Ftp Faq

[battists]

Since there have been some issues related to FTPing in OOTPB 2006, Andreas Raht gave me this information to post.

Please understand that any FTP-related issues are high priority in our work on the next patch.

Here is the info from Andreas:

Sorry for the ongoing problems with the FTP connection!
Please keep in mind that you can still just copy the files to the server with your FTP client software.

In the "Create Reports & FTP Upload" dialog, do the following
- Select the reports that you want to upload
- Click on "Create Reports"
- now the reports are generated and a list of the reports has been created. You can now either upload the reports directly to the server as single files, or you can archive them and upload the archive, to uncompress it manually on the server, or you can copy the files to another folder on your computer, to upload them from there using an FTP client software. This works as follows:

- write a folder name like "c:\temp" in the "Folder to copy files into" text box. Make sure the folder exists on your harddrive!
- click on "Copy Files Now" to copy all necessary files into that folder
- Open your Explorer, locate the folder, and drag the files / subfolders into the FTP client...

So far for the reports!


The league file (the file which your league members actually need) is easier:

1- Open the "Archive & Upload League Files" dialog
2- select the files that you need
3- click on "Create Files"
4- click on "Create Archive"
5- there is now a new file in the /import_export subfolder inside your league folder on your harddisk- the file has the same name as your league has, and the extension .tar.gz. It can be opened with most zip tools like Winzip, or the free TUGZip (http://tugzip.com/index.html)
6- you should just click on "Upload Archive" to upload the file to the server, so that the league members can download it to their computer. But if you're experiencing problems with the FTP connection, you can of course upload the file manually with your FTP client software.

[Cooleyvol]

#5 in the league file area is not true. WinZip will not open this type of file.

Also, as far as the HTMLs, the game takes WAY too long to upload. Presently, I am 1/4 of the way through my 14xxx file upload and its been 50 minutes.

[f.montoya]

WinZip doesn't work with TarGzip but I wanted to add something. As I've been handling some inquiries via AIM of late regarding this feature. For several new to the game, there's a misunderstanding that the Archive and Upload function in this part of the game is for the league file, what your league members need in order to use the game and export changes to their teams.

This is not what it is for!

It is for is compressing the HTML reports (includes standings, player pages, team pages, etc.) which is actually the game created "website".

If you own a site that supports FTP and server side extracting of archived files, this function is for you.

I haven't timed the game's upload but I've Archived a full set of reports to TarGzip, including about 25 years of history for a 24 team league(Historical) and uploaded it all in just over 3 minutes. Now if you don't have shell access or access to Cpanel, you may have difficulties extracting the reports on the server. You may try a PHP file that has a command to extract. If that doesn't work you may need to find another webhost.

If anyone needs help with this, feel free to contact me via AIM: fidelmontoya3

EDIT: Being that WinZip wil not extract TarGzip files, you can get PowerArchiver from www.allsimbaseball.com and it's freeware!

[robster1225]

Originally Posted by f.montoya

WinZip doesn't work with TarGzip but I wanted to add something. As I've been handling some inquiries via AIM of late regarding this feature. For several new to the game, there's a misunderstanding that the Archive and Upload function in this part of the game is for the league file, what your league members need in order to use the game and export changes to their teams.

This is not what it is for!

It is for is compressing the HTML reports (includes standings, player pages, team pages, etc.) which is actually the game created "website".

If you own a site that supports FTP and server side extracting of archived files, this function is for you.

I haven't timed the game's upload but I've Archived a full set of reports to TarGzip, including about 25 years of history for a 24 team league(Historical) and uploaded it all in just over 3 minutes. Now if you don't have shell access or access to Cpanel, you may have difficulties extracting the reports on the server. You may try a PHP file that has a command to extract. If that doesn't work you may need to find another webhost.

If anyone needs help with this, feel free to contact me via AIM: fidelmontoya3

EDIT: Being that WinZip wil not extract TarGzip files, you can get PowerArchiver from www.allsimbaseball.com and it's freeware!

Actually, since 1.02 came out, you can now create a tar.gz archive of your league file (the one your owners need to export) via the upload file button in game setup. Also, to clarify about WinZip. The commercial program, WinZip will work, I use it. There is an evaluation version available. The default program in windows will not work with this format. Some people seem to get the two confused.

[Cooleyvol]

Originally Posted by f.montoya

WinZip doesn't work with TarGzip but I wanted to add something. As I've been handling some inquiries via AIM of late regarding this feature. For several new to the game, there's a misunderstanding that the Archive and Upload function in this part of the game is for the league file, what your league members need in order to use the game and export changes to their teams.

This is not what it is for!

I beg to differ, montoya. I zipped and uploaded my league's league file last night testing the patch.

There are two different upload options going on in the game now -- one for the HTML reports and one for the league archive.

[battists]

Originally Posted by Cooleyvol

I beg to differ, montoya. I zipped and uploaded my league's league file last night testing the patch.

Don't blame him, he's in Japan. Some kind of lag on the information superhighway, I think.

[Andreas Raht]

Some informations about the "Download league files" feature. Will be added to the manual.

"Download league files"

There is a button in the Game menu, but it's only shown if online leagues are enabled and if you're not playing as the commish. If you execute the function, OOTP will do the following:

- Open an FTP connection to the online league server
- Check whether the online league file exists in the export directory on the server. The name of the file has to be the default name which is used by the "Upload league file" dialog.
- Get the modification date/time of the file from the FTP server using MDTM
- Open the file /league-folder.lg/settings/online_league_file_time.cfg to get the modification date/time of the file which it had when downloaded last time
- If both of the date/time infos are equal, the download will be stopped because the file hasn't changed
- If both of the date/time infos are not equal, the file will be download into the import_export folder
- The file will be unzipped into the import_export folder
- The database will be saved and closed
- All .dat files with the exception of the names.dat will be renamed to .bak
- The league files will be unpacked from the tar file and saved according to the relative paths saved in the tar file, overwriting existing files
- The database will be loaded
- The date/time info of the file will be saved in /league-folder.lg/settings/online_league_file_time.cfg

[Kaitiaki]

Originally Posted by Andreas Raht

There is a button in the Game menu, but it's only shown if online leagues are enabled and if you're not playing as the commish.

Why is the button only shown if you're not playing as the Commish? I ask because I Commish two online leagues, and in both leagues we have two Commissioners (it reduces the workload and makes things go more smoothly if one of us is sick/on holiday/etc.). What this means is that for any given sim one the Commishes needs to download the new file along with the rest of the owners. Not having the download file button available to the Commish complicates this.

It doesn't seem like it would be hard or have an adverse effect on the game to make that button available regardless of who is logged in, either, but maybe I'm missing something.

- Kai

[robster1225]

Originally Posted by Kaitiaki

Why is the button only shown if you're not playing as the Commish? I ask because I Commish two online leagues, and in both leagues we have two Commissioners (it reduces the workload and makes things go more smoothly if one of us is sick/on holiday/etc.). What this means is that for any given sim one the Commishes needs to download the new file along with the rest of the owners. Not having the download file button available to the Commish complicates this.

It doesn't seem like it would be hard or have an adverse effect on the game to make that button available regardless of who is logged in, either, but maybe I'm missing something.

- Kai

All you have to do is go into your human manager home page and uncheck play as commissioner.

[Kaitiaki]

Originally Posted by robster1225

All you have to do is go into your human manager home page and uncheck play as commissioner.

OK, that does work, and thank you. But it still seems silly that it's necessary to go into the manager home page and declare oneself not to be a Commissioner just to download the league file - and then have to re-declare yourself a Commissioner to get on with whatever Commissionering needs to be done.

So I appreciate the additional workaround - there are others, as well, including the rather obvious downloading the league file the old fashioned way - but it doesn't really answer the question.

- Kai

[Andreas Raht]

Originally Posted by Kaitiaki

Why is the button only shown if you're not playing as the Commish? I ask because I Commish two online leagues, and in both leagues we have two Commissioners (it reduces the workload and makes things go more smoothly if one of us is sick/on holiday/etc.). What this means is that for any given sim one the Commishes needs to download the new file along with the rest of the owners. Not having the download file button available to the Commish complicates this.

It doesn't seem like it would be hard or have an adverse effect on the game to make that button available regardless of who is logged in, either, but maybe I'm missing something.

- Kai

Alright, added to the list. We will just add a messagebox like "You're the commissioner of this league. Do you really want to download and open the league file?" to make sure that you don't click on that button by mistake and overwrite your latest changes.

[robster1225]

Originally Posted by Andreas Raht

Alright, added to the list. We will just add a messagebox like "You're the commissioner of this league. Do you really want to download and open the league file?" to make sure that you don't click on that button by mistake and overwrite your latest changes.

I love how you guys respond to our needs. Thanks.