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NRatings v3.0 is here ! Consider it beta

Hey all,

as promised, after a good amount of work in the last couple of weeks, split by some holidays too, I'm happy to present you with the release of NRatings v3.0 !

As mentioned in my previous post, the NRatings client you install is now without any local database (hence the much smaller download size too). It draws the data directly from my webserver, which in its turn has a process to connect to racing-reference.info to update the data. This process is not yet automated, but I'm working on it.

IMPORTANT: Please read the following very carefully:

As this release uses a whole new system to get the data, I consider it still a beta release, and bugs may (and probably will) come to surface.

Some notes for users who were used to the older versions:

• The method to set the path to your NR2003 install has changed. You can now actually define multiple instances of NR2003 installs. Go to "Tools - Options" to define them. This is useful for people who use different instances (for example a separate instance for the Indycars mod).
• The screen where you get the real-life data does not have a "Get New Data" button any longer. This is because you're now directly connected to the webserver and see the latest data available there. No need to update anything yourself anymore.
• The help is now online.

As said, this is a beta release, and please observe the following limitations and issues for now:

• Only data for Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Camping World Truck series is available, and only starting from season 2000 onwards. I still need to finetune and automate the data-updating process on the server, and once that is done, these limitations will be lifted. For now, please stick with it.
• You can only span races over 5 seasons maximum, as there's currently a datalength limit I haven't been able to resolve yet. Will work on it too.
• When you click the button "Import ratings from real life data", and also when you change series and select seasons, the user interface might get a little unresponsive. This is because the forms are directly connected to the server, and there's obviously a little connection lag. There will be a better UI responsiveness in next releases, but for now please don't click 35 times on the button when it doesn't respond in 3 or 4 seconds.

So, as you can see, it's far from being finished, and there's still a lot of work to be done, but at least it should get you all going again with using the data from the latest races.

SUPPORT FORUM

You may have noticed I have disactivated the comments on the NRatings page. Please, if you have any remarks or suggestion, and especially if you find a bug in NRatings, post it in the new NRatings support forum found at http://www.tjeuten.be/forum (registration required). It's easier for me if all the issues and remarks are centralized in one place instead of being spread all over various other forums.

REQUIREMENTS BEFORE INSTALLING

• Completely uninstall any previous versions.
• Backup any custom formula sets you may have made or downloaded !
• As this version uses some new technologies, you will need the .NET Framework 4.0 installed on your machine. The client profile of .NET 4.0 will do. Find it at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e5ad0459-cbcc-4b4f-97b6-fb17111cf544&displaylang=en

DOWNLOAD

Grab it from the NRatings page

NRatings v2.5.3 broken again :( …. Client/Server version in the making

Appearently, Racing-Reference.info made another change to their results structure, which causes NRatings again to fail when trying to download the latest results. This has been their second change in a few weeks time now.

Therefore, I have decided not to release any new version until they keep their website structure stable for at least a couple of weeks.

However, I have been working on a complete changeover of the software lately. Let me try to explain what I'm doing :

Right now, the NRatings program has a local database, and when you click "Get Real Data For This Series", it connects directly to the racing-reference.info website in HTTP, reads out the different race and raceresult pages, parses the data and stores it into the local database.

• Advantages:
  • The local database means almost immediate response when looking up data already stored in it.
  • NRatings can use this local database without the requirement of an Internet connection. Only when you want to download the most recent data, you need to be connected to the Internet.
• Disadvantages:
  • As the logic which converts the downloaded data to a database format resides on the NRatings client itself, every time racing-reference.info makes a structure change (which has been quite often lately), the logic has to be updated, which means a new release of NRatings is needed.

As this disadvantage outweighs the advantages, I've been working on a client/server model lately. The server will reside on my webhosting domain and will contain the logic for parsing the rr.info data into a database also residing on the server. The clients (= the NRatings programs you guys will install locally on your machines) will connect to this server and get the data directly from there. I also got rid of the local database on the client, which was in Firebird and caused some compatibility issues for a certain amount of users.

• Advantages:
  • As the parsing logic will now reside on the central server, if there is another structure update at rr.info, I will only have to update the server logic, and not the clients. This will result in you guys not having to download a new version, but rather just wait until I've finished updating the server, and you're all good to go again.
  • As their won't be a local database anymore, the download size of future releases will be much much smaller, which is good for the sake of my webhost bandwidth
• Disadvantages:
  • As the client will now draw its data live from the server, without storing anything locally anymore, the dataloading and conversion to ratings will probably be a tad slower, although I doubt it'll be really significant.
  • For the same reason, each time you wish to rate your cars with real data, even for historic data like say 1980, you will require an Internet connection. But again, I doubt that nowadays there are still people which gaming machine is not permantly online, are they ?

I hope you are with me if I say that the new client/server system has a clear advantage over the current "client only" system, and that the small disadvantages can be disregarded.

Then the question that pops into all your minds is obviously ... when ?

Well, I'm in the middle of coding things up and I've made good progress so far, but there's still some way to go before I can bring this new system out. However, I hope to be able to release something in the next 2 or 3 weeks. But please don't shoot me if it takes longer (it's summer, and although I have no holiday plans yet, I might take a last minute decision to sail off anyway). If I see that it'll really take too long before I can release this new system, I'll make an effort in updating the "client only" version so you can carry on rating the old way. But for now I wish to focus all my coding efforts on the new system.

So please, bear with me and have a little patience. Meanwhile, you should be able to use the current version v2.5.3 which contains the data up until Loudon a few weeks ago.

If you have any questions regarding this announcement, I'll be happy to answer it.

Meanwhile keep the racing going and have a great summer !

Mathieu

NRatings v2.5.3 released

The new version is now compatible with the recent updates over at racing-reference.info.

Grab it from the NRatings page.

Meanwhile, I’ve been working on v3.0 which will have an extra dataserver as layer between the clients on the users machines and the racing-reference.info website. This way, when RR does another website update, I’ll only have to update the dataparsing code on the server, while this will be transparent to the clients and no new clientversion is needed. The two minor drawbacks will be that there won't be a local database anymore, so you'll have to be connected to the Internet every time you wish to update your ratings to the latest real life data. The second one is that the program will probably be slightly slower. But I think the advantage has the upper hand here over these 2 small disadvantages.

Still got some work to do on that though so it won’t be for any time soon. I hope RR sticks to their format now for at least a good couple of weeks, to give me time to finish my new structure.

TJ

NRatings v2.5.2 broken…

Racing-reference.info has once again updated its internal URL system, meaning that the current version of NRatings (2.5.2) cannot download data from it any longer.

Will try to fix it asap.

Stay tuned.

NRatings v2.5.2 released !

NRatings v2.5.2 has been released, which addresses the problem mentioned in the post below.

Let's hope racing-reference.info keeps their website structure stable for a while now

TJ

NRatings v2.5.1 error

Hey all,

Somewhere during last week, racing-reference.info has updated its internal URL system. This means that NRatings v2.5.1, which draws its data from this website, is currently not being able to update to the latest data (and as a matter of fact it screws up all the existing data if you try to update).

The good news is that a fix is on the way, will probably be released somewhere this Friday or Saturday (March 26 or 27).

Stay tuned and fire up NRatings regularly, as it should notify you automatically when the new version is available.

TJ