Web based tool for snooker scorekeeping and display

[avitkauskas]

I made a web application to keep the score for the snooker fans as a hobby project. I put it on http://snookerscore.vitkauskas.lt for anybody interested to use. Try it and use if you like. All you need to display the score like a pros - any two internet connected devices (TV, computer, tablet, mobile), one to mark on, another for the real-time updating score display at the table.

[streamer45]

nice, very polished design, well done

[avitkauskas]

I am glad that you liked it. Use it in your games. I would be glad to see that it can be useful to snooker lovers.

[acesinc]

I made a web application to keep the score for the snooker fans as a hobby project. I put it on http://snookerscore.vitkauskas.lt for anybody interested to use. Try it and use if you like. All you need to display the score like a pros - any two internet connected devices (TV, computer, tablet, mobile), one to mark on, another for the real-time updating score display at the table.

avitkauskas, this app is amazing! It is just simple....simple to use, simple to understand, simple to read from a distance...it serves its purpose perfectly. Thank you for your dedication to this! I have only played around with it a little bit but it works absolutely perfectly! Looking at the screen it is like watching the monitor in the background of the Championship League, the one controlled by the referee's hand held device. I will definitely be putting your little gem to use in my club. Thank you so much for your efforts!

[avitkauskas]

Thank you, acesinc, for your good words. Spred the word around, let others know and use it. I will never charge for it - this is just a friendly gift to snooker enthusiasts. If you find something missing in the app, or working not as expected - please drop a message to snookerscore@vitkauskas.lt and I will try to make it even better.

[pedroja]

How can we use to mark games with ten Reds or six Reds?

[pedroja]

An interesting feature is Toll for filteting games, by event, owner, etc.

[acesinc]

How can we use to mark games with ten Reds or six Reds?

You can use it for anything you want, snooker related. It is simply a replacement scoreboard rather than using the old fashioned slider type scoreboard.

You need to create an account on the website. Just need an email address and a password. Then when you are signed in, you can create a New Match and put in as much information as you want to appear on the scoreboard, first names, last names, number of frames to be played, as much or as little as you want, and click Create Match. From there you need two internet devices but one should have a big monitor like an iPad or a laptop computer so you can easily read the screen from across the room. The second device can be simple like a mobile phone and you will use it to enter the data.

After you have Created Match, use your large screen monitor device to "View" the match and the mobile to "Edit" the match. The score will appear in real time on the monitor as you enter the scoring as it happens on your mobile. Simple. The system doesn't care about the number of Reds you are playing....it is just keeping the score.

[jonny66]

It doesn't work with 6 or 10 reds, after you've clicked on the colour after the last red the striker will be on the yellow, which you can't select as the system thinks you should be on a red.

[pedroja]

It doesn't work with 6 or 10 reds, after you've clicked on the colour after the last red the striker will be on the yellow, which you can't select as the system thinks you should be on a red.

Well, it should be nice if we can choose the mount of reds...

[acesinc]

It doesn't work with 6 or 10 reds, after you've clicked on the colour after the last red the striker will be on the yellow, which you can't select as the system thinks you should be on a red.

Oh, now I see the issue...well, avitkauskas asked for feedback so this is it. I think I see an easy solution, avitkauskas. At the start of the frame, only Break off and Undo buttons are lit and available. Maybe at that time, Red Lost can also be lit and the Reds can be removed as desired without penalty?

[avitkauskas]

Yes, actually the system is not designed for 10 or 6 reds at the time. One of my motivations when programming the app was make it "wise" and follow the rules (like you cannot score two colours one afte another; if you made a foul and a miss on the colour and the opponent asked to put it back you should be on the colour again, but if the opponent accepted the situation then he/she should be on the red; and so on.) But with this "intelligence" comes some restrictiveness - and we have to see if this "understanding of the rules" helps the marker or just hinder him to do whatever he wants. First of all I would like to see that this app is really needed and people really want to use it - if so, then I would be ready to make improvements - today it is like "alpha" version - no filtering of the matches, no system to tidy it up (automatically delete old matches that are left stranded there) and so on. This will be comming, if I see that the app is really needed. At the moment I will try to make some "quick and dirty fix" for the 10 and 6 reds - probably in a way that @acesinc proposed.

[avitkauskas]

Thanks, @acesinc. I will try to make this "dirty fix" , probably restricting this "Red Lost" behaviour just to the beginning of the match, before making the choice of the player to brake first (in order to keep with the idea that the software should be "intelligent" and follow the rules). What are your first thoughs about this "intelligence"? Is it good to have it? I made signifficant studies of the pecularities of the rules to implement this correctly, but there could be too pitfalls: 1) I could miss or misinterpret something (snooker rules is a complicated thing and 2) some amateur players could be happier NOT following the rules in some cases, and the app would not allow them that

[jonny66]

Could you not just add a 10 reds, or 6 reds option? Easier than pressing the lost red button a certain number of times, I could easily mess that up.

[acesinc]

Could you not just add a 10 reds, or 6 reds option? Easier than pressing the lost red button a certain number of times, I could easily mess that up.

I think this is what avitkauskas means about being too restrictive. Of course, 10 Red and 6 Red are the most common but certainly not the only variations. With a sizable group of players on a single table, I used to play a 3 Red variant quite often. Then there is Brazilian Snuka (I think that is how they spell it) which starts with a single Red and has a variable method of scoring, not the standard "Red, Colour...." so ideally, a design should encompass as many variations as possible.

For avitkauskas, I have also played my own variant of Brazilian Snuka called ACES Snooker starting with a single Red and other oddities. Perhaps another simple control button might be a "Correct Score" button in conjunction with a "Switch Striker" button. Let me explain.....

With Brazilian Snuka or ACES Snooker, an "out of place" score may sometimes occur. For example, in ACES Snooker when on Colour Sequence, an additional scoring ball may be played following each Natural Colour, meaning pot Yellow and you are entitled to play another colour for score such as Black before moving onto the Green ball. So with "Correct Score", the striker would pot Yellow (2 pts gets added), then pots Black (no direct button for that but must press "Correct Score" seven times to increment by single digits seven more points), then carries on to pot Green and the score automatically adds three points again. Another way this could be used is in the event that a mistake is made on a foul. For instance, say a snooker behind a Baulk colour and the striker fouls touching Pink first. All good snooker players know this is a six point foul obviously but sometimes mistakes get made and maybe just a four point foul is added but it is not noticed until several strokes later. How to fix this? At the end of the next turn, hit the "Switch Striker" button until the correct striker is highlighted who needs his score fixed, then hit "Correct Score" however many times needed until the score is now where it is supposed to be. And after the score is corrected, hit the "Switch Striker" button again if needed to get to the correct player who ought be striking. I see "Correct Score" as incrementing one point all the time, but I don't see an easy way to decrease the score other than adding yet another button for that and I think the idea here is to keep the interface as simple and clean as possible.

Of course, there already is an "Undo" button which is fine when a mistake has been immediately noticed or the wrong button has just been hit. But I have been in frames where a foul mistake has been made but then not noticed for several turns. If any significant scoring has occurred in those several turns, then the "Undo" button would be cumbersome to use for correcting the score.

Personally, another way I would use the "Switch Striker" feature is in a special format frame that I play against my kid called "Club 74" which means that in order to WIN the frame, 74 points minimum must be scored. If the scores comes up short, then that frame is marked as a Draw and a re-rack EXCEPT upon re-rack, the opening Break Off would be played by the next player, not the same as the previous frame. So in using this app, I would press "Re-rack" but would need to be able to "Switch Striker" for the next stroke. In fact, the "Switch Striker" button would allow you to get rid of the preliminary step of "Please click the name of the player to break in the first frame (or press 1 or 2 on the keyboard)" because it can just default to the first player listed and then can be switched if necessary.

In fact, I will be using this app on a big screen monitor when my kid and I play our "World Championship" during the same time frame as the real WC. We will be playing the full Best of 35 probably played out over several weekends so we will just leave our scoreboard up on the website over that period and our scores will be properly maintained, no need to worry about bad memories or lost scraps of paper! In fact, with Club 74 and drawn frames, it may require playing 50 frames or more before we finally determine the winner so I doubt we will finish in a single session

Avitkauskas, I think you have done a fine job in the intelligence of following the Standard Rules but I will know better once I have a chance to try this out in real life. I think your approach is the correct way to go about it to make the input from the users as easy as possible. Any variations that this may be used for should be implemented with bare minimum changes to your current easily understandable interface.