WTF: Stopwatch

Happy Friday,

Welcome to another edition of WTF. Before I get to our featured feature, I wanted to let you know that QuickMeet will be undergoing some updates in the coming week. I initially built QuickMeet using PHP, since I was familiar with the language. PHP was fine to get the project off the ground, but I wanted to move to a more modern platform, so the entire site was re-written in TypeScript. I've kept a lot of the look and feel of the site basically the same. I've migrated almost all of the features, including those recently covered in the WTF series. The dashboard will be a bit different, but I think you'll find everything you are looking for when the new version is published.

I need to migrate the data from the old database, to the new database, which is a tricky proposition. I plan to do that this weekend, if time allows. When I start the process, I will disable access to the old site temporarily so that I can make sure I get the more recent version of things. After the data is moved, I can publish the new site, and update the DNS. I would expect QuickMeet to be offline for several hours. I don't see any upcoming meets on the schedule, and it's summer, so things have been mostly quiet anyways. If you need access to QuickMeet for something and this is going to be a problem for you, get in touch with me at patw@quickmeet.run.

Now on to our regularly scheduled WTF....

This week's feature is the Cross Country Stopwatch feature, which was introduced near the end of the last season.

In short, the stopwatch feature allows you to record finish times directly into QuickMeet using a computer. Start the timer when the race starts, just like you would with your own stopwatch. As finishers come across the line, press the spacebar on the laptop to record a time. Using the stopwatch saves a step later on when you have to record times and finisher names.

As a meet director you can choose to send a special link to someone else, even if they don't have a QuickMeet account, to act as the timer for the race.

If you are being super fancy, there is also a view only mode that spectators can see to keep an eye on the time.

This won't replace professional timer systems, but QuickMeet wasn't designed to do that anyway. It's meant for smaller races when paying for a professional timer would be too costly.

Thanks for hanging in until the end of the email!

Pat