Problem importing and exporting schedules

[JudgeGio]

Does anyone else have a problem with importing and exporting schedules in custom leagues? When you export a schedule to an xml file it gives a number designation to each team, then when you import the file back the game switches each team's number designation. Therefore even though you didn't make any changes to the XML file the schedule after import is completely different from the schedule before import. I reported this as a bug just before OOTP21 came out, I included all the troubleshooting files they wanted, and they never fixed it. Is there something about the import/export process that I'm not understanding?

[joefromchicago]

I'm having some trouble understanding what's going on here. Why are you exporting the schedule to an xml file? The default is to export it to a txt file (or, more specifically, an lsdl file). Is there some reason why you're exporting it to an xml file?

Also, when you say that the numbers change, what exactly do you mean? The numbers in the schedule file don't correspond to team identifiers. There are as many numbers in the schedule as there are teams in the league. So if there are 30 teams in the league, the numbers in the schedule file go from 1 to 30. The first time you load a schedule, the game sorts the teams alphabetically by division. So if you want the schedule to work out the way you want it to work out, you'll need to change the numbers in the schedule yourself. You can't expect the game to do it.

[JudgeGio]

@joefromchicago Yes the file extension is .lsdl, sorry I wasn't clearer. Despite the extension, the first line of the file says <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>, so I call it an XML file. Say this is the first line in the schedule for my .lsdl file: <GAME day="1" time="1305" away="24" home="20" />. For argument's sake, let's say 24 is the New York Yankees and 20 is the Boston Red Sox. When I import this file the game will say Visiting Team Boston Red Sox and Home Team New York Yankees. Fine. But when you export the schedule to an .lsdl file, it no longer holds the convention of numbering teams alphabetically by division. In the exported file, suddenly the Red Sox will be something like 22 and the Yankees will be something like 23. Maybe the Rangers are now 24 and the Astros are now 20. So when I import back the exported file, Red Sox at Yankees now becomes Rangers at Astros. I hope that makes sense.

[joefromchicago]

Originally Posted by JudgeGio

@joefromchicago Yes the file extension is .lsdl, sorry I wasn't clearer. Despite the extension, the first line of the file says <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>, so I call it an XML file. Say this is the first line in the schedule for my .lsdl file: <GAME day="1" time="1305" away="24" home="20" />. For argument's sake, let's say 24 is the New York Yankees and 20 is the Boston Red Sox. When I import this file the game will say Visiting Team Boston Red Sox and Home Team New York Yankees. Fine. But when you export the schedule to an .lsdl file, it no longer holds the convention of numbering teams alphabetically by division. In the exported file, suddenly the Red Sox will be something like 22 and the Yankees will be something like 23. Maybe the Rangers are now 24 and the Astros are now 20. So when I import back the exported file, Red Sox at Yankees now becomes Rangers at Astros. I hope that makes sense.

Thanks, that helps a lot. So, to be clear, you import a schedule that has one set of numbers, and when you export it you get another. Is that right?

I guess my first question is: why would you do that? If you already have a schedule that you're importing, why export it? Wouldn't you be exporting a schedule that you already have? It seems to me that if you want to keep the same numbers, just use the schedule that you initially imported. That one seems to work fine. The trouble comes when you export it, so I'd suggest you stop doing that.

I suppose one possible source of the problem is that the game scrambles the numbers if you use the same schedule for more than one year. So that maybe is what's happening here. Again, if you don't want that to happen, don't export the schedule.

[JudgeGio]

Creating a schedule is a MANY step process for me. Depending on what I'm doing it's sometimes easier to make schedule changes within OOTP21 and sometimes with an .lsdl file. You can't make changes both ways if the export file is messed up. The whole process would be simpler if I could do an import, check for problems like one team playing two different teams on the same date, correct that within OOTP, export to a file again, make changes, import, and so forth. I consider it a bug that number designations for teams change depending on whether the file is imported or exported. I submitted the bug report to the developers last year, and they either ignored it or chose not to fix the issue. Oh well, I guess I will have to avoid exporting my schedule. Thank you for your input.

[joefromchicago]

Hmmm, that's interesting. I've done plenty of schedules and I import them into OOTP in order to check to make sure that they work. But if they don't, I never even considered making the changes in OOTP and then exporting the schedule. Making the changes in the schedule file itself has always been easy - I can't imagine how making the changes in OOTP would be any easier. But that's just me.

I really have no clue why exporting a schedule would change the team numbers, unless it has to do with the way the game scrambles numbers for subsequent uses of the same schedule. I'm not sure if that even qualifies as a bug. In fact, it may be working as intended. It's just that you're using the export feature in a way that was unanticipated by the designers.