Pick'Em Module v2.0 for DNN 2.x

Description

PickEm is a sports pool module for DotNetNuke that allows admins to run their own weekly
pool based on the popular Pick 'Em format. Each week, users log in to the pool and choose
the teams that they think will win their games during the upcoming week. As each game
is finished, the admin can log into the pool to update the scores. At the end of the week,
users can compare the performance using the built-in reporting.


Features
- old FootballPool module from DNN 1.x has been completely rewritten for DNN 2.x and rebranded as PickEm

- has an XML schedule upload feature (complete with XSD validation) to support any sport in the world that breaks its games down on a periodic basis (usually a week)

- allows the use of spreads as an option

- has cutoff dates that are admin-definable (using the XML upload feature)

- allows the use of default picks as an option

- since home/visitor or favourite/underdog may not apply as terms for all sports, these terms are admin-definable

- allows the admin to define exactly which users are part of the pool and which aren't

- full support for timezones/GMT offsets in the XML import mechanism

- has built-in reporting that sums up each user and ranks them. Also displays the average total for each week for better comparisons

- supports URL's for each team so that users can get the latest info on their teams before making their picks

- uses the DNN 2.x DataProvider specification to enable future support of different DB's

- did I mention that it's completely free and will come with full source code?

Downloads
For now, I've just got the PA available at http://www3.telus.net/mm53bar/PickEm/. The module only has support for the SQL Server Provider. I will release the source code as soon as I get around to packaging it up.

Coming Soon
In a week or so, I should have another module coming out that will support Reality TV show pools. I'm a big fan of Amazing Race, so I'm trying to get the module ready for that show's start date on July 6th. It's almost finished and will look similar to Pick'Em. I wanted to have a cooler name for this new module, so it will be called Xtreme Reality Challenge, or XRC for short. After all, it's always cooler if you have an X in your title, isn't it?

mike.

I keep forgetting this, but don't forget to pick up a schedule file from the same URL. You'll need it! Currently supported files are CFL 2004 (season is currently underway), NFL 2004, AFL 2004 (season is currently underway) and AF2 2004 (season is currently underway).

You can find instructions on creating your own schedule file in the txt file supplied with the module.

mike.

Hi Mike
I live in Perth, West Aust. I uploaded the PA and AFL scedule. All looks good - impressive effort! I'll get back to you re your query about date/time displays as I use a couple of different servers.

Regards

Off topic but when does the next season of Amazing Race start?

simonduz1 - I think the Amazing Race starts on July 6th. Check out cbs.com.

Nick - thanks for the compliments. I look forward to your feedback on the timezone tests in Australia!

mike.

I have another feature request that I think would be very simple. It would be nice to be able to see other players picks (after the deadline of course). I think a grid that listed players on the left and all the games for 1 week across the top would be great. Also, if confidence points were enabled, the grid could show all players picks with their confidence points next to each pick. The other online pools that I've done have had this and it makes it a LOT funner being able to see everyone's picks. In some cases that I've seen you actually would be rooting against the team that you picked. For example, if you are using confidence points and all of the games for the week have finished except one and you are slightly ahead of another player but that player has more confidence points on the last game. In that case you would actually not want your pick to win because that would mean the other player would win the week. If you did not have that information you could be rooting for the wrong team!

Rodney,

I agree that this would be a nice feature. Some leagues (like the NFL) have a lot of games in a week, so it might be tough to show all of the games for one week across the top of the grid. Instead, I will probably add hyperlinks to the Standings screen so that you can click on a user and see their picks.

mike.

For me it is fun to compare my picks with the other players and if I had to click on each individual players link that would take the fun out of it. Imaging wanting to compare your picks with other players in a pool with 20, 30, 100 other players???

The pools that I have done had a page like this and they used two or three letter abbreviations for each team and it fit on the screen well without the confidence points. You had to go to a hyperlink to an individual players picks page to see the confidence points. But you could at least compare all players picks on one screen. Personally I think it would be REALLY nice to at least have a screen showing all players picks visible all at once. And I would prefer that the confidence points show on there as well, even if I had to scroll. Maybe there could be an option to toggle the display of confidence points on or off for those who would like to see it all on one screen and don't mind scrolling.

I don't mean to sound picky. This module is great so far and I appreciate what you are doing. I just want to give my opinions based on my experience running NFL pools online.

Don't worry about sounding picky - these are all good suggestions based on your actual experiences so they're very useful. Your points about "over-clicking" are valid.

I'm just worried that this module might end up taking a lot of real estate. Maybe I could treat it like an edit page - it shows up on its own screen without having all of the other portal stuff displayed. This would allow it to have much more real estate.

Now the other question is how to get the abbreviations? I guess I would have to add something extra to the XML file or else grab the first few letters of each team on the fly.

Keep the ideas coming!

mike.

I would say add something to the XML file. The first few letters wouldn't always work neccessarily. For example, it would be most logical for an Francisco to be abbreviated SF instead of SAN or Tampa Bay should be TB instead of TAM.

Sounds good to me. Thanks for the suggestion!

mike.

I wanted to test this module and I get the following error.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Error: PickEm is currently unavailable.
DotNetNuke.ModuleLoadException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object. ---> System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object. at aream.DNN.Modules.PickEm.Data.DataProvider.Instance() at aream.DNN.Modules.PickEm.Business.PickEmController.GetByModules(Int32 moduleID) at aream.DNN.Modules.PickEm.PickEm.Page_Load(Object sender, EventArgs e) --- End of inner exception stack trace ---
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I am running DNN 2.1.2, SQL Server 2000, Win2k3.
Any Ideas??

Thanks,

Kris

I got it working....

Looks great not sure how to use it yet. How does it save the picks???

I had that same problem. It was because the web.config file was set with the following:
<data defaultProvider="AccessDataProvider" >

If you remove the Pickem Module, then change the above line to read:
<data defaultProvider="SqlDataProvider" >

Then restart the WWW service and reinstall the Pickem module it should work.

Kris,

Here's the basic workflow for PickEm:

1) An admin adds the module to a tab
2) The admin uploads a schedule for the pool that they want to host (using Configure Schedule)
3) The admin adds pre-existing portal users to the module (using Configure Users)
4) Users login and make their picks for a week prior to the cutoff date
5) As each game finishes, the admin logs in, clicks on the Edit Pencil for a game and enters the score
6) As the scores are updated, PickEm will calculate the points for each user (taking default picks and outer joins into account)
7) Users log in to see how they did and make their picks for the following week

Does this make sense? I'll try to get some better help and directions in the future, but I really wanted to roll out the module first to get some more feedback. Maybe I put the cart before the horse?

Let me know if you have more questions.

mike.