Introduction to Participants

Owned by Scott Dickinson
Last updated: Aug 30, 2019
6 min read

DRAFT DOCUMENTATION

Please note that this documentation is in draft and is not finalised.

We would encourage you provide any comments, questions, or suggestions for changes by use in-line commenting on this page. To do so simply highlight a section of text and then click on the "Comment" option that appears.

Lots of different individuals and teams can be involved in a tournament. This document helps you understand how all these participants can be added to a Tournament entity

1. What is a Participant

TODS enables you to include all the different people and teams who are involved in a Tournament - as players, organisers, technical officials (referees, umpires, etc.), team officials (coaches, physiotherapist, etc.), doubles pairs and teams. In TODS any person (or entity) involved in the Tournament is a Participant.

We include everyone as a participant because TODS allows for an individual to take on more than role in a tournament. By including everyone in the same way it allows for someone to be, for example, a player in the Over 40s Doubles event, an umpire for the U18 Boy’s Singles and the coach for a team in the U14 Girl’s Team event.

There are four types of Participant defined:

  1. Individual
    A person who is involved in the Tournament as a player, organiser or official.
  2. Pair
    A pair that is competing in one or more doubles or team event
  3. Team
    A team that is competing in a team event
  4. Squad
    A larger group of players who might be selected to be in the team for a particular event/tie

2. Participant Schema

To see a graphical representation of the data model (schema) for the Participant entity please expand the link below:

 View Participant Schema Diagram

3. Creating a Participant

Participants are added to the <Participants> entry of Tournament.

For each Participant you need a minimum of three pieces of information - the participant type, an identifier and a name. A Participant entity exists only within the Tournament.

For pairs and teams the name is entered into the Name attribute. For individuals the person’s family name goes into the Name attribute and given name goes into the PreferredGivenName attribute.

The ParticipantId must be unique within the Tournament.

XML 
<Participant>
	<ParticipantId>EE12784</ParticipantId>
	<ParticipantType>PAIR</ParticipantType>
	<Name>SMITH/JONES</Name>
</Participant>
Json 
{
	"Participant": {
		"ParticipantId": "EE12784",
		"ParticipantType": "PAIR",
		"Name": "SMITH/JONES"
	}
}

4. The Individual

As well as the mandatory information for Participant an INDIVIDUAL will usually also have PreferredGivenName.

An INDIVIDUAL Participant can (and wherever possible should) be linked to the Person record for this individual. Ideally this will be done using the PersonId for the source and also this person's WorldTennisId.

XML 
<Participant>
	<ParticipantId>EE12785</ParticipantId>
	<ParticipantType>INDIVIDUAL</ParticipantType>
	<Name>JONES</Name>
	<PreferredGivenName>Steven</PreferredGivenName>
	<Person>
		<PersonId>QQkeer12kl</PersonId>
		<WorldTennisId>SJO1234567</WorldTennisId>
	</Person>
</Participant>
Json 
{
	"Participant": {
		"ParticipantId": "EE12785",
		"ParticipantType": "INDIVIDUAL",
		"Name": "JONES",
		"PreferredGivenName": "Steven",
		"Person": {
			"PersonId": "QQkeer12kl",
			"WorldTennisId": "SJO1234567"
		}
	}
}

5. The Pair

A PAIR Participant is created to represent a pairing of individuals for doubles. Usually the two individuals in the pairing will be known and they should be linked to the PAIR Participant. However there may be cases where the members of the pair are not yet known so clients should be prepared to receive PAIR Participants with no members. When known the two individuals can be added using the Members attribute. Each individual must already be added as a Participant in the Tournament and can then be linked using the ParticipantId.

XML 
<Participant>
  <ParticipantId>EE12784</ParticipantId>
  <ParticipantType>PAIR</ParticipantType>
  <Name>SMITH/JONES</Name>
  <Members>
    <Member>
      <ParticipantId>EE12785</ParticipantId>
    </Member>
    <Member>
      <ParticipantId>EE12786</ParticipantId>
    </Member>
  </Members>
</Participant>
Json 
{
	"Participant": {
		"ParticipantId": "EE12784",
		"ParticipantType": "PAIR",
		"Name": "SMITH/JONES",
		"Members": {
			"Member": [
				{
					"ParticipantId": "EE12785"
				},
				{
					"ParticipantId": "EE12786"
				}
			]
		}
	}
}

6. The Team

A TEAM Participant is created to represent a team competing in a tournament. The minimum information required is ParticipantId and Name. It is very common for the list of teams competing in a tournament to be known far in advance of the tournament but not the players who will make up the team so clients should expect to receive TEAM Participants with no members. As the team members become known they can be added to the Members attribute which provides a link between the team and the INDIVIDUAL Participant. All team members must also be created as INDIVIDUAL Participant entities.

Sometimes the team represented by TEAM Participant is created just for one tournament but often the team competes in lots of tournaments. In cases where the team exists outside of one tournament you can provide a link to the Team entity (in the same way that an INDIVIDUAL Participant can be linked to a Person entity).

XML 
<Participant>
  <ParticipantId>EE12784</ParticipantId>
  <ParticipantType>TEAM</ParticipantType>
  <Name>Great Britain</Name>
  <Team>
	<TeamId>GBR-MEN-SENIOR</TeamId>
  </Team>
  <Members>
    <Member>
      <ParticipantId>EE12785</ParticipantId>
    </Member>
    <Member>
      <ParticipantId>EE12786</ParticipantId>
    </Member>
    <Member>
      <ParticipantId>EE12787</ParticipantId>
    </Member>
    <Member>
      <ParticipantId>EE12788</ParticipantId>
    </Member>
    <Member>
      <ParticipantId>EE12789</ParticipantId>
    </Member>
  </Members>
</Participant>
Json 
{
	"Participant": {
		"ParticipantId": "EE12784",
		"ParticipantType": "TEAM",
		"Name": "Great Britain",
		"Team": {
			"TeamId":"GBR-MEN-SENIOR"
		}
		"Members": {
			"Member": [
				{
					"ParticipantId": "EE12785"
				},
				{
					"ParticipantId": "EE12786"
				},
				{
					"ParticipantId": "EE12787"
				},
				{
					"ParticipantId": "EE12788"
				},
				{
					"ParticipantId": "EE12789"
				}
			]
		}
	}
}

7. The Squad

Note

Use of SQUAD Participant is expected to be rare. It is included in TODS to support tournaments, such as Davis Cup World Group to 2018, that take place over long periods and where the players can change over time. Most tournaments should use only TEAM Participants.

There are certain cases in tennis tournaments where a team is entered for an event but because the tournament takes place over a long time the members of the team change over time. To allow for these cases TODS allows for a Participant of type SQUAD. A SQUAD works exactly the same way as a TEAM - it has a name and can have members.

Let's assume 'Spain' has been created as SQUAD Participant for the Davis Cup World Group 2018. Spain plays in the 1st Round in February and the Quarter Finals in April. Because of illness, injury etc the players in April are not all the same as in February. So we create two TEAM Participants, 'Spain A' and 'Spain B'. 'Spain' will include as its members all the players from 'Spain A' and 'Spain B'. 'Spain A' and 'Spain B' will be added as members of 'Spain'.

XML 
<Participant>
  <ParticipantId>ESP100A</ParticipantId>
  <ParticipantType>TEAM</ParticipantType>
  <Name>Spain A</Name>
  <Members>
    <Member>
      <ParticipantId>EE12785</ParticipantId>
    </Member>
    <Member>
      <ParticipantId>EE12786</ParticipantId>
    </Member>
    <Member>
      <ParticipantId>EE12787</ParticipantId>
    </Member>
    <Member>
      <ParticipantId>EE12788</ParticipantId>
    </Member>
    <Member>
      <ParticipantId>EE12789</ParticipantId>
    </Member>
  </Members>
</Participant>

<Participant>
  <ParticipantId>ESP100</ParticipantId>
  <ParticipantType>SQUAD</ParticipantType>
  <Name>Spain</Name>
  <Members>
    <Member>
      <ParticipantId>EE12785</ParticipantId>
    </Member>
    <Member>
      <ParticipantId>EE12786</ParticipantId>
    </Member>
    <Member>
      <ParticipantId>EE12787</ParticipantId>
    </Member>
    <Member>
      <ParticipantId>EE12788</ParticipantId>
    </Member>
    <Member>
      <ParticipantId>EE12789</ParticipantId>
    </Member>
	<Member>
	  <ParticipantId>ESP100A</ParticipantId>
	</Member>
  </Members>
</Participant>
Json 
[
	{
	"Participant": {
		"ParticipantId": "ESP100A",
		"ParticipantType": "TEAM",
		"Name": "Spain A",
		"Members": {
			"Member": [
				{
					"ParticipantId": "EE12785"
				},
				{
					"ParticipantId": "EE12786"
				},
				{
					"ParticipantId": "EE12787"
				},
				{
					"ParticipantId": "EE12788"
				},
				{
					"ParticipantId": "EE12789"
				}
		    ]
		    }
	    }
	}
	,{
	"Participant": {
		"ParticipantId": "EE12784",
		"ParticipantType": "SQUAD",
		"Name": "Spain",
		"Members": {
			"Member": [
				{
					"ParticipantId": "EE12785"
				},
				{
					"ParticipantId": "EE12786"
				},
				{
					"ParticipantId": "EE12787"
				},
				{
					"ParticipantId": "EE12788"
				},
				{
					"ParticipantId": "EE12789"
				},
				{
					"ParticipantId": "ESP100A"
				}				
			]
		    }
	    }
	}
]

8. Participant Roles

Each Participant can be given a role - usually only applicable to INDIVIDUAL participants. A participant can take on more than one role during a Tournament so in Participant entity it should be the most important one.

The list of roles is available in Standard Codes.

9. Participant Status

TODS allows users to track different statuses for Participants. Usually the list of Participants will be all those who plan to (or did) take part in the Tournament. These will have ParticipantStatus ACTIVE. However some tournaments need to track Participants who are no long active participants - perhaps because there is a penalty for withdrawal. These Participants can be retained with ParticipantStatus WITHDRAWN.

If you need to track further details about withdrawn (or active) Participants you can use an extension (See Extensions).

Here is an example of two Participants with different statuses and details provided by extension.

XML 
<Participant>
	<Participant>
		<ParticipantId>AB1234</ParticipantId>
		<Name>JONES</Name>
		<ParticipantStatus>ACTIVE</ParticipantStatus>
		<Extensions>
			<Extension>
				<Name>ADDITIONAL_STATUS</Name>
				<Value>WILDCARD</Value>
			</Extension>
		</Extensions>
	</Participant>
	<Participant>
		<ParticipantId>ZZ6735</ParticipantId>
		<Name>SMITH</Name>
		<ParticipantStatus>WITHDRAWN</ParticipantStatus>
		<Extensions>
			<Extension>
				<Name>ADDITIONAL_STATUS</Name>
				<Value>AFTER_DEADLINE</Value>
			</Extension>
		</Extensions>
	</Participant>
</Participants>
json 
{
	"Participants": {
		"Participant": [
			{
				"ParticipantId": "AB1234",
				"Name": "JONES",
				"ParticipantStatus": "ACTIVE",
				"Extensions": {
					"Extension": {
						"Name": "ADDITIONAL_STATUS",
						"Value": "WILDCARD"
					}
				}
			},
			{
				"ParticipantId": "ZZ6735",
				"Name": "SMITH",
				"ParticipantStatus": "WITHDRAWN",
				"Extensions": {
					"Extension": {
						"Name": "ADDITIONAL_STATUS",
						"Value": "AFTER_DEADLINE"
					}
				}
			}
		]
	}
}


Related Information


Go back to Tennis Open Data Standards home page.