[Comedian2004]

Ok, here we are.

This is an early version of the program. However, through my limited testing, it does work. Please read this entire post before you install and run the program.

http://www.planetootp.com/AUAlmanac/default.htm

What it does: It archives your current season, saving box scores, log files, messages, everything possible.

Requirements: IE to run install it. A CSV dump on December 31st. A league report dump done on the same day.

What is copied and where?

When you run the program for the 1st time, you will want to go to configuration and set the ALMANAC folder. This can be on any drive, including a USB removeable drive. I suggest using the folder ALMANAC and STRONGLY suggest that it be in the root of the drive. (For speed and also to avoid any 'too long of a path' names. The program will remember this location the next time you run it. If you have multiple leagues you want to archive, then call it ALMANAC LEAGUENAME.

Once you have your league selected, you MUST hit the LEAGUE INFORMATION button. This will load in information about your league. There is a pull down menu that you can pick items and see different information about your league. This was a tool I used while working on the program, but decided to leave it in. It just displays the information in the window.

Now, you will notice that the ARCHIVE button now says ARCHIVE XXXX, whereas the XXXX is the current year of your league. Also on the screen, there will be some text showing the starting year of the simulation, the current date (at least the date of the dump), and the current year.

NOTE: Before running the program, you should do a CSV dump. This is backed up by my program and WILL be used in other functions later on. You can optionally do the other two dumps, as if you do, they WILL be achived also. You MUST!!!! also create a report. Under game setup in OOTP, you will select create reports. I STRONGLY suggest that you do a COMPLETE report. Include history and everything. Minors are optional, but my programs will access the minors information if it is available. Make sure you set the number of days to save box scores to 0, so that all of them are saved.

Now we are ready to hit the ARCHIVE XXXX button and relax and let it do it's work. In my sample league, which was a 1965 replay with 16 teams, no minors, logos (AULogo of course), photos (AutoPhoto), it took about 15 minutes to do the archive.

Now, I wanted to show you a file by file update, but that would just slow everything down. I could have also just copied over the whole folders and subfolders, but I broke it down a little, so you could see what was happening. It copies it over one sub folder at a time, using a Windows API call for the fastest way I could copy the folders.

Here is what it copies and in this order:

news\html\boxscores
news\html\coaches
news\html\game_logs
news\html\history
news\html\images
news\html\leagues
news\html\players
news\html\reports
news\html\teams
news\txt\leagues
news\txt\players
news\txt\teams
import_export
messages
index.html
styles.css

Where saved? If your almanac folder is C:\ALMANAC, then inside that folder, will be year subfolders. 1965, 1966, 1967, etc. All of the information in these folders are the information that was copied over. You can double click on the index.html file and you are in that years almanac. The links will all work, pictures, box scores, everything. It is a snapshot of the league at that time. Of course, if you did not do a complete dump, like I suggested, you will get URL not found.

Remember, if you are in 1965 and your league started in 1960, the prior years are lost. They will not be archived. This is a one time shot affair. The program is designed to be arn on December 31st, but it does not really care when you run it.
OK, now what? Feel confident to continue your league, knowing that everything is saved. As time passes, I will be adding more stuff to this program to take advantage of the archive. See the next message for details of what I have planned.

BTW, this example league took about 350meg per season.