Players

You need to be logged in to have full use of the boxes otherwise you will not be able to see player contact details or enter results yourself. If you are not a member you can still ask your club admin to enter your results on your behalf - you don't have to be a member to play in the boxes.

If you are logged in you can update your contact details via the links in the boxes. If you haven't added any contact details yet, there is an Add contact details link next to your name but you can also use the Update link in the box diagonals at any time.

To add a result, click on either of the Enter results links in the appropriate location in your box and a new page will open. Enter your results into this page and click on the Enter match results button to save them and return to the boxes page. You do need to be logged in for this or ask your club admin to do it for you.

Once your results have been entered they will be included in the level processing which will calculate a level for you as long as you have played someone who already has a level of their own. If not, your level will be calculated once your opponent has one or you play someone else who has one.

If you have a '*' by your name then you are in danger of being removed (dropped) from the boxes next time round because you haven't played enough matches yet. The '*' will disappear once you have entered enough results.

There are many applications, programs and even web pages that support squash boxes and this one is no doubt very similar to most of them but it is free to set up and integrated directly with SquashLevels. Set up is very straight forward (see below) and, once you've got your players entered, very easy to manage. Player members can enter their own results leaving the admin with a simple single click to generate the boxes for the next period each time. It's very easy.

Running boxes on this system allows all box players to have a level - not just league players - and this brings all of the advantages of having a level (and level history) to a wider set of players including helping with team selection if they are hoping to play league.

How to set up boxes

Admins

You need to be logged in as a club admin to manage your boxes. Just register/join as a player as normal and then let us know and we can set you up as a club admin.

Adding a set of boxes

To add a set of boxes for your club you should start at the Boxes->All boxes page and click on Add boxes. The same button is also available at the very bottom of this page. The Add a box page allows you to define how your boxes operate via the following fields:

• Club: This will be hard coded to your club name though can be changed by the system admin if need be.
• Name: This will be automatically generated to boxes but you can change it to anything you like. That name will then be carried forward to future boxes though it can be changed at any time.
• Event/League: (if available) is for assigning a set of boxes to an event or league rather than a club.
• Add a new match type: (if available) is for creating a new match type if the one you want isn't available in the pull-down.
• Contact email: How players can get in touch with you.
• Show player contact details: If ticked, the player contact details will be shown. Hidden if not.
• Comment: A line of text that appears at the top of the boxes page. Use it to communicate messages to your players.
• Start date: When the period for the boxes begin. Most time formats are supported.
• End date: When the period for the boxes end. Dates are inclusive so games can be played upto and including this date.
• Players per box: The target number of players per box adjusted by +/- 1 to allow for varying numbers of players. Needs to be in the range 4 to 7.
• Last box min: The minimum number of players in the last box. Use this to prevent the system leaving you with a box with fewer players than you asked for (can be 'Players per box' minus one). If zero or there aren't enough boxes to absorb all the players in the last box then this option has no effect.
• Extra players go into...: Choose between the top and bottom box to adjust for extra or too few players.
• Players moved between boxes: Defaults to 2 which means the top 2 go up and the bottom 2 go down in each box at the end of the period with the caveat that players who have not played do not go up.
• Top/bottom player moves 2 boxes: Allows the very top and bottom players of each box to move 2 boxes in one period. Nice if you have a lot of boxes and very competitive for the top spot! Select the number of the first (from) box if you don't want to include the top boxes in this. E.g. If you set this to 2, players can only move one box between box 1 and 2 and then 2 boxes between box 2 and 4.
• Bonus if all matches played: The number of extra points a player gets if they played all their games in the period.
• Drop if...: Two configurations to control the auto-dropping of players who haven't played. Note that dropped players are only 'dropped' which means their details are still held (including their last position) and can be brought back into the boxes if desired. A player who will be dropped next period if they don't play a game this period will have a '*' by their name.

All of the above details are specific to the boxes you're creating for the initial box period but will be copied across to the next period to use for the new boxes when the time comes. It is therefore possible to use a different configuration from period to period for your boxes - useful if you want to change the length of the period or the name of the boxes for instance.

Once you have filled out the configuration of the box click on Add to create it. This creates the boxes internally but until you add players there will be nothing to see!

From the page showing your boxes, you can select:

• Previous boxes: Takes you to the previous period's boxes. May show 'First boxes' if these are the first.
• Next boxes: Takes you to the next period's boxes. May show 'Current boxes' if these are the current ones.
• Lock boxes: This prevents any accidental updating of box configuration or adding/removing players which has an immediate affect on who is in which box. Since the definition of the boxes is independent of the player details and results such changes can always be corrected.
• Configure boxes: Allows you to make changes to the configuration of the boxes after initial set up.
• Add players: Allows you to add players to the boxes (see below for details). Note that you can't add players once matches have started to be recorded as it changes who is in each box.
• Process boxes: Used at the end of the period to generate the boxes for next period. You can only do this once and only if it's the current period and only if there are results entered. Processing a box can't be undone from the web (for now) so only do it when you're sure that you are at the end of the period although you can always adjust the resultant boxes afterwards. Box processing at the end of the period could be automated at some point.
• Delete boxes: Used if you created a set of boxes (say for a new period) and decided that you don't want them any more. The boxes will be deleted and you will be returned to the previous boxes. This does not delete any players or player history. You can't delete a set of boxes once results have been entered.
• Mail all: Use this to open a new email addressed to all the players in the boxes who have entered their contact details. Very useful for sending out new boxes messages to all the players each month. You do need a mail program such as Outlook running on your computer for this to work.
• Wall mode: Use this to set your tablet or PC up so that you can hang it on the wall at your club for instant results entry and easy viewing of the boxes. For PCs, best if the browser is running in 'kiosk' mode or, for a tablet, running from within a 'kiosk' app. The kiosk mode/app locks down the device so users can't use it as a general purpose browser. Wall mode helps by disabling external links from this site and preventing the generic box user from logging out. If there's no user interaction within the timeout period set in the box configuration, the boxes page is returned to automatically. Works for the tablet/PC that you're using when you click on the button which you must do as an admin, log out and then log back in again as the generic boxes user. Since it's not possible to leave wall mode from the wall mode device, you can only disable it by zeroing out the timeout from another device as an admin. Note that if the timeout is set to zero, the 'Wall mode' button will not be shown. The default timeout is 60 seconds.

Adding individual boxes

The system automatically works out how many boxes there should be based on how you set the boxes up (above) and how many players are in them. So you don't add boxes, you just add players and the boxes will appear!

Note that since adding players causes the boxes to rearrange, you can't add players once a period has got under way and results have been entered. If there are more than 2 results entered, the 'Process boxes' button will not be available.

In general, process the boxes at the end of period before adding or removing players for the next period.

Adding players to a box

Click on the 'Add players' button to add a player. This will offer you a form to select the player and determine how they appear in the boxes:

• Go to add player page: For a player to be selectable they must already be entered into the system so use this button to go straight to that page in the system. Once the player is entered and saved, you will return to this form so you can then select that player and carry on.
• Choose club player: Use the pull-down to select the player in the club to add.
• or search: Use the search field to enter a player's name to search for him/her in the system beyond the club.
• Position: This defines where in the boxes the player will go. Defaults to the current bottom position but you can use the pull-down to choose anywhere in the boxes.
• Dropped: Enter yes or no to drop a player. A dropped player is one who is still part of the boxes but not actively playing. There is a list of dropped players at the bottom of the boxes page showing their last active position. This allows a player to be removed for a period and then be returned for the next period in the same position they left off.
• Withdrawn: Enter yes or no to withdraw a player. A withdrawn player is one who intended to play in the boxes this period but has had to withdraw due to injury. Their name still appears in the box and they still have their results from matches played but their name is crossed out to show they're not playing any more matches this period. They will be carried forward in the same state to the next period boxes.

General maintenance

There are various other buttons/links to use that will help maintain the boxes. Some of these can be done by anyone logged in as a club player and others can only be done by the club admin. The player links are covered in the help section below for players so see that but the admin links are listed here:

• Update: In the box diagnonals. Allows you to update how a player appears in the boxes. See section above on adding players for details on what can be changed.
• Drop: In the box diagnonals. Allows you to temporarily drop a player from the boxes. See section above on on adding players for an explanation of what dropping a player means.
• Remove: Only available from the list of dropped players and allows you to remove a player from the boxes. This only disconnects that player from this box. It leaves all their contact details, results, appearances in other boxes all unaffected and they can still be added back in again if need be. The only thing lost is their last position in this box. You will need to confirm that a player is to be removed.

Player access

There are two ways players can access the boxes to enter results and see contact details:

• Player members: Can do everything they need in their own name. Easy.
• Club generic members: This is a special log-on provided on request for anyone playing in the boxes to be able to enter results and see contact details without having to register personally. It won't be personalised but will do the job. It will be up to the admin to make the log-on details available to the players.

Scoring systems

There are quite a few different scoring systems in use and as clubs migrate from spreadsheets or older systems to the on-line equivalent, they like to keep their existing scoring system if they can.

It is possible for the boxes admin to choose which scoring system they want to use and the different systems are listed here. It's not feasible to give them sensible names so numbers are used. Just pick the system you want to use and enter the number in the boxes admin form.

Note that the code itself is populating the table above so whatever you see here is what you'll get in the boxes.