FOF Extractor (Updated to Version 4.3.0, 6/18/2006: Draft History Screen)

[gottimd]

Nice! Is there a way to include salary in there as well? Is this going to be a txt export? Sorry to ask so many questions just curious. Are you working on the scout file too?

If you need help in excel let me know, be glad to be of assistance.

[gstelmack]

I am exporting salary for coaches and scouts, and those files will be comma-delimited text just like the rosters. I can add pretty much any field that's on the player report window to the player output, just ask

I'm planning on adding text output to the draft list as well. It just gives you some different sorting options. I'm hoping to add the "mock draft" feature to that utility at some point after its initial release.

[3ric]

Nice upgrade Greg, looking forward to try it out.

[gottimd]

The news just get better and better with this thread, me likey likey.

[gstelmack]

Version 2.0 is now available, same place (link in my sig). Key new features include scout/coach export, the draft analyzer program, and an installer (now that there are two programs and some HTML documentation).

As with version x.0 of anything, consider this beta and feel free to flood me with bug reports or suggestions to make them more useful.

[3ric]

Thanks, Greg!

[fantastic flying froggies]

Bump, and thank you Greg !

[Fritz]

I wish we could retitle this thread

[fantastic flying froggies]

Suggestions : being able to filter by position, being able to sort by all colums (right now, it's only possible to sort by the 4 different rankings)

Going back to play around with it some more...

[gottimd]

Gstelmack-

Can you post any screenies or examples of the new and improved upgrades to the export? Wanted to see them but unfortunately I am at work and they frown upon playing games when they are paying me to do other things, go figure.

[gstelmack]

The export now spits out coaches and scouts, with almost every field visible on the scout/staff report windows. Nothing changed with the players, although I expect it to for 2.1 (at the very least I want to get college in there for the draft list).

Thanks for the suggestions, froggie.

[gstelmack]

v2.0.1 now available, link in sig. Mostly some minor bug fixes, can sort on any column, etc. This is also the first test of doing an in-place upgrade with Windows Installer, so let me know of any installation issues.

Barring major bugs, I expect the next release to v2.1, where Draft Analyzer becomes a full-blown draft manager, with the ability to set and modify a draft order (separate from any other column sorting), providing a pastable draft string suitable for forum/chat posting to make a pick in a multiplayer league, and allow you to mark drafter players or paste the game's output string for a draft pick and have it find the player for you. As part of this, Extractor is likely to get some new fields, with "College" topping the list.

[Taco]

I just upgraded from v1.2.1 and it looks great! Thanks, and great work!!!

[Senator]

Thank you for all the efforts on making this game even more enjoyable. It is very appreciated.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by Senator

Thank you for all the efforts on making this game even more enjoyable. It is very appreciated.

You guys are all welcome. I'm having a lot of fun just working on the utilities, but it's always nice to hear that other people are enjoying using them.

[gstelmack]

One key feature the suite is missing: icons! Any of the artistically inclined out there want to provide an icon for Extractor, Analyzer, and/or the suite? In return you'll get my thanks and a credit on the web page and in the About boxes.

[KWhit]

I just downloaded the extractor and I am getting an error when I first try to run the application - Unable to locate DLL for gdiplus.dll

Have you seen this before?

I'm running Win 2K professional.

[gstelmack]

Nope, that's a first I've seen it, but it may well be my use of CImage for debugging code that causes it. I'll have to do some digging tonight to see how to redistribute it: it's part of XP and 2003, but I'll need to see if it can be made available for 2000 or other OSes.

[KWhit]

Okay, thanks.

[gstelmack]

GDIPlus is available here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...3-54938B6F4614. That's a self-extracting zip that will extract gdiplus.dll plus some other files. You should be able to copy that gdiplus.dll into the FOFExtractor directory and have it work.

Since the only call that I can think of that might be using this is the debug bitmap save code, and because we seem to be past that stage of development, I'll look into yanking that from the next build to remove the GDI+ dependency. I don't want to have to distribute gdiplus.dll as it's like 1.6MB and I don't know that RoadRunner will be happy with that many downloads...

[KWhit]

Great. Thanks a bunch. I'll try it tomorrow when I'm at the computer that has FOF on it.

[gstelmack]

Version 2.1.0 is now available! This is a minor update to Extractor and a HUGE update to Draft Analyzer. Biggest change is that Draft Analyzer is set up to help manage drafts, with support for manually ordering the list, setting the current sort as a draft order, importing and exporting your sorted data, marking players as drafted (including support for pasting a line from FOF2k4's real-time draft list), and importing/exporting the list of draftees so other players in a league can update their own personal draft lists. This is designed to help with multiplayer draft management, so comments on usability are very welcome.

As part of this, Extractor dumps a player's college to the file. Note that the OCR does not always work perfectly (notably replacing capital-I with lowercase-l), so I have code to manually correct some colleges, but if you see mis-reported colleges or have problems with Analyzer not finding a drafted player, let me know so I can add that college to the manual list.

Once we stabilize this version, I'll look into the hypothetical draft feature. It looks like the team cap / needs list can be printed from within FOF2k4, so likely implementation is "print team cap/needs list to file, bring that in to Analyzer, manually edit draft order (with the ability to copy/paste each round), and then hit go."

[Ben E Lou]

Will the 2.1.0 Analyzer work with an extracted draft from the previous version?

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

Will the 2.1.0 Analyzer work with an extracted draft from the previous version?

No, it's expecting the "college" to be there. Although I could probably make it handle a missing college column on import if this is important to people (it's the only quoted column so would be easy to detect if it's missing).

[Ben E Lou]

No biggie. It is just that I extracted a draft with the old version before I remembered that the new was available. Was trying to save a little time.

On a related note, I've been operating on the assumption that the Extractor needs for the FOF2K4 and Extractor screens to remain on top for it to work. Is that assumption correct, or can I do other stuff while it is running?

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

On a related note, I've been operating on the assumption that the Extractor needs for the FOF2K4 and Extractor screens to remain on top for it to work. Is that assumption correct, or can I do other stuff while it is running?

The only thing is that the FOF2k4 Player Report (or Coach or Scout) window needs to be uncovered. If something is blocking one of those windows, the screenshots I take of the data will have whatever is on top in it and mess it up.

But if you can run other stuff off to one side and not cover that window up (here's where a multi-monitor setup comes in handy), you can continue to work. Be careful of CPU intensive stuff that might delay the advancement to the next window: I don't have an easy way to tell when the window has redrawn, which is what the .25 second delay is for. If any of the other C++/Windows types out there know how to tell when a window repaint is completed, I might be able to speed the process up.

[Ben E Lou]

Mark Drafted: This allows you to copy-and-paste a draft line from the FOF2k4 draft dialog into the text box, then mark that player as drafted. Or a commissioner may send this line out to players in either a chat channel or web forum, and players can copy from there to update their lists. These lines look like:

1. New Orleans - Benton, Tyrone, DE, Illinois

If you can figure out a way to copy-and-paste multiple lines (like say, the last 31 or so draftees ), I'll have your baby.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

If you can figure out a way to copy-and-paste multiple lines (like say, the last 31 or so draftees ), I'll have your baby.

I'll work on it. Just need to handle text with newlines and process them one at a time.

And thanks for the offer, but my wife and I really love our 16-month old and aren't about to give her up

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

I'll work on it. Just need to handle text with newlines and process them one at a time.

And thanks for the offer, but my wife and I really love our 16-month old and aren't about to give her up

[gstelmack]

Version 2.1.1 is out. Can handle multi-line pastes from FOF2k4 so you can take the last 31 or so draftees and mark them all at once. I even pre-select everything in the text box when you click in it so you don't have to do that manually before pasting.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

Version 2.1.1 is out. Can handle multi-line pastes from FOF2k4 so you can take the last 31 or so draftees and mark them all at once. I even pre-select everything in the text box when you click in it so you don't have to do that manually before pasting.

My hero!!!

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

My hero!!!

I won't ruin the moment by saying it took about a half-hour, a CString::Tokenize call, a CString::TrimRight call (because Tokenize won't get rid of the stupid DOS carriage return / linefeed pair in one go), and a loop

[Ben E Lou]

This latest update *really* put this utility over the top for me. I ran the fastest draft I've probably ever done in FOF2K4 earlier this morning. Thanks a TON, Greg.

--Ben

[gstelmack]

Minor additional update: 2.1.2 available with a few more weights you can edit. It lets you set the weights used in the "Sct Rk" column for future potential, percent developed, and combine rank. In my single-player test draft I found that I'd want to change these weights as the draft progressed, notably reducing the reliance on future potential as the draftees converged on similar potentials.

Barring any bug reports, the next version will be a while. There's a bit of work to do to get the mock draft going (mostly in pulling in the draft order / team needs lists, plus deciding how best to output it).

[gstelmack]

Version 2.2.0 now available. The Mock Draft is finally here! Instructions included in the docs, but mainly it asks you for a "Team Needs/Cap List" (use the FOF2k4 Print button to dump to a file), then has you set up the draft order (with a "Copy First Round" button so you don't have to do all rounds manually). It then asks for the name of an HTML page to dump the results to.

HTML is a simple table; I have some offers for help to spruce it up a bit.

The Mock Draft so output is as inaccurate as any other Mock Draft. Biggest issue it suffers from is that the "Team Needs" list likes to recommend a "Starting RB" even if you have a 25/85 RB on the roster, which means the Mock Draft may well pick up another RB early on. But it should still be generally useful for how early a player is likely to go.

Also note that it uses the overall "Bureau Rating" rather than future potential since it's based on a mix of scouting services, while individual teams will often have players ranked a bit differently. But that's what makes this a "Mock Draft" and not a real one.

There will likely be 2.2.1 out in a few days to a week with bug fixes and likely spruced up HTML output (and maybe an icon!). Suggestions to make the UI easier to use are also welcome.

[fantastic flying froggies]

Man, you put new versions out faster than I can download and install them !

Keep going Greg, great work as always !

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by fantastic flying froggies

Man, you put new versions out faster than I can download and install them !

The Mock Draft went quicker than I thought. For some reason it just all came together over the weekend. I guess I was planning for it better than I thought I was

I also got a good boost for the 2.1/2.2 versions of DraftAnalyzer by using CXListCtrl from CodeProject. It's a fantastic public domain extension of CListCtrl that adds features that really ought to be in CListCtrl, like easy setting of background/foreground colors, adding drop-down combo boxes in cells, etc.

[chinaski]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

The Mock Draft went quicker than I thought. For some reason it just all came together over the weekend. I guess I was planning for it better than I thought I was

I also got a good boost for the 2.1/2.2 versions of DraftAnalyzer by using CXListCtrl from CodeProject. It's a fantastic public domain extension of CListCtrl that adds features that really ought to be in CListCtrl, like easy setting of background/foreground colors, adding drop-down combo boxes in cells, etc.

gstelmack you are amazing. does this mean extractor will be able to cycle thru all the team screens sometime soon??

[gstelmack]

Just to add more fuel to the "Greg can't leave well enough alone" fire, v2.2.1 is up! I fixed a minor bug in the Extractor where "Bowl Wins" for coaches were not extracted correctly. I also added a new Analyzer feature: HTML Export. Basically, I ripped off the HTML table Wig used for the first WigFL draft to keep the GMs up-to-date with the draft data (I don't know if he's still using it or not) and have Analyzer writing it. This is just another way for commissioners to keep GMs up-to-date with the draft, especially those not running Analyzer (or those that are but are away from their main computer, like I was for a weekend during the WigFL draft). In honor of its origins, I've christened this feature "WigOut".

[Ben E Lou]

I'm getting an error when I try to download 2.2.1. Anyone else had problems?

[gstelmack]

I just tested the download from work and it went through fine. Try again? Maybe Road Runner was having fits (wouldn't surprise me, periodically it takes FOREVER for my FTP program to connect and upload the new files to their home page area, and sometimes I have to try more than once).

[Ben E Lou]

Tried again and it worked fine. Thanks!

[nero]

Does this utility have a feature to compare players' skills and talents from one dump to another?

Would be a great way to keep tabs on their development

[sovereignstar]

Originally Posted by nero

Does this utility have a feature to compare players' skills and talents from one dump to another?

Would be a great way to keep tabs on their development

Check this thread out.

http://dynamic2.gamespy.com/%7Efof/f...ad.php?t=21697

While the program isn't very user-friendly (since it's w/o a GUI), it gets the job done.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by nero

Does this utility have a feature to compare players' skills and talents from one dump to another?

Would be a great way to keep tabs on their development

Sovereignstar pointed out the utility Primelord is working on to do this. Most of Extractor's features are geared towards getting the data into Excel so you can tweak it. And it's been targeted heavily at the draft pool, hence the Analyzer utility. Most of the regular roster bits just fall out as more side effects than targeted features.

[Subby]

Greg -

I just wanted to pop in and give you my most sincere thanks for taking the time to create this utlity. We are in our second off-season in FOFL and the spreadsheet I have been able to make using data from both the extractor and the analyzer has made my draft preparation a lot of fun (yes, I'm a dork).

Being able to take all the available raw information and mess around with it really adds to MP.

Thanks again and great work!

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by Subby

Thanks again and great work!

You're welcome!

[gstelmack]

For the curious, here's a screenshot of some Analyzer updates I'm working on:

[sovereignstar]

Oh my!

[Flasch186]

i see it. I used it. I just dont think Im taking advantage of it properly. I know you mentioned an online draft utility that could very well save my life. Will that be the thing or is this the thing, you were talking about. I also only used the above to do a roster, so perhaps come draft time the draft dump, and mock especially will be helpful....butthose damn other leagues have run through their drafts so easily and mine almost killed me...so im waiting with anticipation for that thing-a-ma-bob.

Howard