Implemented Control Over Each Game (lock date per game)

[BigPete7978]

Hello all, I currently run ThatWrestlingForum and love the Pickem add-on. My issue is that since the site is covering wrestling, I think it would be best to implement a way to have control over each "Game" within Week Management. Each "Game" is actually a wrestling match that I have to update on the fly because their full shows aren't revealed beforehand. Without it users can change their choices to reflect what they want well after the match is concluded.

I was wondering what you all think about this being added in.

 

[Bob]

I'll others chime in as this would effect everyone. I'd have to change the architecture a lot, plus everyone would then have to set multiple date/times on every single game. Not sure what the best way to handle this situation would be.

 

[BigPete7978]

I'll others chime in as this would effect everyone. I'd have to change the architecture a lot, plus everyone would then have to set multiple date/times on every single game. Not sure what the best way to handle this situation would be.

Would it take that though? Or would it be possible to make it so once the final scores were input into the Game Management section that it could no longer be altered by forum members?

 

[Bob]

I won't know until I can get it put back together. its all tore apart at the moment while I am working on the new scoring system. Maybe what I already have will work for you. Won't know tho until I can get all of this put back together and toss you a beta version to test.

 

[BigPete7978]

I won't know until I can get it put back together. its all tore apart at the moment while I am working on the new scoring system. Maybe what I already have will work for you. Won't know tho until I can get all of this put back together and toss you a beta version to test.

Awesome. Can't wait

 

[BigPete7978]

Any update on this implementation? Just saw that there was a huge update for Sportsbook. Figured I'd ask

 

[Bob]

Pickem release is getting closer.. its been much more complex/complicated than I originally thought :/ I've had to re write a bunch of stuff and it looks like I might have to re think some of the stuff that I just re wrote.

 

[BigPete7978]

Pickem release is getting closer.. its been much more complex/complicated than I originally thought :/ I've had to re write a bunch of stuff and it looks like I might have to re think some of the stuff that I just re wrote.

No worries. I am more than willing to wait for your awesome add-ons. I appreciate that you actually work out the bugs rather than rush out an add-on with issues.

 

[BigPete7978]

I did forget to ask is there any plans to incorporate a "credits" system or tie it in with the add-ons like medals?

 

[Bob]

I did forget to ask is there any plans to incorporate a "credits" system or tie it in with the add-ons like medals?

Only plans I have is adding User Criteria to allow you to create Trophies, Notices and Promotions based on things that happen with Pickem.

 

[BigPete7978]

Only plans I have is adding User Criteria to allow you to create Trophies, Notices and Promotions based on things that happen with Pickem.

Ok awesome. Other random question. What is the ideal size for pictures for "teams" within the addon and where are they to be uploaded?

 

[Bob]

It all comes down you your style (whether its fixed or fluid). 48x48 is a nice size, but you might have to increase the font size of the team names to make it look more proportional. I've seen a few sites that use 100x100 sized team icons and they remove the sidebar on the picks page. Its fairly customizable from that aspect

 

[Bob]

Marking this as partial as I will probably enhance this slightly in the future.

The way it works now is that once you entire a "score" for a game, that game is LOCKED and can no longer be selected via the edit picks on the frontend. Where this comes in handy is when you have early games (like NFL game on Thursday Night), but you want the week to auto lock on Sunday. So right at game time on thursday, you can edit the game, enter the score as 0 to 0 (which will LOCK the game), but players are still able to edit all the other matchups up until the "week" locks. Once the thursday game is complete, you can change 0 to 0 to the actual score. I've been testing this out for the past few weeks and it works like a charm. Stops people from changing picks for early games and still allows automatic closing for the week.

Future enhancement will be to set date/time for early games to auto lock.

 

[milo]

I really need this feature too, as what I've discovered is that if you have more than 1 game per week, and you put the close date to just after the last game has started, you can still edit your previous picks (because it wont lock until the last game has finished) up until the time i have put the final score in for previous games which then locks it. Of course some people will wait until the last minute of the game before predicting getting it right 99% of the time because the score wont change much in the final few minutes. Each game should lock as soon as it starts (close date) so picks are closed.

Ideally, we need to have control for each game. In its simplest form, when you add a game, have an open/close date for that game and each subsequent games for that week.

Does that make sense? and apologies if I've just repeated what's been said above.

This is quite an important feature for me because I cannot have more than 1 game a week without this becoming a problem.

 

[Bob]

Yup, makes perfect sense. As I mentioned above, there are plans to add lock dates to games. Just not sure when I will get to it. I'd like to have it in place for tFootball Season starting (which is in Aug).

In the mean time, this is what I do... I set my close date 10 minutes PRIOR to the majority of the games for that week starting (not at the start of the last game of the week). ie, most college football games are played on Sat, so I set the close date like 10 minutes prior to the start of the first game. Then for early games, I edit the game just prior to the start, set the score to 0 - 0 which will LOCK that game (even tho the rest of the games are still unlocked). After the game, I edit again and set the final score.

 

[Bob]

This is back under development for some enhancements.

 

[Bob]

I've changed this up quite a bit to give much finer game lock date control instead of forcing bulk locking of games at a single set date/time. This really opens up the addon being used for Sports that have matches spread out over multiple days/weeks instead of sports with 90% of the games played on 1 day. Its something that I've wanted to do since Day 1.

Some quick notes about this....

Weeks now have 3 Date/Time fields. They are Week Start Date, Week Alert Date and Week Stop Date.

Week Start Date controls the Week Focus for the Leaderboard and Picks pages (as well as the Red Status Messages). It also is used to pre populate the game lock date on the Game Create form when creating new games for a given week.

Week Alert Date (new), is only used for determining when the 48 hour and 24 hour reminders (Alerts) are sent out.. ie, if you set this date to Friday at noon... then alerts would be sent out Wed at noon (48 hours) and Thu at noon (24 hours). Thats its sole purpose, nothing more, nothing less.

Week Stop Date. This functionality has changed. It USED to be used to bulk lock games as well as the reminders system used it to determine when to send alerts. This now serves one purpose and that is to lock the week after the LAST game has started. All this does is change the Week Status from OPEN to CLOSED. Nothing more, nothing less.

THIS is where the fun begins....

I've added a 'Game Lock Date' to the Create Game and Edit Game forms. This date is used to auto lock each individual game (no more having to set the score to lock a game).

When creating a new game, the Week Start Date is used to Pre Populate the field which you then edit to the precise date/time. The reason for this is because without pre populating, it starts with the current date/time. This would mean that when its August and you are entering games for December, you will have to switch the calender 5 months (one click at a time) to just get to december and then pick the date. By using the week start date, the calendar is already just a few days away from the actual game date (hope that makes sense)... its a TIME SAVER

What all this allows is stuff like this:

This is what I will be doing for my NFL pools... you can now auto lock ALL games at their actual start date/time which allows players to edit their picks right up till kickoff (example matrix below)

• Thursday Night Game... locks at kickoff 7:30 Eastern
• Sunday Early Games... locks at kickoff 1pm Eastern
• Sunday Late Games.. locks at kickoff 4:25pm Eastern
• Sunday Night Game... locks at kickoff 8pm Eastern
• Monday Night Game... locks at kickoff 8pm Eastern

Where this really kicks in is for sports like Baseball, Hockey, Basketball that have daily games. With the old system, it was just about impossible to do pickems for these sports outside of the playoffs... now its totally possible because of individual game locking control. You can now create a Week for Baseball that has games on every day of the week (setup games for that week that lock day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4, day 5 etc.. at their respective times). Then just do the scoring at the end of the week and set the week winners. You don't have to do every single MLB game (that would take a lot of effort), but you could offer x many games per day to make one hell of an awesome MLB pickem. Same can be done with NBA, NHL etc..

 

[Bob]

This screen shows the new "Week Alert Date" on the Week Edit view (same for the Week Create). I've also added some explain text for the fields.



This shot shows the new "Game Lock Date" field that now fully controls when each game "locks". I've added some explain text to fields as well. You will also not that the Game Lock Date Time zone is driven off the TZ setting for the Week Dates (to maintain consistency).