Workshop #1 : Using Web Site reports in SNAPSHOT!



HockeyStats.Com Web Portal

The HockeyStats.Com Internet service has been designed as a portal for amateur sports information. This service allows anyone equipped with an Internet connection and standard web browser to post and/or view reports over the Internet.

SNAPSHOT! Publishers

Licensed users of the SNAPSHOT! Competitive Sports Manager client application can create Web Site reports which are posted directly to the HockeyStats.Com website. Publishers generally consist of league or team administrators who are responsible for gathering and processing the sports information on their local computer system. Reports can be extracted from the local database and customized based on their individual requirements. This allows the Publishers to control access to the information and selectively distribute reports in a fixed format.

Creating a Web Site report

The Print Setup screen has a Web Site report option which will present you with additional options for creating Public or Private reports. Public reports can be viewed by any anonymous user of the HockeyStats.Com portal. Private reports can only be viewed by the Publisher of the report after successful logon. Web Site reports are posted directly to the HockeyStats.Com site which means you must have established an Internet connection prior to creating the report. Depending on the speed of your connection and the size of the report, it may take a few seconds to post the report to the website. Once the report has been posted it will be available for viewing in your web browser.

Report Administration

Licensed users of the HockeyStats.Com service can use their User Id and License Key located in the Help / Register SNAPSHOT! of the SNAPSHOT! Competitive Sports Manager to login to the Internet portal. Browse to the www.hockeystats.com website and select the Login button. Once you have been successfully authenticated, you will proceed to a page listing your organization name. You can edit your profile information by selecting the edit icon next to the name or you can click your organization name to proceed to the reports screen. The reports screen allows you to edit the name and title of the various reports listed. It also allows you to delete reports you feel are no longer relevant.

Leveraging the HockeyStats.Com site

If you do not have a custom website of your own you can distribute the URL address of your organization to your members so that they can view your published reports. The URL address will be sent to you when you register the service and have the form http://www.hockeystats.com/Reports.asp?ContactId=###. If you already have a custom website, you can leverage the HockeyStats.COm portal by providing a hyperlink from your site to the portal. The hyperlink address will be identical to URL address indicated above. If you are using frames in your site and you wish to make the HockeyStats.COm service as transparent as possible you can append the following qualifier to the address: &Frames=True. This will hide all HockeyStats.Com page elements so that only the report details are displayed.

Workshop #2 : Using HTML reports in SNAPSHOT!


What is HTML ?

HTML stands for hyper-text markup language. HTML is a scripting language used for creating Internet documents. It uses elements called tags to tell your web browser how to display the information. You can add extremely rich content to web documents including graphics, tables, as well as links to other documents and Internet web sites. As long as you follow standard HTML scripting standards, all web browsers will be able to interpret your documents regardless of their platform.

Why use HTML ?

HTML documents can be uploaded to a website so that other people can access them over the Internet. This allows you to create statistical reports for mass distribution and publish them to the Internet in realtime. As the Internet gains popularity, most large hockey organizations have created websites for their members. Why not put them to good use and post league and team statistics online. HTML documents can also be loaded into a web publishing program such as Microsoft FrontPage so that graphics and text can be added to the document to give it a more professional appearance. In fact the current generation of word processing tools ( ie. Microsoft Word 2000 ) uses HTML as its default document type which means you are be able to load your HTML documents directly into your word processor for manipulation.

HTML and SNAPSHOT!

Creating Reports

In SNAPSHOT! you can create create HTML reports simply by selecting the HTML option button in the Print Setup screen. You will be asked for a filename and your report will be created in the /Reports directory beneath the application. You can view the report by opening the document in your web browser. The easiest method to perform this operation is to select the Open With Browser checkbox in the HTML options section prior to saving the document.

Hyperlinks

Hyperlinks allow you to add tags to your HTML document which can be linked to other HTML documents. In your web browser they appear as underlined text and can be clicked to load a new web page. In SNAPSHOT! you can create hyperlinks in your tables so that people can access more detailed statistics. For example you may have a main page which contains the league standings and you may wish to allow people to click the individual team names to view more detailed team statistics. You can add a hyperlink column to an HTML report by accessing the View / Advanced View Option menu option from most screens. You then select the specific tab for your report and the various fields for that tab will be displayed. To add a hyperlink column, click the cell in the HTML Hyperlink column which corresponds to the field you wish to create a hyperlink. A checkmark will appear in the cell and you can select to Save the new print options or click Ok to return to the main form. Now, when you create a report for that tab, hyperlinks will automatically be added for all fields in the column specified.

Style Sheets

Style sheets ( also known as cascading style sheets ) are a powerful option that allows you to completely change the appearance of all pages in your website simply by modifying a single style sheet file. Style sheet files have an extension of .CSS and must be located in the same directory as the HTML documents. Style sheets contain special tags which describe the appearance of various tags in your HTML document. A default stylesheet of Snapshot!.css has been included with the application and you can specify your own style sheet by selecting the Template button. Please keep in mind the style sheets are only supported by IE 4.0+, Navigator 4.0+, and Opera 3.5+.

Templates

Templates are a powerful feature used to add additional content and graphics to your HTML reports. A template file is simply an HTML file with specific tags which allow the the application to embed sections of the HTML report into the template file to produce a custom HTML report. Your template file can include the following tags: = header, = titles, = body, and = footer. You can specify a template file by selecting the Template button and browsing to a an HTML template document. You can experiment with this feature by using template.html file included in the Reports subdirectory.


What do I do with HTML reports ?


Once you have created the HTML reports you can either upload them to a website or you can modify them in a web publishing program and print them to your printer.


Uploading HTML reports


You must have a website with FTP access. FTP stands for file transfer protocol and is a standard which allows you to transfer information over an Internet connection. A shareware program such as WS_FTP is perfect for transferring files from your home computer to your Internet website. Getting up to speed with such a program is fairly straightforward and there are plenty of documents on the Internet related to using FTP. When transferring files to your website make sure to include all related files including graphic files, style sheets, and all HTML documents.


Web publishing


Microsoft Frontpage Express is a simple web publishing program included with Internet Explorer 4.0. You can use it to load your HTML documents and add text and graphics to give your pages a more professional appearance. In the future you will also be able to use your regular word processor to perform these actions on your HTML documents.

Workshop #3 : Using Text Files in SNAPSHOT!


Why Text Files ?

In todays world of true-type fonts and 3-D graphics, you probably wonder why anyone would still want to create text file reports. Text files do not have the advanced graphical capabilities of other document formats to format text, insert graphics, or add professional features.

And it is this lack of capabilities which make the text file such a powerful tool. Text files are based based on standard ASCII character codes and must use fixed-type fonts. Text files are extremely small in size and because of their basic structure, are almost platform independent in terms of acceptance. Most major applications accept the use of text files through the use of import/export features.

What are Delimiters?

Text files formats are generally categorized by delimitation. Delimiters are characters used to seperate fields from one another in a text file. Fixed format text files do not really use delimiters but rather use spaces to pad fields so that they are seperated into distinct columns. Fixed format text files are generally used if you plan on viewing the information or importing it into a word processor. Comma and tab delimited text files are generally smaller in size and use a specific character to seperate fields. Comma and tab delimited text files are generally used if you plan on importing the information into a spreadsheet or database.

Manipulation

Text files can be a very useful method of transferring data from one application to another. Most Windows systems will allow you to manipulate text files using NotePad. Very large text files will not fit into NotePad's limited memory space but can be loaded into WordPad and resaved as a text file. Text files can be moved between various applications using the standard Windows cut and paste options as well as drag-and-drop technology.

Email

The text file is very useful in regards to Internet usage. You can easily attach your text file reports to an email message for mass distribution. In comparison to sending hardcopy reports for distribution by mail or fax, the text file method is extremely fast and economical.

Creating in SNAPSHOT!

You can create text file reports in SNAPSHOT! simply by selecting the Text File option in the Output section of the Print Setup screen. Some additional windows will become visible allowing you to set options related to delimitation as well as section selection. If you click the Print button, the program will prompt you for a filename and a path. The default the path will be the Reports directory beneath the main application and the filename will be the title specified for the currently highlighted tab from the original form. Select the Save button to save the text file report. The easiest method to open the saved text file is to use your Windows Start/Documents menu to select the specific filename.

Spreadsheets

Another very powerful feature of text files is they can be imported into spreadsheet programs such as Excel for more advanced manipulation. Spreadsheets allow you to format the information, add graphics, and even create colorful graphs and charts using the information. In Excel you can use the Open menu option and then specify Text Files in the Files of Type combo box. The program will then guide you through some additional import questions.

Workshop #4 : Mail Merge In SNAPSHOT! Using MS Excel and MS Word


Although the mail merge capability is not built into SNAPSHOT! you can take advantage of this advanced technique by leveraging your existing Microsoft Excel and Uicrosoft Word applications. MS Exc}l and MS Word are widely accepted programs which will always be maqntained to stay abreast of the latest industry standard label sizes.


SNAPSHOT!


Using the Contact tab in the Team Statistics or Registration Management screens, you must first create a text file report in SNAPSHOT!.


-- Select Print Report
-- Select the Contact Report option
-- Specify Text File, Tab Delimited, and select only the Body Titles and Body sections.
-- Select Print and specify a location and filename.


MS Excel


We must use MS Excel to import the text file created above. This is due to the fact MS Word requires a Microsoft Excel Worksheet for a datasource.


-- Run Microsoft Excel.
-- Select File/Open... and specify Files of Type Text Files (*.prn,*.txt,*.csv).
-- Select the text file created previously and click Open.
-- Select Delimited and click Next$
-- Specify Tab Delimiters and specify {None} as a Text Qualifier.
-- Click Next and then click Finish.

The spreadsheet will be loaded and you should remove blank rows, the body title underline row, and any unnecessary columns.

Select Save. You should specify Save As Type to be Microsoft Excel Workbook and save the file.
Close Microsoft Excel.


MS Word


MS Word is the application which contains the actual mail merge tool. You can use mail merge to create address labels, form letters, envelopes, and catalogues. For this workshop we will create mailing labels; however, creation of the other mail merge documents follow the same basic steps.


-- Run Microsoft Word.
-- Select Tools/Mail Merge.
-- Select Create / Mailing Labels.... ( this is where you could select a different mail merge document type )
-- Click the Active Window button. Select the Get Data option and Open Data Source.
-- Locate and select the MS Excel Worksheet created earlier. Click Open.
-- Select Entire Spreadsheet and Ok.
-- Select Setup Main Document.
-- Select the type of label from the list.
-- Select the Insert Merge Field button to add the name and address fields to your mailing label. You can add text and punctuation at this time. eg.

{person}
{street}
{city}, {state}
{zipcode}

-- When you are finished select Ok.
-- Select the Merge button.
-- Specify New Document, Merge All, and Don't Print Blank Lines and click Merge.


You should now be able to save or print the document created . Please note that if contact information changes in SNAPSHOT! you will have to recreate the mail merge document.

Workshop #5 : Creating Compressed Reports in SNAPSHOT!


SNAPSHOT! Printed Report Limitations

Creating printed reports in SNAPSHOT! is a relatively simple process. The product takes advantage of the standard Windows printer setup and font dialog options to provide flexibility and consistency. Printed reports are created in a fixed format including a header section, body section, and footer section. This report format can result in a lot of wasted "white space" depending on the number of rows of information you wish to print. We understand the need to compress reports; however, the logic required to perform this operation is substantial. So rather than reinvent the wheel, we recommend the following solution(s) to accomplish this task.

Manually Editing Your Reports

SNAPSHOT! provides the ability to create your reports as text or HTML files ( see the workshops listed above ). One of the benefits of using these features is they allow you to load your reports into a word processor/editor for advanced modifications. For example you can create an HTML report, load it into Microsoft Word 2000, and then compress it by reducing the font size and removing the unnecessary sections. You can even combine multiple reports by using the standard Windows cut and paste operation to selectively copy sections of each report into one summarized document. This solution requires some additional work on your part; however, you may be surprised by the simplicity and power available.

Third Party Tools

Another option for compressing reports involves the use of third party tools which are integrated with your Windows print setup dialog box. They allow you to select a special print device from the dropdown list which allows you to perform advanced report manipulation. Probably the best tool we have seen is a shareware product named FinePrint ( http://www.singletrack.com ). FinePrint lets you customize your page layout to include up to eight pages on a single page without impairing the quality of the printed document. It also provides a "print preview" feature so that you can view your report on the screen prior to printing. This "print preview" feature will work with any product that does not have a print preview feature of its own ( ie. Internet Explorer, NotePad, SNAPSHOT!, etc... ). Advanced features include custom letterhead and watermarks.