KBL Utility

[kq76]

A number of people (especially recently for some reason) have asked me for help to get the KBL Utility to work for their league. So, I'm posting this for anyone else who might come along and ask about it in the future.

Disclaimer:

The KBL utility was never really meant for leagues other than the KBL. If others want to use it or morph it into something else, they're most welcome to. But I never really intended to make it so that it would it be easy for anyone other than myself to use as that would have required more work than I really had need for and I basically just tweaked another utility of mine to make it. So, if you get frustrated at not being able to get it to work properly, don't get mad at me. That said, I understand some people like what it has to offer, so I'll try to provide some minimal help to get it working. It might look like a lot of work from all the text below, but once you get it setup to start a season all you have to do is press 1 button after every sim. With v6.12 I also made a few changes that should make it a bit easier for others to use.

What It Does:

It's probably easiest to understand by looking at the list of sheets it generates:

CS Current (Team) Stats
CF Current (Team) Finances
YCR Year Change (Player) Ratings
SCS Sim Change (Team) Stats
SCF Sim Change (Team) Finances
SCR Sim Change (Player) Ratings

So, it gets the current and last sim data for team stats and finances as well as player development.

What It Isn't:

It's not my archive utility. It might look like it and it was based off of it, but it's not it and does not do what it does.

Some Screenshots:

http://members.shaw.ca/kq76/ootp/Scr...tility_scf.jpg
http://members.shaw.ca/kq76/ootp/Scr...tility_scs.jpg
http://members.shaw.ca/kq76/ootp/Scr...tility_scr.jpg

Where to Get It:

http://members.shaw.ca/kq76/ootp/Downloads/

File Management:

It's probably best to separate the files into different folders. So, have like a "KBLUtility" folder somewhere and in it put the utility and input file and then inside that folder make a "backups" folder and a "CSVs" folder.

Instructions At Any Time:

-have CommishJoe's Exporter is installed on the computer somewhere
-have an OOTP6 or 6.5 league folder that you to get data from (I use folders of backups, but you can use the main folder after each sim if you wish)

Instructions To Start A Season:

-unzip fresh copies of the utility and input file

-go to the "UCP" (User Control Panel) sheet

-press the "Change Setup" button
-follow the instructions that pop up
-assuming you pressed "No" to all the info being correct (the info is listed on the left side of the UCP sheet, but changing it there will do nothing, you have to change it from the popups, I'll do the opposite in future utilities):
--answer whether you want CommishJoe's Exporter to generate the CSVs, might as well say "Yes" and have it do it rather than you having to
--then press "No" to confirm some folder locations:
--confirm that CommishJoe's Exporter is installed in the folder the utility thinks it is in or change it to where it is
--confirm that the OOTP league folder you want to get data from is in the location the utility thinks it is in or change it to where it is (as you're probably doing this at the start of the season, this should be pointing to a folder which contains a backup of your league at the beginning of the current season, probably after pressing the "proceed to next season" button in OOTP)
--confirm that the location where you want the CSVs to be generated to is where the utility thinks you want it or change it to where you want it
--answer "Yes" to whether you want output
--confirm that the location where you want the output file to be generated to is where the utility thinks you want it or change it to where you want it (if this location is different from where the utility is, then you'll need to put the input file in that output folder. I just leave the 3 in the same folder as the utility and you probably should too, but it can get clogged up with input and output backups which you can then move to the backups folder)
--you can correct the start year, but that's something from the utility this one was made from and it isn't needed in this one
--when it asks if you want to use the default financials then you'll probably want to say "Yes"... unless you're the KBL in which case see the special KBL instructions below.
--might as well say "Yes" to hyperlinks to the reports question (so you can click from the utility to a player or team OOTP generated report) and follow the rest for that (I'm not sure if I coded it correctly for offline reports, but I know online works)

-press the "Generate CSVs" button (if you did the above correctly then you should be good to go here and just press "Yes")

-press the "Generate Original Ratings" button as it is needed to compare the most recent ratings to those at the start of the season (again, if you did the above correctly then you should be good to go here, but you might want to confirm these ratings are correct by looking at a few random players)

Instructions After A Sim:

-press the "Update with Generating CSVs from New League Folder"
-select the league folder that you want to get data from
-wait until it's done (it'll open a number of files and eventually close them) and it's probably best not to copy and paste anything while it's running

Special Instructions For the KBL:

-the following is all assuming things have not changed since I left

-to start a season:
--you'll want to say "No" when it asks for default financials and then you'll want "Yes" to revenue sharing, ".1" for the % question (you'll actually want 10%, but .1 corresponds to that), "1" for the unevenly shared question, and "Yes" to whether you expenses of released players expensed in the years paid as opposed to expensed all in the year released, and press "No" to use the "KQ $ for..." formulas (we did away with this as it was too difficult to use it when the game made us use it's)

-to process a sim (if you stop expensing contracts in the years paid as opposed to released, then you can follow the regular instructions instead):
--before you press the "Update with Generating CSVs from New League Folder", do the following (most of this is copied from v6.05 of the KBL Sim Checklist:

***
-download both the utility, the input file and the output file, unless you have a copy of all the latest files on your computer, which if you're the only simmer you should
-open the newly generated ltrans.html file in a text editor
-copy the latest sim's source code (probably a week's worth), including the previous sim's last day
-open the transx.html file in a text editor
-paste the source code
-replace new link ("file:///c:/k/R" or "/p" or "=p") with old ("http://kbl-ootp-online.com/r" or "file:///c:/k/tests/p" or "=http://kbl-ootp-online.com/reports/p") to get contract info before release (the last of the 3 of each worked for me most recently, I'm not sure why it's changed)
-save and open transx.html in a web browser
-open the previous ltrans.html file in a web browser
-note the last entry
-go back to transx.html in a web browser
-from the last entry of the last day of the previous sim, note the first released player entry
-click on the link to the player
-if he had a major league contract (if not, skip him), go to the releases sheet in the input file, input the name of the player, his team abbrev, the years of his major league contract (e.g if he is signed through 1005 and the current year is 1001, then that is 5 years, 1005-1001+1=5.), his salary, and put a 1 in the Releases This Year column (col R).
-go to the next released player and repeat until gone through all the releases
-save the input file
-go to the home sheet in the utility
-in column D, check that the First Year Added and the Exporter, CSVs, and Archive (output) folders are correct. if not, correct them by pressing the "Change Setup" button and following the instructions that pop up
-make sure the output file that you downloaded in the designated Archive (output) folder
-press the "Update with Generating CSVs from New League Folder" button
-select the folder of the after the sim backup (e.g. "c:k/0422")
-wait
-when it asks you if you want to save the archive, select no
-wait till all the CSVs close
-quickly check the output for any problems. if there are no problems, save the output file. if there are problems, close the output file without saving, and start over, checking the input sheet for problems.
***

If An "Update Values" Window Pops Up:

-see Troubleshooting #1 on the "UCP" (User Control Panel) sheet

Explanation of the Formulas Used:

http://kbl-ootp-online.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=562

Explanation of the Abbreviations Used:

See the bottom of the "OCP" (Output Control Panel) sheet with the following changes:

***
I had to rename the headings to get the new formulas to work though. Hopefully they're clearer now too. For example, Overall Contact went from OC to BCOC (Batting Current Overall Contact), Talent Contact went from TC to BPC (Batting Potential Contact), and Overall Stuff went from OS to PCOS (Pitching Current Overall Stuff).
***

[jtb]

WOW!
You are awesome! I want to thank you for all your work.
these addons are brilliant.
Thanks again.
JTB

[kq76]

You're welcome. I'm pleased to read you like it.