AntLog - double elimination result logging tool

Post by **BeligerAnt** » Sun Dec 06, 2009 5:25 pm

After much effort and some considerable wailing and gnashing of teeth, I have managed to automate Peter Waller's most excellent double-elimination charts, now the de-facto standard for AWS competitions (and most other antweight events).

AntLog is a spreadsheet template for OpenOffice.org, with macros built in to handle events from 16 to 48 entrants.

One other handy feature is that it tracks which order the fights happen in - very useful information when trying to edit the video!

The reasons for using OpenOffice rather than Excel are as follow (you may choose to disagree with me):
OpenOffice.org is free
OpenOffice.org is available for Windows, Mac and Linux
Not everyone has MS Office and not everyone runs Windows
I couldn't figure out how to get Excel to track the order in which the fights happen.

If you have OpenOffice.org, please download AntLog and the instruction sheet and have a play with it. This is the first release so there may well be a few "features"

http://garya.org.uk/antweight-robots

mirror at:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/g0xan/robots/

The printable charts for those that don't wish to trust electrons are available here
Edit: Updated website link

Craig_Anto3 · Post by **Craig_Anto3** » Sun Dec 06, 2009 6:01 pm

very good Gary

peterwaller · Post by **peterwaller** » Sun Dec 06, 2009 6:24 pm

That is going to save me a lot of work Gary well done. At the moment I have to print out 8 of each group size to cover every possibilty.
Just one thing where do I find the AntLog.odt

Post by **BeligerAnt** » Sun Dec 06, 2009 8:04 pm

Sorry Peter, a bit of a typong probelm

The file is actually antlog.ots If you click on the "Download Antlog Tool" link it should download the .ots file. I will update the PDF file soon (but not on the same PC at the mo')

Other than that I think the instructions are correct. Let me know how it goes.

EpicentrE · Post by **EpicentrE** » Sun Dec 06, 2009 8:58 pm

That's excellent Gary - just gave it a test run with random numbers and random names, and it all seems to work excellently. The only thing I noticed was that in the final, if the winner from the losers side wins, it counts that ant as the winner, whereas it should then just have a rematch (since both ants have lost one at this point), if you understand what I mean. I don't know whether this is important to implement this or if we can just remember, but it's something I thought I'd point out

Apart from that, great job!

peterwaller · Post by **peterwaller** » Sun Dec 06, 2009 8:59 pm

Still no luck.
I get the following directories in my download area.
antlog
.....Basic
.....Configurations2
.....Dialogs
.....META_INF
.....Thumbnails
The only file I get called antlog is antlog.xml and I get an error if I try to open it.

Post by **BeligerAnt** » Sun Dec 06, 2009 9:49 pm

Scott, I tried to simplify things by just automating the predictable bits. So I didn't bother with the double final as it's a bit complicated. The important thing is to record the final winner. If I get some time & enthusiasm I'll give it a go.

Peter, it works for me, so I am struggling to find your problem.
What operating system and version of OpenOffice are you running?

bobblebot · Post by **bobblebot** » Sun Dec 06, 2009 10:01 pm

Just to confirm it seems to work fine in OOo 3.1 on Mac OS X.

Post by **BeligerAnt** » Mon Dec 07, 2009 8:10 am

Peter, thinking about it over night, maybe you need to right-click on the "Download AntLog Tool" link and select "Save target as..." or similar.
The OOo file format is compressed, and it looks as if your download is getting uncompressed. By just saving the file it should download intact. If still no joy I will email it to you tonight as it's only about 22kB.

Mike, thanks for confirming Mac OS X.

peterwaller · Post by **peterwaller** » Mon Dec 07, 2009 9:55 am

I am using Windows Vista and OO3.1.
I get the zip file OK and it is 22k.
When I expand it I get the directories listed above.
When I look in those directories the only file named Antlog is Antlog.xml
If I double click this file I get:

The XML page cannot be displayed
Cannot view XML input using style sheet. Please correct the error and then click the Refresh button, or try again later.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Access is denied. Error processing resource 'module.dtd'. Error processing resource 'file:///C:/antlog/Basic/Standard/AntL...

<!DOCTYPE script:module PUBLIC "-//OpenOffice.org//DTD OfficeDocument 1.0//EN" "module.dtd">