Data Management

SportsTrak's data files

SportsTrak is a program that operates on its own relational database. Every logical table has its own physical table on disc. All students are in the Student.tps file, the program is in Schedule.tps and so on. See full file list here.

The advantage of this is that individual files can be repaired if necessary and moved if necessary.

SportsTrak has a Data Path so it knows where to look for its data. Every carnival is placed in a different folder and SportsTrak can work separately on any number of carnivals.

Data Risks

Moving data files between folders can impact on the data integrity in that folder.

If you decide to move a data file from one one to another, back up the folder that will get modified. Because files relate to one another in the same folder, moving a single file may seem logical but actually cause a data break down. For example if you move a program of events (Schedule.tps) into another folder you will have issues if the age groups are correct, the scoring system isn't correct, or the library of events isn't correct.

Moving a student file with certain house codes into an inter-school carnival folder with different house codes will cause deep problems. Rather than moving the student file directly you should Export to text or Excel and then re-import to the other folder. The import processes have built-in data integrity checks.

If you think you can be clever by moving files around yourself, consult with CaRob first.

CaRob will take no responsibility if you corrupt your own data by moving files around between folders

Configuration settings

SportsTrak stores the current window settings, data path and other settings in a Windows Configuration file SportsTrak.ini. These settings are user specific on any computer.

Backing Up

It is so important to back up your data.

Your data can be lost in many ways including:

•Hard drive or computer failure

•Data is corrupted in some way as it is written to disk

•Users (including yourself) can introduce invalid data by careless imports, by being distracted and deleting critical data or in a variety of other ways.

A backup in a network location can be used if you lose your computer, if last year's coordinator has left and you don't have her computer to work on this years data, and so on.

Use the General Backup to keep a full copy of all your data in at least one other folder, including in a network location, when ever you make serious changes.

Use the Archive feature to keep working copies of your current setup and complete carnivals. These are stored inside the SportsTrak program folder. It can save cluttering up your hard drive with a lot of backup folders, but it does not protect you if your PC is lost or broken, so should be used in conjunction with General Backup.

Exporting Data to a Single File

This is designed primarily to be used as a way to send a carnival to another person to set up. But it can serve as a backup because you can email the file to yourself to save on another machine or network. It has the advantage of being compact and portable.