Newbie Cato Exporter Question!!!!!!

[Aceshigh24]

Im seeing these post that you have to have the exporter in order for the catobase to work....so my question from a first time user is that....i download version 5.4 installed it and then i downloaded version 6.14 and copied it in to the same folder to over ride version 5....so now, is the exporter somewhere in version 5.4 or 6.14 download, or do i have to download something else to get the exporters??? And if the exporters come with those downloads, what are they called and what should i be looking for???? I did notice that when you unzip vesion 5.4 theres another zip folder inside of that....is that where the exporters are??? Please let me know so i can try it when i get home...thanks for your help

[Aceshigh24]

Also, do i have to use the exporter that is made for the catobase or can i use the one that you can download for the bosi?

[DaveHorn]

To make thing simple just do this

You've already got 5.4 and 6.1.4.. So...

Install CATO 6.0.0 (will give you the right CSV exporters)

and then do CATO 6.1.4 again (to reinstall the 6.1.4 files you just overwrote)

IMO, it easier than trying to make sure you've got the right exporter files in the right place and all that.

[Aceshigh24]

Thank you sir.....thats all i was trying to get, this is my first time using so i want to make sure i have everying before i try to run it.....if theres anything else you can suggest please dont hesitate to tell me...thanks

[DaveHorn]

1. Backup
2. Backup
3. Backup
4. Backup

If you follow steps 1-4, you'll never go wrong.

[Aceshigh24]

Backing up each league after i transfer it to catobase, is that what you mean?

[DaveHorn]

At the end of each season

#1 Backup League Dir (zip it and move it somewhere safe).
#2 Backup Cato MDB before you do a thing (zip it and move it somewhere safe)
#3 Do you CATO processing (if anything goes wrong you've got backups of both)
#4 When CATO completes successfully, roll league file over to new season
#5 Then I back up both the league dir and cato again and mark these as SOS files. Whereas the backups in #1 are marked EOS. For example, if its 1980 that is just finishing.

LeagueName1980EOS.zip
LeagueNameCATO1980EOS.zip
LeagueName1981SOS.zip
LeagueNameCATO1981.zip

Obviously many of methods will work, but this is in short my backup procedures for end of season and beginning of season processing. Then no matter whats happens, I can go back to the point in time where everything was working last and not lose many many hours of work.

[Aceshigh24]

ok wow that sounds like alot of work.....well this will be my first time using catobase, so im sure im giong to have alot of issues with it....so pretty much if you dont back up your season when you start to use catobase and things get messed up, you lose the season? thats what im confused about, i dont want to use this thing if its going to mess up my league

[disposableheros]

Originally Posted by Aceshigh24

ok wow that sounds like alot of work.....well this will be my first time using catobase, so im sure im giong to have alot of issues with it....so pretty much if you dont back up your season when you start to use catobase and things get messed up, you lose the season? thats what im confused about, i dont want to use this thing if its going to mess up my league

no it wont mess up your league. but if you dont backup and something goes wrong, then you cant try to redo or fix it.

[DaveHorn]

CATO won't mess up your league in anyway they are totally unrelated in that regard. But by making sure you always backup your league file, if CATO messes up, you can always do it again and you won't miss a beat.

However, assume you don't backup you league file. You start your league, sim 2004 - 2008 no problem. Now you get to 2009. You add it to CATO and move along. Sometime during the 2010 season you discovered that something screwy happened and your CATO is all gone to hell, but you didn't notice it before. BUT you didn't make a backup and you've already rolled your league file over. Now you are SOL for CATO.

Backing up is simple and easy and it can't be stressed enough. Simply right click your league folder and sent it to a zip. Rename your zip file and move it to a safe place. For CATO, simply right click the MDB file and send it to a zip. Rename the zip, move it somewhere safe and you are done.

Note #1 - If you backup your entire league directory you will be creating huge, unnecssarily large backups. There are many files in your league directory that do not need to be backed up. You can find many threads about improving your backups in these forums.

NOTE #2 - Do not use the OOTP Backup command. It doesn't back up all necessary files or something. I can't exactly remember what is wrong with it. But don't use it.

[Aceshigh24]

Thanks for you help Dave i really appriciate it.....I just want to let you know that as im typing right now i have the catobase going in the back ground....couple things ive come accross right now even though its still doing its thing....

1. I got the message that says "unable to locate league.html file for the playoffs, please copy into the data folder" when i clicked on import stats....i don't have that file or i just don't know where to find it, did i miss something on that one?

2. I've only come accross 2 problems so far but the second one had to do with the error about bofh or something of that sort after i had clicked on create html pages on the catobase? I think ive seen this issue on the board somewhere.....but its uploading the players right now, so not sure what the heck that thing means or what i forgot.

this is my first time running this so im trying to get used to it, so if i missed something that caused those miss haps please let me know

[Aceshigh24]

Ok scratch that the error that i got after hitting create html pages was "Error 94 Invalid use of null" So if you can come through in the clutch dave you are the man.......

I also got the type mismatch prompt...pretty much its not going to work and i see all these posts with guys with the same problems but i just don't understand....like i dont know where to find the league.html file to copy over for the playoff stats....im just so confused...and to finish it off i got the error 3021 at the team summary....damnit this is so frustrating

[endgame]

Originally Posted by Aceshigh24

Ok scratch that the error that i got after hitting create html pages was "Error 94 Invalid use of null" So if you can come through in the clutch dave you are the man.......


I also got the type mismatch prompt...pretty much its not going to work and i see all these posts with guys with the same problems but i just don't understand....like i dont know where to find the league.html file to copy over for the playoff stats....im just so confused...and to finish it off i got the error 3021 at the team summary....damnit this is so frustrating

Yeah, getting started can be a little overwhelming. It's natural to want it to work exactly like you think it should right away. But it's relying, initially, on your information to be set up a specific way too. When it's not, you have to make a couple of adjustments to get it on the right track.

Some things that helped me get over that initial hump:

1) Use the Search function simply putting in your error message as the search criteria. Go to Advanced Search and select the Mod Forum as the search area.

2) I seem to credit jmm with everything, but I think he told me to attack the first error message as usually everything that goes wrong after that is likely related to the first one. He was right. There may be another problem as you get it set up, but always pay attention to the first error message you get and then follow step 1 again. There's more info there than you think.

3) Depending on which version you're using there might be some variation in the language or directory referenced when you read posts of assistance. But with a little logic you can translate it into the current version 6.1.4 if that's what you're using.

4) Somewhere in the mismatch concept was an instruction to use the find and replace function to rid a file of the entries for players designated r instead of p, as in r1486.html or .txt instead of the normal p1486.* I did end up having to use this tool. There were only 2 entries, but it got me over that hump.

It's well worth the effort you put in on the front end if you can hang in there. I'm far from an expert, but I'll recall best I can the snakes that bit me. If any look like yours I'll chime in. Good luck.

[Burto1945]

Originally Posted by DaveHorn

Note #1 - If you backup your entire league directory you will be creating huge, unnecssarily large backups. There are many files in your league directory that do not need to be backed up. You can find many threads about improving your backups in these forums.

OK, I am in the process of running my fictional league through Cato, but I searched and couldn't find any threads about which league files need to be backed up, to conserve space. I thought it was the .csv and .html files, but I really don't know what that even means, so if someone could list off the files that NEED to be backed up, I would really appreciate it.

[Aceshigh24]

Ok so i used catobase for the standard career league that is with the game and it worked like a charm....so i tried it with the halofan roster and i still got the "type mismatch" error except this time i was able to copy and past the league.html file to the data folder so that worked out....only issue i have now is right when i clicked on create html pages it gave me the error code....so how close am i to getting it to work? someone out there has to know

[DaveHorn]

Originally Posted by Burto1945

OK, I am in the process of running my fictional league through Cato, but I searched and couldn't find any threads about which league files need to be backed up, to conserve space. I thought it was the .csv and .html files, but I really don't know what that even means, so if someone could list off the files that NEED to be backed up, I would really appreciate it.

Are you talking about backing up your league dir or CATO?

For league files, you can grab everything EXCEPT HTML files with the following exceptions;

LEAGUE_NEWS_BOX directory - contains all your boxscores and gamelogs if you don't want to lose those grab those box*.html and log*.html

LOGO/PHOTO/ALMANAC directories - you can do a one time backup of your logo and photo directories. Good idea to backup the new almanac folder each season after you rollover the league.

For CATO, simply backup the MDB file.

[DaveHorn]

Originally Posted by Aceshigh24

Ok so i used catobase for the standard career league that is with the game and it worked like a charm....so i tried it with the halofan roster and i still got the "type mismatch" error except this time i was able to copy and past the league.html file to the data folder so that worked out....only issue i have now is right when i clicked on create html pages it gave me the error code....so how close am i to getting it to work? someone out there has to know

So you are able to completely import all data with zero errors and then only received an error when you went to generate HTML? If so, what is the full error msg and what part of the HTML was it working on at the time?

[Aceshigh24]

Yes with the league that ootp comes with, i had no errors at all.....but with the new halofan roster i had the type mismatch error in the begining and then nothing until i started to run the create html pages....i get the error message immidiatly after hitting the create html button which is the "error invalid use of null" and then from there i get an error message of:

Error 3021: either bof or eof is true, or the current record has been deleted. Requested operation requires a current record. has occurred.

I get that message right when the team summarys are about start for the create html pages.....if i click ok on that message i get the message of:

error 55: File allready open has occurred

So other then the type mismatch, those are the messages i get that wont allow me to work it

hope that helps

[DaveHorn]

Ok, if you get a type mismatch when you imported the data then we need to figure that out first. If you get any errors in the import process, that has to be figured out first, because it is likely causing the problems when generate HTML.

When do you get the type mismatch when you do the import?

[Aceshigh24]

yeah i get it when i do the import stats, pretty much right in the begining cause when i click ok it then loads the stats...so thats the first error