Importing participants

You can import participants into Copernico from a CSV or Excel (XLSX) file.

If you use Live, it is important to upload a provisional list so that app users can start following participants.

1. Preparing the participants file

You can upload the file in CSV or XLSX format. This is an example template made in Google Sheets. You can leave the other columns blank if you do not need to use that information.

The labels in the header of each column do not have to match the names in Copernico. If they do not match, you can map the value manually later in the import.

Copernico automatically maps the columns whose header it recognises (not case-sensitive), for example: “id”, “Event”, “Name”, “Surname”, “Bib”, “Gender”, “Category”, “Birthdate”, “Wave”, “Tag”/“Chip”, “Club”, “Team”, “Team type”, “Email”. The rest are mapped manually during the import.

You can add custom fields by adding columns in the file you are importing.

It is important to add the event to which the participants will be imported in one of the columns.

Each file can have up to 75,000 rows.

2. Uploading the file to Copernico

1. Go to Participants in the race menu.
2. Click the import participants icon (a cloud with an arrow) in the right sidebar. The import panel opens with the Import from file, Import from inscriptions bucket and Last summary tabs.
3. In Import from file, drag the file or click the box to choose it from your computer.

   

4. For the first import, select Replace. To change or complete the data of existing participants, use Modify mode. In this mode, the Add new participants not found in the system check box appears: select it if rows that do not match any participant should be added; otherwise, they are ignored. See Replace or modify the participant database in Copernico for when to use each mode.
5. Complete the file information and click the Upload button.
   • CSV: complete the delimiter, the encoding and the date format. If you use Microsoft Excel in Spain, the delimiter will always be a semicolon.
   • XLSX: complete the date format.

   

6. Check that each field in your file is mapped to the correct field in Copernico and click Save. If you have imported a similar file before, you can pick a previous mapping in Mapping history (see Mapping history).
   • Original field: field in your import file.
   • Type: Regular for Copernico fields; Create to create a new custom field from the column; Ignore to skip the column; Attribute for an event attribute (only shown if the race has attributes); and Time for a timing point time (only in Modify mode, after choosing the event).
   • Field to assign: field in Copernico. If the one shown is not the correct one, choose it in the drop-down, which also lists the custom fields already in the race.

   

   To import a column of the file as a new custom field, choose the Create type: a field appears with the column header as its name, which you can change.

7. Map the values of events, categories and waves in your file to those you have previously created in Copernico and click Save. If a category in the file does not exist in the race, you can choose whether to assign it to an existing category in the race configuration or have Copernico automatically create a new category. For each value you can choose an existing one, keep it (Keep value) or create it (Create value). Categories created this way are added to the event as mixed and without ages: review them afterwards in the race configuration.

   

8. Check in the summary table that the data is correct and click Save.

   

9. In the pop-up window, click Yes to finish the process. Participants who already exist will be overwritten. If you do not want this to happen, click No and remove the duplicate participants from your import file.

   

10. When it finishes, Copernico validates the race and shows the Last summary tab with the pre-race check result. If you select Auto-validate on participant changes, the check runs again every time participants change. Click Close to return to the participants table.

    

3. Assigning tags in the import

To assign the tag to each participant, simply create a tag column in your import file (with the header “Chip”, “Tag” or “Chip code” it is mapped automatically) and complete this value for each participant.

If you want to assign two tags to the same participant, add a second column to your import file with the value of the second tag. During the import, map both columns to “Tag” in the Field to assign drop-down. Copernico will associate both values as the participant's tags.

4. Assigning types of team in the import

If there are participants who have more than one type of team, put these teams in different columns, each with a different header. With the header “Team type” or “Tipo de equipo”, the column is mapped automatically.

In the field mapping step during the import, choose “Type of team” from the Field to assign drop-down for your column or columns.

5. Replace or modify the participant database

In the article Replace or modify the participant database in Copernico we explain when to use each of the options.

6. Mapping history

Copernico stores the last 20 column mappings you used in your browser. In the next import, pick one in Mapping history (with the file name, the date and Last used) or delete it with ✕. The history belongs to your browser: it is not shared with other users or computers.

You can see this improvement in the following video.

With the file prepared and the columns and values mapped, your participants will be imported into Copernico.

7. Video transcript

When importing participants, one of the first steps is the assignment of fields that do not have a direct assignment because they have not been recognised by Copernico. When we make manual selections, such as an attribute or the creation of a field, selection of location or the creation of this special field, and we import, the next time we make a modification after the import these fields will remain in the local memory of the computer where we are performing the import, so we don't have to select them again [today, the previous mapping is chosen in Mapping history].

If we make a modification of the data because we want to update and, instead of replacing, we want to modify [today, Modify mode], in the same way we will see that these values we previously selected remain saved, so we can continue the import.