Online League automation...

[tchatter]

Wanted to see if anyone would be interested in trying to create a 'program' to automate a league on line. I would prefer to do it in ASP, as that is what I know and what my web host supports.

I have a ladder system that I bought and have tweaked heavily to support Blood Bowl, but now I want to try and create a system that will support about 32 teams with fixed schedules. Also want to track players and their stats as well as team stats.

The problem is that I just don't have the time to program this all alone, so I am wondering if there is anyone out there that would like to help out. Sort of like an open source kinda thing. Any takers? I think that it would be a very useful tool for the community. My goal would be to make it useable for a java based league, pbem based league, and even face to face leagues.

However if the creator of the Aros site and Chubb wants to sell me his system... I'm game.

[GalakStarscraper]

Sort of like an open source kinda thing. Any takers?

Sorry tchatter .... I'm already working with Juergen on his PHP coding to automate both my PBeM leagues and to improve his at the same time.

He already submitted a request to SourceForge to have this be an open source project as we work on it.

The finished project won't track as much as FUMBBL does ... but it will be able to tell you quite a bit about the league and the players in it.

Galak

[tchatter]

If you are coding in PHP... wouldn't it be easier to tweak FUMBBL to work with PBEM? Since FUMBBL is in PHP?

But if you get a decent database designed... then tracking things and writing the PHP/ASP is the easy part.

Well, I will be going forward with it... just may take a while...

[GalakStarscraper]

If you are coding in PHP... wouldn't it be easier to tweak FUMBBL to work with PBEM? Since FUMBBL is in PHP?

Christer doesn't want the FUMBBL code to be open source, so he respectfully declined to share it. Which I totally understand ... he's got an awesome system built there. Juergen has already automated the PBeMBBL with PHP. Now I'm just trying to help him redo the code so that you can run real league seasons with the program as currently its just manages free-for-all play.

Galak

[tchatter]

Its too bad we can't get you, Juergen, Phil, myself, and anyone else who has done this in php or asp to work together on one and then convert it all to the other. I just think that we could come up with a REALLY great program, and count down on the amount of work for all.

[GalakStarscraper]

Its too bad we can't get you, Juergen, Phil, myself, and anyone else who has done this in php or asp to work together on one and then convert it all to the other. I just think that we could come up with a REALLY great program, and count down on the amount of work for all.

Juergen's making the PBeMBBL source code open source ... so if that is an acceptable starting point ... there is no reason it wouldn't work ... if I can just get Yahoo to answer my question about why their site is forbidding users to upload files.

Galak

[TiMuN]

tchatter - sorry, i can't take any more of my time to work together with you in this. I just had to sell my soul so my wife allows me to finish coding NetBowl league ( http://netbowl.uribb.net ) and have it run.

We have this league running for it's second full season, and it's all in PHP + mySQL to the bone. It tracks teams, games played, players, inscriptions and all the stuff, so the commishers don't have to be full time on it. It is meant to be for online play, but it can be tweaked into pbem with the right amount of time and knowledge.

You can also contact ZeBoss, the french guy who did francebloodbowl.com here in the forums .. Christer, him and I were talking about creating such an environment to put it online so the community could create leagues with easy on the net. Quite simmilar to that open source project Galak.

Also, contact Casper, the one guilty of http://www.arosbb.dk, which seems to be solid enough as to convert to pbembb (and has spread the code to the Chubb league too)

Hope that helps a little .... would have liked to join you guys on this

[neoliminal]

the OBL uses php to track the league. It also uses the same formula that the NAF site uses to team ranking. I need to talk to the co-author, but I think we could open source it.

reference url:

http://www.oldboysleague.com

[tchatter]

I had talked to Casper (aros) back when I was looking for a ladder system and for a league system, but he wouldn't give it to me... I even offered money... minis... anything, no go.

So I put the idea aside and started tweaking the asp ladder that I use for the REBBL challenge league, but I really need something along the lines of Aros, Old Boys, etc... But I know that it will take me a while to code it alone.

TiMuN - Net bowl is awesome!! Nice work! I have the same problem... the challenge ladder is pretty good time wise even with 120 teams, but doing my other leagues on a spreadsheet is just taking too much time. I too have been selling my soul to the wife.

neoliminal - Yeah the OBL would work great too! Very nice as well. I could trudge through the PHP and try to mimic it in ASP.

I would love to use aros (chubb) as it is exactly what I am looking for. I don't even need everything automated, I just need scores, standings, stats, players and the like tracked. With the right amount of tweaking any of them will work for PBEM.

Oh well, I have the beginnings of a database and a site design (asp pages I will need) on paper. So I am going to get started on it. Just hope that Blood Bowl doesn't disappear before I am finished.

It just seems like we have FUMMBL, OBL, AROS, CHUBB, NETBOWL, EDINBORO, FRANCEBB, PBEMBBL, etc... all doing the same thing. If we were to all work together and use the best parts from each you could come up with one AWESOME site. Its not like the different leagues are in competition with each other either, at least we shouldn't be, but I know how protective of code people are. I have no problem with that, it just seems like it would be much more beneficial to everyone if we created something together that just completely rocks!

[Quetzalcoatl]

Hi everyone. I'd possibly be willing to put some time in on the right project. At the moment, I've been doing planning for my own project. My league's commish uses the Excel spreadsheet that is out there to track the leagues stats. Sorry, I don't know who wrote it or much about it. I created a website for our league with one of the free tripod accounts. To make a long story short, without getting into the details, what I've done so far, is write a VBS script that saves each worksheet as a webpage with custom HTML nav code on top of each page, and then FTPs the files to my site http://rebbl2003.tripod.com/ . This used to take me about 30 minutes or longer to do by hand. Now, I click my script, and it is all automated.

The Excel program is the extent of my exposure to the various league tools. I was planning on writing code to export the Excel data into XML, and then create XSLT transforms to create customized web pages. Right now the pages are simply HTML version of the Excel.

Ummm... I'd be willing to embark on something more ambitious. Has anyone done any analysis on what technical solutions make most sense? Also, has anyone made a wish list of functionality?

On an aside, would someone be willing to take the list of existing apps out there, and make a couple of charts that noted what the tech specs were, such as OS, programming language, and other tools used (Excel, MySQL, Acces, etc.)? Also maybe a chart of which apps support which major functions. This would be useful in and of itself for someone looking around for an existing app.

Anyway, it's Friday and it's 5:30. I need to get out of here (I'm at work). I'll check in later this weekend.

Cheers,

-Ricardo

P.S. For the record, I'm an ASP guy with a good bit of experience, but would be willing to learn PHP, Perl, or whatever, if that makes sense. I'm into this for the learning experience as much as anything.

[tchatter]

Q - currently I use ASP with an Access database. In my opinion either ASP or PHP is the way to go with something like this. AROS is a VERY good example of what would be needed to run a league, as is the LPL. Both are done in ASP. If I do any coding it will be in ASP as that is all I know. I currently have a database setup and am starting to plan out the pages that I will need. Problem is that I am just a beginner with ASP, so it will be a long process for me.

If you want to... go to www.rebbl.com (shoulda copy-righted the name ) and sign up on the forums, I have a thread that I can make you a part of where we could discuss some ideas and work on the project together if you would like? It looks like we are both running a league in much the same way, so it would benefit us both. Just PM me there once you sign up... my name there is tchatt.