Foundation Form Reference

This chapter documents the fixed fields used to establish a sport and competition. An asterisk in Joomla marks a required field. IDs and UUIDs are system identifiers; do not invent or reuse them during ordinary editing.

Sport Type form

Details tab

Name (name, required): administrator/public label of the local sport type.
Alias (alias, optional): SEF-safe alias; Joomla can derive it when blank.
Code (code, required): unique machine identifier. Use stable lowercase ASCII with numbers, hyphens or underscores.
Profile version (profile_version_id, required): active bundled profile version providing the contract. Once projects use the sport type, changing its profile foundation is restricted to protect existing data.

Initialization tab (new records only)

Create positions (create_positions, default Yes).
Create event types (create_event_types, default Yes).
Create statistics (create_statistics, default Yes).

These switches copy selected profile definitions into editable runtime catalogs during first save. No means the corresponding catalog starts empty; administrators can create custom records later. The tab disappears after the sport type exists because initialization is not a repeat-every-save action.

Publishing tab

Status defaults to Published. Ordering defaults to 0. ID is read-only for an existing record.

Competition form

Details tab

Name (required): stable competition identity, not a season-specific project name.
Alias: optional SEF alias.
Middle name and Short name: alternative display lengths for compact frontend layouts.
Code: internal/public competition code.
External code: identifier from a federation or import source.
Organisation: governing organisation.
Country code: country association. Where the Country plugin is installed, use its selectable ISO code instead of typing prose.

Description tab

Description is an editor on its own full-width row. Store public competition information here; do not use it for one season's operational notes.

Publishing tab

Status defaults to Published. Access defaults to Public. Ordering defaults to 0. UUID/ID are system identifiers.

Season form

Details tab

Name (required): label such as 2026, 2026/27 or Summer 2027.
Alias: optional SEF alias.

Season start/end dates are intentionally absent. Exact boundaries are often unknown during initial setup and can differ by competition; project/stage schedule data carries the operational dates.

Description and Publishing tabs

Description uses a full-width editor row. New seasons default to Published, Public access and ordering 0. UUID/ID are system-managed.

Project form

A project is the operational edition linking competition, season and sport contract. Saving validates that its project format is allowed by the selected sport profile.

Details tab

Name (required): complete edition name used in administration and frontend output.
Alias: optional SEF alias.
Competition (competition_id, required): published competition.
Season (season_id, required): published season.
Sport type (sport_type_id, required): sport type with assigned profile version.
Project type (project_type, required): league, cup, tournament, friendly, combined stage, playoff, championship, fight card, race, race series or race weekend. The selected profile determines which choices save successfully.
Code: local competition-edition code.
External code: federation/import identifier.

The profile-version ID is assigned automatically from the sport type and is not a manual project field.

Schedule tab

Timezone: first choice is Use Default (system settings). Inheritance resolves through JoomLeague/Joomla configuration; select a named zone only when this project differs.
Start date / End date: optional project planning bounds.
Default start time: used when generating/creating programme items. When blank, the sport profile default can supply it.
Current round mode: defaults to start; other modes include manual, end, first programme item and last programme item behavior.
Auto advance seconds: default 7200 (two hours), used by automatic current-round progression.

Presentation tab

Picture stores optional project media. Presentation-field overrides that depend on the sport profile belong under Project Templates, not this generic media field.

Description tab

The label occupies one row and the editor the following full-width row.

Publishing and Permissions tabs

New projects default to Unpublished. Access defaults to Public and ordering to 0. The lifecycle field reflects the current development data contract where present. Permissions uses Joomla ACL and can override component actions for this project asset.

Save behavior

Save validates and keeps the editor open.
Save & Close returns to the logical source list/panel.
Close discards unsaved values.
A validation error keeps submitted values and identifies the field/reason.

Create the project only after its competition, season and sport type exist; the form never fabricates those dependencies.