Data and Image Handling
Your website hosts copies of all of your membership, competition, event, and image data. All of this information is securely stored in a database and backed up to another location for safety.
Image, competition, and membership information is exchanged and synchronized with the Image Competition Manager (ICM) program. It is necessary to occasionally connect your computer that runs with program to your website to allow the program to exchange information.
Competitions may be created with the ICM program, but you will usually want to create them on your website in advance of a competition. Once created, members may submit entries to a competion using your website. Rules you have established for the competition will be enforced, such as pixel dimensions and number of entries.
To submit entries via your website, a member must first login to your site. Using the "My Account", "Manage My Images" menu item they can see a list of images they have cataloged into the system. They may upload additional images here. Once their images are int he system, you can use the "Competitions", "Submit Images" menu item to submit any image that was previously uploaded. Images can be re-entered into a new competition without uploading the file again.
Images may also be entered at the time of the competition. In this case, the image files are imported into the Image Competition Manager program.
If a competition was created on the website, you need to load the competition into your computer using the ICM program. Use the "Club" tree item and the "Import/Export" tab. This will transfer all new competition and membership information from your website to the ICM program.
During your competition new images may be entered, image titles may be altered, and judging results will be set.
Following a competition, you should again connect to the Internet and use the ICM program to send all of your updated competition data and images to the website. The results of the competition are displayed automatically, including the winning images.
Although unlikely, if you change information on both the website and with the ICM program, the website update will be the one retained. The website contains all competitions, but you may choose to download only a subset to the ICM program.
