Submitting Master Points in a spreadsheet form
I believe that it was possible until recently to submit Master Point awards in the form of a spreadsheet. I have heard that this service has been withdrawn by the EBU.
Can you confirm the position please?
If the service has been withdrawn, what was the reason?
If the service has been withdrawn where/when/how was it announced?
If the service has been withdrawn, do you know of a simple utility that can generate / modify the USEBIO file?
We do not wish to use EBU Score.
Comments
I'll defer to those who know more than I but AFAIK
a. there is absolutely no compulsion to use EBUScore. The whole point of USEBIO is that it will accept files from Scorebridge and any other program which meets a few basic rules as to format and that includes all the scoring programs currently in use.
b. When Universal Membership started around 7 years ago a file had to be created and that was from a scoring program. At the time there were a few who could not easily and swiftly meet the requirements so a spreadsheet file was accepted from e.g. some holiday operators, clubs who did not have access to a computer and I think counties (I submitted a file in that form for my county Championship Teams KO in about 2011).
c. If there is an event that for whatever reason does not require a UM payment then http://www.ebu.co.uk/competitions/licensing gives some detail of how any spreadsheet file should be returned but note that EBU numbers are required if master points are to be credited. I believe for UM files a spreadsheet is not acceptable and that is not a new or recent requirement.
When you say "you have heard that" is this a Chinese Whisper or is there a document or other source to which you refer? What sort of event would now need this submission style?
Our county uses ScoreBridge in all its clubs and for its county events. ScoreBridge cannot calculate County Level Green Points for a two session all play all play pairs competition (see ScoreBridge help). In the past we have submitted a spreadsheet for the award and chargeback for the Green Points. Two people have told me that the EBU is no longer accepting such spreadsheets.
I would like to confirm that this is true, and you do not answer the question.
USEBIO is fine for developers, but for an organisation that just wants to get the points awarded it's a steep learning curve! Hence my hope that either the rumour is not true and the EBU is still processing spreadsheets, or else that there is a utility we can use to generate a USEBIO file.
Although we strongly encourage all clubs and counties to submit their results using the normal UMS process, from whatever scoring program they prefer, we do still allow the option, in case of difficulty, that instead a results spreadsheet can be submitted to ian@ebu.co.uk. Submitting in the approved way avoids the need for manual input, so you will understand why that is to be preferred.
However, if it is not possible to submit directly from your scoring program, here are a few ways you could do it:
1. submit a spreadsheet directly to ian@ebu.co.uk, in the format to be found at http://www.ebu.co.uk/competitions/licensing
2. submit the results from Scorebridge in the usual way, but without any master points assigned, and then additionally submit a spreadsheet with the master points. This would ensure that NGS data (if any) is processed
3. Use EBUScore only to submit the results but not to score the event. There is a useful facility for it to import a previously-scored event from its bws file (if you score using Bridgemates) and then you would only have to put in the master points before submitting the UMS file. So, effectively EBUScore is itself a utility for generating USEBIO files.
I'd be happy to help you with whichever of these methods seems best to suit your needs, if necessary.
Thank you Gordon, that's most helpful.
As Gordon says, in EBUScore, you can set up the Event Details with the UMS charge code and Masterpoints and then just put in the results as ADJ (ustments) on the Properties screen. Go To Reports > Internet Functions > Create UMS File and then submit as normal.
The Masterpoints spreadsheet method is still in EBUScore and may well be still be used....but you need to send to ian@ebu.co.uk to get it processes...and the normal Usebio method is much preferred.