# Competition QR code Registration (help/idea)



## Theo Leinad (Jan 9, 2018)

So, here in México we held few comps a year, about 6-7, but it's always a pain in the @$$ to register manually. 
So I came up with the idea to give everyone a competitors badge with their own QR code. 
They can come to the comp and at the registration we scan the QR and they're checked in. 

But we need all the infra...


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## BQ (Jan 9, 2018)

I'm sharing the experience on Cubing China since we've used for a couple of competitions.

Process:
1. QR code registration is one of the optional features for every competition. If it's turned on, every competitor will receive a QR code after successful registration (including payment, etc). They can check it later on the registration page too.
2. Competitor must show their unique QR code at the registration area. The staff will scan it with scanning-gun or Wechat app in mobile phone.
3. After scanning, the information of the competitor in this competition will show on the page. You then can check it and click "sign in" so they're checked in.

Programming idea:
1. Generating QR code is easy. The key is to make a unique key for every registration. In case people will like to scan it via any scanner, the content stored in QR code is an valid url and will redirect to the competition home page so there's nothing weird. The url is like https://cubingchina.com/competition/sign/the_unique_key_here.
2. In China, Wechat is very popular so I wrote the first version to scan with it. In the web application in Wechat built-in browser (a page in fact), we can use the API to launch the scanner provided by Wechat. It reads the content and return to the script. Then we parse the unique key and request the server to fetch the information.
3. Scanning with scanning-gun is more tricky I think. I researched and found a scanning-gun with USB port was the best idea. It behaves like a normal input device and you can set the mode to auto typing everything it reads. So I built another page for the scanning. It contains a always-focused and hidden text input. The script listens to the keydown event and once the "Enter" is "pressed" by the scanning-gun, it will parse the content.

Problems:
1. Network required.
2. Scanning with mobile phone will run out the battery much sooner.
3. Scanning-gun doesn't work as expected with variable of screens. I'm thinking to change it to barcode.


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## Theo Leinad (Jan 9, 2018)

The idea here is to have a competitors QR that leads to the WCA profile. 
But when an event is ongoing, we can use a phone to scan the QR and mark it as registered. 
This should be web based to avoid issues, and only amdins can register and check in people. 

I hope I'm a bit clearer now.
@BQ 
Thank you for your inputs


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## BQ (Jan 9, 2018)

Theo Leinad said:


> The idea here is to have a competitors QR that leads to the WCA profile.
> But when an event is ongoing, we can use a phone to scan the QR and mark it as registered.
> This should be web based to avoid issues, and only amdins can register and check in people.
> 
> ...



So you're saying registering event (3x3x3, 4x4x4, etc) instead of competition?
If the QR code contains the competitor's WCA profile, how do you deal with new comers?


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## Theo Leinad (Jan 9, 2018)

My bad, by _event _I meant *competition**
And for new comers they will have their badge printed that day, manual registration will be held.
So we will have 2 lines, No-QR, and QR code...


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## BQ (Jan 9, 2018)

@Theo Leinad 
That's another good idea in my opinion. If you're going to use a phone to scan the QR code, maybe you have to build your app. A web page is not capable of this I think.


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## CrystallineCuber (Jan 9, 2018)

BQ said:


> @Theo Leinad
> That's another good idea in my opinion. If you're going to use a phone to scan the QR code, maybe you have to build your app. A web page is not capable of this I think.


What do you mean? I'm getting confused with the pronouns here. Scanning QRs can be done by just about everything, and I haven't done the research but generating them probably isn't hard either, my math textbook uses them for links to video examples on every other page.


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## Theo Leinad (Jan 10, 2018)

So here's my profile QR:

 

The idea is to have it printed in competitor's badge to ease the registration... 
Now I just need to find out which is the best and easier way to do this...


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