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Clear the End Date: Switch the Scheduler Back to Fastest Mode

· 4 min read
Score7 Team
Score7 Team

Score7's auto-scheduler has two modes, and the End Date field is the switch between them. Type a date in: the scheduler spreads matches evenly across the window. Leave it empty: it packs matches into the earliest slots and respects your rest-time and gap settings.

The catch used to be that once you typed a date, there was no obvious way back. Now there is — an X icon inside the field clears it in one click.

The two modes, briefly​

If you've used the auto-scheduler before, you know it generates a full schedule from your start date, time slots, venues, and rest constraints. What you may not have noticed is that the End Date field changes how the scheduler thinks.

  • End Date empty (greedy-min mode). The scheduler packs matches into the earliest available slots that respect your rest time, round gap, leg gap, and stage gap settings. The schedule finishes as soon as it can.
  • End Date set (spread-evenly mode). The scheduler picks evenly-spaced matchdays between Start and End and distributes matches across them. It manages pacing for you, so the rest-time and gap fields are greyed out.

Both modes are useful — they're suited to different tournaments. Spread-evenly is the right call for a 3-month league. Greedy-min is the right call for a weekend tournament. The choice is the End Date field.

The X button​

When the End Date field is empty, you see the calendar icon and the helper text. As soon as you type or pick a date, an X icon appears inside the input.

Click the X and three things happen at once:

  1. The date clears — the field shows the placeholder again.
  2. The minimum resting time and the three gap fields (round, stage, leg) un-grey themselves and accept input again.
  3. The next time you submit, the scheduler runs in greedy-min mode.

That's it. No confirmation dialog, no form reset, no other field touched.

When you'd actually use it​

You typed a date by accident. Easy fix — click the X and continue.

You started planning for a fixed end date and changed your mind. Maybe you originally wanted matches to spread across two months, but the venue freed up and you'd rather pack everything into the next two weekends. Clear the End Date, set your time slots, submit.

You're A/B-testing scheduling shapes. Set the End Date, generate a schedule, see how the matches distribute. Don't like it? Clear the End Date, generate again. Compare the two and keep the one that fits.

What doesn't have an X​

The X is only on the End Date field. A couple of other fields look similar but behave differently on purpose:

  • Start Date is required, so it has no clear button. You can change the date but you can't remove it.
  • Excluded Date rows each have their own per-row delete icon. The whole row goes when you delete it — there's no "clear just the date" because the row exists to mark a single excluded day.

If you've never set an End Date, nothing changes for you. The X only appears when there's a value to clear.

A quick note on accessibility​

Mouse, touch, and keyboard all work. The X button is reachable via keyboard tab order, and screen readers announce it as "Clear value." That label is in English everywhere for now, even on the localised versions of the form — translating it across all 9 languages is on the list but not in this release.

Ready to give your scheduling more flexibility? Open the scheduler on any premium tournament and try setting and clearing the End Date — it's instant, reversible, and won't touch the rest of your form.

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