OBBLM v. 0.75 (Online Blood Bowl League Manager)

[nicholasmr]

That's fair enough, your decision.
But, if you don't mind me asking, what caused problems with/in 0.8?

[Pagan]

There isn't anything wrong with it, just goes well beyond what we'll ever use it for. I'm not complaining about these below, since they work as intended for who wants them, but this is what I noticed during the time I had it running that I didn't like.

Multiple league support all over the place. Works as it should, but is just extra stuff that gets in the way for us.

Schedule matches area would not allow us to schedule teams in the same league across divisions. I use the divisions to keep the Dungeonbowl, Chaos Cup ect seasons all in their own section. It kept kicking the attempt to schedule a match back as being illegal. That is a showstopper right there since we keep continuity from each season with teams.

The team management section was redone, removing the older menus everyone knew. All the added stats that I assume are for Cyanide games just cluttered up the page. (I could have been able to remove that from the page I believe) This makes someone click on the About menu to get the old info that was already there, and more interesting than the botocs info.(not even sure what the botocs is for:)

The league leaders not showing up on the main page like they used to, but after looking at the Stuntyleeg site I think this was because none of my teams were migrated into the main league when I first installed it. I did move them all over from 0 to 1 with the sql query when no one was showing up in the Teams menu and but I don't remember checking the main page for that again to see if they showed up.

This is a total personal nitpick that I could have changed, but the PDF roster being on a mouse over menu instead of just being a link.

Like I said nothing wrong with the way the new one is setup, it expands the use of the software beyond standard table top play, but the inability for us to keep running seasons/standings ect like we have been is the main hurdle.

The PDF roster not being able to display characters in the names as the site does. Probably an issue with how the PDF handles the characters not liking some ANSI inputted characters. But this exists in all versions. How does Big McMurty™ protect his stuff with question marks?

.75 is perfect for how I ever intend on using the software, except for the need to update it to CRP/LRB6 rules.


A new feature I'd love to have in .75.

The new way where you have to add a team to the list before scheduling them is nice, since I can't seem to find a way to remove old coaches/teams(except deleting them which is bad) from the checkbox list in .75 even if they are retired.

[nicholasmr]

I disagree that multiple leagues is all over the place.
It already is in 0.75, which supports multiple leagues too. The difference really is that stats tables now have a league/division/tournament selector assigned to them, instead of having menu links to each (league, div., tours) which brings you to the same tables.
Apart from that I don't see where the average user is exposed to this apart from the front page and the rules page - but here the league selector defaults to your league, because you only have one league (for those with multiple, you can set the default league in settings.php, and logged in coaches may even further set their home league, which will be their default league).
Did I miss anything else here? I just don't see how it gets in the way, if you'd enlighten me, please .

0.8 requires teams to be tied to leagues, but team-to-division ties are really optional. This is a league setting, which you can turn off in the tournament management admin section.

All extra stats are shared by BOTOCS and Cyanide games, and can also be turned off by this setting in the settings.php file:

Code: Select all

$settings['hide_ES_extensions'] = false; // Default is false. Hides ES (Extra Stats) tables and ES references.

The team page is changed, yes. But, this is really a thing everybody has an opinion about. Some think the page becomes too long with ALL stuff being displayed at once, others not.

The PDF roster problems is noted, the author of it knows this. He is a little lazy, haha.

The thing with the schedule team selection list is that it became too long for large leagues. It was as simple as that. Glad you like some of the features .

I hope, if not you, that others are convinced now .

[funnyfingers]

Someone else mentioned to me that they are sticking with 0.75 as well. I can definitely understand "if it's not broke don't fix it", but as you see 0.75 doesn't have the latest rule set. I don't think it is that hard to change the rules on .75 to make it CRP / LRB6 if you have any understanding of PHP. In the long run it should be most beneficial to use 0.8 as any suggestions you may make will be irrelevant if you aren't using the latest version.

[howlinggriffon]

I think it was me who said my league prefers 0.75. I did try version 0.8 for a while but the guys preferred to have a drop down list of teams to choose from - and as there's only a few of us it's no big problem as the list isn't that big. Maybe it just wasn't as intuitive for them as 0.75 was? Anyway - in the end I just amended the things that changed in the Competition Rules Pack and we're up and running again.

[Tim]

I think we'll stay with 0.75 for a while on my league as well. I've made some code changes and it would take me some time to transfer them to 0.8 again. Most of the stuff in 0.8 is geared towards larger/multileagues, so a small TT league does not benefit that much. If i'd start new, however, 0.8 would be my choice.

I've attached a LRB6 rule file that should work with 0.75 (right from my site). Remeber to set $rules['enable_lrb6x'] = true; in the settings.php

Regarding the FFA scheduling, i let coaches schedule their games themselves with a simlified match creation form (basicly a stripped down copy of the admin form with access for everyone) in the coach corner.

I've also added a special slim version of the page when using an iPhone browser. Not 100% working as i want, but gives good mobile access for me.

[Pagan]

I've attached a LRB6 rule file that should work with 0.75 (right from my site). Remeber to set $rules['enable_lrb6x'] = true; in the settings.php

Need to update the Halfling Master Chef costing 100K for Flings and the Norse team names being updated. I tried doing the latter but seemed to have screwed something up. Didn't have time to figure out what I did wrong. My skill of php includes seeing what is already there and modifying it. Bring back BASIC on the Apple IIe!

Another thing in 0.8 that I found I didn't like how it had changed.

The old Tournaments link on the top row of the pages. One of the most clicked links for me, is now on a drop down menu.

Then, the Tournaments page no longer shows matches on the same page. It takes you to a new page when you used to be able to click the +/- to show them. The Standings link being removed and added as another menu item up top when it was readily accessible before.

I have it running as a companion to the old version at the moment, trying to get used to the new layouts and seeing what I know I could change to suit my preferences. If I can't get .75 updated to LRB6 properly I'll end up switching it on over. Also have been trying to use the Inducements try out in .75 but that isn't cooperating, not sure if that was always broke or I did it, so that working in .8 is more reason to move over.

[funnyfingers]

Pagan - The thing is if you go ahead and run and get used to .8 you can give input. All of the customization that you end up doing will make it tougher for you to upgrade or report valid bugs in the future. .8 is very important for customization as you can easily create module, triggers, and change the menu to suit your needs as well.

With your input in the future, customization will be very easy, but it can't be done without you

[nicholasmr]

The problem with the old tournaments page is that the page loading becomes very slow for leagues with many matches. It was not a good solution, though it may be practical for small leagues.

Instead of having many links to the same thing, all standings are now accessible through the statistics menu.
From there you may view team standings from any tournament by selecting the tournament from the standings selector. Once again, the old implementation is not practical for large leagues. The old menu system which provided a direct link by listing all tournaments in the menu simply becomes too large to be displayed on the screen for large leagues/leagues with many tournaments.

I can only hope you guys see the many benefits of 0.8 over 0.75 and do not let things like the menu being rearranged come in your way.