Program I Saw on Ebay to Extract BRIS Info to Design Your Own Handicapping Software

[cardinalsfan]

Some time ago I saw a program listed on Ebay that said it would allow you to extract fields from BRIS files and design your own hadicapping program. I meant to buy it a the time but forgot. I appeared that the designer of this program is the person that listed it on Ebay. I have not seen it listed again. Does anyone have any information as to how I can get hold of this program?

[Partsnut]

cardinalsfan: Some time ago I saw a program listed on Ebay that said it would allow you to extract fields from BRIS files and design your own hadicapping program. I meant to buy it a the time but forgot. I appeared that the designer of this program is the person that listed it on Ebay. I have not seen it listed again. Does anyone have any information as to how I can get hold of this program?

I think the program you are referring to is called "Data Grabber" by Bob Pitlak.
You can find this at: http://sports-bet-advantage.com/

[Devon5]

Is this any improvement over INFOTRAN.EXE which is free on the BRIS site?

[Partsnut]

Devon5: Is this any improvement over INFOTRAN.EXE which is free on the BRIS site?

Ron, I never used the program so I really couldn't tell you.
It seems that it might be easier to use for those that are not up to speed on the computer. This is a first glance impression. The information given on the site makes it look easy. :confused: The price is right at about $ 40.00.
I'm not endorsing it. Perhaps there's others on the board that have had experience with it and would possibly enlighten us.

[cardinalsfan]

That's the one. Many thanks!

[Partsnut]

cardinalsfan That's the one. Many thanks!

Glad I could be of some help. Please let me know if this program is still available.

[Tom Barrister]

Is this any improvement over INFOTRAN.EXE which is free on the BRIS site?

I haven't used it, but if it's like Pitlak's other programs, it has a Windows interface (Infotran is DOS), which would probably make it easier to use. It would also be supported by the author, meaning there wouldn't be any compatibility issues with the various versions of Windows and/or their updates, although the author states that it's meant for 32 bit.

[GameTheory]

I've offered a number of times on this board to make a free INFOTRAN-like program to convert comma-delimited data files to custom formats. It's quite easy. Never had any takers. Any interest this time?

[Pcon04]

gt
i wish I knew what I could do with it as I'm a clutz with programs ect..

If you make one for someone count me in..I just don't know what

to ask for and how to set it up. i'd like to learn

.I can print excel but that's all no formulas ..Seems like

a lot of guys use it for capping now a days !!

Pcon04

[Tom]

gt, I am interested, and I am more than willing to pay for your time.

[raybo]

I've offered a number of times on this board to make a free INFOTRAN-like program to convert comma-delimited data files to custom formats. It's quite easy. Never had any takers. Any interest this time?

I recently posted a thread about my Infotran control file for all 1435 Bris/TSN fields and posted it there. Also, I'm working on a "template" for Excel that will produce the PPs, as well as other stuff, like Sartin figures, selected paceline summary area, etc., complete with macros to automate it all.

I have asked for suggestions on what the PPs should look like and what they should include. Haven't received much input so I assume everyone on this forum has already figured out how to do this stuff themselves.

[Tom]

What I want to do is to extract certain fields into single line records to import into Access and then use the data to calculate various figures. I need it to be in a format where each line is one PP line from each horse on the card.

I tried your file - it is pretty good stuff.

[GameTheory]

A lot of people have trouble running Infotran, don't they? Isn't it a DOS program, and fairly confusing besides?

What is the link for Infotran, anyway? On BRIS somewhere?

[KyRacer]

I'm another one that would be interested in a new version of infotran.

Infotran Link (http://www.bris.com/cgi-bin/dynamic.cgi?page=utils)

[raybo]

A lot of people have trouble running Infotran, don't they? Isn't it a DOS program, and fairly confusing besides?

What is the link for Infotran, anyway? On BRIS somewhere?

Yes, it's a DOS program. But it's not difficult. The most difficult part is writing the control file, which extracts the csv fields in the order the user wants them imported into Excel. The control file is simply a text file (I write them in Notepad) with each field number on a separate line. The program reads the text file from top to bottom, vertically, placing each csv data field in a target file, horizontally, which then become columns in Excel or a database program (if you're sending the stuff to a database).

My latest control file extracts all 1435 csv fields in a 15 line format for each horse, with each paceline on a separate line, or row in Excel.

The Infotran utility can be downloaded from Bris here:

http://www.brisnet.com/cgi-bin/dynamic.cgi?page=utils

[Tom]

A lot of people have trouble running Infotran, don't they? Isn't it a DOS program, and fairly confusing besides?

What is the link for Infotran, anyway? On BRIS somewhere?

It's under FREE SOFTWARE,,,,others

Yes it can be hard at times - sometimes, things just don't work. I have trouble getting the control files to work. I have to take a .brs file that works and cut and paste anew program into that file to get them to run. I can do it, but it is a hassle.

[raybo]

I posted instructions for Infotran on the other thread in the software section here:

http://www.paceadvantage.com/forum/showthread.php?t=59100

[raybo]

The new control file is also posted as an attachment in that same thread.

[raybo]

What I want to do is to extract certain fields into single line records to import into Access and then use the data to calculate various figures. I need it to be in a format where each line is one PP line from each horse on the card.

I tried your file - it is pretty good stuff.

You could use the control file I wrote and posted and just delete everything except the last 10 sections, which are the pacelines. You can add to or delete any of the remaining fields in order to extract only the fields you want to appear on each line.

[gl45]

I was using Datagrabber for my handicapping spreadsheet, untill I contacted raybo. He graciously sent me an example of his spreadsheet using Infotran. Easy to use without so much of copy and paste, also the user can customize the control file to his needs. Now if I can only figure a macro to get my paceline using a loop.
Thanks raybo

[Maxspa]

All,
In the past I've made people on this board aware of Bob Pitlak's thoroughbred handicapping software etc. He has written a book called "Pc Tools For the Thoroughbred Handicapper." The book is available at Barnes and Noble and Amazon for $24.95. Perhaps, this book might help people on this thread or handicappers who like to develop their own ideas into a software approach.
This is not meant to advertise Mr. Pitlak's book but to let people on this board know that this material might help them in their quest for personal software development.
Maxspa

[Speed Figure]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/143273587X/sr=8-1/qid=1248106748/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&qid=1248106748&sr=8-1&seller=

[Maxspa]

Speedfigure,
Thanks you for taking the the time to give out the website and make PA'ers aware of the discount that is available!
Maxspa

[GameTheory]

What I am thinking of would do what InfoTran could do, but possibly easier to use, and with more flexibility. You could make templates for ANY (text) format -- HTML for instance. And it would contain logic that allowed it to separate one race from another, so it could also handle "multi" format input files where the data is broken up on different rows, and perhaps make the definition of "multi" output formats (like Raybo's infotran example) easier to define. This would also allow the creation of custom fields (eventually, probably not in an initial version) based on simple math or extracting the top speed figure from a race or something like that. It would also be nice to be able to merge files -- PPs with results for instance.

And it would run in Windows (any version) without trouble. (And could be adapted for Linux fairly easily if their is interest.) Or possibly I could make a web version instead where the user uploaded input files and it generated the output for download. There is some appeal to that as a developer, but it would make processing massive amounts of files difficult (or slow, anyway).

BUT, just like in InfoTran, the user would have to take the time to make a template to define the output, although I'd try to make it easier, and sharing of templates would be encouraged. The output capabilities would be similar to my old chart parser, although I think I could make the template definition less convoluted this time around (especially for custom fields and formulas).

By the way, for you TSN & BRIS downloaders, a while back I posted THIS:

http://www.dvdsaurus.com/robograb/robograb.zip

Which is a program for super-easy downloading of their subscription files (super-easy once you set it up anyway). I'm assuming it still works -- can anyone confirm? (You have Chickenhead to thank for getting me to put that up, btw.)

[raybo]

I was using Datagrabber for my handicapping spreadsheet, untill I contacted raybo. He graciously sent me an example of his spreadsheet using Infotran. Easy to use without so much of copy and paste, also the user can customize the control file to his needs. Now if I can only figure a macro to get my paceline using a loop.
Thanks raybo

No problem, glad to help.

[raybo]

What I am thinking of would do what InfoTran could do, but possibly easier to use, and with more flexibility. You could make templates for ANY (text) format -- HTML for instance. And it would contain logic that allowed it to separate one race from another, so it could also handle "multi" format input files where the data is broken up on different rows, and perhaps make the definition of "multi" output formats (like Raybo's infotran example) easier to define. This would also allow the creation of custom fields (eventually, probably not in an initial version) based on simple math or extracting the top speed figure from a race or something like that. It would also be nice to be able to merge files -- PPs with results for instance.

And it would run in Windows (any version) without trouble. (And could be adapted for Linux fairly easily if their is interest.) Or possibly I could make a web version instead where the user uploaded input files and it generated the output for download. There is some appeal to that as a developer, but it would make processing massive amounts of files difficult (or slow, anyway).

BUT, just like in InfoTran, the user would have to take the time to make a template to define the output, although I'd try to make it easier, and sharing of templates would be encouraged. The output capabilities would be similar to my old chart parser, although I think I could make the template definition less convoluted this time around (especially for custom fields and formulas).



Good idea GT! I've been looking for a Windows based parser so that the "Infotran" portion of my process could be automated. I already have everything, after running Infotran, automated via Excel macros. Running Infotran only takes a few seconds though so, it's really not that big of a deal.

[Nets]

I've offered a number of times on this board to make a free INFOTRAN-like program to convert comma-delimited data files to custom formats. It's quite easy. Never had any takers. Any interest this time?

Interest on my part. I also plan to work with Raybo's control file to see if I can get it to do what I need. Really nice of you both to offer your expertise to all of us.

Gary

[Tom]

Exactly what I am looking for, as I have HTR export files that I could also put to better use.

[GameTheory]

The CSVed program looks like a good general purpose csv manipulator, although I haven't tried it. (The feature list looks good if it works.)

[vtbob]

Hi,

I'm the author of the DataGrabber program. It let's you export a wide variety of fields (but not all) from BRIS or TSN and export to Microsoft Excel, where you can apply your own formulas, etc. I'll gladly send a copy of the user manual if you email me at bob@pitlak.com with DataGrabber in the Subject line.

Regards, and Good Luck
Bob Pitlak
http://sports-bet-advantage.com

[EQUIPACE]

Great to see your still here Bob!

I bought Bob's program some time ago... As good as it is... He is an truly honest guy and I appreciate that. But, he is right!
The program limits what data that can be extracted.

Using Excel 2007, you can pull the data from every field into a spread sheet and manipulate to your hearts content on another spreadsheet!

I just posted about it... Any answers about the updated data fields would be greatly appreciated...

Thanks
John
~¿o

[Jake]

Perfect timing with Bob Pitlak's posting. I just finished reading his PC Tools for the Thoroughbred Handicapper and found it worth reading. Nothing earth shaking here, but some nice ideas applied to spreadsheet samples which should be handy for the Excel handicapper. Also, an interesting chapter on corrrelations at 6f sprints at Aqueduct between the Bris speed figures, the DRF speed ratings, and the addition of a track variant. Small sample size but certainly easily duplicated with other data samples.

I did have a problem downloading his spreadsheet samples from his site. But an email to Bob directly resolved any problems. I suggest if you purchase the book you might want to do the same, rather than following the instructions in the book. Perhaps Bob can give better advice on this here, with the earlier problems possibly fixed. Bob was friendly and quick to answer my questions.

The spreadsheet models are very straightforward. And, if you like them, easy to adapt or combine with other spreadsheets. Nothing too difficult.

Along the same lines, if you like serious programming in Excel, let me also recommend Professional Excel Development by Rob Bovey and other multiple authors. Outstanding book with some heavy sledding.

Jake

[raybo]

After reading so many posts on this subject, lots of them, it appears that what many potential, or veteran, Excel handicappers are wanting is a program that puts each piece of data exactly where they want it. Of course, you can do that with Infotran, via the control file, however, it's not that much more time consuming, during the initial spreadsheet design, to just reference the fields as they are imported into Excel, via formulas, putting those formulas in the cells you want the data to appear in. That is what I have always done and wouldn't even think of rewriting the control file to do what I can do with formulas.

What I have tried to do with the "AllData.brs" control file, downloadable on my site, is group the data logically, on separate lines, so that the user can more easily refer to the control file text in order to find out where each piece of data resides, upon importation to Excel.

The control file does import all 1435 raw data fields into Excel so that the user has access to any Bris or TSN data they wish.

If anyone doesn't understand what I'm talking about please feel free to contact me via PM or you can submit a post on my website's blog page. The website address is in my signature.

I will be adding my instructions for using Infotran and the spreadsheet, to the website, the control file and spreadsheet are already there and downloadable directly from the site. Just haven't had time for the instructions yet, as I'm currently working on a "Sartin" type "fps" view for the spreadsheet, utilizing the DRF variant, but manipulating it into fractional variants for the 3 sections of the races.

I also allow the user to select his/her preferred "time per B/L" simply by typing it into a cell. That cell value is referenced every time the B'Ls are manipulated. The default is .2 seconds per B/L.

The spreadsheet also allows the user to select each track's "normal" DRF variant range. The default for this is "16-19" meaning that any variant falling into that range would equal zero points. If the variant was 15, for example, the track is considered 1 point faster than "normal". A variant of 20 would be 1 point slower than normal. Tracks' "normal" ranges vary, so, that is why I allow the user to plug in whatever they consider the normal variant range for each track they handicap. These ranges could be automatically referenced using the "Index" function in Excel. I have not added that capability to the "AllData.xls" spreadsheet, as I use the same range for all the tracks I play.

[raybo]

After reading so many posts on this subject, lots of them, it appears that what many potential, or veteran, Excel handicappers are wanting is a program that puts each piece of data exactly where they want it. Of course, you can do that with Infotran, via the control file, however, it's not that much more time consuming, during the initial spreadsheet design, to just reference the fields as they are imported into Excel, via formulas, putting those formulas in the cells you want the data to appear in. That is what I have always done and wouldn't even think of rewriting the control file to do what I can do with formulas.

What I have tried to do with the "AllData.brs" control file, downloadable on my site, is group the data logically, on separate lines, so that the user can more easily refer to the control file text in order to find out where each piece of data resides, upon importation to Excel.

The control file does import all 1435 raw data fields into Excel so that the user has access to any Bris or TSN data they wish.

If anyone doesn't understand what I'm talking about please feel free to contact me via PM or you can submit a post on my website's blog page. The website address is in my signature.

I will be adding my instructions for using Infotran and the spreadsheet, to the website, the control file and spreadsheet are already there and downloadable directly from the site. Just haven't had time for the instructions yet, as I'm currently working on a "Sartin" type "fps" view for the spreadsheet, utilizing the DRF variant, but manipulating it into fractional variants for the 3 sections of the races.

I also allow the user to select his/her preferred "time per B/L" simply by typing it into a cell. That cell value is referenced every time the B'Ls are manipulated. The default is .2 seconds per B/L.

The spreadsheet also allows the user to select each track's "normal" DRF variant range. The default for this is "16-19" meaning that any variant falling into that range would equal zero points. If the variant was 15, for example, the track is considered 1 point faster than "normal". A variant of 20 would be 1 point slower than normal. Tracks' "normal" ranges vary, so, that is why I allow the user to plug in whatever they consider the normal variant range for each track they handicap. These ranges could be automatically referenced using the "Index" function in Excel. I have not added that capability to the "AllData.xls" spreadsheet, as I use the same range for all the tracks I play.

I've added instructions for all the downloads, available on my site. All the instructions are downloadable on the site, in text format. You can open them in Notepad or any other text editor.

The instructions cover the control file for Infotran, how to run the "ITF.exe" DOS program in the Infotran folder, and how to use the "AllData PPs.xls" spreadsheet.

The link to my site is in my signature, below.

[exiles]

Gametheory, I'm intrested in a pogram that will import from DRF FORMULATOR, and output days between races, distance of race, track condition, and the beyer #s stagered ala the SHEETS. Do you think you can write it for me.

thanks Louie

[douglasw32]

I've added instructions for all the downloads, available on my site. All the instructions are downloadable on the site, in text format. You can open them in Notepad or any other text editor.

The instructions cover the control file for Infotran, how to run the "ITF.exe" DOS program in the Infotran folder, and how to use the "AllData PPs.xls" spreadsheet.

The link to my site is in my signature, below.

This ROCKS !

[raybo]

This ROCKS !

Thanks!

More to come.

[lsosa54]

Ray: Since Doug got so excited, I spent a few minutes to get it working. Your instructions were simple to follow and work great.

Question: Any thoughts on printing? My 55 year old eyes are not getting any better and I'm starting to find the BRIS custom pp text size hard to read, unless I've got a light right on the print out.

Obviously, I can enlarge the BRIS custom pp's on the screen by printing to pdf and I could enlarge the font on the Excel sheet, but I do like to have paper at times.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks again for putting in the work and sharing this. Much appreciated. Lou

[raybo]

Ray: Since Doug got so excited, I spent a few minutes to get it working. Your instructions were simple to follow and work great.

Question: Any thoughts on printing? My 55 year old eyes are not getting any better and I'm starting to find the BRIS custom pp text size hard to read, unless I've got a light right on the print out.

Obviously, I can enlarge the BRIS custom pp's on the screen by printing to pdf and I could enlarge the font on the Excel sheet, but I do like to have paper at times.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks again for putting in the work and sharing this. Much appreciated. Lou

I haven't really spent anytime worrying about printing the "AllData PPs", as I assumed most users of the template would go on to whittle down the amount of data they wished to use/view, subsequently developing something they could size appropriately for their own personal needs.

My only suggestion, for you, is to increase the font or increase your zoom setting and switch to landscape on your printer.

[ranchwest]

Using Excel seems to me to be about like trying to swim with an anchor tied to your leg, but that may be because I've been programming databases for over 20 years.

[ranchwest]

What I am thinking of would do what InfoTran could do, but possibly easier to use, and with more flexibility. You could make templates for ANY (text) format -- HTML for instance. And it would contain logic that allowed it to separate one race from another, so it could also handle "multi" format input files where the data is broken up on different rows, and perhaps make the definition of "multi" output formats (like Raybo's infotran example) easier to define. This would also allow the creation of custom fields (eventually, probably not in an initial version) based on simple math or extracting the top speed figure from a race or something like that. It would also be nice to be able to merge files -- PPs with results for instance.

And it would run in Windows (any version) without trouble. (And could be adapted for Linux fairly easily if their is interest.) Or possibly I could make a web version instead where the user uploaded input files and it generated the output for download. There is some appeal to that as a developer, but it would make processing massive amounts of files difficult (or slow, anyway).

BUT, just like in InfoTran, the user would have to take the time to make a template to define the output, although I'd try to make it easier, and sharing of templates would be encouraged. The output capabilities would be similar to my old chart parser, although I think I could make the template definition less convoluted this time around (especially for custom fields and formulas).

By the way, for you TSN & BRIS downloaders, a while back I posted THIS:

http://www.dvdsaurus.com/robograb/robograb.zip

Which is a program for super-easy downloading of their subscription files (super-easy once you set it up anyway). I'm assuming it still works -- can anyone confirm? (You have Chickenhead to thank for getting me to put that up, btw.)

Wow! So I can handicap AND have a life? This is great. So far as I can tell thus far, it is working properly.

THANKS!!

[CBedo]

Using Excel seems to me to be about like trying to swim with an anchor tied to your leg, but that may be because I've been programming databases for over 20 years.That's funny. I thought learning sql and database programming was like swimming with an anchor since I've learned some ActiveRecord programming in Ruby on Rails!

Seriously though, I agree that using Excel as a relational database (or search server) substitute is definitely not the most efficient thing to do, but I do think Excel potentially has its place as the analytic front end to a database possibly.

[ranchwest]

That's funny. I thought learning sql and database programming was like swimming with an anchor since I've learned some ActiveRecord programming in Ruby on Rails!

Seriously though, I agree that using Excel as a relational database (or search server) substitute is definitely not the most efficient thing to do, but I do think Excel potentially has its place as the analytic front end to a database possibly.

Excel is good for "what if" scenarios, but to simply extract and format data it seems rather cumbersome to me. If you ever want to go in a significantly different direction, it is tough to salvage much from the previous work.

Learning database programming is tough, but once you've learned it, there are a lot of advantages.

[CBedo]

Excel is good for "what if" scenarios, but to simply extract and format data it seems rather cumbersome to me. If you ever want to go in a significantly different direction, it is tough to salvage much from the previous work.

Learning database programming is tough, but once you've learned it, there are a lot of advantages.Agreed. Using Excel to only as a parser and to manipulate data is nutty.

Ranch, have you done anything with Lucene/Solr or any of the other search servers?

[wolsons]

GT, robograbber program is working just fine with the TSN Advantage plan - I download all files from all tracks every day using your little program, with NO problems at all - nice little piece of work!

Steve