Creating Schedules

[CoachDirty]

When creating the *.lsdl file for a custom schedule, do you HAVE to have the games in day order. That is if I'm creating a schedule were teams only play teams in there division. Can I create the schedule for each division then paste it in the *.lsdl file, or do they have to go in day order?

Also, does anyone know an easy way to go from excel to the xml format in a way that works for creating schedules?

[Bigrod]

Originally Posted by CoachDirty

When creating the *.lsdl file for a custom schedule, do you HAVE to have the games in day order. That is if I'm creating a schedule were teams only play teams in there division. Can I create the schedule for each division then paste it in the *.lsdl file, or do they have to go in day order?

Also, does anyone know an easy way to go from excel to the xml format in a way that works for creating schedules?

I'm no expert, that's for sure and I quit using excel a while ago and went with open office (it's free and better) .., but here is how I do it. First, xml is nothing more than a text file with xml commands and the xml extension used. With that in mind, simply save your excel worksheet as a txt file with space as the separator instead of a comma. If you can with excel. If not, then save it as a comma delimited file. Then open it with notepad and use the find and replace function. Replacing the comma with space. Once done, save it and rename the extension from .txt to .lsdl and that will do it. Might be a good idea to open an lsdl file with notepad and compare it with your txt file first just to make sure the xml command are correct expecially the first line which is: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>.

With open office all I did was import the lsdl file as a space delimited txt file and made a template out of it. This imports the xml coding for me so all I have to do is add the team and game info and save it as space seperated txt file with the extension of .lsdl.... Works slick. I'm not to good at explaining things so if you have questions, just ask me..Hope this helps..

[Cryomaniac]

I just do the schedule by hand on paper, then copy it into notepad. Maybe I'm insane.

[Bigrod]

Originally Posted by CoachDirty

When creating the *.lsdl file for a custom schedule, do you HAVE to have the games in day order. That is if I'm creating a schedule were teams only play teams in there division. Can I create the schedule for each division then paste it in the *.lsdl file, or do they have to go in day order?

Also, does anyone know an easy way to go from excel to the xml format in a way that works for creating schedules?

If you haven't figured out the answer to the first part coach, the answer is yes they have to be in day order. The game assigns each game an ID number (you'll see this if you look at a schedule in the editor) and goes by that number to schedule and play the game. Let's say that on game day 1 you have 3 games. The game assigns ID 1, 2 , and 3. Day 2 you have 3 games. The game assigns ID 4, 5, and 6. So if you have your game days out of order in the final lsdl file, your day six game will be given a lower ID # and played on wrong day. In other words, a game scheduled for a Wed. would be played earlier than it should be. because it would have a lower ID number. Hope this helps...
Set them in any order in excel...just make sure to do a sort so that all the game days are in order before creating the lsdl file..

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by Bigrod

First, xml is nothing more than a text file with xml commands and the xml extension used. With that in mind, simply save your excel worksheet as a txt file with space as the separator instead of a comma.

Another way is to set up a conversion within Excel itself. I have a file that does that, converting from a standard schedule setup with city/team names and normal dates into an OOTP-style schedule with teams converted to ID numbers and dates converted into appropriate day numbers.

It's actually quite easy to do.

Once the data is converted inside Excel, I copy it to a text file, save it, then change the .txt extension to .lsdl.

[Tresclub]

LGO, I have a scheduling problem. My online league The Oldtimers League is currently set up as a 5-6-5/5-4-5 league. I tried importing several default schedules from the \OOTP Baseball 10\schedules folder, but I keep getting the same error about the mlb structure is different than my league. I took a closer look at MLB's league structure, and noticed the American League is 5-5-4. So, I edited my league to mimic the structure of MLB; however, this also did not work.

Do you have a league schedule created that is in a 5-6-5/5-4-5 structure, with interleague play enabled, that I would be able to import into my OOTP10 league? Thanks ever so much for your help.

[gmo]

It should be no problem to fit the 5-6-5/5-4-5 configuration. Something with the MLB configuration can just be juggled around to fit that other. If there is any particular file you would like to use tell which it is and it can be adjusted to fit 5-6-5/5-4-5.

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by Tresclub

I tried importing several default schedules from the \OOTP Baseball 10\schedules folder, but I keep getting the same error about the mlb structure is different than my league. I took a closer look at MLB's league structure, and noticed the American League is 5-5-4. So, I edited my league to mimic the structure of MLB; however, this also did not work.

Doublecheck all of the relevant settings that need to match between the schedule file and your league. If even one thing doesn't match up, you'll get that error message even though what it says may not necessarily be the thing which is the problem.

The things that need to match are: number of games in the schedule, balanced or unbalanced schedule, interleague play yes or no, and league structure. Note that this last item is quite specific. 16 teams split amongst four divisions of 4-teams in one league is a different structure than 16 teams split amongst two subleagues, each with two divisions of 4 teams. Even though it's the same total number of teams, same number of divisions, and same number of teams in each division, it's still a different structure due to the subleagues.

Also, make sure you are trying to change the schedule right after the pre-season period starts.

It can be easy to have an inadvertant mismatch preventing a schedule from importing—it's happened to me several times.

[Tresclub]

Thanks a lot LGO for all your suggestions. I really appreciate them. Will have to go back and take a much closer look at my League as compared to MLB in the 90s.