Empty News Messages
 

OOTP is generating empty news messages. Team GMs show blank messages in their News homepage with an asterisk showing. After each update it keeps generating blank news messages for "some" teams not all.

Also an issue with boxscores not generating even though I have the game set to save ALL.

When updating league files through the export option in game, I use ZEROES so that it includes every message and boxscore.

Any known issues about this? Its putting a stop to my league.

Hi there, and sorry you're having trouble. :(

Is this an online league, or a solo league? It sounds like an online league.

Are the empty news messages visible to the commissioner? Or are they invisible to him as well?

Thanks,

Steve

online league

visible to commish.... nothing to the commish looks "blank" as far as messages and boxscores are correct.

majority of human owners when they update via the ftp in game option are getting the asterisk blank message.

It appears that messages have been deleted. This happens when messages are deleted, but the messages.dat file still thinks they are there. At least this is the only time that I've seen this problem.

If you delete the messages.dat file, it should recreate it without the blank messages.

Alternatively you can enter '0' for messages when building the league file to include all messages. It increases the league file size some but not a huge amount, although they will really add up over time.

Stu, he says that he uses zeroes to create the file. Maybe he needs to do that AND the members of his league need to delete their messages.dat file. Just an idea.

Ahh. I guess it would help if I read the whole post.

Sounds like his owners need to delete messages.dat or re-download the league file and unzip it manually.

deleting of messages isnt being done by the GMs... after every update regardless of myself putting in zeroes to include all... recent messages they just received on update will be blank.

the boxscore thing.... older boxscores, from the previous year will show up... (for the GMs only) Commish still sees everything correct here.

I have always used zeroes so that it includes everything with each update... because if you dont and say only include last 14 days (if thats what you run per sim) and a GM doesnt update after every sim, messages for the missed sim update will not be shown since they wouldnt be included in the most recent update. hope you guys followed that one. :confused:

recently I have zipped up the league structure (out of game using windows explorer) for them to download... I included everything except the news/html directories and missing messages from before did showup. I am eagerly waiting on the next sim to see when update is done via in-game option will fix whatever may have been wrong or file corrupted.

provided a new league file for my GMs to download... they received the missing messages this way ... but once we progressed into another sim and update.... recent messages were again blank.

I am still using ZEROES to include all. I have tried to use 90 prior days as well thinking maybe the ZERO to include all is bugged... but the same thing happened.

somewhere in the updating process in game is severely flawed.

I'm using 0 to include all messages and havn't had a problem. Not sure how to help with this one. :(

also verified... this happens with ALL teams not just some.

Stupid question, but you're pressing enter after you set it to "0" correct?

I have mine set to 7 days for box scores and game logs and set to All (0) for Messages. IMO, it increases the league file size by too much to include all box scores and game logs. However, I do provide these in the html reports on the web site so owners can access it this way.

Yep to the enter after 0

I have also re-installed OOTP 2006 with no luck.

next step... create an entirely new online league for test purposes.

on a side note... when I go to the update and upload league files portion in game setup... when I put 0's in.. and have it include everything including players and history....

It creates the files in about 20 seconds.... too fast? My PC is about 5 years old so its not running at the speed of light. :hello!!:

i found the league file the game creates and uploads for the online GMs to update with in-game.

only thing pertaining to messages is that messages.dat file.

no individual text files are being included....

is this normal? or is this my problem?

also no mention of a box scores "file" anywhere in this. in fact the ONLY text documents included are player histories, about 800 of them.

Mine includes the messages folder with all the text files as well. It also has box scores under news/html/box_scores

You can DL it here for an example of what it looks like: http://ootp.oldredboat.com/exports/blb.lg.tar.gz

ok yes thanks... i looked at another league file from an online league I am only a GM and that one does include messages from the messages folder along with box scores from the html/box scores folder.

now, why is my league NOT including these when I put in ZEROES to include all?

in the import_export directory where it creates the archive file for ingame upload.... I noticed the league_files.txt file that shows what was "included". however when I opened the archive file the messages and box/logs are missing.

Alright some progress and some aggrevation.

I deleted 2 files in the settings directory
online_league_file_time.cfg
dialog_reports.cfg

I archived the league file in game, using ZEROES, and including names.dat and the three categories associated with my league in Team News, League News, and Player History.
No luck, still didnt include boxscores/logs and messages BUT was including the player history text files.

By mistake I unchecked Player History and archived the league file again.
Messages and Box/logs APPEARED!!!!

I went back once more and re-checked Player History... blah no messages or box/logs.

So why is checking player history making messages and box/logs not get included in the file? Is there another file somewhere (like the 2 settings dir files) I could delete that may be faulty?

still cant figure out why checking player history for the league files upload.... it stops box/logs and messages.

unchecking player history then allows box/logs and messages to be included.

league_files.txt does show that it should be including all... however the archive file in import_export directory doesnt.

what gives?

Anyone else run into this problem or determine a fix? I'm in two different online leagues and both of them have problems with empty messages...