PlayerTracker

[gstelmack]

Announcing the release of my PlayerTracker (http://www.gstelmack.com/PlayerTracker/publish.htm) utility.

To prepare, for every stage you want tracked, you must export the league data and the personal scouting data, much like you do for DraftAnalyzer. Note that you need to export during the FA1 stages if you want the blue draftee bars, FOF won't export these files post-TC. But you need to export again after TC to get cur/fut for draftees, so don't import into the utility until just after TC is run.

Next, run the utility. Select a league and it will preload the saved data for that league.

Click Import if you have a new set of stage data exported from FOF. The critical stages are post Training Camp and post Exhibition Week 1, but the utility can take any. A typical cycle is to export at some point during FA1 (to get draft bars and combines), export again just after TC is run (to get draftee cur/fut, and a baseline for others), import that into PlayerTracker, export after Ex1 is run (to get the major changes), and import that into PlayerTracker. So 3 exports, 2 imports.

Select a team to view that team. Select a player to view some details on the player.

Below the combines for the player is the standard cur/fut bar display we all know and love from the website. Below that is a display for all player bars.

The bar display requires a bit of explanation. The blue range for that bar is the draft min/max from your scout. Red is the current value for that bar. There will also be a gold bar for veterans that shows the peak that bar has ever reached per your scout, and/or a green bar if there is any remaining potential future development. If the player has been position switched, you should still have peak/fut, but the draft bits will be missing if that bar was not part of the position he was drafted from, since FOF exports zeroes for those.

New for 1.1: Added an Export button that will open a dialog for generating exports. You can generate a dump of all active players, all players ever imported, and a draft report for an individual draft class. The first two are CSV exports, the third is an HTML report suitable for leagues. All exports end up in the output folder, and will be opened automatically after the dump occurs.

For the images and links in the HTML draft class report, you will need to edit the ExportConfig.xml file that is generated in the output folder the first time you open the Export dialog. If there is no entry for your league, you'll get player names and team names with no links or images. The default config contains entries for WOOF and FOOL. For the URLs in the config file, [teamid] will be replaced with the team number, and [playerid] with the player's unique id.

If you are having trouble, best thing to do is to zip up your leaguedata directory that FOF exports, and the .ptdat file this creates (Documents\Stelmack Soft\Utility Suite\PlayerTracker), and send 'em to me. I will try and load it up here and see what breaks.

gstelmack AT nc DOT rr DOT com

http://www.gstelmack.com/PlayerTracker.png

[Ben E Lou]

Running into an issue here with some leagues but not others. When I do an import for the GML (in the postseason), it seems to work fine, but when I try to load it again, Player Tracker is crashing with no error report. I wonder if it's because it's not creating the .ptdat file. The .ptdat file is there for the FOFL and for my SP league, but not for the GML or IHOF. (IHOF's import was done right before Training Camp.)

[gstelmack]

I'll check, it is supposed to be saving it immediately after the import, but it's possible that got messed up.

[sjshaw]

Thank you!

[sjshaw]

Wow, I wish I could go back and export for previous seasons.

[BreizhManu]

:thumbsup:

[Caligari]

I got an unhandled exception trying to open this post-TC in the USFL. See below.

I had opened it prior to the TC and had no problem. I just did an Export Data and tried to load up the league.

Let me know if I can help any more.


An unhandled exception of type 'System.Runtime.Serialization.SerializationException' occurred in mscorlib.dll

Additional information: The input stream is not a valid binary format. The starting contents (in bytes) are: 01-00-0A-2C-00-00-01-00-00-00-08-41-6E-64-65-72-73 ...

[gstelmack]

If you are having trouble, best thing to do is to zip up your leaguedata directory that FOF exports, and the .ptdat file this creates (Documents\Stelmack Soft\Utility Suite\PlayerTracker), and send 'em to me. I will try and load it up here and see what breaks.

gstelmack AT nc DOT rr DOT com

[Dutch]

Awesome, can't wait to check this out. Thanks!

[w24olfpack]

Great stuff Greg.
Thanks

[Caligari]

If you are having trouble, best thing to do is to zip up your leaguedata directory that FOF exports, and the .ptdat file this creates (Documents\Stelmack Soft\Utility Suite\PlayerTracker), and send 'em to me. I will try and load it up here and see what breaks.

Hmmm. I see a 1234USFL.dat, but no *.ptdat file... That sounds like a problem right there...

[gstelmack]

Yeah, silly stupid mistake - if there was no data file at all, it still thought it was looking for a .dat file, and saved to .dat instead of .ptdat. I pushed this a few days ago to FOOL, and changed the format of the save, and have code to convert the old format to the update, and missed this one case.

Fix pushed for the initial import, to fix your existing data all you need to do is change the extension from .dat to .ptdat and you'll be good, it will read it fine.

[Ben E Lou]

That seems to have fixed it. Thanks!

[mpejkrm]

Yeah, silly stupid mistake - if there was no data file at all, it still thought it was looking for a .dat file, and saved to .dat instead of .ptdat. I pushed this a few days ago to FOOL, and changed the format of the save, and have code to convert the old format to the update, and missed this one case.

Fix pushed for the initial import, to fix your existing data all you need to do is change the extension from .dat to .ptdat and you'll be good, it will read it fine.

I've exported and don't have any sory of .ptdat or .dat file in that folder. Any idea how to get it to show up?

[gstelmack]

That shows after you import into the utility the export from FOF7.

[Caligari]

100% good after the rename (and downloading the new version, as it happens). Awesome stuff!

[sawblade300]

Just downloaded the updated version and as soon as I try to open a few of the leagues, I get a "Player tracker has stopped working" and it shuts down.

Any thoughts?

[Ben E Lou]

Just downloaded the updated version and as soon as I try to open a few of the leagues, I get a "Player tracker has stopped working" and it shuts down.

Any thoughts?Did you export the files first?

[sawblade300]

Did you export the files first?

Yes. Data and personal scouting data...correct?

[Ben E Lou]

No idea then. I guess you'll need to wait for Greg and see what he says. Both IHOF and the GML worked for me. (Haven't tried WOOF yet since we're in FA1.)

[Ben E Lou]

(And yes, those are the two required exports.)

[mpejkrm]

That shows after you import into the utility the export from FOF7.

Well I tried doing that and it crashed when I clicked "import".

[gstelmack]

If you are having trouble, best thing to do is to zip up your leaguedata directory that FOF exports, and the .ptdat file this creates (Documents\Stelmack Soft\Utility Suite\PlayerTracker), and send 'em to me. I will try and load it up here and see what breaks.

gstelmack AT nc DOT rr DOT com

Bolded and added to the first post. If you are crashing, I need your data, both the FOF export data and the utility's .ptdat file, in order to troubleshoot.

[sawblade300]

Bolded and added to the first post. If you are crashing, I need your data, both the FOF export data and the utility's .ptdat file, in order to troubleshoot.

Email sent. Forgot to attach the file, so it's in the second email. :banghead:

[gstelmack]

If you have a .dat file, rename the extension to .ptdat.

I just pushed a new version that got rid of anything to do with the older .dat files. If you haven't renamed yours, the league will load empty instead of crashing. You can either re-import your data, or rename the old file.

[gstelmack]

Ben and yabanci sent me leagues where there was an unexpected "-1" in the DraftedBy field. Minor update pushed to account for that.

[Ben E Lou]

Ben and yabanci sent me leagues where there was an unexpected "-1" in the DraftedBy field. Minor update pushed to account for that.Thanks for the fix!

As far as the -1, that's interesting. I'll have to see if I can figure out what would cause that. (I'm wondering if it's a flat-out bug that should be reported to JG.) I wouldn't see it in any of my databases because DBUpdater2's sql statement creates that field as unsigned, so it just becomes 0 when it's put in the db.

[Ben E Lou]

And yes, fix confirmed here. Just tried it. :thumbsup:

[Ben E Lou]

As far as the -1, that's interesting. I'll have to see if I can figure out what would cause that. (I'm wondering if it's a flat-out bug that should be reported to JG.)I'm guessing it's intentional. It turns out that -1 is assigned to undrafted players who were in the original NFL player file. It isn't there for undrafted players in leagues started fictionally, and having just checked three very long-term leagues, it looks like that's the only case where it occurs. *shurg*

[gstelmack]

Thanks for the fix!

As far as the -1, that's interesting. I'll have to see if I can figure out what would cause that. (I'm wondering if it's a flat-out bug that should be reported to JG.) I wouldn't see it in any of my databases because DBUpdater2's sql statement creates that field as unsigned, so it just becomes 0 when it's put in the db.

It shouldn't be 0 in the DB, it should be something bigger, since 0 is a valid team ID.

[Ben E Lou]

It shouldn't be 0 in the DB, it should be something bigger, since 0 is a valid team ID.It's 0 in the csvs. I just use draft_round>0 to differentiate.

[sawblade300]

If you have a .dat file, rename the extension to .ptdat.

I just pushed a new version that got rid of anything to do with the older .dat files. If you haven't renamed yours, the league will load empty instead of crashing. You can either re-import your data, or rename the old file.

Working now after latest update. Thanks. :thumbsup:

[Vaevictis_386]

This is amazing, you are the best man!

[mpejkrm]

Bolded and added to the first post. If you are crashing, I need your data, both the FOF export data and the utility's .ptdat file, in order to troubleshoot.

Alright, help me here one more time. Just use winrar or 7zip and zip the CSV files into a ZIP file? And then email that to you?

[Caligari]

Just a bug report -

Start Player Tracker.

Select League which you've imported and looked at before.

Press Import -> see message that you have already imported, so that will be skipped.

Select Team.

Problem: No players are shown.

Things are fine if you don't press Import, so its easy to avoid.

[gstelmack]

Alright, help me here one more time. Just use winrar or 7zip and zip the CSV files into a ZIP file? And then email that to you?

Yes, along with the .ptdat if one was created.

[gstelmack]

Just a bug report -

Start Player Tracker.

Select League which you've imported and looked at before.

Press Import -> see message that you have already imported, so that will be skipped.

Select Team.

Problem: No players are shown.

Things are fine if you don't press Import, so its easy to avoid.

Fixed, plus clears the player data when switching leagues.

[gstelmack]

Minor fix if you export draft data from FOF one season, but not the next, and then try to import players. The draft data would have players that don't exist, and would crash. It now ignores those players. You would never see it if you exported during FA1 of the season you are importing.

[Ben E Lou]

In case I haven't said it clearly, Greg hit a 5-run homer with this one.

[dzilla77]

Yeah to echo Ben's comment, this utility is gold. I am starting a new SP league just because of this. Like to track the history, but hate the book keeping (and can't program a database to save my life).

One enhancement that would score an MVP would be to add the numbers above/beside the bars (kinda like the draft utility and/or Ben's websites.)

[gstelmack]

One enhancement that would score an MVP would be to add the numbers above/beside the bars (kinda like the draft utility and/or Ben's websites.)

MVP! MVP! MVP!

[dzilla77]

MVP! MVP! MVP!

MVP!

[gstelmack]

Pushed another update that allows you to look at individual draft classes instead of players currently on a team.

[Ben E Lou]

Cool! How about some exports? I think the one that I would find most useful would be one csv that has everything in rookies.csv plus starting/recent/max cur/fut. just overall current and future, not all the individual bars.

[Ben E Lou]

(Oh, and one extra column defining what draft class each player was in.

[gstelmack]

Exports are coming as I figure out what they are. One is what you describe, essentially the training camp report, but one for me is also an overall development report: combines, draft blue bar ranges, peak bar values, and peak cur.

[gstelmack]

Exports added for 1.1, some info in the first post on this.

[Ben E Lou]

Exports added for 1.1, some info in the first post on this.That draft class HTML report is awesome! My one suggestion would be to order it by something that takes into account position weight and also--for recent draft classes where a lot of guys aren't fully developed--partly future potential. What works for me in my reports is usually:

positionweight*(maxcur*2+maxfut)/3

with positionweights of...

<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="1"><tbody><tr><th>positiongroup</th><th>positionweight</th></tr> <tr> <td>1</td><td>1.5</td></tr> <tr> <td>2</td><td>1.25</td></tr> <tr> <td>3</td><td>0.833333</td></tr> <tr> <td>4</td><td>1.25</td></tr> <tr> <td>5</td><td>1.25</td></tr> <tr> <td>6</td><td>1.02041</td></tr> <tr> <td>7</td><td>1</td></tr> <tr> <td>8</td><td>1.05263</td></tr> <tr> <td>9</td><td>0.66666</td></tr> <tr> <td>10</td><td>0.66666</td></tr> <tr> <td>11</td><td>1.2</td></tr> <tr> <td>12</td><td>1.125</td></tr> <tr> <td>13</td><td>1.17647</td></tr> <tr> <td>14</td><td>1.2</td></tr> <tr> <td>15</td><td>1.33333</td></tr> <tr> <td>16</td><td>1.17647</td></tr></tbody></table>

[NawlinsFan]

Why don't you guys just work with Jim to have these incorporated into the game along with various leagues screens. If the multiplayer side of the game were to have these enhancements and assist in the set up of an MP league(s) then FOF would move into another arena and possible gather the attention it deserves more so than it has up until now.


I know, I know. It's not as simple as rolling them in and then there are the politics of ownership and all but one can dream!

[gstelmack]

I may end up giving an option to order it differently, but keep in mind that the intent is not necessarily to have it ordered by who made the best picks, but rather a development report showing who is the highest rated out of that class. So while it's probably worth pushing kickers and punters down, it's hard for me to decide that Centers or Guards or Safeties should be down the list compared to WRs or QBs, say.

I am considering grouping it by position to make it easier to look at how positions develop, but I think that's better from the "All Players" report, so within a draft class I'm inclined to keep it sorted by Peak.

As for recent draft classes, I think that's a waste of time to even look at. It's pretty clear that players rebound up and down a lot during those first few seasons, especially with worse scouts, so I'm starting to learn to ignore the early development. I'm actually mildly frustrated at how some players lose current ratings and then gain them back during their early development, I'm going to have to start doing far more manual tracking outside of FOF than I'm used to. I may pay more attention to the peak values for young players than the current values for young players, given a couple of key instances where I missed a player losing value and didn't play him and ticked him off.

[gstelmack]

Why don't you guys just work with Jim to have these incorporated into the game along with various leagues screens. If the multiplayer side of the game were to have these enhancements and assist in the set up of an MP league(s) then FOF would move into another arena and possible gather the attention it deserves more so than it has up until now.


I know, I know. It's not as simple as rolling them in and then there are the politics of ownership and all but one can dream!

Honestly, I'd rather him focus on the core game mechanics and interface. I'm happy he's making the data available so we can create whatever customized reports we want, rather than him trying to incorporate every single possible view anybody could possibly want.

[Caligari]

I guess I've always wondered why these invaluable utilities which people have been working on are not part of an install package. Not incorporated in the base game, but available alongside it to make it easier to get started. That would seem like something that might be able to be worked out.

[gstelmack]

Pushed an update that fixes an issue with retired players continuing to collect empty data records, and messing up the draft class and all players reports. File sizes for long leagues will shrink.

Also added a "Draft_Class" field to the exports, and used it for undrafted players in the main window. I believe this field will be inaccurate if you started importing in the middle of a league - it will be wrong for undrafted players who never played in the league and retired before you started importing. But it should be set correctly for all players who played any in the league, and for all players going forward.

[IrishGuy65]

Thanks for this Greg! Really, really helpful!

[Nemesis]

Works on an older test league, won't work for OSFL though (first attempt at running it for this league).

Opened OSFL league in FOF7, exported.

Opened PlayerTracker, selected league, clicked on Import, and this comes up.

May not be directly related to PlayerTracker itself, anyone got any ideas?

http://i.gyazo.com/7b591de5497cc125fd127277d561ca32.png

[gstelmack]

See my bolded comment in the first post about what to send me if you want me to debug it.

[gstelmack]

The problem is the nicknames you are using. Check these two partial entries out:

13601,Vance,Horace,0,,WILB,0,0,2,0,75
13602,Melnick,Carlos,0,Alas, Poor,WLB

The comma in the nickname simulates another column in the CSV file. I'll have to decide if it's worth the effort to try and check for this and correct for it. Easier is not to use commas in your nicknames ;-)

Chuck Horton is going to give you fits, too.

[garion333]

I guess I've always wondered why these invaluable utilities which people have been working on are not part of an install package. Not incorporated in the base game, but available alongside it to make it easier to get started. That would seem like something that might be able to be worked out.

It's just like modding, so I don't see what's so mystical about all this. The utilities are great, but perhaps Jim doesn't want this level of detail in the base package.

[Nemesis]

The problem is the nicknames you are using. Check these two partial entries out:

13601,Vance,Horace,0,,WILB,0,0,2,0,75
13602,Melnick,Carlos,0,Alas, Poor,WLB

The comma in the nickname simulates another column in the CSV file. I'll have to decide if it's worth the effort to try and check for this and correct for it. Easier is not to use commas in your nicknames ;-)

Chuck Horton is going to give you fits, too.

Thanks for looking into it.

[sawblade300]

See my bolded comment in the first post about what to send me if you want me to debug it.

I am having the same problem as Nemesis in OSFL. When I went to find the ptdat file...OSFL isn't even listed among my leagues. I exported the data and scouting like I have for every other league, but OSFL doesn't seem to be uploading.

I sent you an email Greg with what I'm talking about

[Ben E Lou]

The problem is the nicknames you are using. Check these two partial entries out:

13601,Vance,Horace,0,,WILB,0,0,2,0,75
13602,Melnick,Carlos,0,Alas, Poor,WLB

The comma in the nickname simulates another column in the CSV file. I'll have to decide if it's worth the effort to try and check for this and correct for it. Easier is not to use commas in your nicknames ;-)

Chuck Horton is going to give you fits, too.Rather than you manipulating your code to deal with this foolishness, someone just needs to be taken out back and shot for some of these nicknames.

[aston217]

Yeah, that's probably me, hah. I used to have fun with the nicknames. I didn't realize they'd cause problems in game-generated CSVs that don't use quotes to encapsulate.

The quick fix would be to remove the LEAGUEID.FFN file and export data, right? That should do it?

Since I'm commissioner, if someone can provide a list of these nicknames with commas in them, I can also go in game and remove them.

[gstelmack]

I posted the two I found.

[gstelmack]

I am having the same problem as Nemesis in OSFL. When I went to find the ptdat file...OSFL isn't even listed among my leagues. I exported the data and scouting like I have for every other league, but OSFL doesn't seem to be uploading.

I sent you an email Greg with what I'm talking about

The problem is with the OSFL data files, specifically the nicknames given to the players, not the utility.

[aston217]

Ah, missed that. Got those three.

[sawblade300]

The problem is with the OSFL data files, specifically the nicknames given to the players, not the utility.

Great. So I can't use this unless everyone in the league removes the nicknames from their players. :mad:

[aston217]

There must be another problem nickname or two other than the three that I removed. When I get the chance, I'll dig through and see if I can get them all.

[sawblade300]

There must be another problem nickname or two other than the three that I removed. When I get the chance, I'll dig through and see if I can get them all.

:thumbsup:

[gstelmack]

I see 3 in the files I was sent:

Melnick Carlos
Horton Chuck
Newman Conner

Open "player_information.csv" in Excel, scroll over to column BU, and sort. All the ones with any data in that column should be at the top, and those are the ones with bad nicknames.

[NoxMortem]

And alos thank you very much for this tool!

[ezpkns34]

If I select Free Agents as the team, then it lists every player (both free agents & those on a roster)

[PackerFanatic]

I am not able to get this to load - I had it working during our last season, when I open it up this season, it force closes as soon as I select my league.

[andyhdz]

sorry for the newbie question but are these utilities only for multiplayer leagues? I can't find where to export my league data in my single player league. Thanks.

[NawlinsFan]

Bottom of the "Records" menu



Displayed as "Almanac"