For a desktop or laptop browser each button in the horizontal row of menu buttons gives access to a dropdown submenu. The items a user sees in these submenus will depend on two things. Firstly, unless logged in as a registered user, the items will be restricted to those available to the public. Once logged in additional items will be visible in some menus. Officers of a club will see more items than ordinary members.
For a mobile device, a single menu "hamburger" button near the top will give access to a vertical row of menu buttons which will give access to the submenus.
With a touch screen, tap a finger on the menu button then tap on the required submenu item.
A cookie is normally used to remember which club is of interest to the user. If this has been deleted, the wrong club may be shown. In this case under the About menu, use the "Other Clubs" submenu to show a list of clubs available to select.
The idea behind the site originally developed from a program designed to assist in the performance of the functions of the Frant Bowls Club fixture secretary. However, the data held in the records produced by these functions is of interest to club members and possibly to others (whether or not members of the club). There has been much expansion to include posting and viewing of match and competition results and the site has been developed into a multi-club site.
The site is designed so that in theory any bowls club could maintain its own website with minimal setup work involved. A small fee may be required to cover this and any necessary maintenance work. The features are designed such that they can be customised. A list of fixtures, events, members, results etc. can be configured by an administrator within the club or he may delegate permission to maintain individual parts of the site to other members. Club members will be able to access their own club's pages.
Each club has a designated administrator who can access all the private functions for that club. These functions allow the design and layout of the home page, and also to delegate permission to other users who are members of the same club to maintain fixture lists and other programme events etc. As well as the publicly visible information on the site there are many facilities the site offers which are of interest to members and visible under the menus if they are logged in to the site.
You can email webmaster@frantbowls.uk in the first instance.
The site only uses cookies for the benefit of users. They are used for the following innocent purposes only:
The site stores registered users' names, login names, telephone numbers, email and optionally postal addresses. It does not store the users' passwords; These are checked by comparing an encrypted form of the password entered by a user logging in with an encrypted password which is saved in the website's database. The form of encryption used is not reversible so the saved encrypted password cannot be decrypted. The site also records an expiry date for the user's association with each relevant club in order to ensure that only current data is ever visible to to other members.
Additional data can be linked to user records. For example, where user has used the site to indicate his or her availability to take part in a match.
The site also records contact data for each club. This data is regarded as publicity data and is publicly visible. This information is entered by club administrators who bear the responsibility to ensure that the individuals listed agree to this data being included.
Although not linked to user records, the site records in match results the names of players from both the teams involved in club matches.
Documents may be uploaded to the site by members who may also download these documents. The site administrators take no responsibility for the content of these documents. The site may record the upload and download activity and associate this with a specific logged in user.
No data stored in the database associated with the website is shared with any other organisation. It is not even shared with clubs using the same website and database unless the user is a member of those other clubs.
The website has facilities to send emails to registered users. These emails can be created by other registered users and sent to all members of the same club. Other emails are sent by the site when certain events occur. These events are configurable by the users by logging in and navigating to My Account > Notifications in the users' menu. By default users will not receive these emails.
Emails sent to a group of users as described above are always sent to undisclosed recipients in order to avoid other users' email addresses being saved on recipients' computers. Emails may also be sent to individual users, for example when a user needs to reset a forgotten password.
Logged in users who are members of a particular club can see the names, telephone numbers and email addresses of other users who are current members of that club. Website visitors who are not registered and logged in users can see only the names of current members.
Users can edit their personal data by logging in and navigating to My Account > Profile in the users' menu. Members' data cannot be deleted by the member as it is possible that it is linked to historical data (e.g. availability).
Basic users' data is regarded as essential to the efficient operation of the clubs. Without the ability of a registered user to log in to the site it would not be possible to give current club members access to (for example) the list of downloadable documents.
The home page may be reached using the Home button (silhouette of a house) which is near the top left of the page.
Each club's home page can be maintained by a member of that club so long as he/she has been set up by the club's administrator with the appropriate permission. Straightforward text is very easy to set up and change as often as is required. The inclusion of pictures and links is possible but more tricky for the layman as it requires the use of HTML coding.
The Login button under My Account permits log in as a registered user.
A list of all clubs having FixSec accounts is shown. This is useful if the logged in user is a member of more than one club and also allows public users to switch between clubs.
The website is able to host many bowls clubs. Anyone interested in having their club's site here should email webmaster@frantbowls.uk to discuss this. It is almost without cost; it is secure and easy to maintain.
What's On includes details of the most recent and next match on the fixture list and any events in the near future together with current items on any public calendar and any public notices. Private notices (visible to logged in members only) are included if the user is logged in as a member.
This list shows publicly available details of members and adds private details like telephone numbers if the user is logged in.
This page lists useful contacts (e.g. committee members) for the club. Records for the page are entered by a club member with appropriate permission and may contain telephone numbers and email addresses if these are considered to be in the public domain. This page is distinct from the members page.
This page shows the location of the club on a map and can show directions.
This shows pictures that have been uploaded by Club members configured by the club administrator to have permission to do so.
Where clubs have made surveys of their green and have uploaded them to the site they can be viewed here.
The site can host a virtual "Honours Board" with winners and runners-up for an unlimited number of member-configurable competitions going back as many years as required. The information can be viewed by year (for all competitions) or by competition (for all years).
A schedule of club events is available. The list is filtered by season.
As with many pages that show lists, some of the columns are shown highlighted. This indicates that the column heading can be clicked to allow sorting by the contents of that column.
A fixture list for a season. (Seasons may start on any particular month according to the club's configuration.) The list is filtered by season.
As with many pages that show lists, some of the columns are shown highlighted. This indicates that the column heading an be clicked to allow sorting by the contents of that column.
Away fixtures include a map link allowing the venue and directions to be seen.
This shows a club programme which includes events and fixtures. It may be shown for any chosen season.
Away fixtures include a map link allowing the venue and directions to be seen. Imminent fixtures include a weather link to a weather forecast.
The results page shows a list of matches (and scores where available) for a season.
This feature allows an iCalendar (.ics file) to be downloaded for a selected range of dates. Fixtures, Events or specific Calendars may be included. The resulting file can be imported into a number of diary / appointment applications on a variety of platforms.
Anyone can download a rudimentary fixture card as a pdf file for printing. The season for fixtures and events may be selected, but the list of contacts and members which are included in the downloaded file will not be backdated to reflect past seasons. They will be the current contacts and members.
The layout of the document is an attempt at optimising for double-sided printing on a single sheet intended to be folded in three.
Members of any of the clubs hosted by this site will automatically be registered users and have a login and password. However, it is possible to register as a user without being a current member of any of the clubs. This allows a user to subscribe to an automatic emailing function which emails the user when any of a number of events occurs.
In the future, other functions may become available to registered users.
To register, click the Register as user link in the footer. A page appears allowing name, login email address and phone number to be entered and a password chosen. (This password must be entered twice in order to prevent a user unwittingly misspelling a password then being unable to log in.)
Names and login names must be unique for the whole site regardless of club so a new name or login user may be rejected because it is already in use.
Newly registered users will receive an email from the website.
Many functions of the site are in a private area as they apply only to club members. However, some functions are available to registered users who are not current members of the currently selected club. When logged in, these registered users will see the additional menu items below.
Some of the details entered when the user was configured can be changed. Under the My Account > Profile menu item a page can be accessed to view and/or update these values.
This page also provides another method by which a user can change his or her password. Note that if the password fields are left blank the password will be left unaltered.
Under My Account > Notifications this menu item can be used to set up subscriptions to notification of certain events. If a user ticks the box against any of the items on the list of events and clicks save, he/she will be sent an email whenever that event occurs for the currently selected club.
This allows interested non-members or ex-members of a club to be made aware of some of the activities of the club.
To log in to be able to access those functions only available to registered users, use the Login item under the My Account menu. (This button will say Logout if you are already logged in.)
The login name you have been given will be unique to you and use of upper or lower case is not important for the login name.
For the password the case is important. After entering it click the Log in button.
When logged in, the page footer should indicate as much (not visible for mobiles), and confirm membership of the currently selected club as member, non-member or ex-member.
Your login never expires. It is only membership of clubs that can expire. An ex-member of a club will no longer have access to member only functions for that club but will still be able to access other functions on the registered users' menu.
If you are a club member and your club administrator has given you a login but as yet you have no password then follow the procedure for resetting a password.
To change a password first use the My Account > Login menu item. (If you are currently logged in then click the Logout item first in order to change it to Login.) When the login page appears enter your login and password then tick the Change password box so that boxes for entering the new password appear. As well as the old password you have to enter the new password twice (in case you make a mistake and are not sure what you entered).
Alternatively, use My Account > Profile and enter the new password. You have to enter it twice (in case you make a mistake and are not sure what you entered).
Passwords are held by the site in a non-reversible encrypted form so it is
not possible to send password reminders if a password has been forgotten.
All is not lost, however, because if you know your login name and the website
knows the email address associated with this login it can send you a secure
link which allows a new password to be set.
So if you don't know your password then follow the procedure
for resetting a password.
Provided that a valid email address for you is on file, enter your login and click the Reset password button. This will cause an email containing a secure link to be sent to you. Clicking this link (which verifies that the email address is yours) should bring up a login page in your browser so that you can enter a new password. You will have to enter the new password twice (in case you make a mistake and are not sure what you entered).