Importing event data

How to populate classes, courses, controls, and competitors by importing from IOF XML files, PurplePen, or Eventor — so you don't have to enter everything by hand.

Overview

Manager supports three ways to bring data in:

Method	What it gives you	When to use
IOF XML files	Courses, controls, classes, competitors, clubs, start times	You have export files from your course setter (IOF CourseData) or entry system (IOF EntryList, ClassList, StartList).
PurplePen file	Courses and controls	Your course setter uses PurplePen and you have the .ppen file.
Eventor	Classes, competitors, clubs, start times	Your federation uses Eventor for entries and you've configured the connection in Settings.

These are not mutually exclusive — you can import courses from PurplePen and competitors from Eventor for the same event, for example.

Where to import

Open the event dashboard and click Import. The Import Data dialog has three tabs:

• Local Files — browse and upload IOF XML or PurplePen files.
• Linked Event — re-import data from an Eventor event that's already linked to this event (useful for picking up late entries).
• Other Event — search for any Eventor event and import from it, with the option to link it for future re-imports.

Importing IOF XML files

Course data (IOF CourseData XML)

Upload a file containing course and control definitions — the output of your course-setting software (e.g. OCAD, Condes, PurplePen).

What gets created:

• Controls — one for each control code in the file.
• Courses — each course with its ordered sequence of controls.

Tip: If a control code in the file already exists in the event, it's matched and updated rather than duplicated.

Class list (IOF ClassList XML)

Upload a file defining classes.

What gets created:

• Classes — one for each class defined in the file.

Entry list (IOF EntryList XML)

Upload a file of competitor entries — typically exported from your entry system.

What gets created:

• Competitors — one for each entry, with name, SI card number, and class assignment.
• Clubs — any clubs referenced by competitors that don't already exist.
• Classes — any classes referenced by competitors that don't already exist.

Start list (IOF StartList XML)

Upload a file of allocated start times — typically exported from an entry system or start-list draw tool.

What it does:

• Matches competitors by name or SI card number and sets their allocated start times.
• Does not create new competitors — only updates existing ones.

Re-importing

You can re-import the same file (or an updated version) at any point during Setup. Manager will match existing items by their identifiers and update them — it won't create duplicates.

Importing from Purple Pen

PurplePen .ppen files are handled the same way as IOF CourseData XML. Upload the .ppen file via the Import Data dialog → Local Files tab.

What gets created:

• Controls — extracted from the PurplePen event definition.
• Courses — each course with its control sequence.

Note: Purple Pen provides courses and controls only. You still need to import (or create) classes, competitors, and start times separately.

Importing from Eventor

Eventor integration lets you pull entry data directly from your federation's system without handling files.

Prerequisites

Before you can import from Eventor, configure the connection in Settings → Eventor:

• Eventor host — the URL of your Eventor instance.
• API key — your Eventor API credentials.
• Organisation ID — your club or federation's Eventor organisation ID.

If Eventor is not configured, Manager will tell you when you try to import and point you to Settings.

Creating an event from Eventor

If you don't have an event yet, the fastest path is New from Eventor on the Events page — it creates the event and pulls in classes, competitors, clubs, and start times in one step. See Creating an event from Eventor for the full walkthrough.

Importing into an existing event

If you've already created an event and want to pull Eventor data into it:

1. Open the Import Data dialog (available from Dashboard, Controls, Courses and Classes screens)
2. Use the Other Event tab to search for the Eventor event.
3. Select it, optionally tick Link this event so you can re-import later with one click.
4. Click Import.

Re-importing from Eventor

As entries close and start lists are published, you'll want to pick up the latest data. If the event is linked to an Eventor event:

1. Open the Import Data dialog.
2. Go to the Linked Event tab.
3. Click Re-import.

Manager will fetch the latest entries and start times, matching them against the competitors already in the event. New entries are added; updated entries are refreshed.

What to check after import

After any import, it's worth spending a few minutes verifying the data:

• [ ] Open the Classes page — confirm the right classes exist and each has a course assigned.
• [ ] Open the Courses page — confirm courses have the right controls in the right order.
• [ ] Open the Competitors page — confirm competitors have names, classes, and SI card numbers. Sort by card number to spot blanks.
• [ ] If start times were imported, check the Competitors page — the Start time column shows the allocated time and its source.

Tip: If something looks wrong, you can re-import a corrected file — Manager will update rather than duplicate.

Related

• Creating an event — where the event details live
• Classes and courses — editing what the import created
• Controls and radio controls — marking imported controls as radios
• Competitors, clubs and teams — editing imported competitors
• Start times — understanding how imported start times interact with other sources