AllData NI Batch and AllDataBase

[raybo]

I hope HandiFast users don't mind but I want to post a poll, for AllData Users, to find out where our users are at, operationally. I couldn't post a poll in the AllData forum.

If this is a problem just let me know.

After you have voted please comment on your specific problem area(s). This will help me get everyone up to speed.

[raybo]

Concerning problems importing data files, race cards and results files, there are usually 2 things that are common:

1. The user did not properly create the race cards folder or the results folder.
2. The user did not properly enter the correct "file folder path" into AllData NI or AllDataBase.

1. The default folder name for race card files is: tsn1
the default folder name for results files is: tsnresults1

We recommend that you use these 2 default folder names, at least until you completely understand how to change them, and their respective "file folder paths".

An easy way to create these folders is to right click the "Start" button, on your computer's desktop, left click "Explore". When the Explore window appears, scroll down, or up, until you locate your computer's "C" drive (if your main drive has a different letter name, like "D" or "F" you can use that). Now right click on the "C" drive, in the Explore" window, then hover your mouse curser over "New" and left click "Folder". A new folder will appear, and the folder name will be highlighted, meaning you can type a name for the folder, type: tsn1 and click "Enter" on your keyboard.

Now right click your "C" drive again and do the same thing, except name the new folder: tsnresults1

You have now created 2 new folders on your "C" drive named: tsn1 and tsnresults1

Now, open AllData NI Batch, to the "Main" worksheet. To the right of the "RUN DATA" button you will see 2 orange colored cells, they are in cells K2 and K3. These are the "file folder paths" for the 2 folders you just created on your "C" drive. In the K2 cell you should see the default file folder path for your race cards folder, which you named tsn1 , the file folder path in K2 should look like this: C:\tsn1\

If that file folder path is something different, click in that cell and type in: C:\tsn1\

Make sure you type the ending "\" in that cell.

Now for cell K3, your results file folder path, do the same thing except it must be this: C:\tsnresults1\

Again, make sure you type the ending "\" in that cell.

Now all you have to do is unzip all your race card files and move them to your tsn1 folder, on your C drive. Then unzip and move all your results files to your tsnresults1 folder, on your C drive.

You're ready to "List Cards", and "List Results" which will list all your card and results files down below the "List Cards" and "List Results" buttons, starting in cell D17 and E17. That's it, your cards and results are listed so when you click "RUN DATA" any or all of those cards will be imported and processed.

In AllDataBase all you have to do is ensure that the same "file folder paths" are entered in, on the "D" worksheet, cells Z1 and Z2.

I hope this solves your problem with importing files, if not, please post here and explain what is happening.

[raybo]

Regarding "scartching horses", in AllData NI, there is only one place you can manually scratch horses.

Open "AllData NI Batch", go through the process to get the card you want into AllData NI, after you have clicked the "RUN DATA" button and the timer window has been cleared, by clicking "OK", click the "Go To AllData" button. Now, your card should be shown directly below "CURRENT RACE CARD".

Click the race you want to look at, by clicking the appropriate "Race _" button below.

This will take you to the "Past Performances" view. Now, scroll to the right of that view, to column "AK", this is the column where you can scratch horses. There is a comment there for the first horse's "Scratch Horse" label, explaining how to scratch a horse.

To scratch any horse, scroll down, or up, to the horse's data ,that you want to scratch, and type any character in the cell below "Scratch Horse", I usually either type an "x" or an "s" in those cells, it doesn't matter what you type, as long as the cell isn't blank the horse's data will be scratched and will not appear in the "Summaries" views.

NOTE: When you run AllData NI in "Batch" mode, all horses' data is sent to the ZZOUTPUT file for importation into the database, horses that were shown as scratched in the results files will be scratched automatically in AllDataBase. There is a way to manually scratch horses in AllData NI and send that manually-scratched data to the ZZDAILY file, to be used in the AllDataBase "Daily Play" method, which allows you to handicap and obtain selections from within AllDataBase, but, that's another story to be discussed later, I'm still not completely up to speed on that.

If this doesn't solve your "scratch horse" problems, please post here what problem you are encountering.

[raybo]

Regarding problems with "outputting processed cards for the database".

Once you have clicked "RUN DATA", on the "Main" worksheet, in AllData NI Batch, and the timer window appears and you have cleared it by clicking "OK", simply click the "OUTPUT" button. This causes all processed race cards and results data to be copied to the "ZZOUTPUT.xls" file in your tsnresults1 folder.

Now open ALLDATABASE and, on the "D" worksheet, click "IMPORT DATABASE", this causes the "ZZOUTPUT.xls" file to be copied into AllDataBase, worksheet "C", starting in cell A17.

That's it, your processed race cards and results have been imported into the database, ready for you to query/filter.

If this doesn't solve your problem with "outputting processed cards for the database", please post here the problem your are experiencing.

[raybo]

Just a note. I had a heck of a time getting all this stuff down, myself, and I did a lot of the creation work, so please don't feel embarrassed to post problems with the basic steps in the process, for either workbook.

Harry and I want to get every one of our users situated and able to operate both workbooks, correctly and free from problems.

[raybo]

I see someone is having problems running in Batch mode. Please post and describe the problem you're encountering.

[snoadog]

When I click Import Database I get the following error:

'Error '1004
To paste all cells from a Excel worksheet into the current worksheet,
you must paste into the first cell (A1 or R1C1).

I am running 64 bit Vista and Excel 2007

[raybo]

When I click Import Database I get the following error:

'Error '1004
To paste all cells from a Excel worksheet into the current worksheet,
you must paste into the first cell (A1 or R1C1).

I am running 64 bit Vista and Excel 2007

Snoadog,

I'm hoping that Harry will respond to this problem, as I have no idea what would cause your error. I don't know if it's a "64 bit" problem or something else. I'm running 32 bit, Vista, pre-2007 Excel, but have run it under Excel 2007 and it works, albeit very slow because of the "power hog" behavior of that particular version. I love Excel 2007 but don't use it for AllData NI Batch or AllDataBase, it's just too slow.

I suggest that if you have access to a pre-2007 version of Excel that you install it on your machine and use it for these workbooks instead of the 2007 version (you can have more than one version of Excel installed on the same machine, I have Excel 2007, 2002, and 2000 on my machine). 65,000 rows is plenty of space for a good database. If it becomes a problem you can always use separate workbooks for separate tracks, and of course you shouldn't combine multiple years of race cards and results files in the same folders anyway, no matter which version you use. Create separate folders for different years.

[raybo]

When I click Import Database I get the following error:

'Error '1004
To paste all cells from a Excel worksheet into the current worksheet,
you must paste into the first cell (A1 or R1C1).

I am running 64 bit Vista and Excel 2007

Snoadog,

Can you "zip" your "ZZOUTPUT.xls" file and send it to me? I'd like to look at it and see if I see any irregularities.

You should be able to send it via email through this board, if not you can go to my forum, Excel Spreadsheet Handicapping (http://alldataexcel.freeforums.org/), and attach the file in a post.

Thanks!

[raybo]

I see someone has a problem with "paceline settings".

AllData NI has an auto-paceline selection method incorporated into the workbook. This method allows the user to make his/her own personal paceline selection settings. Keep in mind that these auto-paceline selections are only a starting point and the user should confirm the validity of all auto-selected pacelines, use the "Manual Override" column to the right side of the Past Performances view to manually select your own pacelines, for one or more horses. The auto method is also used in "batch" processing so it is important for all users to make sure they make settings that they are comfortable with.

To access these settings, open AllData NI Batch to the "AllData" worksheet. Select a race so that the macro takes you to the "Past Performances" view. Once there, look at the top of the view and you will see a button named: "Paceline Settings", click that button. You will be taken to the paceline settings area of the worksheet.

In the top portion titled: "Defaults for Automated Paceline Selection Criteria", you will see a visible comment box. This box gives you basic instructions for setting the criteria for your paceline selections. In the cells above the yellow shaded cells you will see some small red traingles, these red triangles mean that there is a hidden comment box there. To see these hidden comments just hover your mouse over the cell and the comment box will appear. These hidden comments give you specific instructions for setting the criteria for each of the 15 selection factors. Please follow these instructions exactly.

In the bottom section named: "Defaults for Criteria Category Ranking", you will notice that the 15 factors, above, have been grouped into 6 categories. In this section you must rank each of the categories by importance, 1 is most important and 6 is least important. If a category is the most important one, for you, then you should type a 1 in the blue shaded cell directly below the name for that category. Continue ranking each of the other 5 categories, by importance, until you have ranked all 6 categories. Note: Do not type the same ranking number in more than one category.

The settings that are there, when you first download the workbook, are the default settings. I suggest that you record these default settings in case you change some and decide later that you like the default settings better.

If you have any questions please post them here or PM me.

[snoadog]

Raybo

My ZZOUTPUT.xls file is blank.

Not to worry though, I will try and find a 2003 copy of excel.

Last year I taught myself some VBA by getting Excel to import a Bris PP data single file and create a printable PP to take to the track, so I have an idea what a daunting task ye undertake.

[raybo]

Raybo

My ZZOUTPUT.xls file is blank.

Not to worry though, I will try and find a 2003 copy of excel.

Last year I taught myself some VBA by getting Excel to import a Bris PP data single file and create a printable PP to take to the track, so I have an idea what a daunting task ye undertake.

snoadog,

Ok, if your ZZOUTPUT file is blank that means that the cards you processed were never stored in AllData NI Batch, on sheet "Data" starting in cell BW31.

Do me a favor and follow these instructions:

Open AllData NI Batch to the "Main" sheet. Click "List Cards", click "List Results", click "With Results?", type a 1 in cell G14. In cell G10, type a 1. In cell G12, type a 3. This will cause the first 3 cards in your cards list to be processed. Make a note of the file names for those 3 cards. Click "Run Data" and wait for the small timer window to pop up, when it does, click "OK".

Then go to sheet "Data" and look in column BX, starting in row 31, you should see the Race ID for every race, for all 3 processed cards, listed in that column (the Race ID contains the year, the month, the day, the track code, and the race number). Scroll down that column and make sure all 3 cards are there. If they are all there, go back to sheet "Main" and click "OUTPUT". Then look at your "ZZOUTPUT.xls" file and see if all 3 cards appear in that spreadsheet. If so, close AllData NI Batch, open AllDataBase, to sheet "D" and click "Import Database". Give it a few seconds, then go to sheet "C" and starting in cell B17 you should see the same Race IDs that you saw in the ZZOUTPUT file. Scroll down that column and make sure all 3 cards are there.

If all 3 cards are on sheet "C" then you successfully imported the cards from AllData NI Batch.

If the 3 cards don't appear in the 3 places I mentioned above, or if they are not complete, let me know.

If they are there then you can go back to AllData NI Batch and follow the instructions above to process all of the cards you want, for example if you have 40 cards listed and you want to process all of them then instead of typing 1 and 3 in cells G10 and G12, type 1 and 40. This will cause all 40 cards, and their respective results, to be processed. Then follow the remaining instructions to output those cards to the ZZOUTPUT file and then import them into AllDataBase. Remember that it will take about 20 seconds, or so, for each card to process, because you are using Excel 2007.

[snoadog]

Alright, my mistake, I have been neglecting to put a value in the batch process cell. It seems to be working now. thanks a bunch.

[raybo]

Alright, my mistake, I have been neglecting to put a value in the batch process cell. It seems to be working now. thanks a bunch.

snoadog,

No problem, glad you got it going. Please post any other problems or questions you have.