GolfServant

GolfServant help

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Content

Ch. 1 Overview

Ch. 2 Before playing

Ch. 2.1 New course

Ch. 2.2 Set up a round

Ch. 2.3 New player

Ch. 2.4 Settings

Ch. 3 Playing

Ch. 3.1 Enter results

Ch. 3.2 New reference

Ch. 3.3 Calibrate reference

Ch. 3.4 Measure distance

Ch. 4 After playing

Ch. 4.1 Export results

Ch. 4.2 Export course

Ch. 4.3 Import course

Ch. 4.4 Delete data

Ch. 5 EULA FOR GolfServant

Chapter 1 Overview

The GolfServant by UBVASA provides you with two basic services - handling the score card, and measuring distances. It aims to do this in a minimalistic, but competent, style. When using it for the first time you have to set up at least one course, and at least one player, see chapters 2.1 and 2.2. Data for a new course can be entered directly in the phone, written into a course template data file, or imported from other users of the GolfServant that you get in contact with, see chapter 2.1. While playing you can use GolfServant for keeping the scorecard, and measure distances, e.g. the distance to green, or the length of your tee shots (before doing this you need to enter reference data, se ch. 3.2). When the game is finished you can export the results to e.g. a PC, where you can easily enter it into a spreadsheet in Excel, LibreOffice Calc, or similar. You can of course also send it to your playing partners for them to analyze their results. The result of your rounds will stay in the database until you delete it, that goes for courses and players too. If a player in the database gets his handicap changed, you can update to reflect that. I hope you find the services of GolfServant useful. Have a good round of golf!

Chapter 2 Before playing

Before a round can be started, you need to select the course to play, and the players in the ball, see ch. 2.2. For entering new courses into the database, see ch. 2.1, for new players see ch. 2.3. For general settings, see ch. 2.4.

Chapter 2.1 New course

A new course can be entered in three ways, either by entering the data into the application user interface on the phone, creating it by modification of a template file, or by importing a file containing the course data. If entering it on the phone UI, goto "Other:New course", then enter the course name, and the number of holes. Then push "Hole data", and for each hole, enter the hole Par, and Index. The data you need for this you shall be able to find on the course web page, or by asking the secreteriat on the course. When entered for all holes, push Done. Then push Slope data, and enter Slope and Course rating for the different tees (for men and women, respectively). Also this data you should be able to find on the course web page, or by asking at the course secretariat. It may be that the course do not have data for all tees for both genders, then just skip entering anything for that tee/gender. If the course use the Standard Scratch Score (SSS) system, then you can change the settings from Slope to SSS (se ch. 2.4), and after pushing the SSS button you can instead enter the SSS values for different tee/gender. After scrolling the menu, an when entered data for the tees/gender possible, push Done, and when back on the other menu, push Done there also. This concludes entering a new course into the database. An alternative to this is to obtain a course template file, and then edit this file. The course template file can be found on the UBVASA website (see link last in this text), on the page Downloads, the file named GS_CourseData.csv. This file contains real data for the course at the "Lunds Akademiska golfklubb". It contains both the necessary "hard" data (name, no of holes, par&index per hole, and slope data), and Tee and Green references for each hole (plus a calibration reference at the club house). You can open it with any text editor and modify the name, par and index, the slope data, and the references. For modifying the references you need to obtain the latitude/longitude values for the new course, this can be done using Google maps, if you under Alternative (upper right corner) select Maps Labs, and then activates the Lat/Long marker service. Navigating to the course, using the satellite view, you can now position the marker on the Tees/Greens and by pushing the Shift-key the Lat/Long values are presented. You then replace the values in the template file with these. When this is done,you can import this file as described in ch. 4.3. Be careful if you change the number of references on a hole. Be sure to follow the format described on the developers site. If not done correctly the file will be rejected in the importing process. One way to remove/add references is to import the file onto the phone, then use the phone UI to add/remove new references by inserting "dummy" references. After doing that you need to export the file, and then open it with a text editor to update the longitude/latitude values, e.g. by using Google maps as described above. It is also important that the number of par/index entries are synchronised with the number of holes entered for the course.

If you can not find slope data for all eight alternatives, then set the entry to zero (both slope and corresponding course rating). In the case of importing a course you have not created yourself, you need to obtain a course file from someone else that has entered the course by either of the two ways described above. He/she must then have exported it (see Ch. 4.4), and provided you the exported file. The file must be named "GS_CourseData.csv". You need to store this file in the SD-card file system, in the directory "/mnt/sdcard/Android/data/se.ubvasa.android.golfservant/files/". If you have the file on a computer, then connect the phone to the PC via USB, and use the file manager to copy the file into the directory. Other ways to store the file are also possible, involving e.g. Bluetooth, please check with your phone manual on how it can be done. When the file is stored in the directory, push "Other" followed by "Import course", and the course will be copied into the GolfServant database. If you want to import more courses, then again store a new file with the name "GS_CourseData.csv" in the directory, and push the buttons to import it (you can only import one course per file).

Chapter 2.2 Set up a round

To set up a round, first push "Play", then select the course to play among the courses you have entered into the database. After this you are prompted to set up the players in the ball. Starting from Player 1 in the menu, select a player from the database, and which tee to play from (yellow is default). If the player is not in the database, please see ch. 2.3. Maximum four player can be set up. Push "Done" when players and tee selections are done. The menu for playing is then shown, see chapter 3.

Chapter 2.3 New player

When New player is selected (see ch. 2.2) a menu is shown where the player name, the player gender (default man), and the player handicap needs to be entered. When finished, push "Done", and you are returned to the menu for setting up the round. If a player that is entered into the database at some point needs to have the handicap modified, this is described in ch. 4.4.

Chapter 2.4 Settings

It is possible to go to the settings and make a change at any time, even in the midst of a game (leave the Play menu by pushing the Android back button until back at the start menu, go to settings and change, then push long on Play and select the ongoing ball).The settings supported are:

To select the unit of length to be used in presenting measurements. The selections available are meter, or yard. It is by default set to meter.

To select normal or quick mode for entering results during play, combined with selection of whether putts shall be part of the input options or not. Default is normal mode with putt input active.

To select the model for course handicap calculation, i. e. whether the slope model, or the standard scratch score (SSS) should be used. This affects the menus when entering a new course, see ch. 2.1. The default is the slope model.

Chapter 3 Playing

The menu for playing, which is entered after setting up the round, provides means for entering the results of a hole, measuring the distance to a reference, adding new references, calibrating a reference, and select which hole that shall be in focus. If you during the game need to quit GolfServant, e.g. to make a phone call, then when starting it again, make a "long push" on "Play", and a list with all the rounds currently in the database will be shown. They are presented by the date when played, so typically you select the current date. If you have played more than one round the same day, the entry furthest down is the most current one. This will take you directly to the playing menu, where you just need to select the hole number to be in focus, and then resume. If you use the Home button to temporarily leave GolfServant, then after returning you need to use the Android back button to return to the starting menu, and long push on Play as described above, or else the GPS services will not work.

Chapter 3.1 Enter results

Pushing "Result", takes you to a menu that allows you to enter the results on the hole for all players in the ball. How this menu looks depends on the settings selected, see ch. 2.4. If the setting is set on nrmal mode incl. putts, then a menu showing entry fields for all players is shown, with the cursor set at the first players number of strokes. You then need to fill in the result andmove to the next input field (by touching it, or by pushing Next on the soft keyboard). If a player did not produce any result to be entered, just skip to enter anything. When all result for the hole are entered, push "Done", which takes you back to the playing menu, and automatically changes the focus to the following hole number. If the setting is set on quick mode, then the menu only shows one input field in which the results for all players are fed in, one after the other. The text around the input field shows which player it is, and whether it is number of strokes or number of putts (the latter depending on settings). After you have keyed in the result, push the Enter key on the soft keyboard to switch to the next result to be input. If you do not want to input a result at some point, just push Enter to switch to the next. The Done button, which takes you back to the Play menu, is red until all players have been processed. When it goes green it signals that all results are input, so then push.

If you at any point want to go back (from the Play menu) to change any results entered, just select the hole number you want to change any result on, and push "Result". The result earlier entered are then shown, and you can modify as you wish, and then push "Done". When back in the playing menu, you may need to change the hole to be focused back to the hole you are to play.

Chapter 3.2 New reference

To be able to measure any distance, a reference must first have been stored to which the distance can be measured. It is up to yourself to add the references you want (if you have imported a course, it may contain references). To add a reference, you must first physically position yourself at the point where you want the reference to be located, then you make a "long push" (keep the finger on the button a longer time than when just tapping it) on "Get distance". You will then be presented a choice where you select "Add reference". This takes you to a menu where you select a type of reference (Green/Tee/Bunker/Water/Other), and optionally gives it a "name" (a short descriptive name can be useful, e.g. "Yellow" for a Tee, "Center" for a green), and then you push "Measure reference point" to have the GPS system get a "fix". You will be notified about the accuracy of the fix, and you can push "Measure reference point" several times to try to obtain a better accuracy if you think it may get better. GolfServant will select the fix with the best accuracy of the measurements you have initiated. The better accuracy you get, the better the accuracy will be of the distance measurement you later do with this reference. If you have forgotten to enable GPS in Android, you will get a message telling you to do so. After enabling it, it typically takes a minute or so before a fix can be obtained. Therefore try to remember to enable the GPS system some time before entering the first tee. Even after the GPS system is enabled and "warmed up", there may be occasions when the system can not deliver a fix when requested by you. If so, you will get a message telling you to try again. Normally you should get a fix when trying directly again, but in the worst case the GPS service is in what is called a "temporarily unavailable" state. GolfServant will then present this status to you, and in such cases you typically have to wait 15-30 secs before the service is back and you can get the fix. It is up to you whether you want to wait, or maybe skip getting the reference, or distance this time. Adding references takes some focus off the game (at least it does for me), so maybe you should not plan to do it on a crowded day, when there is following balls that want you to move on. If you can find the opportunity, just walking the course and adding references may be the best way to do it. The references you should have are from Tee (at least the one you typically play), and Green (center of green is probably the best position, but you can have several with different names). Then it may be useful to have some on hazards you know you have visited before. Please remember to check that the correct hole number is in focus before you start the procedure of adding a reference, as they are grouped by hole number.

Chapter 3.3 Calibrate reference

My experience is that the GPS system may "drift" a little over time. Therefore I have added the possibility to calibate the references. To do this, first position yourself where you have a reference earlier added, then do a long push on "Get distance", select "Calibrate reference", and select the reference among the ones you have added for the hole in focus (you need to select the hole before starting this procedure). Then you are presented with the difference between this measurement and the reference in the database, and a choice of making this calibration or not. If you select "Yes", then this calibration diff is used on all other references during this round. It is however not saved in the database, so next time you play a round it is the "original" references that are being used (and you may want to calibrate again). You can calibrate any number of times during a round (whenever you are positioned on a reference point). You should always calibrate before adding new references, if you have other references added from earlier rounds. To make it possible to handle the calibration before entering the first hole, it may be a good idea to add a reference (with hole 1 in focus) at some distinct position around the club house. If you have any Tees entered as references, when calibrating these will show up as two selections in the list, one as "Tee:", and one as "Tee: / Drive length". The first is to be selected if you want to calibrate as described above, the second is used if you want to calibrate only this tee specifically for measuring drive distances. As the tee off position is typically moved around by the course staff every other day, and your Tee reference is from the "standard" tee off position, this option allow you to calibrate only this tee position (i.e. it does not affect other refrences on any hole).

Chapter 3.4 Measure distance

When (short) pushing "Get distance" on the playing menu, you will be presented a list of the references for this hole. After selecting one, the distance to the reference is presented. If your selection was a Tee, then you are asked whether you want to save this result, and if pushing "Yes" you will be presented a list of the players, where you select on whom this distance shall be saved as drive distance. You can of course walk around to the position of all players in the ball, and get the distances saved for their drives. These measurements will then be available in the results that can be exported after the round (see ch. 4.1).

Chapter 4 After playing

When you have finished the round, GolfServant will inactivate its use of the GPS services as soon as you leave the playing menu, which will reduce the GPS related power consumption. To eliminate it completely, you need to disable GPS in the Android pull-down menu on the top of the screen. For GolfServant usage after playing, se ch. 4.1-4.4.

Chapter 4.1 Export results

Push "Other", followed by "Export data", followed by "Export ball data". You will be presented with a list of the balls in the database, represented by the date of when it was played. When selecting a ball, it will then take a few secs while the data of the round is formatted into CSV format (comma separated), and stored in a file called "GS_BallData.csv" in the directory "/mnt/sdcard/Android/data/se.ubvasa.android.golfservant/files/". When this is done you can e.g. attach the phone via USB to a computer, and using the file manager copy the file to the PC. For other ways of copying the file from the SD card, see the phone manual. The CSV format allows the file to be opened using a spread sheet program like Excel, or LibreOffice Calc. You can then use the spread sheet program to extract data, and combine it with data from other rounds, to produce statistics from your game over time. And you can send the file to the other players in the ball for them to do their statistics.

Chapter 4.2 Export course

Push "Other", followed by "Export data", followed by "Export course data". You will be presented with a list of the courses in the database, and after selecting the course to export, it will take a few secs while the course data is formatted into CSV format, and stored in a file called "GS_CourseData.csv" in the directory "/mnt/sdcard/Android/data/se.ubvasa.android.golfservant/files/". When this is done you can e.g. attach the phone via USB to a computer, and using the file manager copy the file to the PC. For other ways of copying the file from the SD card, see the phone manual. You can then send the file to other persons using the GolfServant, that does not already have this course in the database. The exported file contains not only the "hard facts" on the course like the course name, number of holes, etc (see ch. 2.1), but also the references added to it.

Chapter 4.3 Import course

A file containing the new course data, with the name "GS_CourseData.csv" must first be stored in the directory "/mnt/sdcard/Android/data/se.ubvasa.android.golfservant/files/". Then pushing "Other", followed by "Import data" will lead to that the CSV (comma formatted) data in the file is converted and stored into the database. You will thereafter find the course in the database when setting up a round. If importing a course is the first you do after installing GolfServant, be sure to start the program once before trying to store the file, then you do not need to create the directory yourself.

Chapter 4.4 Delete data

Pushing "Other", followed by "Delete data" will present you with three choices - "Delete ball", "Delete course", and "Delete player. After pushing any of these, you will be presented a list over the entries in the database. When selecting a ball from the list, it is directly removed from the database. Be sure to have exported the data first, if you were interested in that. When selecting a course from the list, you will be presented a choice of deleting the entire course (all data), or deleting one reference in the course data. Selecting a reference will first present a list over the holes, and when selecting a hole, a list over the references on that hole. Selecting a reference, it will be removed from the database. When selecting a player from the list, you will be presented a choice of deleting the player (all data), or updating the handicap of the player (it is not so an intuitive place for this I agree, but I could not find a better place without having to create new high level menu selections). Selecting the handicap update, you will be presented a box into which you can enter the new handicap. When entered, push "Done", and the player new handicap is updated in the database.

Chapter 5 END-USER LICENSE AGREEMENT FOR GolfServant

IMPORTANT PLEASE READ THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THIS LICENSE AGREEMENT CAREFULLY BEFORE CONTINUING WITH THIS PROGRAM INSTALL: UBVASA End-User License Agreement ("EULA") is a legal agreement between you (either an individual or a single entity) and UBVASA. for the UBVASA software product(s) identified above which may include associated software components, media, printed materials, and "online" or electronic documentation ("SOFTWARE PRODUCT"). By installing, copying, or otherwise using the SOFTWARE PRODUCT, you agree to be bound by the terms of this EULA. This license agreement represents the entire agreement concerning the program between you and UBVASA, (referred to as "licenser"), and it supersedes any prior proposal, representation, or understanding between the parties. If you do not agree to the terms of this EULA, do not install or use the SOFTWARE PRODUCT.

The SOFTWARE PRODUCT is protected by copyright laws and international copyright treaties, as well as other intellectual property laws and treaties. The SOFTWARE PRODUCT is licensed, not sold.

5.1. GRANT OF LICENSE. The SOFTWARE PRODUCT is licensed as follows: (a) Installation and Use. UBVASA grants you the right to install and use copies of the SOFTWARE PRODUCT on your device.

5.2. DESCRIPTION OF OTHER RIGHTS AND LIMITATIONS. (a) Maintenance of Copyright Notices. You must not remove or alter any copyright notices on any and all copies of the SOFTWARE PRODUCT. (b) Distribution. You may not distribute registered copies of the SOFTWARE PRODUCT to third parties. Evaluation versions available for download from UBVASA"s websites may be freely distributed. (c) Prohibition on Reverse Engineering, Decompilation, and Disassembly. You may not reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble the SOFTWARE PRODUCT, except and only to the extent that such activity is expressly permitted by applicable law notwithstanding this limitation. (d) Rental. You may not rent, lease, or lend the SOFTWARE PRODUCT. (e) Support Services. No support is provided (f) Compliance with Applicable Laws. You must comply with all applicable laws regarding use of the SOFTWARE PRODUCT.

5.3. TERMINATION Without prejudice to any other rights, UBVASA may terminate this EULA if you fail to comply with the terms and conditions of this EULA. In such event, you must destroy all copies of the SOFTWARE PRODUCT in your possession.

5.4. COPYRIGHT All title, including but not limited to copyrights, in and to the SOFTWARE PRODUCT and any copies thereof are owned by UBVASA or its suppliers. All title and intellectual property rights in and to the content which may be accessed through use of the SOFTWARE PRODUCT is the property of the respective content owner and may be protected by applicable copyright or other intellectual property laws and treaties. This EULA grants you no rights to use such content. All rights not expressly granted are reserved by UBVASA.

5.5. NO WARRANTIES UBVASA expressly disclaims any warranty for the SOFTWARE PRODUCT. The SOFTWARE PRODUCT is provided "As Is" without any express or implied warranty of any kind, including but not limited to any warranties of merchantability, noninfringement, or fitness of a particular purpose. UBVASA does not warrant or assume responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of any information, text, graphics, links or other items contained within the SOFTWARE PRODUCT. UBVASA makes no warranties respecting any harm that may be caused by the transmission of a computer virus, worm, time bomb, logic bomb, or other such computer program. UBVASA further expressly disclaims any warranty or representation to Authorized Users or to any third party.

5.6. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY In no event shall UBVASA be liable for any damages (including, without limitation, lost profits, business interruption, or lost information) rising out of "Authorized Users" use of or inability to use the SOFTWARE PRODUCT, even if UBVASA has been advised of the possibility of such damages. In no event will UBVASA be liable for loss of data or for indirect, special, incidental, consequential (including lost profit), or other damages based in contract, tort or otherwise. UBVASA shall have no liability with respect to the content of the SOFTWARE PRODUCT or any part thereof, including but not limited to errors or omissions contained therein, libel, infringements of rights of publicity, privacy, trademark rights, business interruption, personal injury, loss of privacy, moral rights or the disclosure of confidential information.

You can read this help information for GolfServant on a larger screen if surfing to the UBVASA homepage:

https://sites.google.com/site/ubvasa/

I hope GolfServant can help you to improve, and further enjoy your game!