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Judging Technology » Post: Have you ever needed a timer?

Have you ever needed a timer?

Nov. 30, 2019 04:05:29 PM

Joaquin Azcarate
Judge (Level 2 (International Judge Program))

Iberia

Have you ever needed a timer?

For those in a hurry: timers.florius.com.ar

Let me tell you a story:
Last week we had an event.
The registration / score-keeper desk was in a different room than the players, and we had no way of connecting the play-area TV to WER's timer.
We improvised a timer with a timer web page one of the staff members suggested.
This web page did not:

- Have offline support
- Have multiple timers support (we had an ODE draft, and were planning for an Modern side-event)
- Was not refresh-resistant
- Has no way of restarting the timer (other than refreshing. Which would need internet access, and it would start immediately).
- Had too many configuration knobs.

I thought we could do better, and wanted to try out React's `useReducer` hook…. soooooo
I built this: timers.florius.com.ar

The code is open for everyone to use at: gitlab.com/jazcarate/timer (or add issues at gitlab.com/jazcarate/timer/issues/new).

My main goal is to have a clear, minimalist clock.
Specific for mtg round timers (50 minutes. Reseteable. Count “up” when reach 0.)
Refresh and offline resistant (that last part is still a WIP. Service Workers and conciliation is hard).

Cheers,
Joaquin

Edited Joaquin Azcarate (Nov. 30, 2019 04:06:18 PM)

Dec. 1, 2019 06:41:37 AM

Robert Hinrichsen
Judge (Level 3 (Judge Foundry))

Canada

Have you ever needed a timer?

This is great! So many of the online timers one finds do not have the countup after 0 feature, which is really necessary for EOR.

I have two feature requests:
1. Can you allow manual setting of the initial time on the clock? While 50 minutes is standard for the round clock, we often use a number of other times as well (20 mins sealed pool registration, 30 mins sealed deck construction, 25 mins draft deck construction, plus a number of other ones listed in MTR Appendix B)
2. Can you allow control over the timer background colour? It would be nice to be able to set that manually.

Overall, this is very much appreciated!

Dec. 1, 2019 01:16:54 PM

Ryan Sears
Judge (Level 2 (Judge Foundry))

USA - Northeast

Have you ever needed a timer?

Originally posted by Robert Hinrichsen:

This is great! So many of the online timers one finds do not have the countup after 0 feature, which is really necessary for EOR.

I have two feature requests:
1. Can you allow manual setting of the initial time on the clock? While 50 minutes is standard for the round clock, we often use a number of other times as well (20 mins sealed pool registration, 30 mins sealed deck construction, 25 mins draft deck construction, plus a number of other ones listed in MTR Appendix B)
2. Can you allow control over the timer background colour? It would be nice to be able to set that manually.

Overall, this is very much appreciated!

Highly, highly second point 1.

Also, instead of just _ _ _ _, something like “Timer Name” would be better default since it tells you what the field is. It gets figured out eventually, but good UI is important.

If switching to custom timers, filling in 50:00 as a default is fine, and clicking on it to edit before starting (or something) would be perfect. :)

edit: I just realized that the timers keep going even if you accidentally close and then reopen the tab. That feature is awesome! Great idea!

Edited Ryan Sears (Dec. 1, 2019 01:19:06 PM)

Dec. 1, 2019 01:58:36 PM

Joaquin Azcarate
Judge (Level 2 (International Judge Program))

Iberia

Have you ever needed a timer?

Thank you for the input.!
I'm deploying the changes for both points.

I'm against of using English, or any other language for the “Timer Name”; but as you say, good UI is very important.
I thought “ _ _ _” was more universal.
Now that I added a pencil for the editing field, I tried removing the name altogether.

Keep the feedback coming! :D

Dec. 1, 2019 04:41:25 PM

Fry
Judge (Level 3 (Judge Academy)), Scorekeeper, Tournament Organizer

Australia and New Zealand

Have you ever needed a timer?

To avoid duplicating work and to provide an alternative (definitely not to take away from Joaquin's amazing work) you should have a look at the work Jernej did in 2017:

http://apps.magicjudges.org/forum/post/235846/
https://timer.balistos.com/
https://github.com/gregorkuznik/mtg-full-screen-timer/