This bug was newly introduced by me. It was caused when I changed a short track name function to display correctly on the calendar (e.g. SO2R). I didn't realise the same function was used internally for track name comparisons. I've restored the old function and added a new one for the calendar.

Last edited by Scawen, Fri 10 Jan 2025, 09:29.

Thanks a lot for your help.

I guess it's worked out at some point then stored in the session variables.

So not really a bug, but it just doesn't deal well with windows changing time zone (even if I restart the browser).

I'm not sure if there's a better way to do it, or a more standard way to do it. Maybe the time offset is readily available in a php function so we don't really have to go through all this confusing code?