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The BowsLink application expects a fixture template to be a file of comma-separated values (CSV), where each line of the file represents a single matche. CSV files are a common way to represent tabular data using only plain text, and many popular spreadsheet applications like Microsoft Excel support saving worksheets as CSV files.

Each matche match is represented using three mandatory values and four optional values. A round-number, a "home" team/opponent number, and an "away" team/opponent number make up a match's mandatory values; a time, a day, a green/rink allocation ID, and a section-number make up a match's optional values.

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Round,Home,Away,Day,Time,Green/Rink,Section
1,1,2,2021-04-01,09:15,4642,
1,3,-1,,17:30,76,
2,1,3,2021-05-21,13:20,,
2,-1,2,2021-05-22,,5367,
3,1,-1,,,,
3,2,3,2021-11-03,,345,
1,1,2,2021-04-01,09:15,4642,2
1,3,-1,,17:30,76,2
2,1,3,2021-05-21,13:20,,2
2,-1,2,2021-05-22,,5367,2
3,1,-1,,,,2
3,2,3,2021-11-03,,345,2

A match may require one or both of its opponents to be determined by the outcome of other matches - such as a round-2 match in a knock-out competition having both opponents determined by the winners of two distinct round-1 matches.
This can be achieved in a template by using an opponent source identifier in place of a team/opponent number for the "home" value, "away" value, or both.

An opponent source identifier follows the format (n)-W or (n)-L, where (n) represents the index of the match from which an opponent should be sourced, and W and L discriminate between the "winner" and "loser" of that match respectively. For example: 3-W identifies the winner of the 3rd match in the template; 11-L identifies the loser of the 11th match in the template. If working with a spreadsheet application like MS Excel, be careful not to confuse the number of the row in which a match is templated for the index of the match. Because a template will include a "header" row, the match in the second row of the spreadsheet is actually the first match of template (so, index 1).

|=================================|
|    Round    |   Home  |   Away  |
|=============+=========+=========|
|      1      |    3    |    4    |
|-------------+---------+---------|
|      1      |    1    |    2    |
|-------------+---------+---------|
|      2      |   2-L   |   1-W   |
|-------------+---------+---------|
|      3      |   2-W   |   3-W   |
+-------------+---------+---------+

The template above represents matches conforming to the Page-McIntyre system. In the first round of the Page-McIntyre system, the highest two ranked teams play each other, with the winner going straight through to the grand final and the loser going through to the preliminary final. The lowest two ranked teams play each other, and the winner advances to the preliminary final. The winner of preliminary final gets through to the grand final (round 3).

As a CSV file, the template above will look something like:

Round,Home,Away
1,3,4
1,1,2
2,2-L,1-W
3,2-W,3-W

It's common for some spreadsheet applications to save CSV files so that all values are delimited by quotation marks - e.g. "1","3","-1". If your CSV file exhibits this trait, don't worry, the BowlsLink importer handles these types of CSV files just fine.

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