Reporting Games With MADCAT

Gamelogs

Gamelogs are used directly, and do NOT need to be parsed into the database (so please don't try to upload one with the admin panel). Gamelogs should be put in a gamedata directory based on year ('2003/gamedata', '2004/gamedata', etc.)
Gamelogs should take the form:
Road Team at Home Team - w#.txt

Example: Say I have a game log from the 2004 season where my San Diego Chargers played the Oakland Raiders at home in week 13. I would name my gamelog 'Raiders at Chargers - w13.txt' and put it in '/2004/gamedata'. If I want to upload a gamelog from a preseason game, it would be of this format: Road Team at Home Team - ps w#.txt. Postseason games are simply weeks 18, 19, 20, and 21.

Game Stories

As of MADCAT 1.5, game stories should have a .php extension. You can still use plain HTML, but you can also use PHP (see the section on Linking Players and Teams to Their Pages for some simple PHP you can use to enhance your stories).

If you have a gamelog for a certain game, MADCAT also supports the ability to have an HTML file associated with that game to use as a gamestory. Continuing the example from the gamelogs section, I would create a directory inside my 2004 directory called 'w13'. In this directory I can place two files. In 'story.php' I can write a blurb about the game that will be displayed on the index.php page of my site. By default, MADCAT even wraps it in a formatted table and adds a link to the gamelog. I can also create a file called 'fullstory.php' where I can write a full story about my game. This file will be added to the gamecenter page that displays the gamelog.

Preseason Stories: For a preseason game, add "ps" in the directory named. Example: "psw1".

Images in Game Stories: You can place images in your stories like any other HTML, except you'll have to specify the directory as well. If I have an image named "pic.jpg" in my directory for a weeek 13 game in 2003, my HTML would look like this:
<img src="2003/w13/pic.jpg">

Game Photos

Another feature borrowed straight from EZFM, MADCAT supports photo galleries for your gamelogs. If you have not already created a directory for your gamestory, create a directory named 'w#'. To continue my example, I'd use 'w13'. Inside this directory, create a directory called 'pics' and a directory called 'thumbs'. Inside the 'pics' directory place JPG images named pic1.jpg, pic2.jpg, etc. case matters!. It's recommended that you also place smaller versions of these same images in the 'thumbs' directory. When you load up your gamecenter page, you'll see each thumbnail listed, and clicking on them brings up the full sized image. This will not work if you do not properly name your images, or if you place them in the wrong directory.

Linking Players and Teams to Their Pages

New for MADCAT 1.3, are two functions that make it fairly simple to have a player's name or team's name link to their respective pages, in your gamestories. The functions are contained in includes/tools_inc.php which is available in every MADCAT file. To use them you do the following:

<?php getPlayerLink("Joe Football"); ?> -- Outputs a link to Joe Football's player card
<?php getTeamLink("49ers"); ?> -- Outputs a link to the 49ers team page

An example:

WR <?php getPlayerLink("James Martin"); ?> of the Ontario <?php getTeamLink("Moose"); ?> had a great game against the division rival <?php getTeamLink("Raiders"); ?>.

Example Directory Structure

Here is an example directory structure for a working MADCAT site:

Franchise Dir/
   admin/
      index.php
      txt_funcs.php
   docs/
      index.html
      about.html
   player_bios/
      1.php
      2.php
   player_photos/
      Michael_Vick.jpg
      Antwaan_Randel_El.jpg
   2003/
      gamedata/
         Buccaneers at Raiders - ps w2.txt
         Patriots at Rams - w15.txt
      psw2/
         story.php
         fullstory.php
         pic.jpg
      w15/
         story.php
         fullstory.php
         pics/
            pic1.jpg
            pic2.jpg
            pic3.jpg
         thumbs/
            pic1.jpg
            pic2.jpg
            pic3.jpg

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