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The replay screen is displayed by clicking on the REPLAY
button on the Dashboard header.
The purpose of the Replay feature is to give you a manual way to send, or re-send, game create incidents to all of the BOS endpoints if for any reason they weren't correctly sent before.
Normally you won't need to use this feature very often as a create incident is automatically sent every time a game is created. But there could be occasions when the application correctly records a game as being created but the information isn't recorded by the BOS nodes. If that happened then running a Replay will 'flush' all the games between the start and end dates and send create incidents to the BOS nodes a second time.
Important: The Replay feature can only be used for games that are not yet started. Once a game is started a new create incident would be ignored.
You can select sports and leagues individually using check-boxes, or select / de-select all sports and leagues by using the Select All checkbox/toggle.
Set the range of data to be replayed by entering values in the Start and End fields.
The home page is the first page you'll see and from where you can log in or create an account.
Note: If you've set up your own Couch Potato server then the url for the application will be at your discretion, but if you're using a hosted version then PBSA will supply you with a url.
If you already have an account then enter your User name and Password and then click on the Login
button. Once your log in credentials are verified you'll be taken to the Dashboard.
If you don't have an account then click on the Create Account
link and you'll be taken to the Create Account screen where you'll be able to create your new account.
Couch Potato is a web based application that requires no installation or dependencies beyond needing access to the web site. Access to the web site is restricted to those users granted permission after consultation with PBSA.
The application is designed to be very easy to use and at the time reducing the chances of bad data being entered by, as much as possible ,allowing only data selected from lists to be entered; keeping free text entry to absolute minimum.
For example, Couch Potato won't let you enter an invalid basketball team for NBA because you can only select from a list of teams that has already been determined to be correct.
The two underlying absolute pre-requisites of being a Couch Potato user are the ability to enter accurate and timely data. To this end the interface includes a notification feature that will post reminders when games are due to start, or if a game is about the finish.
The account menu is accessed by clicking on the user icon at the far right of the header.
The account menu has two features.
Click on the Change Password menu item to open the Change Password screen
Click on the Log Out menu item to log out of the application and return to the Home Page.
Note: The Account Menu will automatically close after 10 seconds if it isn't used.
Before using Couch Potato every user must create an account.
To create an account by first clicking on the Create Account
link on the Home Page.
You'll then see a screen like the following, with you unique Data Proxy name.
Next enter a User Name between eight and 24 characters and a password between eight and 40 characters. Finally re-enter the password to confirm it and click on the REGISTER
button.
If all fields are valid you'll be returned to the Home Page to log in with your new account credentials.
You can exit this screen at any time by clicking on the X at the top right.
The Change Password screen is opened by clicking on the Change Password
menu item in the account menu.
First enter your current password and then enter a new password and confirm the new password. The same validation rules apply as when creating a new account.
The New Password must be between eight and 40 characters.
If all fields are valid you'll be returned to the Dashboard
You can exit this screen at any time by clicking on the X at the top right of the screen.
The dashboard is the main screen from where you can navigate around the features of the application in preparation for inputting data.
The dashboard sis opened as soon as you log in from the Home Page.
The dashboard is best thought of as five feature sections:
Header
Sport Tabs
League (event Group) Tabs
Calendar
Notifications
The dashboard header is shown at the top of the screen and is non-scrollable. That is to say that if you run the application on a small display such that you have to scroll up and down, to see all of the dashboard, the header is always 'pinned' to the top of the screen.
The features of the header are:
Application version number.
Real time clock.
Data Replay button. See Replay.
User name.
User icon for opening the account menu. See Account Menu.
The sports tab runs horizontally across the dashboard and displays one tab for each sport that is enabled. The tabs are dynamic and configured through a database table that can have new sports added or deleted at any time
There is no limit on the number of sports tabs that can be created. If the tabs reach the horizontal limit of the application then they will stack in to multiple rows.
By clicking on any tab you will:
Update the Leagues Tabs to show only the leagues associated with the selected sport.
Change the calendar display to show only events for the selected sport and league.
When you select a sports tab the league will default to the first one in the list.
The leagues tab runs vertically down the left side of the dashboard and displays one tab for each league that is configured for the selected sport. The tabs are dynamic and configured through a database table so that new leagues can be added or deleted at any time.
There is no limit on the number of sports tabs that can be created. If the tabs reach the vertical limit of the application then they will stack in to multiple columns.
If you click on any of the tabs the calendar will show only events for the selected sport and league.
The calendar component is the main 'engine' of the application. It's here that you'll navigate, enter and select new games.
The calendar dynamically creates a month plan for each month selected using the forward (>) and backward (<) selectors. There is no limit on the number of months/years that can scrolled through.
As you move the cursor over any cell it'll be highlighted , and the current day is displayed as a solid number.
If a day has at least one game scheduled then the crest for the league associated with the current calendar will be shown in that day cell.
If a day has at least one game scheduled then a badge for the total number of games will be shown in that day cell.
To enter new games click on any day cell and the game selector for that sport / league / date combination will be shown.
The notifications panel is displayed on the right side of the dashboard and is where all notifications (reminders) will be posted for any games about to start or finish.
Each notification takes the form of a 'note' which has the following attributes:
The colour of the notes is very important and must be visibly obvious. The colour of the note is set by the following criteria:
Green
Any game that is in the range 30 - 15 minutes to it's scheduled start time.
Any game that is in the range 30 - 15 minutes from it's predicted end time.
Amber
Any game that is in the range 1 - 14 minutes to it's scheduled start time.
Any game that is in the range 1 - 14 minutes from it's predicted end time.
Red
Any game that should have started according to its scheduled start time.
Any game that is in the range 30 - 15 minutes to it's predicted end time.
The notifications rely on the start and end times of each game. The start time is taken as the time entered for any game when it was created.
The end time is more complicated because for many sports it's very hard to predict when a game ends because of time-outs, extra-time etc. For example, a game of soccer is much more predictable because the clock doesn't stop during play. So a game is likely to be two halves of 45 minutes, 15 minutes of half-time and perhaps 5 minutes of extra time, so 45+45+15+5 = 110 minutes.
However, a game of football, even thought it's four quarters of 15 minutes, has time-outs and regular clock stops, so the time the game will finish is a very broad average.
Each note is tied to a game and as such will be automatically removed from the notification panel as soon as the status of the game is updated. For example, if a note states that game x "SHOULD HAVE STARTED", then as soon as the game is started, using the game selector, the note will be removed.
To keep things tidy notes can be set to be be automatically removed after a set interval (in hours). This means that if games haven't been started, instead of the warning note appearing even after [x] days when there would be no point updating the status of the game, it will be removed.
You can set the number of hours after which a notes should be removed is set in the notifications->end
property in config-dataproxy.json.
The default value is 240 (10 days).
Each note is 'clickable', so if you click on it you will automatically open the game selector for the selected date / league / sport combination. The game in the selector, that corresponds to the game on the selected note, will be highlighted for easy identification. For more information see:
The Game Selector is opened by clicking on the day cell of any calendar. The Game Selector is the engine behind all of the games that are created and then posted to the Bookie Oracle System and on to BookiePro.
The Game Selector is opened when you click on any day cell on the Calendar.
The Game Selector is used for creating new games and then starting then, adding scores and finally finishing them.
You can also use the Game Selector to Cancel or Delete games.
To add new game use the input fields at the bottom of the screen and then click on the ADD
button.
The Away Team and Home Team dropdown lists will only display valid teams for the selected sport / league combination.
It is permitted to add a start time that's in the past as a game could start earlier than expected. However, if this is the case then the game needs to be started as soon as possible.
Note: There is no check on whether the same match is added twice. The reason for this is that in some sports it's common to have a 'double-header', so two matches on the same day is perfectly acceptable.
Note: The score input fields are disabled until a game is started.
As soon as a the game is added you'll see it in the game list with any other games scheduled for the same day.
To start a game click on the Start
button next to the game in the game list. The game status will change to In Progress
Important: You must start a game as close as possible to the ACTUAL start time of the game; games seldom start at the scheduled time. This is the time that's recorded as the 'whistle start time' and the time that BOS will compare with start times reported by other data proxies.
Once a game has started you can't delete it, but you can still cancel it.
To finish a game enter the score for both home and away teams and click on the Finish
button next to the game. The game status will change to Finished
Important: You must finish a game as close as possible to the ACTUAL time that the game finishes. This is the time that's recorded as the 'whistle end time' and the time that BOS will compare with finish times reported by other data proxies.
Once a game is finished it's no longer possible to cancel it.
Note: It's important that scores are entered correctly the first time as it's not possible to correct scores and re-submit them.
You can cancel a game as long as it's either in a Not Started
or In Progress.
status.
To cancel a game click on the Cancel
text next to the game.
A confirmation message similar to the following will be shown.
Click on Yes
to cancel the game (game status will then change to Canceled)
or No
to to return without canceling.
A canceled
message will be sent to BOS.
Note: A canceled game can also be interpreted as postponed but not as delayed. A delayed game is expected to restart. But once a game has been canceled it can't be restarted. If a game is canceled and then played the following day it would have to re-created with the new start time.
A game can only be deleted if it hasn't been started (has a status of Not Started
).
To delete a game click on the Delete text next to the game.
A confirmation message similar to the following will be shown:
Click on Yes
to delete the game (game will be removed) or No
to to return without deleting.
If you delete a game then a canceled
message will also be sent to BOS so that BOS can tag the game in the same way as a canceled game.
Note: The difference between a canceled game and a deleted game is that a deleted game is basically a game that was entered in error and once deleted is removed from the database so it can be re-entered correctly if needed. A canceled game is a game that for one reason or other doesn't take place after being created.
The following user guide will step you through the process of using Couch Potato application for creating games, entering scores and finishing a game.
For information on using the Couch Potato API to create your own data proxy see the API Reference