Automating grading submission from the LMS

General

Events can be submitted for rating via the ECF’s LMS in two ways – using automated or manual submissions. Automated submission is an easy process and avoids the need for the grader to generate a grading file and submit to the rating system. Manual rating involves two separate steps (rating file generation and manual submission to the rating system) but allows the rater to track the submission process more closely.
This page summarises what you need to know to for either option and how to check that your event has been successfully submitted and rated.

Automated Submissions

If the LMS is sending your event automatically, then the settings under the grading tab for the event of the grading file for the organisation admin do not have any effect and can be ignored. Games will be sent for rating every month.

ECF Online ratings

If you want your event submitted for ECF online rating

  1. Fill in the form on the ECF web site so the grading team know to expect the event:
  2. In the event settings, set where to send for rating to one of the online options.
  3. Check in Reports / auto grading that the event shows for auto grading and that there are no errors.
  4. Ensure that in individual events the correct date is specified against the individual game (not just the round). The online rating system only takes games for the previous month. This is not a problem for team events as it just uses the date of the match.

Files will be generated for the online rating system at 02:00am on the first day of the month.
Note that the processing of online ratings a manual process and can take about 2 weeks before the list comes out.

When the ECF online list is released for the month you should check that any of your events submitted to LMS in the preceding month appear correctly in the Events Received list on the online rating site. Note that this is a manual process so that for example an event taking place at the start of April would get sent for online rating on May 1st and might not appear in the rating list until 2 weeks after that. It is planned that online ratings will be moved into the over the board system soon which will make things easier.

ECF Over The Board Ratings

If you want your event submitted automatically for ECF over the board rating:

  1. In the event settings, set where to send for rating to one of the OTB options.
  2. Ensure that you have the correct grader selected at organisation level - this is the person who will be emailed any errors. They must be a valid grader according to the rating system. Contact the rating team to ask.
  3. Ensure that the correct treasurer is selected for the event - this is the person who will be billed by the ECF for any game fee owed
  4. Check in Reports / auto grading that the event shows for auto grading and that there are no errors. There is also a games count to show how many games have been sent to the grading system in previous months.

The person specified as grader will receive an email with feedback from the grading system notifying them if the grading submission was successful or if there is anything they need to fix. If they need to fix anything they will have to login to the grading system. The most likely thing they might need to fix would be a player with no ECF grading code - they would have to either chose the grading code from a list of possible matches in the grading system or to request a new one (for a new player). Or if they have got the player grading code wrong. In the unlikely event of a grading file needing to be recreated there is a new resubmit button in the auto grading report. . It would save a lot of trouble if organisers could ensure that player grading codes are correct before month end using the various reports that are available in the LMS.

The LMS sends files to the rating system early on the 28th day of each month, the idea being that there is time to correct errors before the end of the month.

To see if your event has made it into the rating system look this page

Manual Process

The old manual process is still available although discouraged. The graders:

  • assign a grading code for an event (or group of events) using a 2 character prefix (usually their initials)
  • generate grading files from within the LMS (or create them themselves)
  • put the files through the ECF grading checker program.
  • fix any issues.
  • email files to the grading administrator
  • grading administrator emails back feedback (or errors) from the grading system to the grader.
  • if there were any errors the grader corrects them and emails the file again.

Notes

  1. These reports should be useful in checking things are ok prior to grading:
    • From organisation home page, Reports / Different. Shows differences between grading system and lms.
    • From organisation home page, Admin / New Players. Shows players not known to the grading system. Clicking on the player shows players in the grading system with the same name.
    • From organisation home page, Reports / Similar. Shows players with no ecf grading code similar to someone already on the ECF list. The percentages shown here are a similar idea to those shown by the ecf checker but not the same.

    The various reasons an event my get Ignored are:

    • No grader - the organisation owner must select who is the grader.
    • No treasurer - the organisation owner must select who is the treasurer
    • No club - there is a new player unknown to the grading system without a club - club must be specified (for any new players - ie those who don't have ECF grading codes already, you need to go into edit on them and give them a club). This is a problem only with individual tournaments - for leagues it deduces the club from the team.