Pétanque Turnier-Manager

Turnierleitungssoftware für LibreOffice Calc

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Pétanque Tournament Manager

CI License: EUPL v1.2 Wiki Donate with PayPal

*Read this in other languages: 🇩🇪 DE 🇬🇧 EN 🇫🇷 FR 🇪🇸 ES 🇳🇱 NL*

Built with the precision of a software engineer and the passion of a pétanque player.

🎯 Introduction

The Pétanque Tournament Manager is a powerful, open-source tournament management software that integrates seamlessly as an extension into LibreOffice Calc.

The software was specifically designed to make the organization and execution of Pétanque and Boule tournaments as simple and efficient as possible. Since it runs completely offline and directly within the spreadsheet, it is extremely resource-efficient. This makes it the ideal solution for use on the boules pitch – even on older laptops running a lightweight Linux system, for example.

Advantages at a glance:

  • OS Independent: Runs reliably on Linux, macOS, and Windows.
  • Multilingual: The user interface supports multiple languages, including German (DE), English (EN), French (FR), Spanish (ES), and Dutch (NL).
  • Free & Open Source: No license fees, no advertising.
  • Resource Efficient: Perfectly suited for older hardware.
  • Everything in one place: No external database required; everything is calculated and stored directly in LibreOffice Calc.
  • Integrated Player Database: Manage players and clubs centrally and pull them straight into the registration list via search and filter – including import/export and a built-in web viewer.
  • Built-in Web Server: Display all tournament data live on TVs, tablets, or phones – directly from LibreOffice, no external software needed.
  • Tournament Splash Page: Fully configurable welcome page for projectors or TVs with logo, background image, animations, live counters and a status bar – perfect for the registration desk on tournament day.
Available in Languages: 🇩🇪 DE 🇬🇧 EN 🇫🇷 FR 🇪🇸 ES 🇳🇱 NL

🛠️ Limitless Customization: Make it your tournament!

Arguably the biggest unique selling point of this tournament manager is its foundation: LibreOffice Calc. Because all data, tables, and rankings are written directly into regular Calc spreadsheets, you are not trapped in a rigid program structure.

💡 Full control with built-in Calc tools: You can expand any generated tournament system completely freely and according to your own wishes!

  • International Tournaments: Thanks to the built-in multi-language support (German, English, French, Spanish, and Dutch), you are perfectly equipped for tournaments with international guests or cross-border leagues.
  • Custom Evaluations: Use VLOOKUP, pivot tables, or your own formulas to extract team-internal statistics, point averages, or individual special rankings from the tournament data.
  • Visual Customization: Build your own dashboards, insert club logos, change the layout for printing, or design presentation views for a projector (e.g., for a live display of the current ranking).
  • Custom Macros & Public API: If you need advanced functions, you can always write your own LibreOffice macros (Basic, Python, etc.) that interact with the generated tables. The plugin provides a public API for this: All menu actions can be called from macros via the ptm: protocol, and the PtmPublicService returns tournament data (system, current round, matchday, operating status) directly. Custom Calc formulas (PTM.ALG.*) additionally allow data access directly in cells. → Macros & Formulas – complete API documentation (German)

The extension handles the complex logic (draw, ranking calculation according to Buchholz, etc.) – what you ultimately do with the data is completely up to you!

🏆 Supported Tournament Systems

The extension already offers a wide selection of proven tournament modes suitable for small club championships up to large tournaments. The list is continuously expanding:

  • Supermêlée / Mêlée: Ideal for casual tournaments. Players are drawn into new teams and against new opponents in every round (or for the entire tournament).
  • League: For organizing a club or regional league with fixed teams. The match schedule is generated in advance and determines who plays against whom and when. The ranking is calculated by wins, point difference, and direct comparison. Supports HTML export of results and the match schedule.
  • Swiss System (Formule Suisse): The fairest system for tournaments with many participants and limited time. Includes automatic calculation of wins, point difference, and (Fine) Buchholz points for exact ranking determination.
  • Round Robin: The classic league system where every team competes against every other team over the course of the tournament.
  • Knockout System (Single Elimination): For classic final rounds and pure knockout tournaments. A win means advancing, a loss means immediate elimination. The pairings follow the cross-system (1st vs. Last, 2nd vs. Second to Last…), so top teams meet later on. For participant numbers that are not a power of two, a cadrage (preliminary round) is automatically calculated.
  • Maastricht System: Combines the Swiss System with knockout final rounds. Teams are paired using the Swiss algorithm over several preliminary rounds (2–5). Afterwards, teams are divided into performance groups (A, B, C, D) based on their number of wins – each group then plays its own knockout final. Result: four tournament winners, fair group allocation, and exciting finals.
  • Poule A/B System: Classic mode with a group phase (Poules) using a Double-Elimination-Light format, followed by division into the A-tournament (main bracket) and B-tournament (consolation bracket).
  • Cascading Knockout System (Extended ABCD System): Extends the classic ABCD knockout system with any number of additional levels (E, F, G, H …). Instead of early elimination, losing teams cascade step by step into lower consolation brackets. After a configurable minimum number of rounds, each level switches to pure knockout format – with its own cadrage if needed. Suitable for medium to large tournaments (16+ teams).
  • Formule X: A modern points-based round system from French pétanque – ideal for large fields and time-limited tournaments. All teams play the same number of rounds; no one is eliminated. The ranking is determined by a clear cumulative score (win bonus + own points + point difference) – no Buchholz needed. Round 1 is drawn randomly; from Round 2 onwards, pairings follow the ranking: Rank 1 vs. 2, Rank 3 vs. 4, etc.
  • Trip-Tête / Trio System: Team format for three-player teams where each encounter consists of Triplette, Doublette, and Tête-à-tête. After the shared Triplette, the team splits tactically: two players play the Doublette, one player plays the Tête-à-tête. Suitable for compact team tournaments with varied play and clear encounter scoring.

👥 Integrated Player Database – maintain once, reuse forever

Instead of retyping the participant list for every tournament, the Pétanque Tournament Manager comes with an integrated player database built right into the extension. Players, clubs and labels are entered once and are immediately available for every new tournament.

  • 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Maintain players & clubs centrally – first name, last name, club, license number and arbitrary labels (e.g. “Women”, “Youth”, “Home Club”).
  • 🔍 Fast search & filter – type-ahead search from 2 characters, combinable with club and label filters.
  • ➕ Direct import into the registration list – double-click adds a single player; multiple players can be collected as a team and written to the registration list together. Already-registered players can optionally be hidden to avoid duplicates.
  • 📥 Import / Export – CSV format and a dedicated DB file format. Share your club roster between tournaments or import existing lists.
  • 🌐 Built-in Web Viewer – a read-only browser frontend for the player database, ideal for the registration desk or tournament office.

💡 Great for club tournaments: Capture all active members once – from the next tournament onwards, just type the first letters of the surname and the player lands in the registration list with club and license number filled in.

🌐 Built-in Web Server – Live Display on Tournament Day

The Pétanque Tournament Manager includes a fully built-in web server – running directly from LibreOffice Calc, without any external software or internet connection.

While the tournament is running, all sheets can be viewed in a browser on TVs, laptops, tablets, or phones – in real time, updated automatically:

  • 📋 Participant lists – who is playing?
  • 🎯 Current game round – which matches are running right now?
  • 🏆 Rankings – updated live after each round
  • 📊 Custom tables – publish any Calc sheet you want

💡 That easy: Start the web server from the menu → open the URL in a browser → done. All devices on the same Wi-Fi see the tournament data live.

Technical details:

  • React frontend with Server-Sent Events (SSE) – instant updates without page reload
  • Up to 10 URLs simultaneously configurable
  • Zoom, centering and headers/footers configurable per port
  • All tournament systems supported: Supermêlée, Swiss System, Round Robin, Knockout, Maastricht System, Formule X, Trip-Tête

🎬 Tournament Splash Page – the welcome screen for tournament day

In addition to the data tables, the built-in web server brings its own Tournament Splash Page that you can show to spectators at the registration desk, on a projector, or on the club TV. It is configured through its own dialog and requires no external software.

  • 🖼️ Logo & background: Club logo, custom background and footer image, freely chosen background and text colour (native LibreOffice colour picker).
  • ✍️ Multi-line tournament description: Tournament name plus tagline plus description text with fade, slide or typewriter animation, looping endlessly.
  • 🔢 Live counters: “Registered” and “Active” are counted up in animated cards – straight from the registration list.
  • 🧭 Status bar: Current tournament system, progress and rotating quips.
  • 🔍 Zoom 10–500 %: Layout adapts to any screen size, while the background image stays unscaled.

💡 Quick to set up: Open the config dialog in the PétTurnMngr menu → pick a logo, enter the description → start the web server → open the URL on a projector or TV.

💻 System Requirements

To use the Tournament Manager smoothly, the following requirements must be met:

  • LibreOffice: version 25.x (or newer)
  • Java (JRE/JDK): version 25 or higher
  • Operating System: Linux, Windows, or macOS 11 (Big Sur) or newer

⚙️ Installation & Setup

Download the matching installer package from the GitHub Releases:

Note (macOS): Requires macOS 11 (Big Sur) or newer. macOS 10.15 (Catalina) and earlier are not supported (Java 25 runtime).

Start the installer and follow the instructions. The installer sets up the extension for LibreOffice.

Alternative: Manual Installation

Manual setup is done in three steps. Please make sure that the architecture of your Java version (32-bit or 64-bit) absolutely matches your LibreOffice installation.

Step 1: Install Java

If Java is not yet installed, download and install a current version. We recommend:

Step 2: Enable Java in LibreOffice

For LibreOffice to run the extension, the Java Runtime Environment must be linked:

  1. Open LibreOffice.
  2. Navigate in the menu bar to: Tools ▸ Options ▸ LibreOffice ▸ Advanced. (On macOS: LibreOffice ▸ Preferences...)
  3. Under the heading “Java Options”, check the box for “Use a Java runtime environment”.
  4. Select the installed JRE from the list that appears. (If the list is empty, click “Add” and manually select your Java installation folder.)
  5. Confirm the settings with OK and restart LibreOffice just to be safe.

Step 3: Install the Extension

  1. Download the latest version of the extension (filename: PetanqueTurnierManager-vx.xx.oxt) from the Releases section.
  2. Double-click the .oxt file. LibreOffice will automatically open the Extension Manager and ask about the installation.
  3. Confirm the installation and accept the license terms (if necessary).
  4. Close the Extension Manager. The installation is now complete!

🚀 First Steps & Usage

  1. Start LibreOffice Calc and open a completely blank, new spreadsheet.
  2. Look at the top menu bar of Calc. You will now find a new menu item called “PétTurnMngr”.
  3. Click on this tab. The extension’s control center opens, where you can add players, select the tournament mode, and generate the rounds.
  4. From here on, the program will guide you through the tournament via menus. Simply enter the results of the played matches into the generated fields; the tables and next rounds are calculated automatically at the push of a button.

📖 Documentation & Help

The complete documentation, detailed explanations of the individual menu items, and troubleshooting tips can be found in our official Wiki (currently in German): 👉 Go to the Project Wiki here

🤝 Contributing

Since this is an open-source project, contributions from the community are always welcome! Whether it’s reporting bugs (Issues), submitting code improvements (Pull Requests), or expanding the documentation – we appreciate any support.

License: This project is licensed under the EUPL-1.2 License.