JCapper Past Performance Generator Help Doc

JCapper Past Performance Generator Help Doc

JCapper Past Performance Generator - General Overview
The JCapper Past Performance Generator provides fast easy generation of past performance reports. Simply point the module at a target folder, click File... click Open Data File, and then use the dialog box to select the data file that you want. As soon as you load a data file into the module, the Races Drop Down will auto populate with a list of available races in the current data file. From there, select the race that you want and the module will render a past performance report for that race.

Fast, simple, and effective.

Launching the Module

Find the button on the JCapper Main Module labeled "PPS." Click the button to launch the JCapper Past Performance Generator.

The JCapper Main Module also has a menu item labeled "PPS." On the JCapper Main Module, click MENU, and then click "PPS."

The JCapper Report Viewer Module also has a button labeled "PPS." Clicking this button will launch the JCapper Past Performance Generator.

Supported Data File Types

The JCapper Past Performance Generator supports the following data file types:

HDW JCapper Data File... file extension .JCP.
Note: If you are a JCapper HDW Data subscriber, .jcp files are created while running the HDW File Manager in "Auto-Pilot."

If you are interested in signing up for a JCapper HDW Data Subscription, contact HDW Data directly at:

HDW Inc.
100 Farmers Bank Square
Suite 120
Georgetown, Ky 40324

http://www.horsedata.com/

phone: 502-570-0333
email: HDWInc@gmail.com

Brisnet .DRF Single Format Data File... file extension .DRF. Note: These files are available for download from Brisnet.com.

Brisnet Multicaps Data File... file extension .MCP. Note: These files are available for download from Brisnet.com.

Navigating Your Machine's Folder Structure

Click the Folder Icon (an image that looks like a folder) located in the upper left hand corner on the module's screen. This will bring up a set of Folder Nav Tools:

Drive Selection Tool - To change the Drive that that module is pointed to, select a new valid drive.

Folder Selection Tool - To change the Folder that that module is pointed to, select a new folder by double clicking it. Navigate the entire folder structure on any drive simply by double clicking the folder structure on that drive.

Use the Folder Icon and Nav Tools to point the module at a target folder where you keep current past performance data files. The files need to be unzipped first and sitting on the current target (pointed to) folder before the module will be able to "see" them.

Hide the Nav Tools (make them go away) at any time by clicking anywhere on the face of module's screen.

Bring the Nav Tools back up at any time by clicking the Folder Icon.

Hint: Spend a few minutes playing with the Folder Icon/Nav Tools and become familiar with how the interface works. You will find this same interface (Folder Icon and Nav Tools) presented throughout JCapper as a way to enable you to browse the folder structure of your machine so that you can point JCapper modules at target folders.

Selecting Data Files

These are the steps:

Use the Folder Icon and Nav Tools to point the module at a target folder where you keep current past performance data files. The files need to be unzipped first and sitting on the current target (pointed to) folder before the module will be able to "see" them.

Click the File Menu. It's labeled "File..." and you'll find it in the upper left hand area on the module's screen.

From the File Menu, select "Open Data File." This will cause a Dialog Box to be presented.

Use the Dialog Box to select the data file that you want to open. The dialog box will "see" all valid data files on the current target (pointed to) folder provided you have unzipped them first. The file name textbox on the Dialog Box responds to keystrokes. For example, if you want the Dialog Box to display files for a single track only, key in the track code for that track followed by an asterisk or wild card character. (Example: you want to see GPX only... key GPX* into the textbox and the Dialog Box will display files starting with the characters GPX only.) You can also do the same thing with dates... as well as track code & date combinations. With a little practice, you should find that this feature will very quickly enable you to find and open data files. Once you find the file that you want to open, giving it a single click will cause the Dialog Box to pick up the file name. Clicking the Open button on the Dialog Box at this point will cause the module to open the file. You can also double click an individual file name to open it if that is your preference.

As soon as you open a data file, the Races Drop Down will auto populate with a list of available races found in that data file.

Generating Reports

After you have loaded or opened a data file, generating past performance reports for the races in that file is easy:

Select an available race from the Races Drop Down and the module will render a past performance report for that race.

To run a report for a different race, select a different race from the Races Drop Down.

The Report File

Past performance reports generated by the module are written to a file named: ReportPPS_JCP.html. You will find this file in the current target (pointed to) folder.

Because the report file is html, you can open it in the web browser of your choice simply by double clicking it.

Printing Reports

The module uses its own built in Internet Explorer Web Browser to view reports. To send a report to a printer, give the report a right click, select "Print"... and follow the dialog boxes presented by your machine to print the report document.

Alternately, you can open the report file in another application and use the print functionality of that application to print the report.

Seeing JCapper Numbers on Past Performance Data Reports

Whenever the most recent Calc Races that you have run in SQL Mode includes the same race card as the current loaded data file, the module will automatically show a table just below the rider, trainer, and horse "stat boxes" and just above the horse's "running lines" that displays JCapper numbers for the individual horse. You will also see a list of any active SQL UDMs selecting the current horse.

The JCapper numbers table that the Past Performance Generator module displays on its reports is the same table of numbers displayed on a SQL Mode HTML Report after a Calc Races.

When you are first starting out, the JCapper numbers table is driven by the default SQL Mode Report Layout.

However, you should know that the SQL Mode report layout is fully customizable by the user.

On the System Settings/System Definitions Screen, you'll find a button labeled SQL Mode Setup Wizard... A complete set of tools behind that button enables you to control everything that you see on your reports: What factors you see, the positions (or slot numbers) on the report where they are displayed, how the numbers are displayed... type of font they are displayed in, the number of decimal places, the right-left alignmnet of the numbers in each column, and whether the individual factors are displayed as whole numbers, rank only, or names. You can also define the headers used to describe the numbers displayed.

In JCapper, this is functionality is called the User's Custom Report Layout... and the definitions for it are stored in the following file: c:\JCapper\Exe\JCapper2.mdb.

Hint: Whenever you edit the report layout it is strongly recommended that you make a backup copy of this file first (just in case.)

Module Sizing and Display

Default module height and width upon start up is not (yet) sized to user screen resolution. However, the built in browser window SHOULD auto size to fit the current module height and width as you resize the module.

You can resize in a number of ways... use your mouse to grab an "edge" of the module and drag it across your screen... double click the module's title bar to maximize, etc. The built in browser window should auto resize to fit the new height and width of the module each time the module itself is resized.

Release Notes...

The JCapper Past Performance Generator was first released as a new module in a JCapper program update published 3/30/2010. As of this writing (3/30/2010) there are a number of things that I am still working on. There are also a number of things that are perhaps best explained in release notes for a module like this.

Here then are the release notes:

Race Pars Table does not populate (HDW data files only)... I have asked Ron Tiller at HDW to add speed and pace pars (including pars for late pace figs) to the JCapper File Spec. I want to point out that the fault here is mine - not HDW's. Simply put, I did not ask HDW to include pars for today's race in the file spec. That said, once I began work on the Past Performance Generator module, it became apparent that pars needed to be added to the file before they could be displayed in the pars table for each race.

Expectations are that HDW will begin producing JCapper files containing current race pars beginning with race cards for the first weekend of April, 2010.

Horse's best lifetime speed fig for each category not displayed in earnings boxes (HDW data files only)... Same set of circumstances as the pars for today's race. Expectations are that HDW will begin producing JCapper files containing the lifetime best speed fig for all of the stat categories shown in the "earnings boxes" for each horse beginning with race cards for Friday, April 2, 2010.

User Settings/customizable display attributes... Many of you have privately requested the ability to control report attributes such as display of the number of running lines, the number of workouts, the ability to display running lines and workouts on the report chronologically, highlighting of speed and pace figs when they exceed par for the level...btw, pars for past races ARE in the data file... pace of race, strength of race, highlighting of races with new pace and fig tops/pace and fig lows, rider and trainer changes, etc.

Creating functionality to do this is a lot of work but certainly doable. However, I'm sure most of you would agree that one user might want to see the horses on the report within each race sorted by a single factor such as UPRMLProb, while another user might have little or no desire to see that.

To that end I am working on a Settings Interface for the module... so that each user can apply custom settings and see the report the way that he (or she) wants to see it.

I plan to publish that settings interface along with an updated module in a JCapper program update as soon as humanely possible... Notice that I used the word humanely and not humanly? Think about it for a second.

Fractional Times using HDW data... The module displays fractional and final time on the report as adjusted time for the individual horse. Time displayed is projected time arrived at by applying a track to track adjustment and daily track variant to raw time. Again, when HDW data is used to render reports, the module displays horse time not race time.

Fractional Times using Brisnet data... The module displays fractional and final time on the report as raw time from the individual race. This is raw time from the race (not for the horse) and no adjustment of any kind is used.

CXN Stat Categories using HDW data vs. Brisnet data... The module displays slightly different stat categories in the stat boxes for rider and trainer depending on which type of data file you decide to use.

HDW files include a stat category for "close finishes" that Brisnet does not have. A close finish is defined as being either first or within 1/2 length of the winner at the finish call. When HDW files are used to generate past performance reports the module will display the stat category of 1/2L in the CXN stat boxes for both rider and trainer.

Brisnet files do not have this category. When Brisnet files are used to generate past performance reports the module will display the more standard columns for starts, wins, 2nds, and 3rds in the CXN stat boxes.

Claimed (any running line)... Whenever a horse was claimed out of a race, a lower case "c" will be displayed just to the right of the race type description for that running line. If you place your mouse cursor over the "c" you will discover that the claimed indicator becomes clickable. If you click the "c" character you will be given a message telling you the name of the trainer the horse was claimed from.