Web Site Administration Help
Setting up your site:
For LeagueAthletics.com to work to its fullest, you'll need
to enter information about your members, your leagues/divisions, teams, facilities
where they play,
and their game schedules. Here's how to get started:
- Create a Season to contain
your Teams. (Admin>Teams>Seasons)
A season defines the dates during which your
teams exist. Each season contains a new set of teams. Define a
season by entering a name, start date and end date.
To learn more about creating seasons, click here.
- Create a League structure. (Admin>Teams>Divisions & Teams>Add new
League/Division)
This can be
anything from a simple two-league, House/Travel structure to multiple, hierarchically
nested leagues. These leagues will become the "parents" for all the teams you define
in your website. To learn more about defining leagues,
click here.
- Create your Teams. (Admin>Teams>Divisions & Teams>Add a new team)
Enter information about each team, such as name, "parent" division, and the season. Note that each team you
create is only used for the current season. Next
season you'll create new teams and assign members again. Previous seasons' team
will exist separately as an archive so your organization's history (rosters, game
results, etc.) can be preserved. To learn more about entering
team information, click here.
Linking your club to a "Parent" League:
If your club belongs to a larger LeagueAthletics.com hosted "Parent"
organization,
you will be able to take advantage of exclusive scheduling and scoring
features that will allow your club's website to be connected to the "Parent"
site. Schedules (and optionally Standings) entered on the "Parent" site will
automatically be distributed to team pages on your club site. Scores entered on your
club's site for those games will automatically be brought up to the "Parent"
site. Team management information will also be brought up to the "Parent"
site as well.
- Select your "Parent" league. Admin>Configuration>General
Settings>Organization.
- Link your teams. Admin>Teams>Divisions & Teams. From the Divisions &
Teams page, click on a team name and adjust the "Outside League"
drop-down. Click here for information on how to create teams.
- Create a Registration program. (Admin>Members>Registration System>Add)
The registration system will allow you to capture data for your members
through your website. Once you have collected this member data and
registration has closed, you can begin to assign players to teams. To
learn more about the registration system,
click
here.
- Assign Rosters. (Admin>Teams>Assign Rosters)
Once the teams are defined and the member data is collected, you can
create rosters by assigning members using the Assign Roster tool. For more information on
assigning rosters, click here.
- Add playing Facilities. (Admin>Facilities>Add a Facility)
Here you can enter the names and descriptions of each facility along with
it's location, driving direction, and event a map, which will be invaluable
to new members. To learn more about entering facilities,
click here.
- Add game and practice Schedules. (Admin>Scheduling>Add Game or
Practice)
Once teams are created and facilities are defined,
you can start entering schedules. You can enter single events using
"Add Game or Practice." You can choose the date, time, teams, and
location for each event. Events entered will be
added to your organization's Master Schedule
and also broken out into schedules for each team automatically. You can also use the
"Recurring Games" option to generate events that
occur on a regular basis.
At first, the schedules will only be visible to those who have access to this area.
This will allow you
to make additions, changes, and revisions without notifying your members. Once
your
schedule is finalized, publish it by specifying the date that you want the
schedule to end. This gives you control over what the public
sees regarding the schedule and when they see it. Once the schedule is published,
you can set the schedules to "Live" which will cause future changes, revisions, and
cancellations to generate email notifications for all affected team members and their
guardians. This will keep everyone (with email) as up to date as possible. To learn more about entering
schedules, click here.
Note: Facilities, leagues, and teams must be
set up first, before games can be entered. Members can be entered at any time; but
teams must be entered before rosters can be created.
The remaining sections of this document describe each of the individual forms
used to enter your site's information.
Configuration:
General Settings:
Admin>Configuration>General Settings This form is used to select optional features
and preferences for your site. You can turn on/off features such as Discussion
Forums and the Exchange page.
ORGANIZATION
This
section is used to enter and update basic
information about your organization, such as its full organization and
abbreviated names, location, and sport.
-
Full Name
This is the actual full or formal name for your organization. This will appear
in the title bar at the top of all pages and on many other reports, pages, and
emails.
-
Short Name
This is a short name for your organization that will appear on many of the
site's web pages. This should be as short as possible so as not to crowd
other information. If your full name is made up of several words like "My
Town's Youth Sports Association," you might abbreviate it to something like:
"MTYSA." If there's a nickname for your club, you might prefer that.
-
Mission Statement
Use this optional field to enter a "Mission Statement" for your organization.
This information will be used to help search engines identify your website.
- Club ID/US Lacrosse Club ID
If your club uses a unique ID, optionally, you may enter it here. This field
is mandatory, for clubs that wish to use our integrated US Lacrosse
registration features.
- Registrar's Name (Massachusetts Youth Soccer Only)
The entry
made her will appears on your Mass Youth Soccer formatted rosters.
- Google Analytics ID
Optionally setup a Google Analytics
account to track how your site is being used and where visitors are coming
from. The number entered here will be formatted as UA-#######-##.
- Sport Name
This is
the name of the sport for your program.
- Goal Name
Enter the name of your sport's goal, such as Run, Point or Goal.
- Facility
Name
Enter the generic singular term for the facilities where you
play, such as Court, Field, or Rink.
- Parent Organization(s)
This field lists the names of LeagueAthletics.com "Parent" organizations
that govern client- or town-level clubs. If your club belongs to a larger
organization, you should highlight their name in the list. This will allow
you to link your site with theirs and inherit schedules, standings and other
information automatically. See "Outside League / Parent Team" on the "Team
Information Form" for information about linking to a Parent League's
teams.
WEBMASTER
-
Webmaster Contact
Enter information
for the "webmaster" or technical contact for your site. This is the person
LeagueAthletics.com will attempt to contact regarding the operation or
maintenance of your site.
LOCALIZATION
- Location
Enter the city and state of your organization.
- Country
Select the home country for your site from the drop down list
- Date
Format
Select the preferred date format from drop down list.
MM/DD/YYYY (December 31, 2012 will appear as 12/31/2012) DD/MM/YYYY
(December 31, 2012 will appear as 31/12/2012) YYYY/MM/DD (December 31,
2012 will appear as 2012/12/31)
- Time
Format
You can select from a traditional 12 hour time format or from
a 24 hour format (5:00 PM will be displayed as 17:00)
- Time
Zone
Select the appropriate time zone for your site.
-
Daylight Savings
Check the box if you would like the site to automatically adjust your
time for Daylight Savings.
-
Currency
Enter the form of currency being used on the site.
DOMAINS
- Domain Name(s)
This is the name that identifies your site on
our system. To direct your domain to your LeagueAthletics.com site, you'll
need to set your domain's Name Servers to the following:
NS1.LEAGUEATHLETICS.COM NS2.LEAGUEATHLETICS.COM
Once you make the
above changes to your domain you'll need to let us know via Support Ticket
(Admin>Support>New Support Ticket) so we can set things up on our end. Just
let us know the name(s) of the domain(s) and we'll take it from there.
PLEASE, DO NOT FOWARD YOUR DOMAIN AS THIS MAY CAUSE ISSUES WHEN USING THE
ONLINE REGISTRATION SYSTEM.
If you have any additional services
associated with your domain, such as email or blogs, special arrangements
must be made. In most cases, you'll need to contact your domain host and ask
them what records we'll need to update.
If you don't have a registered
domain name, you can use whatever name you like here. The name you enter
will be used to locate this site. For instance, if you enter "MySportsClub,"
you would use "http://MySportsClub.assn.la" to navigate to your site. Note:
Only letters, numbers, hyphens and a single period are allowed in this
field. No spaces.
- Sub-Domains
You can
create sub-domains for your site and use them as shortcuts to specific
pages. For example, "Registration.Mydomain.org" might point to your
registration home page. If you're sending out an email inviting people to
register, this is much clearer than our internal address. You could also
create shortcuts to team pages like "Yankees.Mydomain.org" or a shortcut to
a document like "Rules.Mydomain.org." Note: This feature only works with
registered domains.
- Page Not Found (404) Error Message
You may create a custom message that will be
displayed to visitors looking for a non-existent page using your domain. For
example, if you were previously hosting your own website and you had a page
that was accessed through www.mydomain.com/mycustompage.htm; once you have
pointed your domain's name servers, this page will no longer be available.
The message typed in this entry can give visitors instruction on what to do
- i.e. "The content that you are looking for is no longer available or has
been moved. Please visit our home page at [insert your domain] to find the
latest information."
FEATURES
- Login Boxes
This will display a floating login box in the banner area of your site for
coaches and administrators to login.
- Zip
Code for Weather
The zip code entered here will be uses to determine
the local weather forecast. This can be displayed in the right column of
your homepage. In the event that your site services several zip codes or a
large area, try to using a centralized location zip code.
- Forums
This will place a discussion forum area on your site where visitors can
post their own messages for view and response by other visitors. This can
create a feeling of community and foster two-way communications. Users are
required to log in using their email address and a password they select.
This helps to ensure that people post messages responsibly. If you do select
forums, you will probably need to monitor the resulting discussions. As an
administrator, you'll be able to edit or delete anything visitors post.
If you don't want to be bothered moderating discussions, you may want to
leave this feature turned off. In this case, the Forums choice on the home
page will not be visible and visitors will not be able to go there.
-
Moderator
If you do decide to have discussion forums on your site,
you may want to appoint someone as a moderator. That is, someone who will
monitor messages for inappropriate or out of control content. Enter the
email address of the person(s) you want to moderate the forum in this field.
You can enter more than one address by separating them with a comma. Each
time a message is posted to the forum, the addressee(s) listed here will
receive an emailed copy.
-
Exchange Page
Your site has an exchange page where visitors can view
items for sale, swap or whatever. Visitors can post their own items by
filling out a form and entering an emailed password (or key). Like Forums
above, this feature has the potential for abuse, although to a much lesser
extent. If you do not want an Exchange page on your site, uncheck this
feature. This will eliminate the Exchange choice on the home page.
- Feedback
Page
Your site can have a Feedback page where visitors can send you
comments about your organization, your sport, or about the website.
Submissions are sent to your site's "Responsible Party(s)" listed on the
Security page. If you do not wish
to include this feature on your site, you can uncheck this field.
-
Anonymous Feedback
If you allow visitors to post feedback anonymously without giving their
name, phone number or email address, they may feel more inclined to speak
their minds. In this way, you may receive enlightening feedback and comments
that might otherwise be suppressed. On the other hand, it might also
encourage unwanted rants or abusive feedback.
By unchecking this
feature, visitors will be required to provide their name, phone number and
email address before they can submit a feedback form. Otherwise, these are
all optional.
- Send Feedback to
You can specify an email address to send feedback to when visitors post
messages to your site's Feedback page. If no address is specified here,
feedback will instead be sent to the Responsible Parties address(es) listed
on the Security page. To specify more than one
address, enter them separated by a comma or semicolon.
- Master Schedule
If you'd prefer not to include a Master Schedule on your site's home page,
you can uncheck this item. The Master Schedule lists all events for all
teams, one week at a time.
- Team Contacts
Check this box if you would like a list of all team contacts (coaches,
assistant coaches, and managers) to appear on your homepage.
- Hide
Email Addresses
By checking this box, email addresses on the
"Contacts", "Team Contacts", "Roster" and "Bulletins" will not be visible to
the public. If a visitor to your site wishes to email a member listed on one
of those pages, they will be able to click on the members name and will fill
out an email form for that member. The email address will not be accessible
by the visitor.
- Show Nearby Amenities
This feature, if checked, will show amenities in close proximity to your
facilities, such as coffee shops, pizza shops, sporting goods stores, and
hospitals.
- Directions Start Address
Once
you have entered a list of facilities, the system will automatically create
a Google Maps link. The address entered here will be used as a starting
point for driving directions.
- Join Email List:
This feature will create a new page
on your home page, allowing visitors to enter their first and last name, as
well as their email address. By doing this, a member record will be created
for the visitor and automatically be added to the "Friends" team within your
database. The system will also verify that the email address entered is not
currently in your site's database, helping to avoid possible duplication.
- Edit My Account:
This will
allow your existing members to sign in and edit their own account
information along with that of other members of their family. When checked,
the Association menu will have a new choice - "Edit My Account". When
clicked by a user, a sign in form will be displayed where members can enter
their email address and a password. If they've previously used your online
registration system, they would have already been issued a password that
they can use to sign in here. Otherwise, they can enter their email address
only and the site will email them a new password.
Once signed in, the
user will be presented with a page that lists all the registered members of
their family. They can click anyone's name to bring up a form and edit their
data.
Self service member administration saves you and your staff a
lot of time and effort. However, this feature does have the potential for
mischief. Children cannot log in with their own email address. Only members
designated as parents in the database can do this. Members can only change
their own information and add new members to their family. They cannot
change or modify roster information or anything else in the database.
- Lock Member ID
This will prevent members from editing their membership ID number (if
applicable) when editing their account.
- Lock Birthdays/Grade
This option can be used to specify that after a member's birthday/grade has
been entered, it cannot be subsequently modified through the Edit My Account
feature or through online registration. Some clubs are concerned that
members might manipulate birthdays in order to gain access to certain teams
and gain an unfair advantage. Since birthdays theoretically never need to be
modified, it shouldn't present a burden to members. This policy can however
be frustrating to those who perhaps make a mistake when initially entering
birthday information and try to correct it. If you find the birthday locking
feature to restrictive, you can uncheck this option. Note: Birthdays can
always be changed by administrators with access to the Members area of the
site regardless of the setting here.
- Next
Member ID:
This field is used to specify the next ID number that will
be assigned to a new member using the Member
Information form. Each time a member is entered into the system this
number is assigned to the member and the number is then incremented by 1.
Some organizations use serial ID numbers to uniquely identify each of their
members. This field allows you to specify a base or starting value for these
numbers.
TEAM
- Season,
Division & Team Term:
Your site's Team tab on the home page has a
team selection bar that includes dropdowns for selecting a "Season",
"League" (optional) and "Team." You can change any of these terms using this
and the two subsequent fields. The terms you enter here will be displayed as
the prompts for the dropdowns on the team bar.
-
League Age
as of:
This is the default setting for the League Age Calculator
tool. This should be set to the cutoff date for a particular playing age.
For example, Little League programs calculate the League Age as of April
30th, hence, 4/30 should be entered here.
- Schedule
Page:
Checking this box will show a Schedule and Multi-schedule page
from the Team areas on your site.
- Calendar
Page:
Checking this box will show a Calendar page from the Team areas
on your site. This should only be un-checked if you are not inputting
schedules into the site.
- Roster
Page:
Your site has a Rosters section under the Teams menu where
visitors can view rosters for any team in your organization. Even though
visitors must enter a password (Team
Security) to view the rosters, some organizations may not want the
public to view this information. If this is the case, uncheck this feature
and the Rosters choice will no longer be visible on the Teams menu.
- Results
Page:
Your site's Team tab includes a results page for all teams. If
you'd prefer not to display this page and its menu choice, uncheck this
option.
- Non-Game Types:
Your site's Results page is designed to only include events that are
scored. Events like Practices or Tryouts should not clutter up this page.
You can use this field to specify what event types should be excluded from
the Results page. Words or phrases entered here will cause an event to be
excluded if it is found anywhere in the event's Type field. Enter each
keyword or phrase separated by a comma.
- Email results to:
When members enter game results and commentary using the Result
Information form, the data can be automatically sent to the email addresses
specified in this field. For instance, many organizations send their results
to the local newspaper(s) for inclusion in their weekly papers. You might
also want to send scores to your association's governing body such as a
state or regional organization so they can maintain regional standings. You
can enter more than one email address here by separating them with a comma
or semicolon.
- Little League Pitcher's Report:
Based on the 2009 Rule Changes for Little League Pitchers, this setting will
allow you to specify which version of the rule your organization is using.
You may elect Option 1, Option 2 or Both. For more information on these rule
changes,
CLICK HERE.
- Show
Area Teams:
Check this box if you would like to show other area
sports organizations, hosted by LeagueAthletics.com, on the Multi-schedule
page. This can be a helpful tool for parents who have children that play
more than one sport.
- Show Birthdays:
By checking this box, members birthdays will appear on schedules and
calendars for your site.
COMMUNICATION
- Game Reminders:
LeagueAthletics.com can send automatic game "reminders" via email and text
message before a game. These reminders will be sent for all game types not
defined as "Practice." You can automatically send reminders to all members
involved in the game or you can give your members the option of receiving
the reminders, which they will be able to choose during Registration or, if
activated, in the "Edit My Account" section. Email reminders are sent 18
hours before an event, and text reminders are sent 2.5 hours prior to an
event.
Optionally, you can choose to globally turn on or off the
email reminder settings. To perform this update, you must first check the
box indicating that you would like to "Set/reset all members to" and then
select On or Off.
- Practice Reminders
LeagueAthletics.com can send
automatic practice "reminders," similar to the game reminders, via email and
text message before a practice. These reminders will be sent only for event
types defined as "Practice". You can automatically send email reminders to
all members involved in the practice or you can give your members the option
of receiving the reminders, which they will be able to choose during
Registration or, if activated, in the "Edit My Account" section. Email
reminders are sent 18 hours before an event, and text reminders are sent 2.5
hours prior to an event.
Optionally, you can choose to globally turn
on or off the practice reminder settings. To perform this update, you must
first check the box indicating that you would like to "Set/reset all members
to" and then select On or Off.
-
Email Footer:
This message
will be displayed at the bottom of emails (shown below) sent using the Email
Members tool ONLY. Broadcasts of Messages (News Items, Teams Bulletins,
etc.), Schedule Change Notifications, Reminders and Text messages will not
include the Footer.
Billing
Information:
This form is used to specify the name,
address, phone number and email of the person responsible for paying for your
website (the site lessee). All billing correspondence regarding the site will be
addressed to this person. Usually a club will use their treasurer's
information here or whoever is responsible for paying the club's bills.
The page also shows the next payment date and the amount due for your reference.
Note that this page and its menu choice
will only be visible if you log in using the Master password. This is the
password you chose when you set up the site and is discussed below under the
Security topic. The fields on this form are as
follows:
- Name:
This is the full name of the person responsible for web site billing issues.
- Address:
Type the person's address here.
- City:
Enter the city, state and zip code here.
- Phone:
Enter the lessee's daytime phone number in this field including area code.
- Email:
Enter the lessee's email address here. This will be used for billing and
security correspondence only.
- Pay By:
This is the date by which your site must be paid for for the next year.
If payment isn't received by this date, the web site will become disabled and
eventually erased. You will receive email notification 30 days in
advance of this date as a reminder.
- Amount Due:
The amount due on or before the date above is displayed here. This will
be the annual fee plus any other charges such as the initial set up and domain
registration fees.
At the bottom of the form is a link that
can be used to display a formal invoice for your site. You can print this
page for your records or submit it to your treasurer. In addition, there
is also a button that can be used to pay for your website via credit card.
Click the button and follow the directions on the resulting forms if you choose
to use this payment method.
Security:
This form is used to specify passwords for access
to your site and also designate responsible persons who will receive notification of site
changes. The site has several standard passwords as well as the ability to
create custom passwords with a custom set of privileges.
The standard Master password gives complete access to the administration area of the
site including the Billing and the Security page itself. Custom
passwords allow you to create passwords that grant access to certain areas of
the site that you specify. They can be used to grant access by job type.
A password could be created for the registrar for example that grants access
only to member data functions. Another for your scheduler(s) that only
allows access to team and scheduling features. Other standard passwords
include the global team manager's password, an Official's password and a roster
access password. The Manager's password allows team managers and other responsible association
members to post team bulletins, game results, and pictures to the site. The Roster
password allows club members to access the team roster pages. Generally, you would
give this last password out to the entire membership. Its sole purpose is to protect
the privacy of club members listed on the roster pages. In addition, you
can enter individual team passwords on each team's information page. These
give access to team bulletins and game results for that team only.
Note that this page and its menu choice
will only be visible if you log into the administration area using the Master
password.
The fields for Responsible parties allow you to
specify the email addresses of those whom you want to receive copies of material posted to
the site. Whenever a news or exchange item, team bulletin, game result, or schedule
change is posted, or whenever a picture is uploaded, the web site will email the persons
you specify using this form. The fields on the form are as follows:
- Master Password
This is the most important password for the site. It allows complete access to the
Administration area billing information and the security page itself, and allows you to edit or delete any portion of the site. It should
only be given out to the person(s) who really need it! That is, the
person responsible for paying for the web site and whoever you designate as
being in charge of security. Note that all passwords must be at least 6 characters and are case insensitive
(use upper or lower case).
- Administration Passwords
You can create and manage custom passwords and specify their privileges
using the tools in this area. The window lists administration passwords
that have already been set up. The buttons below the window are used to
add a new password, copy the highlighted password, edit the highlighted
password or delete it. Click the Add button to create a new password.
The resulting pop up window provides space for the password's name (for admin
purposes only), the actual password itself and below that, a list of
privileges that can be selected.
You can create specialized passwords to be used by certain personnel in your
program. For instance, you might want to create a password for your
club's registrar that grants access to all member related areas of the site
but not to other areas such as scheduling or messaging. Similarly, you
might want a schedulers password that didn't allow access to member functions.
With custom passwords and ala cart privilege selection, you have a great deal
of control over access to the website.
- Officials' Password
The Officials' password field can be used
to restrict access to your site's "Officials Area" page. If (and only if) you
enter a password here, visitors will be prompted to log in with this, or an
admin password before they can access this page. Also, if an Officials'
password is used, the game details page will not show the assigned officials
unless you are similarly logged in.
- Team
Manager's Password
Allows users to enter game results and commentary, news, and bulletins, and upload photos
to the site. This password should only be given out to people directly responsible for
entering game information and bulletins, and for adults you trust to upload appropriate
photographic content.
Below the password field is a list of privileges that you designate for team
managers. Check each function that you want all managers to be able to
perform and uncheck those you don't.
Note that instead of entering a password here for access to all teams, you can
enter individual passwords on each team's information page. This gives
even more control and only allows Manager level control to specific teams.
The privileges you specify here however will apply to both types of team
manager passwords.
- Roster Password
Allows access to team rosters and team documents. Access to rosters is
restricted to protect the privacy of the association's members. In addition,
individual members can opt not to have their information displayed. See
the Member Information page later in
this document. If you enter a password here, visitors will be prompted
for it prior to displaying the Roster or Team Documents pages.
Also note that that you can assign individual team passwords by entering them
on individual team information forms.
These override the one entered here.
There is also a space where you can enter an optional prompt for the roster
password. You can give a clue here that club members would know the
answer to but not outsiders. This can eliminate the need to distribute
the roster password to all your members and makes it easy for folks to
remember.
- Responsible
Parties
These field are used to specify the email address(es) of persons within your organization
whom you want to monitor the web site. Whenever news items, team bulletins, or exchange
items are posted, a copy will be sent to the address(es) listed below. This allows those
in charge to immediately know if inappropriate material is being posted and to take action
if it is. In addition, submissions on the Feedback page will be sent
to the addresses listed here as well.
- Scheduler Email
Use this field to specify the email address of whomever is in charge of scheduling in your
organization. After team schedules have been published, the scheduler will be emailed by
the web site whenever any game is changed. This allows the person in charge to keep track
of changes as they occur. In general, you only need to fill this out if you have
more than one person doing the scheduling. You probably don't want to be bombarded
with emails about changes you did yourself.
Note that all password fields
have a companion "Create" button to their right. Clicking this
button causes a new password to be generated at random. While the
passwords are usually not an actual English word, they are designed to be
pronounceable. We highly recommend using these as they are very secure and
almost impossible to guess, either by human or automated password cracking
programs. There have been incidences where clubs have used common sports
terms for passwords and people have guessed them resulting in some highly
inappropriate material being posted. Don't let this happen to you.
Use our generated passwords or something unlikely to be guessed.
If you do choose to use your own passwords, make sure that they are all
different. This will ensure that password users will only have access to rights
granted to them by the site's Webmaster.
Web site appearance:
This is where you control the aesthetics of your
site. You can upload a logo file for display on the top of the left hand menu.
You can change the colors of the menus and hyperlinks as well. Note: This form has
several buttons that when pressed, bring up other windows, such as a file dialog box and a
color palette dialog box. You can use these tools to help you fill in the fields on
the form.
OUTER FRAME
- Frame Width:
Use this field to control the width of your website. You can
specify either a fixed width in pixels or a percentage (number must be
followed by %) that adjusts based on the viewer's browser width. In the first case,
we recommend that you use a minimum size of 720 pixels - 800 pixels is the
recommended width. If you choose to go wider than this, bear in mind that some
visitors using small monitors will have to scroll horizontally through your
site in order to see everything. If you choose to enter a percentage,
the framework and page contents will expand and contract to the width or
your browser automatically.
- Page Alignment:
If you have elected to use a fixed frame width, you may choose to have
your website aligned to the left, right, or center of the user's browser.
- Gutter Color Start/Fade To:
If you have elected to use a fixed frame width, this feature will allow you
to determine the color(s) of the unused portion, if any, of the web
browser's page. For example, if you choose your frame width at 800 pixels
and align the page to the center, anyone viewing the page will see the color
selected here to right and left of the page when viewing in a window or
screen larger then 800 pixels. Optionally you can choose to have either a
single, solid color - by entering only a color selection in the 'Gutter
Color Start' entry - OR you may choose to fade your start color to another
color - by entering a color in the 'Fade To' entry. Below are examples:
Gradient/"Fade to" Page Gutter:
Solid Page Gutter:

- Gutter Image or Upload Image File:
If you have your website set to a fixed width (see
Frame Width) your site will appear with
a "page gutter" on either side of the site's frame, filling the unused
portion on your visitors browser window. Optionally, you can select one of
the pre-loaded images specified in the Gutter Image drop down selection OR
you may upload your own image.
Smaller images will be "tiled" or repeated in the page gutter. You may also
use a larger image that may not be tiled.
- Tile (Repeat):
This selection will determine how or if images are repeated in the page
gutter:
- Across and Down
This will take a smaller image and tile it across and down the entire
gutter space.
- Across
This selection will take your image and tile it horizontally across
width of the page gutter in a single row.
- Down
This selection will take your image and tile it vertically down the
height of the page gutter in a single row.
- None
This selection should only be used for larger images.
- Align Horizontally:
This selection will determine the horizontal alignment of your gutter image
- Left
The selection will align your image from the furthest left portion
of your gutter.
- Center
This selection will align your image in the center of your page and, in
most cases, should be used only with larger images.
- Right
This selection will align your image from the
furthest right portion of your gutter.
- Align Vertically:
This selection will determine the vertical alignment of your gutter image
- Top
This selection will align your gutter image from the topmost portion of
your site's frame.
- Center
This selection will center your gutter image in the center (from top to
bottom) of your site's page
- Bottom
This selection will align your gutter image from the bottom-most portion
of your site's frame.
BANNER
- Banner File
Name:
You can optionally specify the name of a banner image file to upload
here. This image will be displayed in the horizontal banner space where
your organization's full name is normally displayed. This allows you to
customize the look of your site with 3D effects or a special background for
example. You can use any popular drawing program to create the image
file but it must be a JPEG (.jpg) or GIF (.gif) file and it must be 720 pixels wide.
The height is up to you but don't go too high or you'll push your site's
content out of view. Since this image file will overwrite your
organization's name and mission statement in the banner area, you'll want to
incorporate these into the image itself.
Use the Browse button to display a file dialog box that you can use to locate your
.jpg banner file on your computer. Once you locate the file and submit the form, the
image will be uploaded to the web site and placed in the banner area. If you've already uploaded a
banner to the site with this
form, you don't need to specify the file again. That is, you can leave this field
blank when subsequently changing other data.
If you subsequently want to delete the Banner File, uncheck the box to the
left of the File box and submit the form. The banner image will be
deleted if this field is not checked.
Note: If you chose the "Elastic" frame width above, you should bear
in mind that when the framework is stretched wider than your banner image,
the extra space will be filled in with a strip of pixels taken from the
rightmost row of pixels from your banner image. If the image has a
solid or horizontally striped background, this will not be a problem but if
you instead have a textured or photographic background, the right edge will
appear blurred or striped. In this case, you can force a solid color
fill using the Banner Background Color field below.
- Banner Alignment:
Use this field to control the horizontal alignment of your banner image
should the user stretch the viewing area beyond the width of the image
itself. You can choose to have the image stay against the left side of
the framework, centered within it or aligned to the right side.
Create Banner This tool will allow you to create a graphic banner for your site.
Using the tools provided in this section, you can incorporate pictures that
have been uploaded in your site, select from several of our standard
backgrounds or simply use a color. You can also choose to include your
organizations logo, and or a standard sport specific image, as well as
selecting shading effects, shading colors and text colors.
Since you banner is usually the first section of your site that visitors
will see, this tool can help you make a good first impression to your
current - and perspective members.
- Background:
Select from any of our included backgrounds or select from the set of most
most recent photos that have been uploaded into your site. Optionally, you
can upload you own custom background for your banner. You may also
select "None", in which case only a color selection will be used. If you
have selected to use uploaded photos, these photos will be selected from the
most recent photos that have been uploaded to your site that are not in
albums OR you can create a photo album named "Banner Montage" and photos
kept in the album will be used. Keep in mind that only a few photos - 4 to 5
in most cases - will be used to create the banner.
If you are using your own custom banner background, the recommended size is
800 X 200 pixels. Anything lager will be automatically resized. If the
custom background is smaller than the recommended size, the 'Shading Color'
will fill in the remainder of the space.
- Include Logo On:
This selection will allow you to choose whether to use your logo (uploaded
in the Logo tab of this section) and how
to align the logo within your banner - left, right and "Don't
Include" are your choices. Below are examples of the banner with a logo
included:
Banner with the logo on the left:

Banner with the logo on the right:

- Accessories:
Optionally, you can choose to include an "Accessory" image in your
banner. These choices are sport specific images, such as Baseball,
Basketball, Football, Hockey Puck, Lax Head, Soccer Ball, Softball and
Volleyball.
- Shading Effect:
This
selection will allow you to add a shading effect to your banner. Effects
included are: "Curves", "Glass", "Ellipse", "Shine",
"Pan Head",
"Ribbon", "Sky"
and "Plain Text". You can also choose to have no banner shading effect
entered.
- Shading Color:
This selection determines the color of your auto-generated graphic banner or
text banner. If this field is left blank, the auto-generated graphic
banner will use the color entered in the Menu Text Bar field. This
If you are using a custom banner and the viewing area of the framework
is stretched beyond the width of
your banner image, the extra area can be filled with the color you specify
her. If this field is left blank, the extra area will instead be filled
with a pattern taken from the rightmost edge of the image file itself.
Note that you should use darker colors for the background color of the
graphic banners. When in doubt, try using a dark grey or black background
and use the foreground color for your lighter color.
- Main Title:
The entry made here will be the name that is shown on your banner.
- Banner Font:
This selection will allow you to control the font of your banner.
Selections include:
ARIAL

COLLEGIATE

IMPACT

ROCKWELL

SCRIPT

STENCIL

VERDANA

- Banner Text Color:
This entry will determine the color of text of the graphic banner. If this
field is left empty, the graphic banner will use the color entered in the
menu text.
- Supplemental Text:
This text will appear under the Banner's Main Title. This will default
to the original location information given for the site. If nothing is
entered in this section, the text entered as the
"Mission Statement" for the site,
located in the Admin>Association section of the site, will be used. If you
wish this area to be blank, leave this entry, as well as the Mission
Statement blank.
LOGO
- Logo File Name:
Use the Browse button to display a file dialog box that you can use to locate your
.jpg logo file on your computer. Once you locate the file and submit the form, the
image will be uploaded to the web site and placed on the top of the left hand menu strip.
Optionally, you may also include your logo within your
banner. If included in the banner, the
logo will not appear at the top of the left menu column
Images wider than 120 pixels will be resized to that width. Pictures taller than 160
pixels will be reduced to that height. Note that only JPEG files (.jpg)
and GIF (.gif) files are
permitted. If you've already uploaded a logo to the site with this
form, you don't need to specify the file again. That is, you can leave this field
blank.
If you subsequently want to delete the Logo File, uncheck the box to the left
of the File box and submit the form. The logo image will be deleted if
this field is not checked.
MENU
- Left Navigation Bar:
By un-checking this box, you can completely eliminate the navigation bar
on the left hand of the website. Visitors will now navigate the site using
only the drop down menus from the Menu Tabs located at the top of your site.
- Menu Bar
Color:
This field can be used to specify the background color of the left hand menu strip.
If you know about html hex color values and you already know your
favorite color, you can enter it directly into this field. Otherwise, click the
Palette button to the right for a pop-up color palette dialog box, where you can select
the color of your choice from a large array of options. When you click on a color from the palette, the strip on the entry form
to the right of the color fields will change to the color you select. This will help you try
different colors and combinations before you actually change the web site.
A little advice: use a background color
that contrasts well with the foreground color you select below. You want it and the bar pattern to contrast well with text.
- Menu Text Color:
Use this field to specify the foreground color of the text on menus. Again, you can
enter a color value directly or pick one from the palette. When you use the palette,
your selections will change the color strip to the right of these two fields to help you visualize
new combinations of foreground and background.
- Tab Contour:
The selection made here will determine the look and feel of your
horizontal Menu Tab buttons. You can select from: "Flat", "Rounded" or
"Glass". This is a great way to give your site a unique look.
All LeagueAthletics.com sites come standard with the "Glass" style buttons.
- Menu Contour:
The selection made here will determine the look and feel of the your verticle Menu
Page buttons. You can select from: "Flat", "Rounded" or
"Glass". This is a great way to give your site a unique look.
All LeagueAthletics.com sites come standard with the "Flat" style buttons.
- Accent Color:
You can optionally specify a color that will accent the right edge of the menu
bar and also heading bars. This allows you to bring in perhaps a second
team color and/or enhance the visual interest of your site. The color
specified here will also be used to highlight selected menu items.
- Menu
Pattern:
You can choose one of a number of different background patterns for the menu
bar. Click the button in the middle of a pattern to select it. As
with the color selections above, the strip to the right will display the
pattern you choose.
PAGE CONTENT
-
Page Background Color:
Choose the default color for custom pages on your site.
The color entered here will be used by default for all pages but can be overridden individually
using the color fields on indiviidual page forms.
Note that you can choose a transparent
background color from the pop up color display or type in the word "transparent".
In this case, the website's background will shine through.
- Body Text Color:
The color of text on your site will default to a dark version of the menu
bar color specified above. If you'd prefer another color, you can
specify it here.
- Page
Default Font:
This section will allow you to determine the font for all pages of your
site. You will be able to choose from the following fonts: Arial, Comic,
Courier, Lucida, Stencil, Tahoma, Times, and Verdana
-
Highlight
Color:
This field specifies the color of shaded areas of web site's pages like home
page headlines and link boxes, as well as horizontal highlights on many list
type (schedules, rosters, etc) pages.
-
Hyperlink
Color:
This field specifies the color of links on the web site's pages. You'll want to pick
a color that goes well with the menu colors you chose above. Once again, you can use
the palette to help you choose the right color.
HEADLINES
- Headline Style:
You can chose a number of different styles that are used for headlines on your
home page and other bulletin or news pages.
Home Page
-
Layout:
You can choose from two layouts for your home page's content. The
first (the default) is a two column layout where news the welcome message,
table of news contents and news items are all contained in the left column and
other sidebar items are contained in the left column. The right column
includes a randomly selected picture from your site's Pictures area and a
section listing the current contents of the site's Exchange area. In
addition, you can optionally include a game results section and a weather
area. The results section lists any game results that occurred in the
last week. Both the results and weather sections can be included or
excluded by checking or unchecking the boxes to the left of their position in
the layout thumbnail.
The second home page layout is a simplified, single column configuration where
only the welcome message, news contents table and news items themselves are
displayed.
-
Page Background:
By default, all home page messages - News Items and Welcome
Message - will have their own separate box with a 3-Dimensional
appearance. The boxes will have a white background with their messages and
and will appear to be on top of a light grey background - see the image
below.

Optionally, you can choose not to have the 3-Dimensional appearance
and select a color of your liking for the message boxes to appear
on. This can be done in the Admin>Appearance section of your site
under the Homepage tab. Simply select the "Choose Color" option and
enter the whatever color you wish. You can use the Palette option to select a color. If you would rather not have separate boxes for each news item, simply select
White (#FFFFFF) as the background color. See images below for
examples of a white background and a colored background ,
respectively.

-
Default News Colors:
Choose default colors for news items. The colors entered here will be used
by default for all new news items but can be overridden individually using the color fields on
the message form itself.
Note that you can choose a transparent background color from the
pop up color display or type in the word "transparent". In this case, the page's background will
shine through.
-
Arrange Right Column Components (Arrange Components Below):
This section will allow you to customize the appearance of the right
side column of your Homepage. You can choose from several different tools to
give your site its own feel. It can also be a useful way to relay scheduling
and information regarding your organization. This section can be accessed
from two different areas: from the "Appearance" section of the Admin area,
and from above the right column of the your homepage, when signed in as an
Admin.
In the box marked "Whole Column Properties", you can choose the background
color for the entire column. Optionally, you can choose to have a border
surrounding the right hand column, separating the column from the rest of
the page.
The "Available Components" list is a list of features which you can choose
to have active by highlight the feature and clicking the "Add" button. These
features include:
Countdown Clock: Displays a digital clock that counts down the days, hours, minutes and
seconds to a specific date and time. Enter the date and time at right using
the form MM/DD/YYYY HH:MM:SS.
Upcoming Events: Displays up to 5 event titles from your site's Events Calendar page.
Events are populated by submitting General Events under Scheduling in the
Admin area.
Exchange Listing: Displays submission titles from your site's Exchange page. Submissions
are entered via links provided on the Exchange page itself.
Freeform Area:
General purpose area where you can include any content you choose. Use
the Edit Icon displayed on the top left of the control to bring up a form
where you can enter content.
Game Results: Displays a week's worth of game results in condensed form for all teams.
Actual results are submitted via a team's Results page or via the mass
results submission form fond in the Admin area.
Link Logos:
Displays logo images from your site's Links page in random order. Logo
files can be uploaded using the Links form found in the Admin area and also
on the Links page itself. Picture Slide Show:
Displays up to 30 thumbnail images in a slideshow fashion, one at a time.
Images are pulled from your site's Pictures page and only from those outside
any albums.
Rotating Sponsor Logos:
Displays sponsor logos in in a slide show with links
to their websites. With each page click on the site, the next available
sponsor logo will start the slide show. For example, the first page click
will start with Sponsor Logo #1 and continue through all available sponsor
logos and then repeat. The next page click will start with Sponsor Logo#2
and so on. Sponsor logo files can be uploaded using the Sponsor form found
in the Admin area and also on the Sponsors page itself.
Sponsors Logos: Displays sponsor logos in random order with links to their websites.
Sponsor logo files can be uploaded using the Sponsor form found in the Admin
area and also on the Sponsors page itself
Weather: Displays local weather for the area code specified on your site's
Association page. The component title also links to a weekly weather
forecast page for your area.
In the Online Store: Displays an item from the site's online store and allows the visitor to
go directly to that item. You can choose to display an item at random or the
most popular item.
Each one of the components can be edited in
the box title "Current Selection Properties". This can be highlighting the
component that you wish to change in the "Current Selections" list. You can
also remove a feature from the right column by highlighting it in the
"Current Selections" box and clicking the "Remove" button. Once you have
added, deleted or edited the right side components, you must click "Submit"
for your changes to take effect.
Merchant Accounts:
The Merchant Account section is where all information regarding your credit
card merchant accounts and PayPal accounts are kept. This information includes
the Transaction Key, Merchant Login ID and credit card types that are accepted
(Visa, Mastercard, etc). The information is kept only in this area and need only
be checked off on registrations, online forms, and the online store as the form
of accepted payment. You must check off the appropriate merchant account box on
your registration programs, online forms and in the Properties section of the
online store to be able to accept credit card payment. If any information needs to be changed or updated, such as
Transaction Keys, they only need to be updated in this area and not on each form
or store.
- Account Name:
This is the name that you will choose to identify your merchant account/Pay
Pal account. This name will appear on all of your registrations and online
forms setup next to a checkbox. If you have multiple accounts, you will see
multiple checkboxes. Simply check the account that you wish to use.
- Description:
Here, you can write a brief description of your merchant account and its
purpose. This can be particularly helpful if you have multiple accounts for
different purposes. For example, if your organization uses one merchant
account for registrations and another for the online store, you can
use this field to describe the use of each.
- Gateway Type:
In this section, you will select the appropriate payment gateway for your
merchant account. These include: AuthorizeNet, Sage/Net1 Credit Card, Net1 eCheck,
Secure PayTech and Pay Pal Business Account.
- M_ID (Merchant Login ID):
This field is used for your M_ID, also known as the merchant account login ID
or API
Login ID. For Pay Pal accounts, this field should be used for your Pay Pal
Account ID.
- M_Key (Transaction Key):
This field is to be filled with your M_Key or transaction key. Your M_Key/transaction key
is acquired from your payment gateway company (i.e. Sage or AuthorizeNet). If you
ever need to change or update the transaction key, the change will be
updated on all programs using the account.
- Accept:
Use the checkboxes provided here to denote the types of credit cards that
your merchant account accepts. If you are using Pay Pal, all of the boxes
will be checked by default and cannot be changed, due to the fact that Pay
Pal accepts all of the defined payment methods.
- Send Receipts to:
This field should be filled in if you wish to have a responsible party
receive an email of all payment receipts for this account. Keep in my mind
that this party will receive an email for EVERY pay receipt that is
processed through this account. If you are a member of a large organization,
this may be quite a large number of emails being sent to this party.
- Reconcile Merchant Accounts:
In this section, you can reconcile credit card payments for a particular
merchant account and date range. Simply select your merchant account and
enter the date range. You can leave the end date blank to return all
transactions from your start date to the current date.
Also, if you have previous registration programs where members owe a balance,
and you want them to be able to pay via credit card using the merchant account
that has been set up, you may want to check off the merchant account box on
previous registration programs, as well.
Messages:
The Message Center is used to create new messages
and to enter important messages on the home page's marquee alert strip. This is the
only part of the Administration area that is accessible with the Team Manager's password and will be the only choice
on the Admin menu when logged in with that password.
The marquee alert
strip is a great place to get visitors' attention and display important
information. The Message Center has two fields for the marquee alert:
-
Marquee Alert:
Enter the message you want displayed here. Whatever you enter will be displayed
in red in the scrolling marquee strip at the top of the home page. If there are any
game results being displayed there at the time, they will be overwritten.
-
Expires After:
Use this field to enter an expiration date for the alert. This way, you won't have
to remember to take it down later. If you're announcing some event in the future,
use its date here. The date should be entered in the form "mm/dd/yyyy."
The remaining links on the Message Center are used
to create new messages of several types. The forms for all these types are similar
and are described in the next section - Message Entry Form.
The message types are as follows:
- Welcome Message:
Use this link to create a welcome message for your site. This will be the first
message displayed on your home page and will always remain on top of any news messages
that you create. This is a great place to welcome visitors and tell them a little
about your organization. Don't tell them too much, though, or the news items that
appear below the welcome message will be so far down that no one will notice them.
One brief paragraph is probably all you need. You might also want to include a
smallish photo in the message (click here for the upload
procedure) that captures the essence of your club. A player in action usually works
well.
- News Item:
This link is used to create a news item for the home page. As mentioned above, news
items will be displayed below the welcome message in chronological order. That is,
the most recently dated messages will be on top. This is the best place to post
things relevant to your entire organization and to the general public as well. You
can also use news messages to broadcast their content to your entire email-enabled
membership. This is a great way to get the word out on important or timely matters
of concern to everyone.
- Coach
Bulletin:
You can post bulletins to your site's "Hey Coach" page. If your site
doesn't already have this page, posting a coaching bulletin will create it. Like news items,
coach bulletins can be
broadcast via email but, in this case, specifically to members who have been
assigned to a current team and a position with the word "Coach" in it (ie.
Coach or Assistant Coach).
-
Officials Bulletin:
You can post bulletins to your site's "Officials" page. If your site
doesn't already have this page, posting a referee bulletin will create it. Like news items,
referee bulletins can be
broadcast via email but, in this case, specifically to members who have been
assigned to the built in Officials team.
- Team Bulletins:
You can use team bulletins to communicate directly with team members (and their
parents). This is where coaches and team managers can go to get out the latest news
and information specifically for their teams. Like news items, team bulletins can be
broadcast via email but, in this case, specifically to team members and their parents.
- Exchange Item:
This is one of the places you can enter items for the Exchange page on the Association
menu. This page is used to list items for sale or swap or for items that are
wanted. You can post these items here or directly from the Exchange page
itself.
After you post an item, you'll get a form asking for a "key" number before the
message is actually posted. This number is emailed to you at the address you give on
the Exchange Item entry form. Once you receive this email, enter the number on the
form, and your item will be posted.
The reason for the above procedure is to ensure that posters use their correct email
address. We have found that some people like to post inappropriate or obscene
messages to the Exchange; if they have to give their real email address, they almost
always go elsewhere and consequently, their messages never get posted. Nothing like
personal accountability!
Message Entry
Form:
All the remaining message types - Welcome, News
Item, Team Bulletin, and Exchange Item all use the same (or similar) form for submitting
messages and is described below. These forms have some or all of the following
fields:
-
Broadcast via email:
Check this field to have an email copy of your message sent out via email.
If this is a News or Exchange item, it will be sent to all members who have an email
address. If this is a Team Bulletin, it will be sent to all members of the specified
team(s) and their parents. Note: If
this is a news item, you can choose to send it to only club members who are currently
assigned to a team (and their parents) or to all members. If you choose the second option,
all members will receive the message regardless of whether or not they are still active.
The first choice is more appropriate for organizations that have operated for more than
one year and have members on file who are no longer active. You can
choose which team seasons to broadcast to by selecting from the season menu
below. When you choose team seasons in this way, only members of teams
whose seasons are selected will receive the message. This way, only the
appropriate people will receive the message.
- Recipient Team(s):
For team bulletins only, select one or more teams to receive your message. To
select more than one team, hold down the Ctrl key and click each one. To select a
range (consecutive in the list) of teams, hold down the Shift key and drag the mouse over
the teams you want to select. To select all teams, click the topmost team, scroll to
the bottom, hold down the Shift key, and click the last team in the list. If you check
the "Broadcast via email" box above, each member of each team and their parents
who have email addresses will be sent your bulletin via email when you submit this form.
Members:
Your site can store and manage information about
your club's membership. This information can be used to generate team rosters, a
club contacts list, directory lists, email report, mailing labels report, mail-merge
files, and, of course, team- and member-wide bulletins and news emails. To enter
member information, you'll use the Member Information
form. Here you enter basic information about each member. You can also
make team assignments on this form. To manage lists and reports, you'll use the Member Query form documented below.
Member Query Form:
Clicking "Members" on the Administration
menu brings up the Member Query form. This form is used to find members in the
database and generate reports based on the results of the query. You can find
members by name, member type, email, age range, team position, or team membership. If you
enter nothing on the form, all members will be displayed. Names will be found that begin
with the letters you type. That is, entering "sm" will find all Smiths or
Smyths, etc. Name searches are case insensitive. You can enter names in either upper or
lower case. The Notes field is also case insensitive; however, text you enter here may be
found anywhere within a member's Notes field - not necessarily at the beginning, like a
name field.
Ranges, such as "Between the age of," can be used to find members who fall
between a range of values. A number in the first field will find members with a value
greater than or equal to the entry. Likewise, a number in the second field will find
members with a value less than or equal to the entry. If you enter one but not the other,
your entry will be either a floor or a ceiling value.
You can select more than one team position or team name by holding down the Ctrl key and
clicking the desired choices. To select a range of choices, drag (hold down the left
button while moving) the mouse over the desired choices.
Queries are additive. That is, specifying selection data in more than one field means that
member data must match all the data specified. For example, Setting the Type drop-down
menu to "Parent" and the Has EMail menu to "No" would yield only
members who are parents and don't have email addresses. Note, however, that when you
select more than one item in either the "Position" or "Team" lists,
the selections within the list are put together with the "Or" operator. That is,
any member belonging to any of the selected teams (or selected positions) will be
selected. This only applies within the list, however. The selected teams are still put
together with the other fields on the form, with the "And" operator as already
explained.
The fields on the form are the following:
- Add a new member
link:
Click this link to go directly to the Member
Information form to enter a new member.
- Import Member Data from a File:
Click this link to specify a file to upload containing member information.
See Importing Member Information later in
this chapter.
- Lookup a Member's Password:
Click this link to locate an existing member's password. This can be
especially useful if a member has changed their email address and it has not
been updated in the system.
- Report Type:
The Report Type drop-down menu contains the list of available reports for your
query. The report types are as follows:
- Directory Listing Report:
This report simply displays the selected members along with their addresses, phone
numbers, and email addresses. With this list, you can click on any member's name to bring
up the information form so that you can make changes. You can also delete members from
this listing by clicking the Delete button to the right of each entry. The listing
will be divided into a list of 50 members per page if your query yields more than 50
members. In this case, there will be links with letter ranges at the top of the
report so that you can easily find people by their last names.
You can now clean up duplicates from your member database using a drag and
drop selection method on the Member Listing page. To copy one
member's data over another's and consolidate them, click and hold down the
left mouse button on the newer member's name. Now move the mouse to
the member you want to overwrite and let go of the mouse. You'll
then be prompted as to whether you want to overwrite the target member.
Click Ok and the following will happen:
- The contact data from the first (dragged) member will overwrite that
of the member you dropped them on.
- If you dragged a parent's record, any children that referred to the
member (as their guardians) will be updated to point to the member who
was dropped on.
- Any roster assignments involving the first member will now point to
the dropped on member.
- Any player statistics involving the dragged member will be changed
to the dropped on member.
- Any registrations involving the dragged member will be transferred
to the dropped on member.
- The dragged members data will be deleted.
-
Send Email (Email Local Members) :
This report allows you to select specific search criteria and
returns an email form that is pre-populated with all members that math
your criteria. Note that if the same email address matches your criteria
more than once (i.e. multiple family members using the same email
address) only one email will be sent per email address.
Also, Each email will be mailed individually to each recipient.
For example, if your email list contains 100 addresses, 100 separate
emails with a single recipient address in the "To" field. This
way, the privacy of the other recipients will be preserved and spam
filters won't automatically flag the message as a group spam.
-
Email Client Clubs:
This tool will allow "Parent" league administrators
to send an email message to positions within its member clubs'
databases. You can choose to send email to positions on the Boards of
member clubs or to assigned positions on connected teams. You may also
choose to send email to selected positions of individual clubs/teams by
selecting the symbol. This action will generate a list off all member
clubs or, in the case of selecting team members, a list of all connected
teams. You may select specific teams by checking/un-checking the box to
left of each club/team. The list is defaulted to select all clubs/teams.
By selecting a position from the list of available positions in the
window on the right, the system will search for members who have team or
Board assignments containing the selected position in your member club's
databases. For example, selecting a Board position of "President" will
return members with "Vice-President", as well as "President" Board
assignments. You can add multiple team/Board assignments by selecting
from the list or typing positions separated by commas or one per line.
The entry made here will be remembered for future visits from the same
computer.
Once all sections have been made, click the "Find Them" button. The
resulting page will contain an email form, pre-populated with the email
addresses of all members that fit your criteria.
- Keep in mind, the system will query not just member databases but the
"Parent" database, as well. If at the "Parent" level you have members
with team and Board assignments that match the query, those members will
be returned as part of your email list along with the selected
clubs/teams. Also, if the position window is blank when searching, the
system will return all Board/team members from member clubs. This
feature should not be used unless absolutely necessary.
- Mailing Label Report:
This report is used to generate a page that can be printed onto standard Avery #2160,
3-across mailing labels. Instructions for setting up your printer and aligning the labels
are given before the labels are displayed. The instructions include the following:
Before printing the page of labels, you'll need to set the Top, Left, Bottom, and Right
margins of your browser's Print Setup to 1/2 inch. To do this with Internet Explorer, use
the File - Page Setup menu commands to bring up the Page Setup dialog box. Also, turn off
any headers or footers specified on the same dialog box.
You can choose to create only one label for each household and last name. That is, only
the alphabetically first adult with the same last name residing at the same address will
be printed. Everyone else will be skipped, thus eliminating duplicate mailings to the same
household. Persons with the same last name but different addresses will be printed
separately. People with different last names residing at the same address will also be
printed separately. You can also choose to sort labels by either last name or zip
code. If you're doing a bulk mailing, you should use the latter choice.
The label page is designed for use with standard # 2160 Avery labels that are 1" x 2
5/8" and are printed 3 across. Computers and printers have different settings for the
number of "Pixels" in a given fixed unit of measure. Unfortunately, browsers
only allow columns and rows to be formatted using pixels - not fixed units, such as inches
or centimeters. This being the case, your labels may not line up with the text that is
printed by your browser. You can use the settings on the instruction form to adjust the
way labels are printed relative to the actual physical labels. You may have to print
several test pages to experiment until things line up properly, but the default values
given are usually correct and should get you started. Try using regular paper for your
experiments to save expensive labels. Once things line up, your settings will be
remembered the next time you print labels.
- Download Data:
This report type will create a tab delimited file that can be used with
Microsoft Word to create custom mailings and letters for your members. The file can
also be imported into Microsoft Excel to create a spreadsheet of your member database.
After the query is complete and the file is generated on the server, a
"File Download" dialog box will be displayed; choose "Save this file to
disk" and press "OK." In the resulting "Save As" dialog box. Click "Save," and the Mail Merge file will be downloaded to
your computer.
When you're ready to perform the mail merge in MS Word, choose the file you saved above as
the "Data Source." Word will automatically interpret the fields within the
file and make them available to you for your document. See your MS Word
documentation for instructions on how to create Mail Merge documents.
- Little League Export (Only available for Baseball Clubs)
This report produces a .txt file formatted with all information to be
exported to Little League.
- Cybersport Export (Only available with Hockey Clubs)
This report produces a .txt file formatted with all information to be
exported to US Hockey via Cybersport.
- First Name:
Enter a person's first name here. As explained earlier, you can enter a portion of
the name, and the query will match only the letters you type at the beginning of the
name. The search is case insensitive; you can use either upper or lower case
letters.
- Last Name:
Enter a person's last name here. Again, you can enter a portion of the name, and the
query will match only the letters you type at the beginning of the name. The search
is case insensitive; you can use either upper or lower case letters.
- Type:
Use this drop-down menu field to search for either parents or players. If you choose
"Parent," then only parents that match the other selection criteria will be
returned. If you choose "Player," then only players will be
returned. The default of "All" turns off filtering based on Member
Type. Member Type is explained below under the Member
Information Form topic.
- Has Email:
This drop-down menu allows you to find members who have email addresses and those who do
not. This could be useful for mailing out information to those members who don't yet
have email and would thus miss email broadcasts. You could also do a mailing asking
these people to send in their email addresses if they have them but are not in the system
yet.
- Email Addr:
You can use this field to search for a specific email address or part of an
email address.
- Phone:
This field will allow member queries by home, work or cell phone numbers.
The phone number does not have to be specifically formatted and members can
be queried based on partial numbers as well. For example, if "1234" is
entered in this field, the query will return all members who have that exact
string of numbers in any of their phone records.
- Gender:
Use this dropdown list to search for males or females or both (the default of
"All").
- Born Between:
Use these fields to filter members by age. The field to the left is the low
birthday and the one to the right is the high limit. Similarly, you can
use the In Grade fields to specify members whose school grade is
between the numbers you enter here. Not Kindergarten is specified with a
"0". For pre-k use "-1".
- Notes:
Use this field to find letters, words, or phrases within members' notes fields as entered
on the Member Information form. The text you
type here can be found anywhere within the notes data, unlike the name fields above where
text is only found at the beginning.
- Modified Since:
This field can be used to do a search for member records that have modified
since the date you specify here.
- In Zip Codes:
You can use this field to query members in a particular zip code(s). If you
are performing a query for multiple zip codes, each zip code must be
separated with a comma.
- Registered in Program(s):
This area lists the names of all online registration programs. You can
use the list to specify members enrolled or not enrolled in one or more
programs. To find enrolled members click the name of any program to
highlight it. To specify more than one, hold down the Ctrl key while you
click each one. To find members who are not registered in particular
programs, check the "Not" box above and to the left of the list while
highlighting the programs of interest. You might want to use the "Not"
registered search criteria for an email reminder to prospective members to go
register.
In addition, you can also search for registrants who have either paid or not
paid for their programs. Use the check boxes below the list to specify
which you'd like.
- Positions:
This menu can be used to find members of various types based on their positions on teams. You can, for instance, choose to
find members who are either coaches or managers by holding down the Ctrl key and clicking
both "Coach" and "Manager." To select a single position, just
click it without the Ctrl key.
The choice at the top of the list "Not Assigned" can be used to find members who
haven't yet been assigned to a team. If you use this in conjunction with the Type
field to find all players who haven't been assigned, you can generate a "work
list" of members to assign to teams so no one falls through the cracks.
- Teams:
Use the Teams fields (Season drop-down and team lists) to find members of various
teams. The Season drop-down list specifies the team's season (as explained below
under the Teams topic), and the list below it contains the teams
themselves along with their parent leagues denoted by an asterisk (*); refer also to the
Leagues topic.
You can choose multiple teams by holding down the Ctrl key and clicking individual team
names. To select a range of teams, click the first team in the range, and then hold
down the Shift key and click the last team in the range. All the teams in between
will then be highlighted. Once you submit the Query form, all the members of the
selected teams will be returned.
Member Information Form:
Enter member information using the "Add a new member" link on the Member
Query form, or on any Directory listing. You can edit existing member information by
clicking any member's name in a Directory listing. On the Member Information form,
you can enter information, such as name and address,
email and phone number, parents, and age. When entering new members, you should
enter parents before their children so that you can associate one or both parents with
each child. Once you've created teams as explained below under Teams,
you can create rosters by assigning members to teams on the Member Information form.
The form contains the following fields:
- First Name:
Enter the person's first name here as you would like it to appear on rosters and on
mailings.
- Last Name:
Enter the person's last name here as you would like it to appear on rosters and on
mailings.
- Type:
Select the members type from this drop-down list. The choices are "NA,"
"Parent," and "Player." Select "NA" for members who
don't fit such categories as non-parent board members or administrators. Use the
latter choices to designate parents and players.
- ID:
This field is used to specify an optional serial ID number for each
member. Some organizations or their governing bodies require that each
member be given a unique identification number. You can manually enter a
member's ID number here or leave the field blank to have the form
automatically assign one. The assigned number is based off the number
given on the Configuration page.
- Guardian:
The two Guardian fields are used to associate parents (or guardians) with their
children. When entering a child's information, you can select guardians from either
of the drop-down lists. The lists contain the names of all previously entered
members designated as Parents using the Type field mentioned above. For this reason,
you'll need to enter parents before their children for all new registrations.
Hint: type the first letter of the guardian's last name in order to jump closer in the
list, rather than scrolling all the way.
- Address:
Enter the member's address in either or both of the two provided fields. Each field
is limited to 32 characters. To the right of the entry, you can select to to
have the address:
- Private:
This selection makes the entry available only to Administrators and Coaches
with rights to view Member Information.
- Roster:
This selection makes the entry available only to those members with
access to team rosters via an Administration Password or Team/Manager
Password. This is the default selection for all personal information.
- Public:
This entry is primarily for Adult positions such as Coach, Manager or
Board Members. This will make the entry available to all visitors to the
website on pages such as "Contacts" and "Team Contacts"
- City, State and Zip Code:
Enter the city, state, and zip code portions of the member's address here. The City
field is limited to 24 characters, and the State allows two. The Zip Code field is
limited to 10 characters, which must begin with numeric digits and can include a dash (-)
between the first 5 and last 4 characters.
- Phone, Work Phone & Cell:
Enter the member's phone numbers here. The first field is used for the home number,
and the second for the work number. To the right of the entry, you can
select to to have each phone number:
- Private:
This selection makes the entry available only to Administrators and Coaches
with rights to view Member Information.
- Roster:
This selection makes the entry available only to those members with
access to team rosters via an Administration Password or Team/Manager
Password. This is the default selection for all personal information.
- Public:
This entry is primarily for Adult positions such as Coach, Manager or
Board Members. This will make the entry available to all visitors to the
website on pages such as "Contacts" and "Team Contacts"
The dropdown to the right of the cell phone field can be
used to specify your cell phone carrier. After you make this selection, all
broadcast email messages, including schedule change notices sent from the
site will also be sent to your cell phone as text messages. So now if they
cancel the game while you're on the road, you'll know about it right away.
A few notes about text messages:
1) Just as with email, only one copy of a message is
ever sent to a cell phone number regardless of how many family members have
the same number. This is true for all message types. Schedule change notices
are sent to both the player's and their parent's cell numbers if configured.
2) You should be aware that "text message" means exactly that. We strip out
any and all HTML formatting prior to sending text messages, so be aware that
things may not look the same on one's cell phone as they do in your email
inbox. Formatting like bolding, underlining, italics, centering and
underlying links will not be preserved and embedded pictures will be removed
entirely. Tables will not line up in neat columns but their lines will be
preserved.
3) Also be aware that text messages are limited to 170 characters, including
the From address, title and body of the message itself. Anything beyond that
will be cut off. For this reason it's probably a good idea to get your main
point across early in your message. Email recipients will get the whole
thing but only the the first part will be visible on people's cell phones.
- Email:
Enter the person's email address here. When entering a child's address, you can
enter that one here or one that belongs to a parent. When entering parents, you
might enter a home address for one parent and a work address for the other. That
way, messages and notices will be sent to each.
Note that it's also possible to enter more than one address in the field. Just
separate each address with a comma, for example, MyName@home.net,
MyName@work.com.
To the right of the entry, you can select to to have the email address:
- Private:
This selection makes the entry available only to Administrators and Coaches
with rights to view Member Information.
- Roster:
This selection makes the entry available only to those members with
access to team rosters via an Administration Password or Team/Manager
Password. This is the default selection for all personal information.
- Public:
This entry is primarily for Adult positions such as Coach, Manager or
Board Members. This will make the entry available to all visitors to the
website on pages such as "Contacts" and "Team Contacts"
- No Emails:
When checked, the member will not be included in Email Broadcasts sent
from the site. The member will still receive Schedule Change Notifications
and Game/Practice Reminders, if applicable.
- Remind Of:
By checking either or both of the boxes, automatic email reminders, will be
sent for Games (which include all game types with the exception of
"Practice") or Practices. You can also allow your members to determine, for
themselves, whether to receive these reminders or, optionally, you can set a
global setting that all members receive reminders or not. These
settings are located in you site's "Configure" section.
- Date of Birth:
Enter the person's birthday here. You can later use this information to find
children by age when creating teams. Otherwise, if you don't need this information,
you can leave the field blank.
Note that the check box to the right of this field can be used to
specify that this person's birthday will appear on their team's schedule and
calendar pages. If checked, a birthday item will appear for this date
annually showing their first name and the first letter of their last name.
If left unchecked (the default), the member's birthday will not be displayed.
You can suppress all birthdays from being shown on calendars and schedules
by un-checking the "Show Birthdays" box in the Configure section.
- Birth Certificate:
Select from the dropdown "All", "On File" or "No" to query members who
have a Birth Certificate (or other accepted form of ID) on file.
- Grade:
Use this field to enter
children's school grade if your organization divides players by grade.
Otherwise, you are better off just using birthday.
- Notes:
You can enter any kind of information you like in this field, such as special instructions
or other data not contained elsewhere on this form.
- Photo File:
Use the "Browse"
button to locate a photo on your computer and then upload to the system. The photo uploaded here will appear as a thumbnail
on the member information page and will also appear on the Player Profile page - the resulting page after the Player's name is clicked on the full contact roster. Any picture uploaded here will be resized to a width of no more than 400 pixels wide.
- Register in Program:
You can use this selection to manually register a member to a specific
program. Select the program from the drop down list of current registration
programs and click "Register". On hte resulting registration form, fill out
all required information and click "Submit". Optionally you can choose to
delete or edit current registration information by selecting the program
from the "Current Registration" window and clicking "Edit" or "Delete".
- Team Assignments:
These fields are used to assign members to teams, thus creating rosters. You'll need
to choose a season from the drop-down list, which will default to the current
season. See the Teams section later in this document for
information about seasons and teams. You can make up to four team assignments per
season in the fields below:
- Team:
Select the name of a single team from each drop-down list where you want to make an
assignment. Note: Only select a team name, not leagues or divisions that have
asterisks in front of their names.
You'll also notice several special teams toward the top of the list. These are
"Board", "Friends", "Officials" and "Inactive". The Board team is for your association's
board of directors. The members you assign to the Board team will appear on the
Contacts page of the web site. You can assign them positions, such as
"President," "Secretary," etc., using the New Position fields
discussed below. In addition, you can control the order in which board members are
displayed on the Contacts page by entering numbers in the "No" field on the
right. The person with a "1" in this field will appear first, followed by
the person with a "2" here, and so on. If you don't enter numbers here,
contacts will be sorted by position or by name if no position is specified. For more
information on the Contacts page, click here.
The Friends team is used for association members who aren't members of any other team
including the board. These might be contributors, alumni, or anyone whom you want to
receive broadcast emails from the site.
The Officials team is where members, such as referees or umpires, should be
assigned. By assigning these members, the system will automatically create
an "Officials Area" page on your site's home page. This page is where you
can keep articles, documents or bulletins that apply specifically to
officials. Optionally, this page can be password protected by entering an
"Officials Password" on the Security
page. Members assigned as officials will also be able to be assigned to
specific games on the New Game Information form. Once
assigned, officials will also be able to create a schedule of their assigned
games in the Officials Area. The system will also automatically notify
officials of games they have been assigned to, as well as, sending out an
email reminder, at minimum, 24 hours before the game.
The Inactive team is for members that you wish to keep in your database, but
are no longer actively involved and thus, are excluded from email blasts and
communications.
- Position:
Select a position from the list for each assignment. Standard positions include
"Coach," "Asst Coach," "Manager," and
"Player." You can add to the list by entering a new position type in the
New Position field to the right. NOTE:
There are a couple of keywords that when used in a Team Assignment's
POSITION will trigger the member being included in the TEAM CONTACTS.
Those are: Coach Manager Assistant Coordinator Parent
Director Scheduler Representative Referee Treasurer
Primary Trainer Commissioner
Also, if you'd like to add a
Position to the Team Contacts that does not fit the above criteria,
simply create a new position and include a tilde (~) in the Position.
This will tell the system to include those assigned this position as
Team Contacts.
- New Position:
You can optionally enter the name of a team position here that doesn't appear in the
"Position" list to the left. This allows you to create new positions for
this and subsequent assignments. That is, anything you type here will later appear
in the list to the left.
A word of caution: Be careful when adding new positions. The list of positions can
get very crowded and hard to navigate later as you add new ones. They're also hard
to get rid of if you later change you mind about a name. To eliminate a position
other than the standard ones, you'll have to find all members who are assigned the
position and reassign them to another. Once they're all reassigned, the former
position will disappear from the list.
- No:
This field is used for the player's assigned number. The number will appear on
rosters and can help identify players on the field. This field can also be
used to position Board members on the Contacts page. For example, the
person with a "1" in this field will appear first, followed by the person
with a "2" here, and so on. If you don't enter numbers here, contacts
will be sorted by position or by name if no position is specified.
Importing Member Information:
You can import member information from a spreadsheet file rather than
entering it all by hand using the Member Information form mentioned above.
To do this, you'll need to create a spreadsheet file containing a row for
each member and columns across for each piece of information you wish to
import. The file you create must be saved as a comma separated value
(.CSV) file or as a tab delimited text file (.TXT) before it can be
imported. Files of these types can be generated from Excel using the
Save As dialog box. To perform the actual import see the link
towards the top of the Members search form.
You can also use a file that was downloaded from the site using the
"Download Data" Report Type on the Members Search form. These files
can be directly re-imported after downloading. In this way, the
downloaded data can become a backup for your site's member data that can
later be restored by simply re-importing it should something go wrong with
the data on the website. You can also use the downloaded data to
make changes en mass and then re-import the changes.
The information you can include in the import file is specified below.
Note that all columns are optional except for the First and Last name
columns. The first line of the file must contain the names of the
columns as specified below. The order they are encountered in the
first line specifies the column order for all subsequent data in the file.
Columns can be in any order.
Data Type
/
Column Heading |
Max
Width |
Notes |
Record ID |
NA |
Internal database record ID from
the LeagueAthletics.com member database. These numbers
should only come from downloaded member data from the website
and are used to identify each member's existing data record.
If these numbers are not present, the software will attempt to
match existing member data based on name, address and email
address instead. If no match is found, a new record will
be created. |
Serial No |
16 |
Member's club or organization
identification number. Can contain any characters but must
be numeric if your site uses auto generated numbers for new
members and should be left blank in this case for new records.
This is also used for US Lacrosse Membership numbers and USA
Hockey Confirmation numbers. |
<% If InStr(UCase(SportName), "LACROSSE") > 0 Then %>
Expiration Date |
N/A |
(MM/DD/YYYY) LACROSSE CLUBS
ONLY |
<% End If %>
First Name |
15 |
Required |
MI |
1 |
Middle Initial |
Last Name |
20 |
Required |
Address |
32 |
|
Address 2 |
32 |
|
City |
24 |
|
State |
2 |
|
Zip Code or
Postal Code |
10 |
#####-####, or Canadian Postal
Codes can be used. |
Home Phone |
14 |
Any format commonly used for
phone numbers such as "(###) ###-####" or "###-###-####" or even
"###-####". Extensions can also be included by adding
"x###" to the end of the phone number. All phone numbers
will be reformatted to the form "###-###-####" with area codes
added if omitted and can be determined from other numbers within
a given area code. |
Work Phone
|
14 |
" |
Cell Phone |
14 |
" |
Email Address |
255 |
Any valid email address can be
included. |
Type |
6 |
This column can contain one of
the following: "Parent", "Player" or "N/A" |
Gender |
1 |
("M" or "F") |
Date of Birth |
N/A |
(MM/DD/YYYY) |
BirthCrt |
3 |
"Yes" - Indicates if a
Birth Certificate (or appropriate ID form) is on file.
Leave Blank if not on file. |
School Grade |
N/A |
Must be numeric. Use 0 for kindergarten,
-1 for pre-k. |
Weight |
3 |
Must be numeric. Enter the
weight of the player, only numeric characters. DO NOT USE "lbs."
or "pounds". |
Guardian 1
ID |
N/A |
Internal database record
identifier for the first guardian. This number should only
come from downloaded member data and will be used to match an
existing record for this guardian. If omitted, the
guardian's name, will be used to match existing data instead or
used to add a new record based on the player's information. |
Guardian 1
First |
15 |
|
Guardian 1
Last |
20 |
Optional and if omitted or
blank, the player's last name will be assumed. |
Guardian 1
Email |
255 |
Optional. If omitted or
blank,
child's email will be used instead. |
Guardian 1 |
Any |
A single column can be used to
specify the guardian's name rather than the two above if need
be. Names can be in the form "First Last" or "Last, First" or just first name and last
name will be assumed. |
Guardian
1 Home |
14 |
Optional - if not entered, this
field will default to the information provided for the Member. Any format commonly used for
phone numbers such as "(###) ###-####" or "###-###-####" or even
"###-####". Extensions can also be included by adding
"x###" to the end of the phone number. All phone numbers
will be reformatted to the form "###-###-####" with area codes
added if omitted and can be determined from other numbers within
a given area code. |
Guardian
1 Work
|
14 |
" |
Guardian
1 Cell |
14 |
" |
Guardian 2
ID |
N/A |
Internal database record
identifier for the second guardian. Same rules apply as
for the first guardian above. |
Guardian 2
First |
15 |
|
Guardian 2
Last |
20 |
Optional and if omitted or
blank, the player's last name will be assumed. |
Guardian 2
Email |
255 |
Optional. If omitted or
blank,
child's email will be used instead. |
Guardian 2 |
Any |
A single column can be used to
specify the guardian's name rather than the two above if need
be. Names can be in the form "First Last" or "Last, First" or just first name and last
name will be assumed. |
Guardian
2 Home |
14 |
Optional - if not entered, this
field will default to the information provided for the Member. Any format commonly used for
phone numbers such as "(###) ###-####" or "###-###-####" or even
"###-####". Extensions can also be included by adding
"x###" to the end of the phone number. All phone numbers
will be reformatted to the form "###-###-####" with area codes
added if omitted and can be determined from other numbers within
a given area code. |
Guardian
2 Work |
14 |
" |
Guardian
2 Cell |
14 |
" |
Notes |
512 |
This column can contain any information you'd like to
include such as school or even recent player
evaluation notes. |
Team |
N/A |
This column can be used to
import team assignment for your members. The teams name should
be in the form of the team's alias or the hierarchal (i.e.
>League>Division>Team). If a member has multiple team
assignments, you can enter up to 6 team columns. |
Position |
64 |
Used to describe the position of
the member such as manager, referee, player, goalie, etc. |
No |
3 |
This is the players uniform or
jersey number. This field can also be used to order your Board
members on the "Contacts" page. For example, if the Board
President should be the first name on the Contacts page, they
should be assigned a number of "1". If no number is used to
order Board members, the "Contacts" page will be sorted
alphabetically. |
Delete |
6 |
If the word "DELETE" is
included in this column for any particular row, that record will
be permanently deleted from the database. To delete
records, you must also include the member's actual record ID to
ensure a correct match. Record ID and the Delete column
with the word DELETE contained within are all that's required
and used to delete member records. |
Note: The first row of data must be contain the
names of the columns as specified above. Any columns
except first and last names can contain blank data.
Separate records will be created for each guardian listed and
linked to their children. If they happen to be a coach or other
official, there is no need to list them on their own. If on the other
hand, you have personnel that don't happen to also be parents, then
you'll want to list them separately in the import file. If a
parent is listed on their own line, the data encountered there will
overwrite any previously inserted data created by a Guardian reference
and visa versa. For a spreadsheet template with common column
headings already specified, click here.
Online Store:
The online store is a great tool for your organization to sell merchandise to
the general public or throughout the organization. Whether using the Online
Store as a retail-style storefront or as a fundraising tool, it can be a
valuable part of your organization.
There are four different administration menu choices for the Online Store:
Properties, Store Items, List Purchases, and Reconcile Credit Card Payments. All
of the choices are simple and easy to use tools to get your store up and running
and keep it that way.
Let's get started:
Properties:
The Properties section of the Online Store is the first step to setting up
your store. We will enter some basic information about the store in this
section.
- Place on Menu:
This drop down menu indicates which menu tab the online store is to be
under. Any menu tab that has been set up for your site will be available
except the Admin. page. Generally, if the store is available to the public
or all members, it is placed under the "Association" tab.
- Menu Title:
This is the name that will appear on the menu choices to the left of your
screen. The name entered here will also appear at the top of the store's
page.
- Description:
The information entered in this field will appear at the top of the online
store's page. This should be a brief description of the store. Generally the
description includes information about the store, the types of items that
are available in the store (equipment, apparel, etc.) and optionally a
slogan. This is an optional field.
- Live:
This box should be checked if the online store is to be visible to the
public. This box can be unchecked to hide the store from the general public
while you are testing it.
- Email Purchase information to:
This is the email address of the responsible party for the store. Generally,
this is the person responsible for shipping and/or inventory management.
More than one email address can be entered if separated by a colon or
semicolon.
- Shipping Methods:
In this field you may add a new shipping method by selecting the "Add"
button. In the resulting window, enter the type of shipment (next day,
ground, etc) in the "Name" field and the cost associated with shipping. In
the "Store Items" section , you can assign a shipping price for each item.
In this case, the base cost field should be left blank.
If you have already entered a shipping method, you may edit or delete the
existing entry by highlighting the choice and selecting the corresponding
button. Optionally you can move an existing entry up or down on the choice
list with the same procedure.
If your site does not ship out any products, this field may be left blank.
- Shipping Policy:
Generally, this pertains to how quickly the product will be shipped out. The
shipping policy will be displayed along with the availability status on the
product's description page.
- Sales Tax by State:
In this section you have three choices: "Add" a new state, "Edit" an
previously added state, or "Delete" a previously entered state. To add a new
state, select the "Add" button. On the resulting window, enter the state and
the appropriate tax rate. The "Edit" feature can be used by highlighting the
previously entered state on the menu and selecting "Edit" (the resulting
screen will be the same as the "Add" selection.) Remember that your
organization only needs to collect tax in the state in which they are
located, so only enter the sales tax rate for the home state's) of your
organization. It is up to each site to determine the applicability of sales
tax in your state.
- Merchant Accounts:
If you are accepting credit card payments, check the box of the
corresponding Merchant Account or Pay Pal account that you wish to use. If
any updates need to be made to your merchant account, such as updating your
"M_Key" or Transaction Key, those changes must be made in the "Merchant
Account" section of the Administration area.
- Return Policy:
Enter your online store's return policy, such as "All sales are final" or
"Returns made for store credit only."
Store Items:
After you have setup the online store's properties, you are now ready to stock
the shelves. This is done in the "Store Items" section. In this section, you
will be able to add new items to your store, as well as edit and delete existing
items from the store. Once you've selected the "Store Items" selection, the
resulting window will give you the option to "Add a new item." Once you have
added items to the store, two additional choices: edit an existing item (the to
the left of the item) and delete an existing item (the icon to the right of the
item) will be available. When adding or editing an item, a form with the
following fields will appear:
- Name:
The name of the item you are adding or editing.
- Item ID:
This is a number that you can assign to identify the item such as a model
number or SKU number.
- Inventory:
The resulting window for this choice will allow you to enter the "Quantity
in stock" of the item. The store will countdown the quantity as the items
are sold, When the "Quantity in stock" reaches zero, you can select to have
"Sold Out" or "Backordered" displayed as the status. If this is an item that
the store will continually stock, "Backordered" should be selected.
- Public:
Check this box if you would like this item to be available to the general
public. This box can be unchecked to hide the item from the general public
while testing.
- Full Description:
Enter a complete description of the item in the text box. You can use the
WYSIWYG editing features to customize your text.
- Tagline:
A very brief description of the item. This field will appear under the
item's name on the store's homepage.
- Picture File:
This field is used if you wish to upload a picture of the item. You can
optionally enter the file path of the photo on your computer or browse your
computer for a picture file. The picture you upload should be the full size
version. The store will automatically create a thumbnail size image that the
user will be presented with and can click on to access a full size version.
- Caption:
This a brief description or phrase located under the photo.
- Option Groups:
This field is used to set your selections such as size, color and style.
First, enter the option (size, color, etc.) you wish to define choices for
under the "Prompt" column. Next, click the "Edit" button. On the resulting
window, there will be choices to "Add" a new choice, "Edit" an existing
choice, or "Delete" an existing choice.
On the resulting window of "Add" or "Edit", you can enter the choice (small,
medium, large, etc.). The Value field is an optional name for your choice.
For example, if you were entering extra large as a size, XL could be
substituted for the full name when inserted into the database. The "Extra
cost" field should be entered only if an additional charge is applied for
the choice. If there is no additional charge, leave this field blank. The
"Selected" box, if checked, will make the choice the default choice.
Repeat these steps, for each choice.
- Pricing:
These choices are used to enter the price of the actual item, the shipping
cost for the item, and discounts for bulk purchases (if any apply):
Unit Price:
This is the price of the item. If an amount was added in the "Extra cost"
field in the Option groups, the amount will be totaled in the customer's
cart.
Shipping cost:
Enter the cost for shipping the item. If you have multiple shipping options,
there will be multiple options. This field will override the base shipping
cost entered in the "Shipping methods" section. If you wish to use the base
shipping cost, leave this field blank.
Discount Schedule:
This table is used only if the store is to offer discounts for multiple
purchases. If no discount is available, leave this table blank. First, enter
the quantity at which the bulk discount will start. Next, enter the discount
rate to apply to the bulk purchase. You can choose to discount by percentage
or by a fixed dollar amount. For example, if you wish to offer a 10%
discount on purchases of five or more of an item, enter "5" in the "Qty"
column and "10" in the "%" column.
- Shipping Policy:
Enter this field only if you wish to override the entry made in the
"Shipping Policy" section in "Properties". If you wish to use the standard
policy you have already set, leave this field blank. If there is a special
policy that pertains only to this item, give a brief description of the
policy in this field.
- Return Policy:
Enter this field only if you wish to override the entry made in the "Return
Policy" section in "Properties" If you wish to use the standard policy you
have already set, leave this field blank. If there is a special policy that
pertains only to this item, give a brief description of the policy in this
field.
List Purchases:
This reports lists all purchases made in the store. The report can be sorted by
date processed by clicking on the "Processed" heading, date ordered by clicking
on the "Ordered" heading, or by customer name by clicking on the "Customer"
heading. The box listed under the "Processed" heading can be checked by the
administrator to help keep track of orders that have been processed and orders
that still need to be completed. Also, the COD heading indicates the amount that
is due on each order and totals those amounts at the end of the report.
Download Item Purchases:
This report will create a csv spreadsheet for each item ordered through the
online store. Information conatined in this report includes the First and Last
Name of the purchaser, date purchased, item number, description, as well as all
options and prompts for each item.
Reconcile Credit Card Payments:
This report categorizes and totals credit card payments made to a merchant
account within a specified time period. When this tool is selected, the
resulting window will allow you to select the merchant account id from a drop
down menu, and specify the time period with a start date and an end date. If the
"Between dates" fields are left empty, the report is generated from the
origination date of the merchant account to the current date. The report will
categorize and total payments made for the store, as well as online registration
and payments made to other online forms you have created. Optionally, the report
can be printed by clicking the "Print" icon () at the top of the report page.
Menu Tabs:
Your website comes with a standard set of menu tabs across the top of each
page. The leftmost tab is where we put most of the predefined pages we
supply with the exception of those on the Team tab. This serves as your
site's home tab and the accompanying menu can contain additional pages you
define using the Menu Page form explained below. The next tab is labeled
Team. This is where you can find team specific pages such as schedules,
game results, rosters, etc.. To this list of tabs, you can also add new
ones to help organize your site.
To enter a new tab or to edit an existing one, click the "Menu Tabs" choice on the Admin menu.
This will bring up a list of Tabs already defined. You can click any
Tab's name to edit its information or click the delete button to delete it.
Note however that you cannot delete Tabs that have pages attached to them and in
these cases, the delete icon will not appear. To
add a new Tab, click the "Add a new Tab to the horizontal menu" link at the top
of the page. This will bring up the Tab Information form with the following
fields:
- Caption:
Type the title or caption of the tab here. Whatever you enter will be
displayed for this particular tab on the horizontal row of tabs.
- Position:
You can use this field to specify the order of Tabs other than the home and
Team tabs with are fixed. The subsequent tabs are sorted and displayed
alphabetically by default. You can override this order by assigning numbers to
Tabs to control their order. For
instance, to make a Tab appear as the first tab immediately after the Team tab, you could assign it
the position number - 10. The next tab could be numbered 20, the
third 30, etc.. By leaving a numerical gap between numbers, you
leave room to insert other tabs within the order later.
- Password:
This field can optionally be used to password protect an entire menu on your
site. Visitors will be prompted for the password you specify whenever
they navigate to this tab. Thus, all pages assigned to this tab will be
in effect password protected. You could use this feature to secure a
board members only or coaches only area on your site.
Note: Newly created tabs will not appear on the tab row until they
have at least one page associated with them. To create a new page and
assign it to a tab or to reassign an existing page to a tab, see
New Menu Pages below.
New Menu pages:
The "Pages" option on the Admin menu brings up a form that allows you to add
new pages to your web site. You can enter either HTML source code or just plain
text. The form also allows you to enter menu text for either the site's Association
or Sport Name menus. The fields on the form are as follows:
- Place under menu:
Select the menu on which to display a link to your new page. Choose
either a top level menu tab or another page. If you choose another page,
the current page will become a sub-page of the parent page. You can
build a tree structured menu of pages in this way.
- Menu Text:
Type the menu caption you want to appear on the menu you chose above. You're limited
to 16 characters for space reasons so try to keep it brief. Also make sure your
caption isn't already in use on the same menu.
- Position:
You can use this field to specify the order of pages within the menu selected
above. Assigning numbers to pages, controls their order. For
instance, to make a page appear at the top of the menu, you could assign it
the position number - 100. The next page could be numbered 200, the
third 300, etc.. By leaving a large numerical gap between numbers, you
leave room to insert other pages within the order later. Note that these
numbers only effect the order of pages you create. The built in pages of
your site appear in predetermined positions within each menu that cannot be
changed.
-
Publish On:
This field will be filled in automatically with today's date whenever you create
a page. You can change this to a date in the future if you'd like to
hide the page until that time. Hidden pages will not be visible to the
public but administrators logged in with page editing rights will still be
able see them with a line through their menu text indicating their hidden
status. This allows you access to edit or reinstate hidden pages by
clicking their edit icon on the page itself. Enter any date you wish as long as it is in the
correct format: "MM-DD-YYYY" or "MM/DD/YYYY.". If
left blank, the page will be assumed to be visible immediately.
- Expires
After:
This field specifies the date after which the page will no longer be
displayed to the public. You can use this feature to hide or archive
pages during periods where they're not relevant or until needed later.
Hidden pages will still exist in the system but will not be visible to the
public. They will however appear with a line through their menu text
when you're logged in with rights to edit pages. This allows you to edit
or reinstate hidden pages by clicking their edit icon on the page itself. As above, dates should be in the format: "MM-DD-YYYY" or
"MM/DD/YYYY.". Since this field is optional, you can leave
it blank in order to indicate that the page should not expire.
- Password:
You can optionally password protect this page by entering a password here.
If specified, visitors will be prompted to enter the password before they can
view the page.
- URL:
Optionally enter the address of another web page you'd like this page to be
redirected to when its menu item is clicked. If you check the "New
Window" box to the right, the page will be displayed in a new browser window.
- Margin:
This entry determines the amount of whitespace that will appear to the right
and left of your page entry. This amount is entered in pixels and set to a
default of 16 for all new pages created.
- Page Colors:
Use the Background, Text and Link color fields to specify colors for your page.
Use the palette buttons to select colors from a pop up display or type RGB color values
directly.
You can also choose to make the page's background transparent by clicking that
choice on the pop up display or by simply typing the word "transparent" into the background
field. In this case, the site's background will be used.
Note that if you leave any of these fields blank (the default), your message will
inherit its colors from those specified on the
Admin/Configure/Appearance/Page Content
form. If you make it a practice of not entering colors for individual pages, you can use
the Appearance page settings to globally change all your pages. This will also make for a
more consistant look throughout your site. For this reason, it is recommended that you
only enter color values on the page form for pages that need to be different for some reason.
- Text Window:
Use the large text editing window to compose or paste your page's text. If
you are using most any modern browser, you will be able
to take advantage of our WYSIWYG editor to format your page.
After you submit the form, your new page will appear on the menu of your choice.
If you've already logged into the Admin area, your page will have two icons at its
top. The first can be pressed to bring up the entry form for editing. You can
then edit the text, change the menu, or the page's menu caption. The second button
can be used to delete the page altogether.
Results:
The "Results" menu choice is used to enter game results in a consolidated,
centralized location. The form lists all the games for the last week and all
un-entered games prior to that. If you log into the Admin area with a team
managers password, only the games with teams (home or away) for which the
password grants rights will be displayed. Games whose scores have not been
entered have an input box next to each team where you can quickly enter the
score. You can enter as many sets of game scores as you like on the form and
then press the Submit button to save them all.
This saves time when you need to enter
scores for multiple teams. Otherwise, you'd need to go to each team's
results page and enter each score on a form individually.
Documents:
The "Documents" choice on the Admin menu is used to upload association
documents to the web site and make them available to the public through the
"Documents" menu choice on the Association menu. Documents are listed
there along with their descriptions, and users can download them simply by clicking on
their names. Note that the "Documents" menu choice on the Association menu
will not be visible unless at least one document has been uploaded. You can upload
documents (or files) of any type, although MS Word or Adobe Acrobat files are the most
common and most universally readable to most users. Some common types of documents
include paper registration forms, code of contact statements, release forms, and club
by-laws.
To upload a document, click the "Documents" menu choice on the Admin
menu. The resulting form has the following fields:
- Name:
Enter the name of the document as you would like it displayed on the Documents page.
This can be any brief name you choose, not necessarily the file name. Use a name
that clearly identifies the document to the public.
- Description:
You can enter a description of the document here. This is a good place to thoroughly
describe the file and give instructions on what to do with it once it is downloaded.
Note that you can include HTML formatting tags in your text like "<b>Bold</b>"
or "<i>Italic</i>" or even a hyperlink like: "<a
href='http://WebSite.com'>A Web Site</a>".
- Document:
You can type the name of the document file on your computer or use the Browse button to
display a file dialog box that you can use to locate the file on your computer. It
is probably a good idea to limit the kinds of files you upload to those that most visitors
can read, such as Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat files. Note: While
there is no limit to the amount of documents that you can have in this area,
the file size of any one document cannot exceed 1 MB.
Sponsors:
You can create a "Sponsors" page for your site under the Association menu
that lists your association's sponsors along with a description and link to each
one. In addition, each sponsor's name will be featured on the top right portion of
you site at random whenever a page is displayed. These are great ways to give your
sponsors the notice they deserve and to attract new ones as well. Note that if you
choose not to enter any sponsors, the "Sponsors" menu choice will not appear
under the Association menu, and the top right area of the site will remain blank.
To enter one or more sponsors, choose (click) the "Sponsors" choice under the
Admin menu. The resulting form has the following fields:
- Name:
Type the name of the sponsor here.
- URL:
This is the address (or URL) of the sponsor's web site if there is one. If the
sponsor doesn't have a web site, leave this field blank.
- Description:
Describe your sponsor here. You can enter as much information as you like. If
the sponsor doesn't have a web site, you may want to ask him or her for a paragraph or two
to put in this field. The text you enter here will appear below the sponsor's name
on the Contacts page.
Note that you can include HTML formatting tags in your text like "<b>Bold</b>"
or "<i>Italic</i>" or even a hyperlink like: "<a
href='http://WebSite.com'>A Web Site</a>".
- Club Sponsor:
This checkbox indicates that the sponsor should be displayed on the
Association Sponsors page and that their name or banner image should be part
of the rotation for all pages. If unchecked, the sponsor will not de
displayed in any of these places but will be available for selection as a team
sponsor. See below for details.
- Team Sponsor:
This checkbox indicates that the sponsor will be available for selection as
a team sponsor on the Team information form. Team sponsors will be
featured on all pages for a particular team. The sponsor's banner will
be featured at the top of all of that team's pages and their logo image will
be included within each page as well.
- Banner File:
Use this field to upload a banner image file that will be displayed at the
top of pages in place of the sponsor's name. Banner images should be no
more than <%=gPageWidth%> pixels wide and any height so long as it's consistent with the
height of all other sponsor banner images.
Logo File:
Use this field to upload a logo image file that will be displayed on the
Sponsors page and optionally, in the right hand column of the home page,
when "Sponsor Logos" has been selected. Logo images should be no more than 250 pixels wide and any
height you choose.
Use the Browse button to locate the image file on your computer. The
selected image will be uploaded when the form is submitted. To remove an
image from the site, uncheck the box to left of the input box.
Web Links:
Your site can include hyperlinks to other web sites for such information as your
association's governing body, equipment suppliers, or whatever you think might be
interesting to your members and visitors. Many times other web sites will ask you to
link to them and in return will link to you. This can help improve your ranking with
search engines, such as Google, since they base "relevance" off of the number of
links to a site. With the simple form explained below, you can set up links with
ease.
To enter one or more links, choose the "Links" choice from the Admin
menu. The resulting form has the following fields:
- Name:
Type the name of the link here. The name you type will appear in bold on the Links
page and will be the actual link to the web site.
- URL:
This is where you type the address (or URL) of the target web site.
- Description:
Describe the site here. You can enter as much information as you like. The
text you enter here will appear to the right of the name given above on the Links page.
Note that you can include HTML formatting tags in your text like "<b>Bold</b>"
or "<i>Italic</i>".
- Logo:
Use this field to upload a logo image file that will be displayed on the
Links page and optionally in the right hand column of the home page, when
"Link Logos" has been selected. Logo images should be no more than 250 pixels wide and any
height you choose.
Use the Browse button to locate the image file on your computer. The
selected image will be uploaded when the form is submitted. To remove an
image from the site, uncheck the box to left of the input box.
Picture Album:
One great way to customize you site is by uploading pictures. Since
LeagueAthletics.com does not limit the amount of pictures that you can upload to
your site, "Picture Albums" can be a great way to organize your pictures by
category or time frame. This will make each picture easier to locate.
- Name:
This is the name of the picture album you are creating. Frequently, Admins
will also add a date to the name, for example, "Championship Game -1/1/01".
- For Season:
This drop-down list defines this season in which the photo album will exist.
- Team:
You can select what team page the photo album is displayed. The "Club
Pictures" selection creates a menu page under the Association Tab
Note: If your site chooses to use the "Picture Slideshow" feature on the
Association (Home) page, only the pictures NOT in albums will be used.
Optionally, you may create an Album titled "Banner Montage" to store pictures
for use with the Auto-Generated Banner.
Pictures:
- Can't Download Active X...
When using Internet Explorer, you may be prompted to download an Active X
file type. This will aid in the upload of Pictures, when using Internet
Explorer, allowing you to upload up to 30 pictures at one time. In some
cases, due to Security Restrictions on your computer (i.e. using a Work
computer), you may not be allowed to download this file. In these cases,
simply click this link and your page will reload with non-Active X Picture
Upload. This will allow you to only select up to 10 pictures to upload at
one time.
- Season:
This drop-down list defines the season in which the photo page will exist.
- Team:
You can select what team page the photo is displayed. Selecting a team will
automatically create a "Pictures" page selection for that team, if one has
not already been created. The "Club
Pictures" selection creates a menu page under the Association Tab.
-
Link To:
This feature allows you to enter a website (URL)
or email address to link uploaded pictures to. This allows visitors to click
on the photo and be directed to another website or prompted to send an
email regarding the picture. This can be particularly handy for professional
photographers or those clubs who sell their own
photos or have a website where members can purchase the photos.
- Watermark:
This tool allows you to enter text that will appear as a watermark across
the image. This will allow visitors to view pictures as samples but prints
will have the entered text across them. See Below for an
example:

- Original:
When checked, this tool will allow you to make the original uploaded,
full resolution picture available for download directly to the site. This is
designed specifically for clubs that wish to allow their members access to
pictures without paying any fees or restrictions. When viewing a picture,
there will be a "Download" button available on the Picture page. If
un-checked. the "Download" button will be unavailable and only the standard
size, 580 pixel wide version will be available.
- File Name:
You can enter the file path of the photo on your computer.
Optionally,
you can select to browse folders on your computer by clicking the "Browse"
button. When using the "Browse" button you can select up to 10 (30
for Internet Explorer users who have downloaded the Active X file) pictures per
upload . After the first picture has been selected, click on the "Browse"
button to select an additional picture. This must be done for each
additional picture that you wish to upload. Each picture that you have
selected will appear below the file name selection.
Files:
This section is specifically for miscellaneous files such as audio or video
files. If you are uploading a document of picture, use the respective menu page
choices from the Admin section. Users are limited to 500 MB of miscellaneous
file storage with a maximum size of 50 MB per upload.
- Upload File:
Enter the path of the file on your computer.
Optionally,
you can select to browse folders on your computer by clicking the "Browse"
button. When using the "Browse" button you can select up to 10 miscellaneous
files per upload. After the first file has been selected, click on the
"Browse" button to select an additional file. This must be done for each
additional file that you wish to upload. Each file that you have selected
will appear below the file name selection.
- New Sub Folder Name:
You can create a folder for specific files by entering in a folder name
here. Keep in mind, only new files may be uploaded into the folders created.
Previously uploaded files cannot be palced in a new folder.
Contacts:
Your web site can have a Contacts page where the members of your board or other
important people can be listed with their contact information included. This can
help members and visitors get in touch with the appropriate people in your organization.
To create a Contacts page, you'll need to assign members to the Board team using the Member Information form documented earlier. Fill
in each board member's information on the form and under "Team Assignments,"
select the Board team toward the top of the "Team" drop-down list. If the
member's position on the board (such as President, Treasurer, etc.) is already listed on
the "Position" drop down list, select it there. Otherwise, type the
position name in the field provided to the right named New Position.
To order positions on the Contacts page, you can type a number for each board member in
the No field to the right of the position fields. The member with a number 1 will
appear before any others on the list. The member with a 2 will appear second, and so
on. If you don't use numbers, the Contacts list will appear in alphabetical order by
position name and last name.
Note that the Season field on the Member Information form does not apply to members of
the Board team. That is, they never expire. To remove a member from the board
and thus the Contacts page, simply assign them to the topmost "NA" choice on the
"Team" drop-down list.
Seasons:
Your organization's teams are organized for and play during a specific period
of time or season. The teams that you'll define later exist only for that
period of time. Typically, a team might play during the spring or fall, or
perhaps for a whole year. The "Season" forms allow you to define a
season's name as well as it's beginning and end dates. Once defined,
you'll use it to assign teams to and thus define their playing season.
To create a season, you'll use the "Seasons" menu choice on the Admin
menu. When clicked, this choice brings up a Season listing page that displays the
seasons already defined so far. At the top of the page is a link titled "Add a
new Season to the list." Click this link to bring up the Season Information
form. The form has the following fields:
- Name:
Type the name of the new season here, up to 32 characters. This is the
name that will be displayed to the public so it should be descriptive but also
as short as possible. Your site's Team tab has a horizontal menu bar
that displays the currently selected season, league and team in separate drop
down boxes. Since these all must fit within the width of the page, it's
best to keep names as short as possible.
- Start Date:
Enter the date on which the season will start. Use the form - "MM/DD/YYYY"
to specify the date.
- Finish Date:
Enter the date after which the season will be over. Again, use the
form - "MM/DD/YYYY" to specify the date.
Leagues:
Your organization probably has some sort of league (or division) structure that you'll
need to define before you start creating teams on the web site. The structure can be
as simple as just a House and a Travel league or far more complicated with many leagues,
sub-divisions, and even sub-sub-divisions if you like.
A simple structure might look like this:
House League
Team 1
Team 2
..
Travel League
Team 1
Team 2
..
A more complex organization might look like the following:
League 1
Division 1
Subdivision 1
Team 1
Team 2
..
Subdivision 2
Sub-Subdivision
Team 1
Team 2
..
Division 2
..
League 2
Etc.
As you can see, you can create a structure of any complexity. If your association
plays more than one sport, you might substitute the different sports for the leagues shown
above. Likewise, if you're setting up a regional club web site, you might use towns
or individual clubs for the leagues and their own leagues as divisions and
subdivisions. There's no limit to the complexity of the structures you can create,
nor are there any limits on the number of teams you can define within the structures.
To create leagues, you'll use the "Teams" menu choice on the Admin
menu. When clicked, this choice brings up a league and team listing page that displays the
leagues already defined so far. At the top of the page is a link titled "Add a
new league to the list." Click this link to bring up the League Information
form. The form has the following fields:
After you submit the form above, the new league will appear on the listing page, and
you can click it to edit it or press the Delete button to the right of the name to delete
the league. If you change your mind about the structure, you can always go back and
reassign the parent of a league to any other league. If you've already created
sub-leagues or teams that are children of the league, they will move with the parent
league. However, in the above case, you cannot delete the parent league until all
the child leagues and teams have been reassigned or deleted themselves.
Teams:
Teams are the heart of your organization. Now that you've defined the
league structure of your club as documented above, you can start
setting up your teams. To define teams, click the "Teams" choice on the
Admin menu. This will bring up the Team Listing page. This page will show the
leagues you've already defined with their teams listed under each. At first, there
won't be any teams displayed, of course, but you can click the link titled "Add a new
team to the list" to bring up a Team Information form. The form has the
following fields: General
- Name:
Use this field to specify the name of the team, up to 32 characters. -
Season:
Each team exists for a set season only. That is, you can define a season as being
within some date range, such as "3/1/2002" through "6/1/2002"; the
team exists for this period of time. Next season, you'll define another team
(probably with the same name). This way, each team is preserved in time along with
all its associated data, such as roster and game results. In the future, you'll be
able to go back in time and display data from previous seasons for comparison's sake or
just for fun. Season's don't have to be annual. You could have both spring and
fall seasons. You can also have pre-season tryout or evaluation teams that only
exist for a short period before the playing season begins.
Select the desired season name from the drop down list. To create or
modify a season, see Seasons as documented earlier in
this document.
If you've already defined another team, this field will default to the season
of the previously defined team.
- Division/League:
You can set your team's parent league here. The list box will display all the
leagues defined so far, and you can click on any one to set the parent league.
- Menu Position:
By entering number in this field, you can determine the order in
which your Teams appear on this page and in the initial list. If no number
is entered, the order of the teams will be ordered alphabetically.
- Power Rating:
This number can be used to assign
a rating number to each of your teams. When calculating standings, you can
choose to use the Power Ratings of Losing Opponents as a tie breaker.
- Nickname:
Type your team's nickname here or optionally a sponsor name. The name you
enter will appear
on all team pages as part of the team name. This field is optional. That is,
you don't have to enter anything here, but if you do, it's a great way to get sponsor
recognition. Alternatively, you can choose a sponsor from the list of
available sponsors for your club using the list box below.
- Outside League/Parent Team:
If your organization is part of a larger LeagueAthletics.com hosted "Parent"
website and has selected that league in the Association section, this will
be visible to you. The name of the Parent League will be visible along with
a drop down window of team choices. Select your corresponding team on this
list. Keep in mind that your team may not be named exactly as you've created
it on your site. This list is generated from the parent site and your team
name will appear as it does on that site. It will not affect the team name
that you have created on your site.
- Picture:
You can optionally upload a team photo using this field. To upload a picture, enter
the path and name of the file on your computer or use the Browse button to the right to
find the file. When the form is submitted, your picture will be uploaded to the
site, and a thumbnail will be displayed on the team's roster page that when clicked will
bring up the full-sized image. Note that pictures wider than 580 pixels will be
resized to that width, and pictures taller than 600 pixels will be resized to that height.
Security
- Public:
By checking this box, the team will be available to be selected by the
General Public. If un-checked, the team's information will be available only
to Admins.
- Show Management:
Check this box to have the team's coaches and managers contact information
displayed on the team's Bulletins page. While this information is also
displayed on the team's Roster page, you may want to make it visible to the
general public instead of just club members. This might be the case if
you make game arrangements with other teams outside your organization and you
want their managers to be able to locate and contact you.
- Manager's Password:
Each of your teams can be assigned a manager's password that allows its users
to enter the admin area and perform a limited set of tasks. These
include entering team bulletins, game results, general events, facility
information, and upload pictures and documents, and optionally perform
scheduling tasks (see below). However, when using an individual team
manager's password, the user can only perform these tasks for that team or
those teams that use the same password.
- Team Password:
Each of your teams can be assigned a password that members can use to access
its roster and documents area. If a password is assigned either here or
on your site's Security page, visitors
will be prompted for the password before they can access these pages.
The Roster password specified on the Security page can be used globally for
all teams while a password entered here will override it. If no password
is entered here or on the Security page, access to the Roster and Team
Documents pages will be unrestricted.
- Prompt:
Optionally, you can enter a phrase or clue to help team members enter
the TEAM password.
Scheduling
- Alias:
This optional field can be used to specify an alternate name for the team
that would appear in imported game schedules. When you use the
Game
Import feature there needs to be a unique name for each team. Since many
clubs use the same name in different leagues or divisions (like "Yankees" in
both Major and Minor leagues for example), the Alias provides a place for a
more targeted name like "MajorYankees" and "MinorYankees". When importing
games, the program first looks for team Alias and then selects the most
current one if there is more than one match (as there might be from a team in
a previous season). If no Alias is found, it looks for the team's display name
and again chooses the latest one. So, the Aliases you use only have to be
unique among a single season's teams, UNLESS your season's overlap in which
case, only the ones associated with the season with the later end date would
be selected. If however your team names are already unique, there is no
need to use this field.
- Schedule through:
Use this field to specify how far into the future to display the team's schedule. If
you're still roughing in your game calendar, you may want to limit what the public can see
using this field. This way, there won't be a lot of confusion as things are
finalized. Also, some leagues publish their schedules a month or so at a time.
This feature allows you to show the public what's done so far while continuing to work on
the rest of the schedule. Note that even though the public won't be able to see any
events after the date you enter here on individual team schedule pages, you as an
administrator will. As long as you've logged into the Admin area, you'll be able to
see all the events scheduled for any team regardless of the date set here. See the
Schedules section later in this document for an overview of
scheduling.
- Schedule is Live:
When this field is checked off, any changes that are made to the team's schedule will
cause an automatic email notification to be sent out to all team members and their
parents. Again, if you're still roughing things in, you'll want to leave this field
unchecked so as not to bombard your members with lots of changes before the schedule is
actually complete. See the Schedules section later in this
document for an overview of scheduling.
Note: Simply setting the Live attribute or the Publish Through
date does not cause emails to go out for events that would be covered by the
new settings. This is on purpose in order to not overwhelm members with
massive emails about all the additions and deletions. When doing mass
additions, updates or deletions (via either an Import or manually entering a
new schedule via New Event and editing it on-line) turn the Live feature off
by either setting the Publish Through date appropriately or turning of the
Live attribute itself. Import the schedule, turn the Live feature back on and
then send out a broadcast news item or team bulletin announcing the update and
referring folks to their schedule page on the website. The Live emails are
intended to keep folks informed of incremental changes to schedules they have
already seen and possibly printed or whatever. In the beginning of the season,
it's probably best not to use the Live feature when you're first publishing
the schedule but use regular broadcast facilities instead.
- Manager Scheduling:
You can choose to allow team managers to schedule games for a team and/or edit
information for any existing by checking
one or both of these options. When checked, The "Manager can schedule new
games" box will allow managers access to the Scheduling menu choices
on the admin menu and can perform any scheduling task. If the "Managers
can edit existing games" selection is checked, managers will only be able to
edit existing games through the team's schedule or the Master Calendar in
the Admin area. If the manager
uses an individual team password mentioned above, they can only schedule
events for their team or teams that use the same password.
- Email:
The email address entered in this field will automatically be notified
if a game is scheduled with this team. This field is optional.
Home
- Home Fields:
Optionally, you may select one or more "Home" field(s) that the team
plays on. In order to select multiple facilities, use CTRL-click. This
is specifically for organizations using the LeagueAthletics.com
scheduling program.
Rosters
- Public Roster:
When checked, a no-contact roster will be available to the General Public.
This roster will contain the Name, Position and Jersey number of the player
only. Optionally, you may choose to show only the first initial of the
player's last name. For example, John Smith would appear as John S. When
selected, this will apply to the Public Roster as well as Statistics, if
selected.
- Hide Birthdays:
When checked, team member's birthday will be hidden from the full
contact roster. Admins and Team Managers will still have access when logged
Statistics- Show
Results Page:
When checked, a Results page will be available from the Teams area. The
Results page will include links to individual game summaries. Admins with
appropriate rights, including Managers, will be able to enter results from
this page as well, when logged in.
- Player Statistics:
Here, you can select the appropriate setting for your team's statistics.
The choices include: Not Available (selected if you are not keeping
statistics for the team), Show to Managers (Admins) only (available only to
logged in Admins and Managers), Show to Team Members Only (Password
protected) and Available to the Public. Note: for Baseball clubs using the
Little League Pitchers Report, do not select "Not Available". One of the
"Available" options must be selected.
Sponsors
- Sponsor(s):
If you've already defined sponsors through the Sponsors form and they have
their "Team Sponsor" attribute checked, they will be available for
selection in this list as this team's sponsor. Click any of the
sponsor's name to select them. Press and hold the Ctrl key while
clicking others if you want to select more than one or de-select. Note that
the sponsors selection box will not appear if you haven't entered any club
sponsors.
When you select sponsors for a team, their logo or name will be displayed on
all team pages. They'll be at the top of the Bulletins page and at the bottom
of all others, including the printable versions. If there is no logo file for
a sponsor, there will be a text link with their name instead. In addition, the
page top banner will exclusively display the current team's sponsor rather
than cycle through all club sponsor banners. That is until they choose another
team or navigate to another tab.
You can also Import Team data from a spreadsheet. This will allow you to
easily create your teams in bulk or make updates to existing teams in bulk.
Importing Team Information:
You can import team information from a spreadsheet file rather than
entering it all by hand using the Member Information form mentioned above. To
do this, you'll need to create a spreadsheet file containing a row for each team
and columns across for each piece of information you wish to import. The file
you create must be saved as a comma separated value (.CSV) file. This file type
can be generated from Excel using the Save As dialog box. To perform the
actual import see the link towards the top of the Division & Teams page.
You can also use a file that was downloaded from the site using the "Export
Team Data" report, also found at the top of the Division & Teams page. These
files can be directly re-imported after downloading. In this way, the
downloaded data can become a backup for your site's member data that can later
be restored by simply re-importing it should something go wrong with the data on
the website. You can also use the downloaded data to make changes en mass and
then re-import the changes.
The information you can include in the import file is specified below.
Note that all columns are optional except for the First and Last name columns.
The first line of the file must contain the names of the columns as specified
below. The order they are encountered in the first line specifies the
column order for all subsequent data in the file.
Data Type /
Column Heading |
Notes |
Team_ID |
Internal database record ID from the
LeagueAthletics.com database. These numbers should only come from
the Export Team Data report from the website and are used to identify
each team's existing data record. If these numbers are not present, the
software will attempt to match existing team data based on name and
division/league. If no match is found, a new record will be created. |
League/Division |
Designates the Division of the team.
Must start with > and use > to show hierarchy - i.e.
">League>Division>Team" |
Team_Name |
Required - Team Name |
Nickname |
Optional |
Alias |
Optional - used for importing schedules |
Position |
Optional - used to order teams |
Public_Roster |
Yes - to show a no-contact Roster
available to the Public |
LastInitial |
Yes - to show only First name, Last
Initial on Public Roster |
Hide_Birthdays |
Yes - to hide Birhdays on the Full
Contact Roster |
Show_Management |
Yes/No - If "Yes", show management (coach(s), team manager(s), etc)
"Public" contact information on the team's Bulletins page. |
Live_Schedule |
Yes/No - If "Yes", schedule changes are e-mailed to all
affected team members and their parents. |
Email |
If another manager schedules a game with this team, notify this email address. |
Team_Password |
Restricts view of roster to only team
members |
Manager_Password |
Provides specific Admin rights to
Password holder |
TeamType |
SOCCER ONLY - |
Gender |
SOCCER ONLY
("M" or "F") |
AgeGroup |
SOCCER ONLY - Usually a "U" group
such as "U-11" |
League |
SOCCER ONLY |
SeasonalYear |
SOCCER ONLY - MUST start with 4
numeric characters i.e. 2009 Spring |
HomeShirt |
SOCCER ONLY - Color |
HomePants |
SOCCER ONLY - Color |
HomeSocks |
SOCCER ONLY - Color |
AwayShirt |
SOCCER ONLY - Color |
AwayPants |
SOCCER ONLY - Color |
AwaySocks |
SOCCER ONLY - Color |
Note: The first row of data must be contain the names of the
columns as specified above.
Rosters::
Team rosters can be created by using this simple to use tool. Once the below
fields are entered, the pool of participants is narrowed to a specific group.
Admins can then simply click on a participant to assign them to a team.
- Select a Team::
First, you must select an available season from the drop down menu. Next,
select a team from the resulting drop down menu. This is the team whose
roster you will create.
- Select Participants:
From the drop down menu, select a group of participants to be available to
choose from. If this is the first team you are creating a roster for you
should select "All participants". Select "Currently Unassigned" for all
subsequent rosters.
- Type:
You can select from "All" members, which includes parents as well as
players, or "Players Only" from the drop down list.
- Of Gender:
If you have both female and male participants to choose from, you can limit
your roster to "Male", "Female" or "Any".
- Born Between:
Use these fields to filter members by age. The field to the left is the low
birthday and the one to the right is the high limit.
- Between Grades:
Use these fields to specify members whose school grade is between the
numbers you enter here. Kindergarten is specified with a "0". For pre-k use
"-1".
- Registered in:
Select the program from the drop down menu that the participants are
registered in. If you wish to select all participants select "None".
- Notes Contains:
This selection is optional. Enter any keywords that you would like the
roster tool to search for in the notes field. For example, if you are
looking for left handed pitchers you can enter "left" in this field. This
tool will work only if you have entered notes in the members information.
Facilities:
Facilities are the places you play your practices, games, or tournaments. These
must be defined before you begin scheduling on the site, since each event must take place
somewhere. Your web site can also provide visitors with useful information about
these facilities, such as location, maps and driving directions, and comments. These
will be greatly appreciated by new players and especially their parents. Facilities
are displayed for visitors on the Sport Name menu with the name you chose for facilities
using the Association form, such as "Field," "Rink," or
"Court."
To enter a facility, click the "Facilities" choice on the Admin menu.
This will bring up a list of facilities already entered. You can click any
facility's name to edit its information or click the delete button to delete it. To
add a new facility, click the "Add a new facility to the list" link at the top
of the page. This will bring up the Facility Information form with the following
fields:
- Name:
Type the name of the facility, up to 16 characters. This should be just the
name. You don't have to include the city as this information is entered below and
also displayed on listings.
- Alias:
This optional field can be used to specify an alternate name for the
facility that would appear in imported game schedules. When you use the
Game Import feature and facility names within your import file are not the
same as the Name field above, use this field to specify the alias name.
When your schedule is imported, the import utility will first try to match
facility names in the import file to the Alias field. If this field is
blank, the utility will then try to match the Name field. If no match is
found, an error will be reported and the particular game will not be imported.
- URL:
Optionally enter the address of another web page you'd like this page to be
redirected to when this facility is clicked, on any schedule or listing.
- Address:
The address is optional, but if given, it will cause a Map button to be displayed for the
facility on its Detail page. If the user presses it, a detailed map shows the
location given by the address. If you're not sure of the number, just use the street
where people park and perhaps guess at the number until the map is close enough.
- City, State and Zip:
The city and state are not optional and must be entered for listings to be displayed
properly. Visitors can choose to sort the list of facilities by either the facility
name or its location. This makes it easy to find what they're looking for whether
they know the name or location. Also, a city map can be displayed for the visitor
using the information you enter here.
Note: for Canadian addresses, enter the province as an abbreviation in
the State field and enter the country in the next field.
Canadian Province Abbreviations:
Alberta |
AB |
British Columbia |
BC |
Manitoba |
MB |
New Brunswick |
NB |
Newfoundland
and Labrador |
NL |
Northwest
Territories |
NT |
Nova Scotia |
NS |
Nunavut |
NU |
Ontario |
ON |
Prince Edward
Island |
PE |
Quebec |
QC |
Saskatchewan |
SK |
Yukon |
YT |
- Country:
Optionally enter the name of the country in this field. If left
blank, the United States is assumed. For Canadian addresses, you must
enter "Canada" here in order for the pop up maps to work correctly.
- Home:
This check box is used to designate a home facility - a local place where your association
plays home games. Facilities designated as Home will appear at the top of scheduling
lists in order to make it easier to find them when scheduling games.
- Drive Time:
Use this optional field to give local visitors an estimate of how long it takes to get to
the facility from some central location. This can be invaluable information for team
members in helping them arrive on time for games and practices.
- Phone #:
Some facilities, such as ice rinks and indoor basketball courts, have phone numbers that
members may want to call to inquire about the facility or games taking place there.
You can optionally enter this information here.
- Comments:
Enter any comments about the facility here, such as its usual condition, parking or
seating arrangements, or whatever you like, up to 50 characters.
- Directions:
This field is optional, but members (especially new members) will greatly appreciate
whatever information you can provide here. This is a free-form field where you can
enter as much information as you like. You can even include HTML formatting tags in
your text like "<b>Bold</b>" or "<i>Italic</i>"
or even a hyperlink like: "<a href='http://RinkWebSite.com'>Rink Web Site</a>".
- Map File:
You can optionally upload your own map file to the site using this field. To upload
a map, enter the path and name of the file on your computer or use the Browse button to
the right to find the file. Once the form is submitted, the map will be displayed on
the facility's Detail page along with the other information you enter here.
NOTE: Optionally, you may choose to
mark a facility as "Closed", "Open", "TBD/CHECK" or "N/A". This can be done on the main
Facility page (this page may be called "Rinks", "Fields", "Courts" or whatever
you have entered as you
Generic Facility Name) selection on
your home page when logged in as an Admin.
When a facility is marked as
"CLOSED", ALL games at the selected
facility will be "CANCELLED". If the affected teams' schedule is set to "Live" then
an email will be generated, alerting all affected members of the schedule
change. This will only affect games scheduled between the time the facility is
closed and the remainder of that day.
When a facilty is set to
"TBD/CHECK", it will have no affect on the games scheduled at the facility,
rather, this is simply a visual message letting visitor know that a decision has
not been made or that they should check their individual team's schedule.

At the end of each day, the status for a CLOSED facility will be reset to
"N/A", so if the facility needs to be closed on consecutive days or if the facility
needs to be listed as "OPEN", the status will need to be updated. You may also
choose to add a "Today's Field Status" section to the right column of your home
page, if applicable. This tool will show the status of all facilities that are
listed as "OPEN" or "CLOSED". For more information on adding tools to the right
column of your home page,
CLICK HERE.

Schedules:
Schedules are what your organization is really all about. They are probably the
most important pieces of information you can put on you site; most visitors will come for
them. Schedules are visible to the public by individual teams. Each team will
have its own listing showing just their games and practices with dates, times, locations,
opponents (if any), and comments. Games that have changed since a visitor's last
visit are shown in red to distinguish them. Schedule changes can be automatically
emailed to all affected team members and their parents whenever they are made if you so
designate on individual team forms. See "Schedule is Live"
in the previous "Teams" section. You can also publish you schedule
incrementally through dates you specify on individual team forms. See "Schedule Through" in the previous "Teams"
section. Note that in the following documentation, the generic word
"Event" refers to any kind of game or practice.
Before you can start creating your schedules, you must complete the following tasks:
- All leagues must be defined. See the Leagues chapter
earlier in this document.
- Teams must also be defined for the coming season. See the Teams
chapter earlier in this document.
- Facilities must be entered with at least their name, city, and state. See the Facilities chapter earlier in this document.
Once the above have been completed, you're ready to begin entering your schedule on the
site. To this end, there are several tools at your disposal:
- A yearly calendar where you can select events for editing by
date.
- A weekly calendar where the master schedule is displayed for an
individual week. Individual events can be selected for editing or deleting from this
schedule.
- The Event Information form where you actually define or edit the
various aspects of an event, such as date, times, location, and the teams involved.
- Recurring event generator that can be used to create a series
of regularly scheduled games or practices.
- Facilities schedule report that list all events for a
particular facility. This is useful for determining if a facility is over- or
under-booked.
To create your schedule, you'll typically begin by entering events via the Event
Information form or the Recurring event generator. These tools are described in
detail in the following chapters.
Adding a new event:
As mentioned previously, you begin scheduling by adding events. To do this, click
the "New Event" choice on the Admin menu. This will bring up the Event
Information form where you can enter the following information:
- Date:
Enter the date of the event using the form "mm/dd/yyyy" or
"mm-dd-yyyy." Note: This field will default to the date that was last
entered using this form.
- Start:
Enter the start time of the event using the form "hh:mm." If the time is
in the morning, this is all that's needed. If it's in the afternoon, you need to add
a "p" to the end or use 24-hour time instead. Note: This field will
default to the start time that was last entered on this form.
- Finish:
Enter the time the event is over using the same form as above, that is,
"hh:mm." Again, If the time is in the morning, this is all that's
needed. If it's in the afternoon, you need to add a "p" to the end or use
24- hour time instead.
- Season:
Select the appropriate season from the drop-down list. This will
populate the "Team" and "Opponent" drop-downs with only teams from the
selected season.
- Team:
Select the name of the home team for the event from the drop-down list of association
teams that have already been defined. See the Teams chapter for
information about adding teams. If this is an inter-organizational event, such as a
house game or practice, you can select the away team from the Home Opponent list
below. Please do not re-enter this event for opponents from your own
organization. The web site will break out individual team schedules for you based on
the master schedule. If you enter a home team and a home opponent on this form and
submit it, the event will appear on the schedules of both teams.
Also note that you should NOT select league names from the list. These are
designated with an asterisk at the beginning of their names. They are here only to
distinguish the various teams defined for your organization.
- Or Winner/Loser of Game #:
Optionally enter the game ID of a preceding game in an elimination series
bracket. The ID must be the internal database ID like the one displayed
at the top of this form (if an existing game). You can also get a game's
ID by moving your mouse over a game's edit icon on any schedule. Your
browser's status bar will display the link which contains the ID number.
If you are creating a single elimination tournament, select winner from the
drop down window. If you are creating a double elimination bracket you have
the option of selecting the winner or loser of a previous game.
See the chapter on Brackets for information about setting up a playoff
elimination series.
- Location:
Select the location of the event from the drop-down list. See the Facilities chapter for information about adding facilities.
- Category:
Select the category of the event. The standard categories built into the site
are "Tryout," "Practice," and "Game." You can add to
this list by entering new categories in the Other field to the right of the
"Category" list box.
- Other (Category):
If the category you want is not in the list box mentioned above, you can enter your own
category by typing it into this field. After you submit this form, whatever you
typed here will show up in the "Category" list on subsequent forms. Be
careful when adding new categories. If you create too many, the list will be hard to
understand and navigate. If you later decide to eliminate a category that you've
added, it won't be easy. First, you'll have to find all events that use the
category, and then either change or delete them all. This can be a very daunting
task so think carefully about adding new categories.
Also, a very important note to observe is that game results are only shown for events that
have the words "game" or "tournament" somewhere in their names.
Everything else is ignored so be sure to include one of these words somewhere in your new
category names if you want them to show up on results pages.
- Notes:
Use this field to enter event notes for the event. You're limited to 32 characters,
but you should try to keep the notes as brief as possible as they will cause schedules to
expand in width by the length of whatever text you type here. If you add too much
data, team schedules may end up being wider than can be printed on standard paper.
- Opponent:
If this is an inter-league (or association) event, such as a "house" game or
practice, select an opponent team from the list of association teams. As noted above
under Team, you should not re-enter this event as a separate
event for this team. The web site will break out individual team schedules for you
based on the master schedule. If you enter a home team and a home opponent on this
form and submit it, the event will appear on the schedules of both teams.
- Outside (Opponent):
Select the name of an outside (non-association) opponent from the list of previously
entered opponents. If the opponent is not in the list, you can use the Other field
to the right of this one to enter new outside (or travel) opponents.
- Other (Opponent):
Use this field to enter new outside (travel) opponents. Names you enter here will
appear in the "Travel" list in subsequent forms. Be careful when adding
new opponents here. If possible, use as generic a name as possible for each.
For instance, it's probably best to use the name of the opponent's club or town alone,
rather than a specific team. This way, you can reuse the opponent name for various
league or division games with different teams within your organization. Otherwise,
you'll end up with a large amount of opponents that are very hard to understand and
navigate. For instance, it's probably enough to know that your "Squirt"
team is playing "Lancaster." You don't need to specify "Lancaster -
Squirts." This way, "Lancaster" can be used to designate other
teams as well, such as "Lancaster" PeeWees, etc. In this situation, you'll
only have one "Lancaster" opponent name in your opponent list that is used for
several association teams.
- Officials (optional):
Once you have entered members as officials, this section will appear with a
list of all officials in your database. You can select the checkbox to the
left of their name (for officials with multiple positions assigned, you can
select their position from a drop down window) and the official will be
assigned to the game.
Note: Officials will automatically be emailed a reminder of their
assignment, at minimum, 24 hours prior to their assignment.
Create a Schedule
The LeagueAthletics.com Scheduling module will generate a schedule based on
the parameters entered in this section. The system can automatically create
a practice schedule for a given set of teams, a balanced "Round-Robin" type schedule - where each selected team plays
each other a specified number of times, a "Best Fit" if there isn't sufficient
time for full round robins, a tournament series where multiple games are played
each day - or a Single-Elimination tournament - in
which case, Tournament Brackets will be created and appear in each selected
team's area. This service is designed for organizations that need to
create/generate their own schedules. Organizations that receive their schedule
from a third party or create their schedule offline should use either our Import
or New Games tool to enter schedules into the site.
Let's get started...
First, on the initial page, you will have access to the Schedule Rules
Control Panel. This view will allow you to Add a new Rule or change an existing
rule. If there are no rules that have been created, the control panel will
appear with only an "ADD RULE" button as shown below:

Otherwise, if rules have already been established and saved, the
control panel will appear as a listing of these previously saved rules along
with additional control options. See below:

-
Add Rule - This button will always be available from
the Scheduling Control Panel. Click this button when adding a new rule.
- Clone Rule - If you are creating multiple, similar rules, this
tool can be a time saver. Simply select the rule that you wish to copy and
press this button. A new rule will be created, with the same name and
parameters as the one selected. There will be a number after the new rule
indicating the number of times that the rule has been cloned. See the
example below:
-
Edit/Generate - This tool will allow you to make
changes to an existing rule that has been previously saved. Optionally, you
can also select to Generate the schedule from the Edit view.
-
Show Events - By selecting a rule and then clicking
this button, you can view the events that been created using this rule.
-
Delete Rule - Deletes the selected rule.
-
Delete Events - Deletes all events that were created
by the selected rule.
Creating/Editing a Rule
If you have selected to "Add a New Rule" or to Edit and existing
Rule, the resulting screen (shown below) will allow you to create or edit
the parameters of the scheduling rule - Who, What, Where , When and How.

WHO
-
Rule Name:
This should easily identify your rule to other Administrators with
scheduling rights. Since you can have several rules created on the same
site, you may want to make this name descriptive and unique from other rule
names.
-
Teams:
For this entry, you'll first need to select the appropriate season. This
entry will default to the current season. In the event that there is not a
season that is current, the next future season - determined by Start date
will be selected by default.
After you have selected the season, All available teams within that season
will be available for you to select. Use "CTRL" + Click to select multiple
teams to use within the schedule. Alternatively, you can quickly select a
range of teams by first clicking the top or bottom team of the range, then
scrolling to the other end and while holding down the Shift key, click the
opposite end team. This will highlight and select all the team in
between.
WHAT
WHERE
-
Locations:
From the list of Facilities provided, select the location(s) where the
scheduled events are to be played. Use CTRL+click to select/de-select
multiple facilities or use Shift-click to select a range of facilities.
If the various teams have "Home" facilities defined on their team forms, the
system will try to assign the home team to one of these, if it's also
highlighted above. If home teams have not been defined or a team's
home facility isn't selected here, the system will simply assign the game to
the next available location selected above. You may also choose
whether to distribute the games evenly in this situation throughout all
facilities or to fill a facility before moving on to the next selected one.
The later option may be useful for filling facilities with games of the same
age group so that referees don't have to travel as much to officiate at
events they are qualified for.
Note that the system will use a combination of the times specified below and
those specified on each facility's information form (if any) as well as any
existing schedule data in order to avoid conflicts. You can also
specify the number of simultaneous events that can occur at a facility on
its information form.
If no venues are selected, all generated events will
have their location and time listed as TBD. This may be helpful with larger
programs that allow the home team to determine where their games are played.
WHEN
-
Beginning On/Through:
Enter the date that you want the schedule to start being generated on
and the date that you want the schedule to be generated through. If
the start date does not fall on a weekday specified below, the next
available date will be used instead. Depending on other parameters
selected, the last playing date may fall short of the end date specified
here. Similarly, events may need to be scheduled after the end date as
well depending on other constraints of the schedule.
-
Begin Events:
Use this field to specify odd start times for events. Enter the number
of minutes after the hour to begin each event.
-
Duration:
Enter the approximate time for each game/event. All times must be
entered in terms of minutes - for example, one and a half hours should be
entered a 90 (minutes). Only numeric characters will be accepted.
-
General Availability:
On the Grid provided, you can create a General Availability for the
selected facilities. Select the days and times that games are generally
available to be played on. Keep in mind that the availability for individual
facilities, if entered will override these settings. If available days and
times are listed both here and with the individual facility, schedules will
be created only where they overlap.
-
Except From:
Enter a time span that the facility may be unavailable - i.e. holidays,
previously scheduled tournaments, etc. You can enter as many of these
blackout periods as you like. As you enter new ones, extra blank ones
will appear. Note that you can also specify location specific blackout
times on any facility's information form.
HOW
After you have set the parameters of the scheduling rule, you
can choose to save the rule for future use or, optionally to generate the
schedule when saving.

Don't be afraid to experiment with the scheduling system as it's
easy to delete an entire generated series of events or overwrite them by
subsequently regenerating the schedule. You won't loose or overwrite
schedule data entered elsewhere and the system won't overbook any of your
facilities, regardless of how other events are generated.
Adding recurring
events:
The Recurring Event tool makes it possible to easily add a series of events that occur
on a recurring basis. If your teams have regular practices or games, this can save
you lots of time setting up your schedule. A word of caution: You'll need to be
careful when using this tool. If you make a mistake and generate a bunch of faulty
events, you'll have to delete them one by one. There is no mass delete or undo tool
available on the site.
To use the Recurring Event tool, click the "Recurring" choice on the Admin
menu. This will bring up the Recurring Event form where you'll need to fill in the
following information:
- Every:
The two fields at the top of the form allow you to specify how often the events
occur. The first field is where you type the frequency as a number. The second
lets you select the units of the frequency. If, for instance, your practice occurs
every two weeks at a certain field, you would type a "2" in the first field and
then select "Week(s)" from the drop-down list.
- Date Range:
Use these two fields to specify when to start and stop generating events. The first
field specifies the date to start generating events and the second specifies when to
stop. Enter dates using the form "mm/dd/yyyy" or "mm-dd-yyyy."
- Time:
Enter the start and finish times for the event using the form "hh:mm." If
the time is in the morning, this is all that's needed. If it's in the afternoon, you
need to add a "p" to the end or use 24-hour time instead.
- Team:
Select the name of the team that will have the regularly scheduled practice or game from
the drop-down list. Note: Please don't select league names from the list.
These are designated with an asterisk at the beginning of their names. They are here
only to distinguish the various teams defined for your organization and should not be
selected as a team.
- Opponent:
Optionally select the name of an opponent team if the team selected above regularly plays
another team. Note that only association teams are listed here. Leave the
field with the default "NA" choice to generate events with blank
opponents. These can be filled in later using the Event Information
form. Note: Please don't select league names from the list. These are
designated with an asterisk at the beginning of their names. They are here only to
distinguish the various teams defined for your organization and should not be selected as
a team.
- Location:
Select the location of the event from the drop-down list. See the Facilities chapter for information about adding facilities.
- Category:
Select the type (or category) of the event from the drop-down list of event categories.
- Notes:
Use this field to enter any notes about the event up to 32 characters.
Once you complete the form and press the Submit button, the events within the date
range will be created. You can view and edit them using the Calendar
and Event Information form covered elsewhere in this document.
Example: To generate alternating practices, where a team plays on one field one
week and another the following week, use the Recurring form tool twice. On the first
form, enter a "2" in the first field ("Every") and select
"Week(s)" from the drop down. Next enter the date range and times, and
then select the first playing field from the Location drop-down. Submit the form to
generate the events for the first playing field. Next, invoke the Recurring Event
form again. Again enter a two-week frequency and fill in the dates starting with the
first event at the second playing field. Fill in the remainder of the form fields
and select the second playing field from the drop-down list. When you submit the
form, you'll generate the remainder of the alternating events.
Game calendar and weekly
schedules:
The game calendar displays a yearly calendar with dates with scheduled events
highlighted for your reference. Weekends are highlighted in darker colors and are on
the right side of each month's calendar. Weeks always start on Mondays. To
change to a different year, select it from the Year drop-down list at the top of the
page. You can click any date to bring up the weekly schedule and move to the
selected date.
The weekly master schedule shows all the events for a given week. The date range
is displayed at the top and bottom of the page with links to the left and right for moving
to the previous and next weeks respectively. There are also links at the top and
bottom for creating new games and for creating a printable version of the page without
borders. The body of the page lists all the events broken down by day and
location. Each event has an Edit button to its left and a Delete button on its right
side. If you click the Edit button, the Event Information form
will be displayed with the event's information ready for you to edit. You can use
the Delete button to remove an event from the schedule after being asked if you really
want to do this.
Event Maintenance:
This tool is a simple way for you to change the name of a specific event,
outside or non-league opponent, and facility name. When selected from the
drop-down window, the system will search for the specific event, opponent or
facility and change it to the current name that you have selected.
Note that in order to change a facility's name the you must add the new
facility in the "Facilities" section of the Admin area.
Facility
schedule report:
This report displays all the events currently scheduled for a particular
facility. This can be useful for determining if a facility is either over- or
under-booked. You'll be able to see all the playing times for each date listed in
order. This should make it easy to spot conflicts or gaps in the schedule.
To bring up the report for a particular facility, click the "Facility" choice
on the Admin menu. This will bring up a simple form where you select the name of the
facility from a drop-down list and press the Submit button. Once you do this, the
report will be displayed.
The report shows the facility's name and location at the top along with a link for
creating a new game. The body of the report shows all the events broken down by date
and time. Each event has an Edit button to its left and a Delete button on its right
side. If you click the Edit button, the Event Information form
will be displayed with the event's information ready for you to edit. You can use
the Delete button to remove an event from the schedule after being asked if you really
want to do this.
Importing events:
If you use a spreadsheet or third party program to create schedules, or if
your club's game scheduling is done by an outside organization, it's possible to
import those schedules in one of several predetermined file formats. The
first file type is LeagueAthletics.com's own standard for importing and the
others are special built formats used to import data from specific
organizations. For the purposes of this documentation, we will only
discuss the layout of the standard format. If your organization would like
a custom format supported, please contact LeagueAthletics.com for pricing and
availability.
To import an event file, first specify the file type by selecting from the
File Type drop down list. Second, specify the name of the file on your
local computer by pressing the Browse button and locating the file. After
you press Submit, the file will be read and processed. If there are any
errors in the data, they will be flagged on the resulting page along with the
number of events actually imported. If you find errors, you can correct
them and re-import the file again.
If any of the affected teams have Live schedules
and the dates of the imported events are prior to the team's
Publish date, an email will be generated for each
member of each team listing all the relevant imported events along with the
additions, deletions or changes made. If you subsequently re-import the
same events, no emails will be generated unless an event has changed in some way
(new date, time location, etc.).
A LeagueAthletics.com Standard Event File consists of any number of lines of
data where each line defines an event consisting of data fields separated by
commas. An Excel template file can be downloaded by
clicking here (special thanks to Bill Kamenides
for contributing this). The field order and meaning is as follows:
- Club ID/Unique identifier: This can be any number or combination of
numbers and letters up to 64 characters that make up a unique identifier for the event. This
field is used to match existing records when re-importing data or when
importing changed data. As long as these serial numbers stay unique,
data can be re-imported over and over without duplicating existing events. If
this column is not entered, the system will automatically assign a unique
number to the event, by locating the largest value entered in the Game ID
field and increment it by 1.
- Event Date: This is the date the event occurs in the format
"MM/DD/YYYY" or "MM-DD-YYYY".
- Start Time: Time the event starts in the form "HH:MM AM (or
PM)" or "HH:MMa (or p)" or use 24 hour format. Alternately, you can
leave this field blank for an undetermined time.
- Finish time: The time the event is over. Use the same
format as above. If this field has been left blank, the system will default to
one hour after the start time.
- Team Name: The name of the home team participating in the
event. The name you use here must match either the Alias Name ( up to 64
characters) assigned
to a team (see Alias under Team
Information) or the actual name of the team (up to 32 characters).
- Facility Name: Enter the name of the facility where the event
will occur. The name you use here must match either the Alias Name (up
to 64 characters)
assigned to a facility (see Alias under
Facility Information) or the actual name of the
facility (up to 16 characters).
- Event Type: Specify the event type such as "Game" or
"Practice" using the same terms you use in your other scheduled events
(32 characters maximum).
If a new event type is encountered, it's name will be added to the list found
on Event Information forms.
- Opponent Name (optional): The name of any opponent for the
event. If you specify the name of another team within your organization,
it must match exactly with either the team's Alias (64 characters max) or its actual name
(32 characters max).
If no match is found, the name will be added to the list of travel opponents
(32 characters max).
See Opponents under Event
Information.
- Note (optional): Enter any extra information for the event
here such as comments, notes, etc. up to a maximum of 64 characters.
- Cancel (optional): This field can be used to either cancel or delete an existing
event with the same Unique ID. Insert the word "Cancel" in this field to
mark the event as cancelled or use "DELETE" instead to
delete it entirely.
Again, each line of the file contains an event. The fields that define
an event must be listed in the order shown above and must be separated by (but
cannot contain) a comma. The following is an example of what a Standard
Import File might look like:
1234, 10/2/2002, 9:00a, 9:50a, Bombers A, Mytown Rink, Game, Sharks A,,
1235, 10/2/2002, 10:00a, 10:50a, Bantam A, Mytown Rink, Practice,,Full
equipment,
1236, 10/3/2002, 7:00pm, 8:00pm, Squirt B, Out of Town Rink, Game, Bristol
Bulldogs, Tournament
1232, 10/1/2002, 3:30p, 4:10p, Peewee B, MyTown Rink, Practice,,,Cancel
. . .
. . .
If you use Microsoft Excel, you can create the data in a spreadsheet and save
it as a .CSV file. Excel will automatically separate each field with a
comma and put each row on a separate line. You can also read the same file
back again later to add or edit the data. Note however that the "Text File
Converters" for Excel must be installed in order for this to work. See
your Excel documentation for help installing File Converters.
After the file has been completed, you will be able to click a link to
download the file the file that you have just imported. This is especially
helpful if any changes were made to the unique game id or to the end time. This
modified file should be downloaded and saved. This is the file that should be
used if any changes are to be made to previously scheduled games via the game
import tool.
Export:
If you would like to export a schedule file for a particular date range,
simply enter a start date and an end date and click "Submit". The system will
prompt you to "Save" or "Open" a .csv file containing all games in the given
date range. Once the file is opened, you can add games or events and Import the
new file to the site.
Assigning Officials:
Members of the Officials team are unique members of your organization. Unlike
other members who are scheduled to games as part of a team, Officials are
scheduled to games as individuals, which can often be a difficult task. With the
LeagueAthletics.com system, you can overcome such scheduling obstacles as:
- Having the correct Officials assigned to the appropriate game
- Officials' availability
- Scheduling conflicts, including conflicts caused by transportation time from
one venue to another
- Reminding Officials of scheduled assignments.
When used to its fullest, the LeagueAthletics.com system allows
Administrators to create rules that specify the quantity of a specific
Officials' position for a specific "Game" type. Members assigned to the
Officials team can select days and times they are available to work and
optionally (at the discretion of the Administrator), assign themselves to games
they qualify for. Administrators can use these rules to assign Officials to
games based on their position and availability.
When determining Officials availability for a game, the system takes into account
the Official's general availability, as entered by the Official,
conflicting prior Official assignments as well as possible drive time conflicts
from one venue to another. If the Official is also a member/player on another
team in your club, the system will also take any scheduled game into account as
well. You, as an Administrator will have the ability to override these
availability issues, if you so desire.
In order to a take full advantage of this feature, we suggest the following:
- This feature will only work if you have Officials (Umpires, Referees,
etc.) in your database and assigned to the Officials team. It is best to
have them entered with as much information as possible, most importantly,
with a valid email address. If no email address is entered, your officials
will not be able to access the Officials Area. You may find out more about
entering members into your database by clicking
here.
- Make sure all team assignments on the Officials team are accurate. Only
eligible members, based on positions selected when creating a rule, will be
able to be assigned to a particular game. For example, if your rule calls
for 3 "Referees" then only those members with the position of "Referee" will
be eligible. If you have members on the Officials team with the position of
"Umpire" or no position at all, they will not be eligible to be assigned to
the game based on their position.
- Direct all of your officials to fill out their General Availability
form. By doing this, Officials can determine when they are available for
games and can eliminate possible scheduling conflicts. They can access this
form by signing into the Officials Area on you site's homepage with their
email address and password. If they have not needed to sign on previously,
have been just entered into your database, forgotten their password or are a
minor, the system instructs them to enter only an email address and will
send them a temporary password so long as the email address entered matches
an email address of a member that has been assigned to the Officials team.
All of the aforementioned will be able to change their password by using the
"Edit My Account" feature, if activated.
- Make sure that all Facility information is up to date with correct zip
code information and address, if possible. If you have a
multi-field/court/rink facility that you are listing as separate facilities,
such as "ABC Upper Field" and "ABC Lower Field" make sure that they have the
same address listed.
- You must have the Master Schedule tool activated on your homepage.
This can be done in the Admin area of your site. By default, all sites have
this feature activated when started.
This section will help you create rules for members of the Officials team.
Once completed, Officials will be able to assign themselves to games that they
qualify for based on the rules established in this section. Optionally you can
select not to have Officials assign themselves to games, in which case the rules
will help scheduling Administrators know what officials are available for what
games based on the rules established here.
Creating a Rule:
In order to use this feature fully, you must first create a rule or rules for
assigning Officials. This is done in the Official's Rules section of the Admin
area. On the initial page of this section, you can add a new rule or edit an
existing rule, by clicking on the "Add a new Rule" link or the name of the
existing rule, respectively. The resulting form includes the following fields:
- Rule Title:
This entry will allow you to give your rule a distinct name that will
identify it to yourself and other Administrators. This entry is limited to
64 characters. This title should be something descriptive such as "Reg_Season"
or "Playoffs".
- Description:
While this section is optional, it is suggested that you give your rule a
brief description. This will help identify the rule from the initial screen,
which will be especially helpful if you have several different rules and/or
several Administrators that may be creating or editing rules.
- Event Type:
Select the game type from the drop-down list. This list will include all
game types with events scheduled.
- Home Only:
Check this box if you only want this rule to apply to facilities listed as
"Where home games are played" for more on setting up facilities click here.
- Involving Teams in Division(s):
Select from the list of available divisions that you want this rule to apply
to. If you wish to include more than one division, use Ctrl+Click to select
multiple divisions. If no division has been selected, then the rule, by
default, will apply to all divisions/leagues.
Allow (Officials Team Members): Here, you can indicate the quantity of a specific position allowed for the
previously selected game types.
- Quant(ity):
Enter the number of specific Officials positions that you wish to allow
for this rule.
- Position:
Select the position on the Officials team that this rule applies to. All
positions on the Officials team will be available to select from.
- Allow Self Assign:
When this box is checked, members of the Officials
team will be allowed to assign themselves to position that they qualify for.
You can create as many position entries above as you like. For example,
you might allow one "Center Referee" and two "Referee" assignments for this game
type. Perhaps you'd only like Center Referees to be able to assign
themselves. As you add positions, new entries will become available.
Assigning an Official
If you have chosen not to allow Officials to assign themselves to games,
Officials will have to be assigned by an Administrator with rights to Assign
Officials. For more information on how to create Administration Passwords and
Rights, click here.
There are two ways that Officials can be assigned to a game by an Administrator:
- When using the New Game form in the Admin area of your site. At the bottom
of the form will be a list of ALL members of the Officials team, simply check
the box next to their name to assign them to a game. For members have been
assigned to multiple positions on the Officials team (i.e. Center Ref and
Line JudgeÂÂÂ) select from the drop down next to their name to assign them.
Assigning Officials using this method does not take your rules into account.
- When signed in as an Admin, go to the Master Schedule selection located on
your home page. In the Officials (Ofl) column of each game type that a rule has
been created for, you will see a color-coded button with either a number and a
letter or the word AssignedÂÂÂ. The colors are as follows:
- Red - means that no assignments have been made to this particular
game. For example a Red button with "3R" in it means that the rule
called for 3 Referees and none have been assigned to the game as of yet.
- Yellow - means that assignments have been made but the quantity
specified in your rule has not been reached. For example, a yellow
button with "2R" means that two Referees are still needed to meet the
quantity requirement specified in the rule.
- Green - means that the quantity requirements for the rule have been
met and the button will have the word "Assigned" within it.
When one of the buttons is clicked, on the resulting "Assign Officials"
page, Administrator can assign members of the Officials team who fit the criteria
of the rule. The "Assign Officials" form will contain ALL members with the
position specified in the rule. Administrators simply place a check in the box next
to an Officials name to assign them to that game. Officials with conflicting
game assignments or conflicting availability issues (as per the Availability
Form they fill out) will have a "Not Available" note and their checkboxes
will not be enabled. Driving times are also taken into
consideration when determining an Official's availability for a game. A
minimum of 15 minutes (plus 3 minutes per mile) is allowed to get from one
facility to another. If the facilities are listed separately in the system
but are at the same address (i.e. ABC Field 1 and ABC Field 2), the system
will not figure any drive time. It is very important to have your facilities
set up accurately for use with this feature. For more information about
setting up facilities, click here.
Administrators will be able force an assignment by selecting the "Override Rules
Below" checkbox. This will allow an Administrator to select any member from the list,
regardless of how the system has figured their availability. Administrators can also
choose to have assigned members notified immediately upon submission of
their assignment. Officials will always be notified, at minimum, 24 hours
prior to their assignment, assuming the assignment has been made 24 hours
prior to the game.
Officials' Login and Availability:
Once a rule has been created, members of the Officials team can specify times
when they are available to work games. By doing this, a large amount of
scheduling conflicts can be eliminated. In order to do this, they will have to log
into the officials area using their email address and password. If they have
previously used the online registration tool to register either themselves or a
child, they can use the same password they established in that section. If they
have forgotten that password or if they have never been issued a password (they
have never had to register or because they are a minor) and are in your database
and assigned to the officials team, they may enter only their email address and
the system will send them a password. The email address entered MUST match the
email address currently in your database. Officials can also log in on the
Master Schedule by clicking the
icon at the
top of the page.
Once logged in, Officials will be presented with the "General Availability"
form. On this form, members can select days and times that they are available to
officiate games. If no selections have been made, the system will assume that
all times are available. When logged in, Officials will also be able to create a
schedule for all games they are assigned to as well as view pertinent
information such as bulletins and documents.
Self Assignment:
If you have chosen to allow Officials to assign themselves, they must do so
on the Master Schedule page. Here are the steps that they need to follow:
- Sign in to the Officials Area or the Master Schedule (click the
icon) with
your email address and password. If you have forgotten your password or have
never signed in before, enter only your email address and the system, will
email the password to the address, provided the address given matches the
address of an assigned member of the Officials team.
- Once signed in, make sure that you fill out the General Availability
form. This lets schedulers know when you are available to work. If no
selections are made, it is assumed that you are available at all times.
- Go to the Master Schedule page (located on your homepage). Any open
assignment that you qualify for will have a drop-down selection in
the Officials ("Ofl") column
- Select the game you wish to assign yourself to and select "Assign" from
the drop down list. If you wish to un-assign yourself from a previously
assigned game, select "Not Assigned".
Note: Administrators that have chosen to allow Officials to assign themselves
to games may want to copy and paste the above steps into an email to send to all
officials in their organization.
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