Offering another web solution for FOF MP leagues.

[Ben E Lou]

First off, if you don't have the time or desire to do some additional work to get significantly more information for your league, I would strongly recommend that you look to TSN (http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/showthread.php?p=1929562) for a web solution. TSN is quite a bit easier than what I can offer, is less work to use week to week, and is a very solid all-around solution.

However, if you and your leaguemates are willing to do a one-time investment of a few hours to get some information to me, and then the commish is willing to add an extra 2-3 minutes beyond what's required to use TSN to the simming process , then what I can offer *might* be a fit for you.

I've successfully implemented this stuff for seven leagues now, and have figured out some ways to streamline the process for setting it up for additional ones. Here are a few highlights and examples:

Integration of forum and front page (USFL HOME (http://www.younglifenorthdekalb.com/usfl/ben/home.php))
DogByteshttp://www.younglifenorthdekalb.com/fofc/trademark.gif League Awards (DOGBYTES AWARDS (http://www.younglifenorthdekalb.com/ffl/ben/dogbytesawards.php))
Pro Bowl teams (PRO BOWL TEAMS (http://www.younglifenorthdekalb.com/woof/ben/probowl.php))
Custom player cards with much stats detail and history (QB Byron Leftwich Player Details (http://www.younglifenorthdekalb.com/usfl/ben/playercard.php?playerid=1647))
Milestone Watch (USFL MILESTONE WATCH (http://www.younglifenorthdekalb.com/usfl/ben/milestone.php))
Team History with top year-by-year top performers and award-winners (USFL: Chicago Crusaders (http://www.younglifenorthdekalb.com/usfl/ben/teampagehistory.php?teamid=10))
Report of players approaching career records (IHOF CAREER RECORD WATCH (http://www.younglifenorthdekalb.com/ihof/ben/careerrecordwatch.php))
Fast and automated updating of the league database via the StelmackSoft DBUpdaterhttp://www.younglifenorthdekalb.com/fofc/trademark.giftool means that the entire web site gets updated immediately, too.
Integrated into your existing processes for uploading, drafting, etc.
One-click auto-posting of gameday threads into your existing league forums with league-wide recap (http://www.fof-ihof.com/forums/showpost.php?p=340715&postcount=1), updated power ratings (http://www.fof-woof.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4597), players of the week (http://www.fof-woof.com/forum/showpost.php?p=37360&postcount=1), and next week's previews (http://www.simgamingnetwork.com/forums/showpost.php?p=62617&postcount=1).(The auto-poster eliminates the need to run extender for POTW, and extractor for the previews of next week's games, if you're doing that. It puts it right into the forum, where it belongs. ;))

To be clear, IHOF and WOOF are and probably always will be my priority leagues, so they'll always have things that no other leagues have, but anything that I've linked to in this post is available to anyone. There will be updates to the leagues I'm helping from time to time when I come up with a new feature/idea that can be implemented across the board.


Give me a shout if you're interested in getting this set up.

[Hammer]

Some great stuff here. Milestone Watch, Career Record Watch and Pro Bowl awards make me drool :)

[3ric]

Great! Sounds very interesting.

[chinaski]

Great! Sounds very interesting.

Would love to see this for the HFL ;)

[Ben E Lou]

Several have inquired, so I thought I'd post the detailed requirements here so I don't have to do it multiple times via PM. If you have questions about a requirement, I'd strongly prefer that you post your question here rather than via PM, so that others with the same question later on may benefit from the answer.

DBUPDATER REQUIREMENTS
The #1 question I have with any league is regarding access to the MySQL database. DBUpdater requires the ability to have remote access to the database. If that's not available, you'd need to use a database on my server. I've already done an upgrade to my hosting plan as a result of this. If I have to do another, I can, but I'd ask that the leagues commit to help cover the incremental cost via a once-a-year donation drive.

ABSOLUTE ESSENTIALS NEEDED BEFORE I CAN DO ANYTHING
If you want to move forward, I will need the following to get started:

1. FTP access to the server that the league is on. (No matter where the database is, I would need to place some files on your server to pull info from your forums for the front page.)
2. PhpMyAdmin access to the database that has your forum data in it. (Depending on what forums you use, there may need to be a manual edit or two to the database. Plus my php code will need the username/password/server name to display forum information.)
3. A copy of all the files in the "leagues" folder pertaining to your league, zipped up. (I need the entire league in order to get player ratings and--if it's a converted league--stats from the FOF2K7 era into the database .)
4. Run DBUpdater on every season in the FOF2K7 era. If you *can* run DBUpdater on your server, then go ahead and load the after-the-bowl file from every FOF2K7 season you've had, and run DBUpdater once per season. If you can't, contact me and I'll set up a database on my server for you to run it on. In other words, if you started with FOF2K7 in 2010, and it's now 2015, you need to...

Load league to 2010 after the Bowl.
Run DBupdater.
Load league to 2011 after the Bowl.
Run DBupdater
Load league to 2012 after the Bowl.
Run DBupdater
Load league to 2013 after the Bowl.
Run DBupdater
Load league to 2014 after the Bowl.
Run DBupdater
Load league to current stage in 2015.
Run DBupdater

You must run the seasons in order. The DBUpdater runs will take roughly 90 minutes to 2 1/2 hours per season, depending on your internet connection speed, so make sure you're doing it from a stable connection. If you're missing a season, it's not a huge deal, it just means that you won't have transactions, game-by-game schedules, and injuries for that year. I can still get the stats for you.

IF YOUR LEAGUE IS A CONVERTED LEAGUE: I can get some, but not all data. Just run Interrogator on the entire league history and zip up those files and send them to me as well.


NON-ESSENTIAL FOR STARTUP, BUT IMPORTANT

1. Your current fcy/fgr/fni files if you're not using all NFL cities/nicknames. I forget which one does what, but having all three will allow me to make sure that all teams/nicknames/cities are correct.

2. Team and League Logos

The setup requires four logo sizes. Here are the subfolder names and ideal sizes: a. /slivers/helmet{teamid}.png : 37x15
b. /logos/helmet{teamid}.png: 128x128
c. /bighelmets/helmet{teamid}.png 268x164 (I use the in-game banners for these and suggest you do the same.)
d. /small/helmet{teamid}.png: 68x26
Note that the .png is all lower case. The site will look fine if you vary a bit from these. However, for the first set, I strongly recommend staying a close to 37x15 as possible. Here's where each set is used: a. a *BUNCH* of places. They're at the top of the site and on most lists of players. Here are a few places:
IHOF STANDINGS (http://www.younglifenorthdekalb.com/ihof/ben/standings.php)
WOOF SEASON LEADERS: PASSING (http://www.younglifenorthdekalb.com/woof/ben/passingseasonleaders.php)
QB Leon McGregor Player Details (http://www.younglifenorthdekalb.com/fowl/ben/playercard.php?playerid=7349)

b. At top of team pages, and on game recaps.
GEFL GAME RECAPS (http://www.goldenerafootball.com/recap.php)
FOWL: Atlanta Falcons 2022 (http://www.younglifenorthdekalb.com/fowl/ben/teampage.php?teamid=1)

c. at top left of player cards, and on GOTW post
QB Shaun "The Solution" Duncan Player Details (http://www.younglifenorthdekalb.com/ihof/ben/playercard.php?playerid=7396)
http://www.simgamingnetwork.com/osfl/ben/gotw.php

d. for league-wide awards and other more significant reports
IHOF CAREER RECORDS (http://www.younglifenorthdekalb.com/ihof/ben/recordbookcareer.php)
DOGBYTES AWARDS (http://www.goldenerafootball.com/dogbytesawards.php) (note the top six awards get bigger logos) I also need a league logo in all four sizes above. Name it as helmet32.png in each folder.

3. Team Colors in 6-character Hex Format (if you're not using an NFL setup)--As you may have noticed, the team pages, player cards, and game recaps are all set up to reflect the teams' colors. This is not essential, but it's a nice add. This is fairly easy to do, just tedious. I need two colors for each team, a "dark" one and a "light" one. Use free software such as PAINT.NET (I used it for WOOF and IHOF) to open up each team logo and identify a dark and light color from the logos themselves. This will guarantee an exact match to the logo. I can set up all teams with generic colors until this is received. If you have an NFL setup, I have a color table for that already. I don't recommend using white as your "light." (Incidentally, I have found that for a team that has one color and white, like the Colts, it's better to go with a very light version of the "dark" color as the "light" color. So in the case of the Colts, I'd use very light blue rather than white.)

4. Owner List--I use this for team pages, to tie the owner name to the team on the front page, and for the overall league listing. The names need to be exactly (case-sensitive) as the forum user names.

5. Conference/Division Names--These are in a few places on the site.

6. One big text file with your league's entire SoleAwards History--Just go through year by year and print to file. Then copy and paste all of those files into one text file, and send it to me: benelou AT bellsouth DOT net

7. In some cases, I will need administrator access to your league forum. If you're using vbulletin, this probably won't be necessary. It's probably necessary for phpbb and others, depending on how you've got things set up from the start. I generally work on this sort of stuff at like 5am on a Saturday morning, so I'm not wanting to wait around for you to wake up to change something that needs to be changed. :D

Attached please find CSV files with the formats I need for numbers 3 and 4. Just fill those in for your league, substitute your league name in the titles, and send them to me via email. benelou AT bellsouth DOT net.








That's pretty much everything. Like I said, there's nothing terribly technical involved here, but some things will definitely require legwork from the league.

[Ben E Lou]

To be clear, when I say helmet{teamid}.png, that means if you're the Buffalo Bills in the default setup, I want helmet3.png, NOT helmet03.png or helmetbuf.png or whatever other incorrect interpretation of that you may have. ;)

helmet3.png

[MrDNA]

So where's all this for FOFL...? :)

[TheMeat]

Awesome stuff ben. I really like the milestone watch as well. What a great set up for a league.

[Ben E Lou]

Bump. I'm about to move on to some other stuff (like, say, fatherhood), so my time to get these set up is going to be much more limited coming soon. I know that some of you have inquired but haven't followed up. If you're interested, now is the time. I've gotten caught up on all of the requests, and probably have time for only one or two more. Here are the leagues using this stuff:

LEAGUES THAT I'M IN THAT ARE USING THIS STUFF.
(These have more bells and whistles than the others, such as the Pickem Challenge (http://www.fof-woof.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4967), bars on player cards (http://www.younglifenorthdekalb.com/woof/ben/playercard.php?playerid=10385), leaderboard appearances on player cards (http://www.younglifenorthdekalb.com/woof/ben/playercard.php?playerid=625), automated schedule/file updates (http://www.younglifenorthdekalb.com/woof/ben/schedule.php) and some extra reports in the forums from time to time. If you want the additional stuff, get on the waiting list for one of these. :))
WOOF HOME (http://www.fof-woof.com/home.php)
IHOF (http://www.fof-ihof.com/benstuff/home.php)
OSFL HOME (http://www.simgamingnetwork.com/osfl/ben/home.php)
FOWL HOME (http://www.younglifenorthdekalb.com/fowl/ben/home.php)

LEAGUES RECENTLY IMPLEMENTED
(I'm not in any of these, so these would be very close to what you should expect to get in terms of features. Gridiron Legends (http://www.gridiron-legends.net/reports/index.php) in particular is the one that I've set up to use as the primary model for all future implementations.)

GEFL HOME (http://www.goldenerafootball.com/home.php)
FFL HOME (http://www.franchisefootball.net/ben/home.php)
USFL HOME (http://www.younglifenorthdekalb.com/usfl/ben/home.php)
PFL HOME (http://www.younglifenorthdekalb.com/pfl/ben/)
HFL GAME RECAPS (http://www.younglifenorthdekalb.com/hfl/ben/leaguereport.php)

(Note that in some cases, technical limitations--mainly with regard to the league's hosting company--have forced me to use a "lesser" version of the front page. The HFL and PFL are examples of those cases.)

[Alan T]

Going to just toss in my two cents that Ben does outstanding stuff.. These reports alone in some of these leagues have gotten my interest back into FOF after several years.

Outstanding stuff!

[RLWJR]

I'll mention it once again....... That is some awesome work Ben, I just wish us solo players had a utility, or set of utilities, to get the same type of reports. I'd be happy even if they stayed in HTML form and I had to use a browser to look at them. The work you have done reminds me alot of all the add ons that Lorne Sundby used to make for Front Page Sports Football back in the mid to late 90's. His work added so much to the game, and I see your additions being just as valuable. Again, I just wish us solo players had a way to get our hands on it all!

[Subby]

So where's all this for FOFL...? :)
Traitor.

FOFL doesn't want to look like all the leagues and you know we have most of this stuff already anyway.

Plus ours is prettier (http://www.thefofl.com/league/chemistry-search.php). ;)

[Subby]

dola

Ben's stuff is awesome, though. And he has given a ridiculous amount of his own free time to helping leagues in need (including GEFL which was really in the lurch.)

His baseballreference.com-style leaderboards feature is one of the best MP features I have ever seen (he implemented it EXACTLY how I asked for it.)

[Ben E Lou]

Pretty is for sissies.

(...and also in the eye of the beholder. There's lots of stuff at FOFL that isn't implemented in a way that I don't like, but that's just personal preference...no "right" answer there...)

Seriously, though, thanks, Subby.

One thing: this doesn't take nearly as much time as I suspect people think that it takes. The huge amount of time was learning php and building the pages out on the front end. Setting up a new league as far as the code goes can be done in one evening, especially now that I have post #5 in this thread for commishes to get me what I need. Leagues that have a lot of history take time to populate the database (90 minutes or so per season), but that's nearly 100% automated due to DBUpdater.

And really, another shout-out should go to Stelmack for this. Without DBupdater, there's no way this could happen. Heck, without DBUpdater, I probably wouldn't have had the inertia to learn php PERIOD. Because of it, I didn't have to go in and learn how to set up a database. That was done for me, and as I get deeper into things, I was able to learn about setting up custom tables as I needed them.

[cuervo72]

So where's all this for FOFL...? :)

Bah. Not as long as I'm the commish.

Bad enough I've all but ceded IHOF.

Though hey, technically there's nothing really stopping him from setting up FOFL if he really *wanted* to. He has file access and I'm sure it would be easy enough to plug into his system.

[cuervo72]

dola

Ben's stuff is awesome, though. And he has given a ridiculous amount of his own free time to helping leagues in need (including GEFL which was really in the lurch.)

His baseballreference.com-style leaderboards feature is one of the best MP features I have ever seen (he implemented it EXACTLY how I asked for it.)

Ok fine, you've forced my hand.

[Ben E Lou]

Good job, Subby!!! Now I may never have to set up FOFL on my stuff. The main reason I haven't bothered is that I don't quite have enough history in the league to want to see the leaderboard piece yet. :D

[Subby]

I thought it was the 45-3 FOFL Bowl beatdown that had sucked your will to reminisce.

[Ben E Lou]

SAMPLE SIZE

[RLWJR]

To be clear, when I say helmet{teamid}.png, that means if you're the Buffalo Bills in the default setup, I want helmet3.png, NOT helmet03.png or helmetbuf.png or whatever other incorrect interpretation of that you may have. ;)

helmet3.png

Okay, a question..... So, if I have made a fictional league, and moved a bunch of cities around, then my banner for that team in the PICTURES folder is something like "ban122". So am I correct in making all the PNG files for that team "helmet122.png"? Is 122 the teamid? And then, when I go to fill out the excel sheet for team colors, should I substitute the 1-32 teamid numbers with numbers like "122" etc for the fictional teams?

Hope that question made sense!

[RLWJR]

Okay, a question..... So, if I have made a fictional league, and moved a bunch of cities around, then my banner for that team in the PICTURES folder is something like "ban122". So am I correct in making all the PNG files for that team "helmet122.png"? Is 122 the teamid? And then, when I go to fill out the excel sheet for team colors, should I substitute the 1-32 teamid numbers with numbers like "122" etc for the fictional teams?

Hope that question made sense!


I think I answered my own question by cracking open Interrogator. And yeah, I think I was way off base....... nevermind my newbness!

[Shard77]

dola

Ben's stuff is awesome, though. And he has given a ridiculous amount of his own free time to helping leagues in need (including GEFL which was really in the lurch.)

His baseballreference.com-style leaderboards feature is one of the best MP features I have ever seen (he implemented it EXACTLY how I asked for it.)

+1

Ben spent a great deal of time getting the PFL set up with a new front page and it looks awesome. We had several hurdles trying to get this set up and Ben patiently work with us until we resolved each of them. Feedback from the league has been very positive and it really adds a lot to the experience as a whole.

http://www.younglifenorthdekalb.com/pfl/ben/index.php

[NawlinsFan]

Ben's work is worth his weight in gold. I am a member of a league that hasn't even played one season yet although we have over 40 years of history compiled. Ben has constructed the site and all of us associated with it are in awe. The depth of data, the clean format, the ease of paging through....... Thanks Ben!

[cuervo72]

dola

Ben's stuff is awesome, though. And he has given a ridiculous amount of his own free time to helping leagues in need (including GEFL which was really in the lurch.)


I will definitely agree with this - I have a hard time imagining setting this up for all of these leagues which he otherwise has nothing to do with. I wouldn't have the time or patience to want to even attempt that.

[cooleyvol]

He's been invaluable to me in setting up Gridiron Legends. It was made even tougher with the amount of history built in and the 12 historical draft classes from Gridiron Glory.


Thanks, Ben!

[Ben E Lou]

Quick note to leagues that I have started communications with: the baby came a bit earlier than expected. Mom and baby are fine, but it's going to be a few weeks before I can get to all of you. I'll get them done, though.

--Ben

[Flasch186]

Im so happy that the new server is getting worked. My wallet thanks you for marketing it out there too :) congrats on the behbeh

[Yoda]

Quick note to leagues that I have started communications with: the baby came a bit earlier than expected. Mom and baby are fine, but it's going to be a few weeks before I can get to all of you. I'll get them done, though.

--Ben

Congratz!

[RedHawk00]

grats, fatherhood is FUN... i love it at least

[Ben E Lou]

Bump.

A couple of you have contacted me and I haven't followed up well. I'm in setup leagues mode again, so this is a good time. :)

[w24olfpack]

Bump.

A couple of you have contacted me and I haven't followed up well. I'm in setup leagues mode again, so this is a good time. :)
Hey Ben

Looking to get FLFL set up with your stuff. It's amazing and would love to see our league take this leap forward.

[azjoe_02]

Hey Ben, you may want to get rid of the links for Gridiron Legends (both) in post #9, as it come up with some very NSFW site...

[fireems14]

Any interest in setting up the BLPF?

[scarface132]

If you are a brand new league that has not played ANY games, would you still need to run dBupdater?

[gstelmack]

If you are a brand new league that has not played ANY games, would you still need to run dBupdater?

Every sim if you want to keep the database up-to-date.

[Yoda]

If you are a brand new league that has not played ANY games, would you still need to run dBupdater?

It depends on the league- the DBU will not update the database if you are starting off a league with an allocation draft until after you run the 1st preseason game.

[A-Husker-4-Life]

Can someone help me with this..??

[A-Husker-4-Life]

Bump, really need some help with this. Anyone willing to help?

[Ben E Lou]

I'm in, just really busy with work and working through my queue of sites.

[A-Husker-4-Life]

I'm in, just really busy with work and working through my queue of sites.

That's cool Ben, thanks for the help..

Where should I begin the process?

[Ben E Lou]

That's cool Ben, thanks for the help..

Where should I begin the process?Do you have a server with...
a. a MySQL database
b. the ability to have remote access to the database

If so, then you can go ahead and set up the db using DBUpdater. See the detailed info in post #5.

[PackerFanatic]

This just in: Ben E Lou is the frickin' man.

That is all.

[A-Husker-4-Life]

Do you have a server with...
a. a MySQL database
b. the ability to have remote access to the database

If so, then you can go ahead and set up the db using DBUpdater. See the detailed info in post #5.

Still trying to find all the end of the season files, what if I can only find the last couple of seasons?

[mau92]

Hey, Ben, congratulations, really loved your stuff, I'm a co-commish from BLPF, would be possible to implement at least some of this stuff in our web site? Thanks, congratulations again for your work...