FOF MP Draft Utility

[Ben E Lou]

Yeah, that MP draft profile screen was there in FOF2K7. I'm guessing it hasn't changed at all. I say "I'm guessing" because I don't remember what it looked like in FOF2K7 since it was never used in any league I was in.

[Antmeister]

Originally Posted by dzilla77

Most (all?) leagues conduct their draft outside the game allowing GM's to make all picks "live" (at least per the definition in the help file). As such, this is not necessary and has no impact on the draft because it is conducted outside the confines of the game (i.e. through conscriptor or a forum).

I am quite aware of this for the amateur draft, but I thought to post it because in the later rounds to speed things up, we usually use the outside tool to finish off the draft using preference lists. This would definitely help a commissioner in those later rounds if this can be done in game instead of him having to enter all the players manually.

[Ben E Lou]

No, it'll be easier to do in Conscriptor. The new game allows the commish to just import a CSV to enter draft picks. I'm assuming the Conscriptor update is going to have a function to export the completed draft in the format that FOF7 expects, so now draft pick entry will be very fast.

[Antmeister]

Oh yes, that is right. Forgot about the import function.

[Antmeister]

Now how about the staff draft? Would that be easier through Conscriptor or for us to just do this internally? There may be more of a cool unknown factor if we don't know for sure if we are gong to land a staff position we are after as well seeing one of your staff positions poached as a surprise. Plus you won't need to import anything.



EDIT: Nevermind. Will make the staff draft way too long.

[WheelsVT]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

No, it'll be easier to do in Conscriptor. The new game allows the commish to just import a CSV to enter draft picks. I'm assuming the Conscriptor update is going to have a function to export the completed draft in the format that FOF7 expects, so now draft pick entry will be very fast.

Yes, the "Draft Analyzer Dump" link now outputs a CSV in the FOF7 format for both types of drafts.

[WheelsVT]

I'm nearly done implementing the staff draft. If you want to check out progress it's on my test page http://www.thewalkerbunch.com/TestFOF/fof_draft

Just be aware it is a working debug version so I upload code as I go and test, but you can register for a team and click around. You'll see the draft in different stages depending on what I'm testing. Note that team name is now city name not a 3-letter code.

[TRO]

Wheels - it would be nice if there is color coding or some other visual reminder of what bars are active for certain staff positions.

[Ben E Lou]

Quick one: will the big 53-round initial draft still be supported?

[Julio Riddols]

Looks nice, Wheels.

My thinking is that the staff draft shouldn't take too long to do, most leagues can probably finish it in a day or two so it shouldn't take any longer than it already does for most leagues.

[WheelsVT]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

Quick one: will the big 53-round initial draft still be supported?

Yes, the conscriptor code can handle any arbitrary number of rounds. I just have to look to see what gets exported prior to an allocation draft.

[WheelsVT]

Update:
The staff draft seems to run great now. I'm working on changing Rollback so that it allows you to rollback declined picks not just picks where a staff member was selected. Then it's on to allocation and mock draft parts.

[sjshaw]

You're doing God's work, Wheels.

[WheelsVT]

Originally Posted by TRO

Wheels - it would be nice if there is color coding or some other visual reminder of what bars are active for certain staff positions.

I liked this idea so I color coded the important stats bold-red when looking at a staff member's detail page.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by WheelsVT

I just have to look to see what gets exported prior to an allocation draft.

It doesn't export the allocation draft order. FWIW, I have a php script already in place that I can use to write the 53-round snake draft order to Conscriptor's database. Currently no one else is trying to start an FOF7 league that way other than me. Unless I'm missing something, there's not any need for you to fool with draft order stuff right now. No need for everyone else to wait on something that's (for now) just for me when I already have something in place to handle it.

[WheelsVT]

Conscriptor Update: Mock draft and scout picks are working! I have a few more tests to run before I zip it up and post it.

[Julio Riddols]

Very nice, Wheels. It's nice to see this basically vital utility continuing to improve and evolve.

[WheelsVT]

The FOF7 Conscriptor is ready for use, the first post in the thread has been updated with the download link. Please be aware that this is the initial release and I recommend using the install.sql to set it up.

I've done my best beta testing on my own, but there may be issues with the sql upgrade script or the staff draft though I've done most of my testing there.

[sjshaw]

Thank you!

For future releases, if you could find a way to make easy chemistry predictions with a team's leaders, that would be great, because late-round draft picks are going to be much more valuable in MP. A way to take that info from the draftee's player card and get it into Conscriptor would be awesome.

[Ben E Lou]

Error in trying to create the database:

You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near 'CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `last_update` ( `latest_message` int(11) NOT NULL ' at line 2

[Ben E Lou]

Ok. I got past the error by creating the tables manually. However, I don't see where to import the file for a full draft. It asks for rookies.csv or staff.csv. I'm running an allocation draft.

[WheelsVT]

Ok standby. Testing the install script and will see what's needed to allow an allocation draft to import as well.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by WheelsVT

Ok standby. Testing the install script and will see what's needed to allow an allocation draft to import as well.

I'm guessing that the install script problem is something here:

PHP Code:

/*
// Got here, so let's run the sql script
$queries = explode(";\n", file_get_contents("includes/mysql/install.sql"));
foreach($queries as $query) {
  if ($query) {
    mysql_query($query);
    if (mysql_error()) {
      echo "".$query;
      echo "
".mysql_error();
      exit;
    }
  }
}
*/ 


To make it work, I commented out this section, copied the text from install.sql, ran it in phpMyAdmin, then re-ran install.php with this section commented out.

[WheelsVT]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

Error in trying to create the database:

It was due to all the ^M characters added to the SQL files when I edited them in Notepad. With those removed the install works fine now. Link has been updated.

[WheelsVT]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

Ok. I got past the error by creating the tables manually. However, I don't see where to import the file for a full draft. It asks for rookies.csv or staff.csv. I'm running an allocation draft.

There are no ratings exported when you run the export prior to an allocation draft. If I just go off of the player_record and player_information files it will work, but you'll just have names and positions basicly and need to use the game to look at ratings. Any ideas?

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by WheelsVT

There are no ratings exported when you run the export prior to an allocation draft. If I just go off of the player_record and player_information files it will work, but you'll just have names and positions basicly and need to use the game to look at ratings. Any ideas?

I just simmed to Pre Week 2 and exported ratings. See attached for sample file.

[WheelsVT]

Looks like Extractor works on WinXP (not Win7?) so one option in the case of allocation drafts we could rely on Extractor to pull attributes as before for each position group, combine them into one big file, and with a little modification import that into Conscriptor.

[WheelsVT]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

I just simmed to Pre Week 2 and exported ratings. See attached for sample file.

That sounds better than relying on Extractor once again.

[Ben E Lou]

Agreed. The ratings variance issue makes Extractor a "fairness" issue (not to mention the time it takes and all that).

[WheelsVT]

Conscriptor 2.1 Updated - Added support for allocation draft with random order and snake draft options.

Allocation drafts: Note that the commissioner will need to sim through the draft and perform an export to get the player ratings file (as discussed above). The utility will use the Pre-camp ratings so it doesn't reveal any un-masking of X-factors.

[WilleB]

You're the man Wheels!

[Ben E Lou]

The download link in the first post isn't working.

[WheelsVT]

Yep, last test found that the new position, long-snappers, were not showing up in the list. Pulled it and will put it back up in a minute.

[WheelsVT]

Had to make some modifications for the allocation draft to include long snappers but also make sure even ratings of 0 are recorded due to the way Conscriptor matches attributes to position. As a result the import will take several minutes to process the ratings file and will have a large player_to_attribute table (~172,000 rows). I could make it more elegant to trim that, but I don't think it's worth it at this point.

Update completed and re-posted.

[sjshaw]

Thank you!

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by WheelsVT

As a result the import will take several minutes to process the ratings file and will have a large player_to_attribute table (~172,000 rows). I could make it more elegant to trim that, but I don't think it's worth it at this point.

I'm getting an internal server error 500 after it tries to do this for several minutes. I'm guessing it's taking too long. Thoughts? Maybe send you the files and let you import them, then I just grab the tables? (I'm not sure anyone else is doing a dispersal draft any time soon, so I'd think a workaround like that might be the way to go...)

[WheelsVT]

Yes, that makes sense. I'll see if I can implement it this am (was really tired last night after so many hours on it so far). Go ahead and email the files to me at wheelsvt AT gmail.com

[Ben E Lou]

sent. thanks.

[TRO]

Wheels - related to the dispersal draft for WOOF, having difficulty getting a priority list to upload.

I have a CSV file with columns, Name (Full Name), Position and BirthDate but getting error that there are no players in uploaded file.

Since all players that are loaded in Conscriptor are showing up with 0000-00-00 birth dates, I've also tried changing all birth dates in my file to either 0/0/0000, 00/00/0000 and 0000-00-00 and the file still will not take.

Any ideas?

[Ben E Lou]

Maybe it's from some extra embedded characters in the player name field? It looks like there are some extra spaces there in the db.

[WheelsVT]

The birthdays are in the database I just haven't fixed the import code to work and thus you get 0000-00-00. Sorry. Same with the school values.

Can you send me a priority list to test with?

[WheelsVT]

Originally Posted by WheelsVT

As a result the import will take several minutes to process the ratings file and will have a large player_to_attribute table (~172,000 rows). I could make it more elegant to trim that, but I don't think it's worth it at this point.

I made it more elegant and cut it to 30,000 rows. Ben has confirmed it worked. Updated the link.

[TRO]

Originally Posted by WheelsVT

The birthdays are in the database I just haven't fixed the import code to work and thus you get 0000-00-00. Sorry. Same with the school values.

Can you send me a priority list to test with?

Sent you a PM.

[WheelsVT]

Thanks TRO. On the import I failed to trim the extra whitespace from the player names when I concatenated them so they fail to match, and of course the 0000-00-00 birthdays kill it too.

[WheelsVT]

The main link has been updated and I emailed Ben the file so he can reimport the allocation draft for you guys (only way to fix the DOBs). The school value is different because the Conscriptor used to get an actual name from Extractor while the FOF export gives a number. I'll have to build a table and reference it. So expect that in a minor update... as long as school to value numbers are actually exported from FOF.

[WheelsVT]

Allocation Draft Preference:
If your league would rather use blue bars for the attributes (since they are actually future values not current) your webmaster can run the SQL commands below to switch from the default red-orange bars.

update player_to_attribute set player_to_attribute_high=player_to_attribute_low;
update player_to_attribute set player_to_attribute_low=NULL;

[WheelsVT]

Updated to 2.3

Fixed bug found in my testing where if draft set to make pick on expiration and player queue and/or BPA auto-pick is turned on for that team and list empty and time expires or forced then the pick is skipped instead of a player picked by force.

Removed requirement of matching DOB on priority list import since rookies do not have DOB exported currently in FOF7.

[Sef0r]

I've spent a good part of my day getting my priority list for the WOOF draft just right and BOOM I can't upload it lol.

What do I need to do to ensure conscriptor can read it? What columns do I leave in and what changes to I need to make to titles, etc?

Any help would be really appreciated.

[WheelsVT]

Originally Posted by Sef0r

I've spent a good part of my day getting my priority list for the WOOF draft just right and BOOM I can't upload it lol.

What do I need to do to ensure conscriptor can read it? What columns do I leave in and what changes to I need to make to titles, etc?

Any help would be really appreciated.

Unfortunately, the WOOF imported using the first working version for the FOF7 allocation draft which didn't strip the extra white space characters in the names and didn't import the DOBs properly - both fields that the priority list import matches against which we didn't realize at the time.

The only way for it to work was for Ben to reimport so the names and DOBs were correct.

Now you could -try- to add a space before the first name and an extra space between first and last name then the different combinations of DOBs. I can also shoot Ben the file to ignore DOB and see if we can come up with some SQL commands to fix the names after the fact.

[Ben E Lou]

Am I correct that I'd have to re-enter all of the draft picks if I re-imported?