Topcoder is deprecating the use of JIRA as a payment mechanism for Topcoder members. Moving forward for all ad-hoc payments outside of a contest, please use the new tasks feature.
Topcoder Direct now supports the ability to farm out tasks to one or more members through Direct. This essentially involves the creation of a closed First2Finish contest.
The new payment feature in Direct is an extension of the new tasks feature. However, the two are slightly different.
For example:
You can create a task and add one member to it - this is essentially what a task is.
You can create a task and add multiple members to it - basically a “private challenge” that no other members can register for.
You can create a task with one member, and then immediately close the contest to push the payment through to PACTS - this is the new payment mechanism.
For more information on tasks, please see this help article.
At this time, yes. They are essentially private challenges. Meaning no one can register for them.
Step 1 - Create a new challenge and select First2Finish (either under Design or Development)
Step 2 - Enter the following information:
Challenge Name
Project Name
Billing Account
Milestone
Copilot - set this to Unassigned
Review - set this to Internal
Reviewer - set this to yourself (no payment will be logged for review, as no real review will occur).
Task - check the checkbox
Assign Member(s): enter the handle of the member who should receive the payment.
Step 3 - Click continue and enter the following values:
Detailed Requirements: Enter a description of what the payment is for. This should be something that describes why the member is getting paid.
Submission Guidelines: NA
Master Platforms: Choose and appropriate value. If you don’t see on, email support@topcoder.com to get it added.
Master Technologies: Choose and appropriate value. If you don’t see on, email support@topcoder.com to get it added.
Requirements Specification: Uncheck the box.
1st Place: The total amount to be paid to the member.
You may notice that there are values for review cost and copilot, ignore those as they will be removed in a future release. Select “Continue” once all steps have been completed.
Step 4 - Review and select “Continue”
Step 5 - Review and select “Submit & Launch Challenge”, select ‘Yes” in the final confirmation box.
Step 6 - Click “Edit”
Step 7 - Select “Close” to close out the contest and initiate payment.
Step 8 - In the Select Winner box, select the winner and hit “OK”. The contest will then be closed and the payment will appear in PACTS within 24 hours. You’re all set.
1: Can’t assign member error
Error screenshot:
steps to resolve this error:
Activate the task
Add the member handle to the task from OR
2. Failed to activate the challenge due to the following error
PersisteceException occurred in ProjectServicesImpl#createContestSale method : Error occurs while executing query [INSERT INTO contest_sale (contest_sale_id, contest_id, sale_status_id, price, paypal_order_id, sale_reference_id, sale_type_id) VALUES (?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?)] using the query arguments [54722, 30077890, 1, NaN, Product, Product, 2]
Error cause: The error is caused when the admin fee is not computed correctly. The error is more likely to happen if prize or fee is set to zero.
Solution:
The workaround is to increase or change the prize money. It will cause the onChange event on the textbox to fire, which will recompute the prize money. The prize money can now be reset back to the old value.