Changing the start/end time of a Challenge

[juliojj]

Hi,
I am trying to create a challenge with a dev and a test phase, and they are automatically created to start/end at 02:00 CEST. This generates a conflict in case I set dev and test phases to start at the same day but at different intervals (i.e., Phase "Test" must start after phase "Development" ends). If I set them two start at two different days, both will start/end at 02:00 CEST, and I may lose some hours. Is there any way to edit the start/end time of a challenge on Codabench?
Best

TODO

• Allow phase 1 end and phase 2 start dates to be same (actually it's possible already)
• Fix the interface so we don't need to click again on the dates to hide the error message
  Solved by: Phase Dates - UI Bug removed #1163
• Phase start/end time: Adding the possibility to choose an exact time, instead of just a date. That can be useful to have strict deadline, such as midnight anywhere on earth, etc.
  Solved by: phase start time and end time added #1616

[Didayolo]

This generates a conflict in case I set dev and test phases to start at the same day but at different intervals

Do you mean that both phases start at the same date, or dev phase end and test phase start at this date?

[juliojj]

Sorry for the confusion and for not being clear. I wanted to say when dev phase ends and test phase starts.

For example, if I set dev phase to end at day 16, and test phase to start at day 16, I will get an error: <Phase "Test" must start after phase "Development" ends>, as I cannot set the time they end/start, and apparently they end/start at the same time.

On the other hand, if I set dev phase to end at day 16, and the test phase to start at day 17, the dev phase will close at 02:00 CET of day 16, and the test phase will start at 02:00 of day 17 (and if I am not wrong, participants will lose 24h). That is, it seems all phases start/end at a fixed time (02:00 CET).

Sorry if I made any mistake.

[Didayolo]

Indeed I have observed this behavior in the past. Sometimes, even just editing something in the phase without changing the dates, this Phase "X" must start after phase "Y" ends message shows up.

We tried to fix it in the past:

• Problem with phases dates (v1 bundle?) #1027

And since then I am not able to reproduce the problem.

Can you share a competition URL and a precise procedure (put a certain date to a certain phase) that triggers the bug? Thanks.

[juliojj]

First, I uploaded a bundle of the challenge, for each track (https://www.codabench.org/competitions/1287, and this one https://www.codabench.org/competitions/1290/). Then, I tried to edit the start/end days of dev/test phases. I got the error ("X" must start after phase "Y") when setting the test phase to start the same day as the end of the dev phase. For some reason, I am not getting the error after your last message. Have you fixed anything? In any case, I was wondering whether it is possible to edit the start/end time for each phase, as it seems to be set to 02:00 CET as default.
Thanks

[Didayolo]

I did not change anything. But I have also seen this bug sometimes I think, even if I am not able to reproduce it. Let's keep an eye on it.

In any case, I was wondering whether it is possible to edit the start/end time for each phase, as it seems to be set to 02:00 CET as default.

Right now you can't select a precise time, only the date. That is an interesting feature suggestion.

[ihsaan-ullah]

If you select the same date (e.g. Septeber 13 2023) as the end data of Phase 1 and start date of Phase 2, you will get this error: Phase 2 must start after Phase 1 ends

[juliojj]

I see your point ihsaan-ullah, but this generates another problem. For instance, if phase 1 ends on Sep 13 and phase 2 starts on Sep 14, both will end (phase 1) and start (phase 2) at 02:00 CET, according to my tests. That is, the start/end time are predefined. This means that from Sep 13 02:00 to Sep 14 02:00 the competition will be locked. Apart from this, if I want to end the challenge on the last hour of day 15, lets say, I will need to set up it to end on 02:00 CET of day 16, as one cannot control the start/end time.

[ihsaan-ullah]

I see your point ihsaan-ullah, but this generates another problem. For instance, if phase 1 ends on Sep 13 and phase 2 starts on Sep 14, both will end (phase 1) and start (phase 2) at 02:00 CET, according to my tests. That is, the start/end time are predefined. This means that from Sep 13 02:00 to Sep 14 02:00 the competition will be locked. Apart from this, if I want to end the challenge on the last hour of day 15, lets say, I will need to set up it to end on 02:00 CET of day 16, as one cannot control the start/end time.

Now this seems like a bug. We will look into it.

[Didayolo]

If you select the same date (e.g. Septeber 13 2023) as the end data of Phase 1 and start date of Phase 2, you will get this error: Phase 2 must start after Phase 1 ends

Maybe this simply should not return an error. Because, at the upload, it does not generate an error. So, if you just edit the date but let the same date ("16 october 2023" --> "16 october 2023"), then the bug appears, even if the competition was already saved with this setting.

Therefore we have two points:

• Allowing to set the same "phase 1 end date" as "phase 2 start date". Of course, if the date or time or "phase 2 start date" is strictly prior the the "phase 1 end date", it should returns the error.
• Adding the possibility to choose an exact time, instead of just a date. That can be useful to have strict deadline, such as midnight anywhere on earth, etc.

[ihsaan-ullah]

If you select the same date (e.g. Septeber 13 2023) as the end data of Phase 1 and start date of Phase 2, you will get this error: Phase 2 must start after Phase 1 ends

Maybe this simply should not return an error. Because, at the upload, it does not generate an error. So, if you just edit the date but let the same date ("16 october 2023" --> "16 october 2023"), then the bug appears, even if the competition was already saved with this setting.

I think it should return error even during the upload. I will check it.

What we expect is the following:

• phase 2 should start after phase 1
• same dates phase 1 end and phase 2 start are not acceptable
• phase should end at 23:59 and the next should start at 00:00

[Didayolo]

I think it should return error even during the upload.

Why? I think when the end dates are not defined in the competition.yaml, they are automatically set to the start date of the next phase. I don't see why we would not allow end and start dates to be the same, it is what is the most commonly wanted as competition organizer. This way, the next phase starts exactly when the previous ends.

[ihsaan-ullah]

Why?

Becasuse right now we don't have time, just dates. phase 2 start should be after phase 1 end

Ithink when the end dates are not defined in the competition.yaml, they are automatically set to the start date of the next phase.

No, it is set to start date -1

I don't see why we would not allow end and start dates to be the same, it is what is the most commonly wanted as competition organizer. This way, the next phase starts exactly when the previous ends.

This is actually the bug. If let say phase 1 ends on September 14 and phase 2 starts on september 15 then end time should be September 14 23:59 and start date should be September 15 00:00

[Didayolo]

But then you'll have a problem of backward compatibility because it was allowed on CodaLab. I don't see the problem in accepting dates that are greater or equal, instead of strictly greater.