This article briefly explains how to use the Spawtz scoring application.


The application allows you to score fixtures from three sources: Direct from the internet, via a fixtures file or it allows you to create new fixtures which do not need to exist anywhere else.

Choose which method you want to use via the Main menu screen which lists "Open fixtures from a website", "Open fixtures from a file" and "Create a new fixture" as three of its options.


Opening fixtures from a website

This is the best method for scoring fixtures.  When using this method, fixture details are fetched from your online Spawtz control panel in real time and when they are saved, the results are uploaded to the control panel immediately as well.

Once you have selected "Open fixtures from a website" you will be presented with a screen that asks you to enter the website details: the website URL, your username and your password.  The website URL will be something like "yourcompany.spawtz.com" where your company is your company name.  For details on exactly what this URL should be you can contact Spawtz support staff on info@spawtz.com.  Once entered, this URL will be saved in the configuration settings, so you will only need to enter it once and then the system will remember this value on subsequent occasions. 

Your username and password are the same username and password that you use to log in to the online Spawtz control panel.  HOWEVER, you should also note that the system will assume that the person who is logged in to the Spawtz scoring application is the person who umpired any fixtures which are saved during this session.  As such, on a day to day basis, you should ask you UMPIRES to log in to the scoring application using THEIR usernames and passwords.  That way the Spawtz online control panel will also immediately reflect who it was who umpired the fixtures so you can easily do any remuneration reports for umpires that you may need.

Once you have entered the required information click “Next” and the application will attempt to contact the server to verify your login details. If this verification is successful you will be transferred to the next step.

If you are the owner of more than one arena, the next step in the process will ask you to select which arena you are currently in. Be sure to select the correct arena based on the license that is loaded into the application (each arena requires a separate license and using the wrong license for the wrong arena will mean that only a limited number of fixtures will be displayed and no fixture information will be saved)

If you only have access to one arena, the arena selection step will be skipped and you will be transferred immediately to the court selection step. Select the court that this computer is on and either double click on it or select it and click “Next”.

Finally the system will ask you to select the date. Today’s date is the default value and you can just click “Next” to move to a list of the fixtures on this court on this date.

The information above is again stored in the configuration settings of the application, so on subsequent times when the application is opened, the arena and court information will be assumed to be the same, and the date will be assumed to be today’s date so you will immediately be presented with a  list of fixtures for that court for that date.

You should now be ready to select a fixture from the list.

Opening fixtures from a file

If you prefer, you can download a fixtures file from the online Spawtz control panel and open those fixtures from the scoring application at a later date. You may need to do this if the scoring application is installed on a computer that is not connected to the internet.

Using this method you would select “Open fixtures from a file” from the main menu and then browse to the file somewhere on your hard drive or network drive when asked to. Once you have selected a valid fixtures file the system will display the list of fixtures that are included in that file, and you can select one.

Creating a new fixture

If you want to run a social game or a game that is not currently scheduled on your website, or if for some reason the internet access to the scoring computer fails and you need to quickly score a game, you can create a new fixture via the “Create a new fixture” menu item on the main menu.

If you select this item you will be asked to fill in the home and away team names – by default these will be “Home Team” and “Away Team”. Once you have entered the home and away team names you will be able to begin the fixture

Shirt colours

Once you have selected a fixture via one of the methods above, the first step is to indicate what shirt or bib colours the home and away teams are wearing.  The colours that are available are modifiable via the configuration settings section (accessible from the “Configuration Settings” menu item on the main menu) and the colours that are selected by default are also configurable in that section.  You can also choose to skip this step if shirt colours are not important.

Once you have selected the home and away shirt colours, you will be ready to start scoring the fixture.

Scoring the fixture

The following buttons on the remote are used to score a fixture:

  • Button 1: Home team score +
  • Button 2: Away team score +
  • Button 3: Home team score –
  • Button 4: Away team score –
  • Button 5: Start/Stop the clock
  • Button 6: Menu

The menu that is accessed via button 6 allows you to change the time, the period and to save the fixture.

At the end of each time period, a noise will sound from the application to indicate the period is over. There are 5 possible noises that can be sounded, and which one is used can be specified in the configuration settings section.

Between periods and after 5 seconds with no buttons being pushed on the remote control, a “Screen saver” image will be displayed on the scoreboard. The image that is displayed is configurable via the Scoresheet settings configuration item in the config settings section of the online Spawtz control panel, as are the default lengths of time for each period and the amount of time between periods.

At the start of a new period, another noise will sound to indicate that time is on. This sound is again configurable via the configuration settings section.

At the end of a game, the umpire would bring up the menu (button 6) and then select “Save this fixture and exit”. The fixture will then be saved to the following locations:

  • Fixture loaded from website: Saved directly to online Spawtz control panel
  • Fixture loaded from file: Saved into that file
  • New fixture: Saved to a file called “{HomeTeam}{AwayTeam}{DateTime that fixture started}.xml” where {Home Team} and {Away Team} are the team names.  So for instance if you created a new fixture and set the home team and away team names as “Guns” and “Barracudas” respectively, and the fixture started at 18:00 on July 4th 2008, the fixture would be saved as “GunsBarracudas200807041800.xml” in the folder specified for new fixtures in the configuration settings section (c:\temp by default)