Creating Contest

Contest is the core element in NorrCompetiton.

Categories and fields are required for contest and should be created first. Read more in Fields – Creating field and Categories – Creating Category.

There are two ways of creating a contest: from the control panel (read below) and from the frontend.

To create a new contest, please proceed to the contests list and click on the "New" button. A new contest form will open:

In the "Title" field you should set the contest title and alias.

Below is the list of all available tabs and its descriptions.

Contest

The description and short description of the contest. Short description is displayed in the list of contests. If it is empty then the normal description will be displayed.

In the right sidebar you can set the following parameters:

  • Category – a category that the contest should be assigned to.

  • Type – the type of the contest: Photo, Video or Simple. The Photo type is used for photo contests and requires to upload a photo for entry. The Video type is used for video contests and requires to specify a video URL for entry. The Simple type can be used for any type of contest and does not require a photo or video, only optional custom fields.

  • State – the state of the contest: Published, Unpublished or Trashed.

  • Status – the status of the contest: Active or Completed.

  • Access – the access level group that is allowed to view a contest.

  • Start Date – the start date and time of the contest.

  • End Date – the end date and time of the contest. When this date is reaching the contest status is automatically set as "Completed".

Publishing options

In this tab you can set the various publishing options, such as: author, meta description, meta keywords, etc.

Fields

  • Field type 'Title' - the field which will be used as a title for entries in the contest. This field will be used for alias in URL and as the main entry identifier throughout the contest. For example, if you have a fashion model contest then it is better to use a fullname entry for this field. If it is a pets contest then you would use pet name for this field.

  • Contest Fields - the fields that can be assigned to a contest and are used in entry form for a contest.

Basic Options

  • Image - the image for contest.

Entry Form Options

  • Entry Count – the entry count that a user can submit for one contest.

  • Entry Approval - select what kind of entries should be automatically approved (will not require moderation): Use Global, None, New, Changed or All.

  • Additional Photos - if set to 'Yes', then a user can upload more photos to be displayed as a gallery on the entry page in 'Photo' and 'Video' contest type as an addition to the main media.

  • Photos Limit - the limit of additional photos per entry.

  • Total Entries - the maximum number of entries for the contest. Set to zero for unlimited entries.

  • Entry Creator - if you allow submission of entry forms by unregistered users then you have to set a user who will be the default creator for these entries.

  • Contestant IP - if enabled then contestant's IP will be saved along with the entry data. IP will be displayed in the list of entries in the back-end.

Voting Options

  • Enable Rating - if rating is enabled then the users will be able to vote for entries. This parameter is working only for active contest.

  • Voting Start Date – the voting start date and time. This parameter is working only when rating is enabled. If not set it equals to contest start date and time.

  • Voting End Date – the voting end date and time. This parameter is working only when rating is enabled. If not set it equals to contest end date and time.

  • Count Past Votes – if yes, then all the votes regardless of the voting period will be included for counting the current votes of the voter. If No, then only those votes are included, that were casted after the start of the current voting period. This allows to organise several voting stages per one contest.

  • Vote Own - allow users to vote for own entries.

  • Unvote Period - the period in minutes during which the voter can cancel their vote (unvote). This works only if a user has permission to unvote. If set to 0 then unvote is not possible.

Contest Voting Options

  • Votes per Contest – the maximum allowed votes for one voter during one contest. Set to zero for unlimited votes.

  • Vote Frequency – if you allow to cast more than one vote in contest then you can set the vote frequency. You can choose from standard options: no limit (default), once per hour, once per 6 hours, once per 12 hours, once per day, once per week, once per month.

  • Custom Vote Frequency - if the standard options of vote frequency do not meet your requirements then you can set the custom vote frequency for contest. This parameter will override the standard vote frequency.

  • Custom Frequency Mode - the mode for your custom vote frequency in contest: seconds, minutes, hours or days.

Entry Voting Options

  • Votes per Entry - the maximum allowed votes for one voter per entry. Set to zero for unlimited votes.

  • Vote Frequency – if you allow to cast more than one vote per entry then you can set the vote frequency. You can choose from standard options: once per hour, once per 6 hours, once per 12 hours, once per day (default), once per week, once per month.

  • Custom Vote Frequency - if the standard options of vote frequency do not meet your requirements then you can set the custom vote frequency in minutes. This parameter will override the standard vote frequency.

  • Custom Frequency Mode - the mode for your custom vote frequency: seconds, minutes, hours or days.

Voting Check Options

  • Check IP - check the IP of the voter to prevent the unfair voting. If yes, then IP of the voter will be stored in the database.

  • Check IP + Fingerprint - check the IP + Fingerprint combination of the voter to prevent the unfair voting. This only works when IP check is disabled.

  • Check Fingerprint - check the Fingerprint of the voter to prevent the unfair voting. If the IP check does not turn up any matches, the fingerprint is verified next.

  • Check Cookie - check the cookie of the voter to prevent the unfair voting. By default the cookie expiration time is 1 year after the vote cast. It can be overridden for the specific contest.

  • Cookie Expiration Time - set the date and time when the vote cookie should expire. Setting this to the voting end date of the contest allows to organise several voting stages per one contest.

  • Tracking Data - the voter tracking information (such as user agent, language, screen resolution, platform, etc.), if enabled, will be saved together with the vote. This enables the analysis of it for potential fraud activities and the provision of some helpful statistics.

Integration Options

  • AUP Integration - enable the processing of specific AUP rules for this contest. Please install NorrCompetition AUP Plugin to handle the rules..

Layout Options

See the document Contest - Contest Layout Options.

Entry Layout Options

See the document Entries - Entry Layout Options.

Images

See the document Configuration - Images.

Permissions

To give users a permission to add and edit entries, you should enable Create and Edit rules. Additionally you can extend these permissions by enabling Create Before*, Create After* and Edit After* actions.

Read here how to allow unregistered users to submit applications.

A permission to delete entries is working in the control panel only.

To give the users a permission to vote for entries, you should enable Vote rule.

If you do not want to set up the same permissions for every contest, then you can set them globally in the component options.

Read more about permissions in the Configuration - Permissions document.

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