Live results from your timing company

Instead of waiting for a results file, your timing company can send results to Breaktape as each runner crosses the line. You give them a key and the id of each race, and they connect their system to Breaktape's results API.

Before race day

1. Set the race to live. In Race settings, under How results arrive, choose Live, as runners finish, and select Save changes.
2. Upload your entry list. Live results carry bibs and times, not names or email addresses. Breaktape matches each result to your entry list by bib, so the list needs to be in first. See Importing a results file.
3. Make a key for your timing company. See below.
4. Send them the race ids and a link to the API reference.

Make a key

You need to be an admin.

1. Go to Settings and open the API tab.
2. Under Make a key, enter Who it's for, usually your timing company, like "Northline Timing". One key per company makes it easy to revoke.
3. Under What it can do, tick Send results.
4. Select Make key.
5. Copy the key straight away with Copy key, and send it to your timing company securely. It won't be shown again.

Your keys are listed under Keys, with when each was made and last used. If a key is lost or a company stops working with you, select Revoke, then Yes, revoke it. It stops working at once.

Race ids

Results are sent for one race at a time. The Race ids table on the API tab lists every race, whether its results arrive live or by file, and its id. Select Copy next to each one your timing company needs.

What your timing company sends

For each runner, the timing system sends:

• the bib
• a status: finished, DNF, DNS or DQ
• a chip time, a gun time or both
• positions and category, if they have them
• whether the result is final

The final flag is the important one. "Final" means the timing company has signed off that runner's result as official. Breaktape never makes a medal from a result that isn't final, so a timing system that only has provisional results on the day should send them as not final, or you should run that race from a file instead.

Point your timing company to Read the API reference on the API tab. It has everything their developers need.

What's available today

Breaktape receives and checks live results as they arrive. Releasing medals automatically as each result goes final, where you approve the design, a sample and the first medals and the rest then follow within minutes, isn't available in the organiser panel yet.

Until it is, release live races the same way as any other: when the official results file is ready, upload it, approve it, check the sample and release. Your timing company can keep sending live results in the meantime.

Good to know

• Keep keys private. Anyone with a key can send results for your races, though they can never release medals.
• Only admins can make or revoke keys. Everyone else can see the keys list and race ids.
• Each key shows only its first few characters after it's made, so you can tell keys apart without exposing them.

Related guides

• API keys
• Live races
• Importing a results file
• Setting up an event, its editions and races