Zone4 Version 6.3 which was the main release for 2007/2008 proved to be quite stable and race ready and so no major updates had been required though the 2007/2008 season.  This 7.1 release contains all of the small fixes that were requested after the 2007/2008 season and some new features and function built through the summer of 2008.  7.1 is intended as the main release for 2008/2009.

Product Updating

• Zone4 now checks for a list of product and file update on startup.  As well as checking for Zone4 program updates, it checks to make sure your FIS and CCC Points file and CCC validation data is up to date.  This information is displayed below the Start Options screen whenever you startup Zone4 and contains easy links to download needed files.  You can also customize which update information is displayed in your Tools->Custom Options0>Internet section.

Sprints

• Zone4 did not properly handle the rules regarding DNS, DNF and DSQ in sprint heats.  This version now correctly follows the rules as outlined in the CCC and FIS rule books regarding how to rank athletes that are DNS and DNF in specific heats.  For the DSQ, it appears that there are actually 3 different levels of disqualification that can be applied in sprint heats depending on the severity of the infraction and the interpretation of the TD.  Zone4, therefor, now has 3 different designations of disqualification: DSQR, DSQH, and DSQ.  DSQR disqualifies the racer from the current Round.  This ranks them at the end of all the racers in the current round behind any DNS and DNF racers.  DSQH disqualifies the racer from all the Heats, ranks the racer behind all qualifiers.  So if you had 30 qualifiers, the DSQH athlete would be places 30th.  The final designation is the regular DSQ which eliminates the racer from the whole competition and does not rank them in the results.
• The Assign Startlist menu for Sprints now has an additional menu item: "4. Build Sprint Heats".  This menu items functionality used to be inside the "Assign Bibs" function but this presented a problem when using the Pre-Event setup sequence with Manually adjusted Heat Start times.  The problem arose when you setup your sprint event ahead of time and manually adjusted the heat starttimes.  When you then imported your qualifying results, you had to re-run the "Assign Bibs" function in order to assign racers to their proper heats.  And because this function included the functionality which erased and rebuilt all your heats, it therefor erased all your manually adjusted start times.  By moving the "Build Sprint Heats" functionality off on it's own, you can now re-run the Assign Bibs function without affecting your start times and number of heats.
• It was requested that the Sprint Start Report include some optional fields so that the report could be used to print off the finish lane recorder sheets and the finish order recording sheets.  The Start Report now includes 6 optional columns for 1st-6th for the finish order sheets, and 4 optional columns for lane 1-4 for the finish lane recording sheets.  By adjusting the Line Spacing setting you can produce some nice easy to write on sheets for your manual entry recorders outside.  The Start Report also has a new column called Round which prints a nice text version of the round number to make it easier to read and interpret ("Quarter Final", 'Semi Final", "A-Final", "B-Final".)

Relays

• The Update Latest Points function has been upgraded to calculate the combined team points for relay teams.  This is useful for determining the start order for sprint relay and regular relays.  It takes the licence numbers of each team member and looks up their current points (either distance or sprint - whichever you choose) in the points files (either CCC or FIS - again whichever you choose) and assigns the CCC/FIS Points field of the team to the total points of its members.  This allows you to use the "Non-Random Draw by Custom Field" functionality to produce a startlist ordered by the CCC/FIS points field.

Time Limit Race Format

• The old 24hr Race format received an overhaul and complete re-write and is now called the Time Limit format.  This re-write brought the old dedicated but neglected timing module into the regular zone4 file format with many of the features and behaviour of a regular race file.  This includes the addition of Categories, separate bib number for each team member, and much more flexibility on how you want to run your race.  Please see the Time Limit documentation for full details.

Vista

• When you click on a Zone4 Race file it is supposed to open in Zone4 as per normal Windows behaviour.  This was not happening on Vista due to changes in the way Vista interprets certain commands.  This has now been fixed so that files open properly.

Time Adjustments

• Biathlon races have a concept of time adjustment which is used to grant time bonuses (if someone has to wait for a range spot) or time penalties (if someone did not ski the correct number of penalty laps.)  These time adjustments were entered via the Racer Status screen which is accessible from the Instant Results screen.  These time adjustments were usually added with reason notes.  After several related requests, Zone4 has now extended and generalized this feature into what is called: Jury Decisions.   This feature has been opened it up to all race types and can be used for more than just time adjustments.  One of the requests was for a notes section to explain the reasons for DSQ and other jury decisions.  So for each racer you now have two related fields: Time Adjustment (in seconds - either positive or negative), and a text box to explain the Jury Decisions.  This is now available not only in the Racer Status screen (linked from the instant result window) but also in the main Racer Info->Racer Details dialog.  You can optionally use either (or both) of the time adjustment or reason fields as needed.  The time adjustments are factored into racer's finish times, and both the time adjustments and jury decision text are displayed as line items below each categories on the printed and posted results.

CCC Points

• The Calculate CCC Race Points function has been fixed up as it was not using the correct algorithm and so points did not match with what the CCC CPL system produced for each race.

Non Random Draw

• The Non Random Draw feature had the limitation of only allowing a draw ordering based on a single field.  This limited the usefulness of the feature for more advanced draws where more than one type of ordering was needed.  This function has been upgraded to allow up to three ordering fields.  The first field is the primary order field, but for racers that have the same value in that field, the second ordering parameter is considered, and likewise for the 3rd.  You can use this feature along with Custom fields to create highly customized draw ordering.  This feature was needed for Nationals where the technical package stated that sprint relay teams needed to be ordered first by their placing in last year's sprint relay (but only one per club), and 2nd by sprint CPL points.  This would be solved by creating a custom numeric field for "LastYearRank", entering rankings for those selected teams, and the enter a common high values like "99" for all the other teams.  Then after running the "Update Latest Points" function which calculates the combined points of each team's members, you can goto the Non-Random Draw by Custom Field function.  Here you specify to "LastYearRank" 0-9 for your first field, and then CCCPoints 9-0 for our second.  The teams will then be ordered by their LastYearRank value, and since all the "99" value teams have the same value, it will use the second field "CCCPoints" to determine their ordering.  Then all you have to do is run "Assign Bibs" and the Bibs order will be correct. 
• FIS NorAm Special Ordered Draw - the technical package for the FIS Norams included special rules regarding ordered draws for Individual and Mass Start event.  This function was added, although there is still some discussion as to whether it should be deployed in events this year.

Import Race File Bug

• In all 3 types of race file import: "Import Race File into New Race", "Create Sprint Race", "Create Pursuit Race" where Zone4 builds a new file based on an existing file, there was a bug related to the Sex and DOB fields.  Users would only have noticed this bug if they opened "4. Racer Info" right after the import as they would have been presented with an error message and a blank screen.  If users had opened and clicked OK in "1. Set Options" first (which fixes the problem), they would not have seen the problem.  This resulted in the bug remaining hidden for quite some time and only sporadic reports of the problem.  Simply going to "1. Set Options" and clicking OK solved the problem, but this was not a known solution till now so the error would have seemed like a more random issue.  This has now been fixed.

Biathlon

• An interface was added to the HORA electronic range system for Biathlon shot information.
• Thanks to the collaboration with Graham Lindsay, an export function was added under the Tools menu for "Export to BIAB" which exports a specially formatted file with Biathlon-In-A-Box can import.  This allows BIAB users to take advantage of the Zone4 online registration system and then run the race using BIAB without having to re-enter any registration data.

Summit Systems Data Interface

• There was a bug where the occasional Summit record would seem to disappear.  This happened only in a Network environment and in very large races were the network traffic between computers was very high.  What was happening was that due to the high network usage and strain put on the race file access, occasionally the function that requests times from the Summit DLL and adds them to the Race File would fail to gain it's requested access.  The function would simply exit and try again in a few seconds, but since it has already requested a record from the DLL, the DLL did not report that record again and went on to the next one.  This would lead to these stranded records being lost.   This bug has been fixed by storing the current DLL record and
  not requesting any more till the stored one has been dealt with.  This solves the issue even in high traffic and race file utilization periods.