It would be great if there was an API that people could use to build 3rd party tools for Gridiron Dynasty.  Currently, my tools simply act like a web browser and process the html.  I know many other people have set up excel macros to do something similar.  Although it's possible to do pretty much whatever I want this way, it puts an unnecessary strain on your servers, and it's a huge pain to make tools this way (and I'm not sure if it's even possible to make an android app this way).

For example, if I want to know what schools all the "multiple" recruits are considering, I have to make a request for each recruit's profile page.  If there's 1000 recruits considering multiple, I'm going to make 1000 page requests.  That's just unnecessary strain.

It would be awesome if there was instead an API to just ask for the recruits and their information.  People could make different tools to present that information in different ways.  I think this would help you in three ways...1) It would move requests for UI improvements from you to 3rd party tool developers,  2) It would generate lasting interest in the game since the tools can constantly be evolving while the site and engine stay the same and 3) It would cut down on unnecessary page requests.

Some of the functionalities that would be great to have via an API would be:
Getting recruit information
Getting school information (roster, history, coach, etc)
Performing recruit actions (Everyone wants a CV dropdown...a 3rd party tool could easily add that)
Setting depth chart (Everyone wants extra information shown on the depth chart page...a 3rd party tool could easily show that)
Managing game plans
Getting game information (how awesome would it be if you provided enough info about a play that someone could take that and make a simulation video of each play!)

With an API to do those things, it would also be possible for 3rd parties to create mobile apps.  I would definitely be interested in making an android app for GD.  Something like that would generate more interest in Gridiron Dynasty without you having to do the work (besides implementing the API of course).

This would be great. Reducing the time coaches spend on getting information can only help the game. I wish I had the talent to retrieve specific information like you do. Thanks

I like

I like these ideas as well.  However, considering WIS has refused (for at least two years) to implement a simple nicety that's available in HoopsDynasty I doubt they'll resource the time or effort to accommodate APIs or other modules.  The simple nicety you ask?  It's the example yatzr used...when the recruit seach query is returned, instead of MULTIPLE being listed for a recruit  considering more than one school, list the damn schools.

Could not agree more with yatzr and jag22 too.

I'm all for yatzrs suggestion!

Posted by jag22 on 10/14/2010 5:09:00 PM (view original):
I like these ideas as well.  However, considering WIS has refused (for at least two year) to implement a simple nicety that's available in HoopsDynasty I doubt they'll resource the time or effort to accommodate APIs or other module.  The simple nicety you ask?  It's the example yatzr used...when the recruit seach query is returned, instead of MULTIPLE being listed for a recruit  considering more than one school, list the damn schools.

I realize it's kind of a longshot, but I think it would be a great investment for WIS to create this API and invite 3rd parties such as myself to develop tools.  I just looked through a lot of the requests in this forum, and a lot of them can be taken care of by 3rd party tools. 

Here's some of the requests my recruiting tool already takes care of:
Seeing all the schools a "multiple" recruit is considering.
Finding recruits with only Sims or Sims/Humans on them.
Mass AC Scout recruits (I haven't shared this part yet, but I do it myself, and it's coming soon)

Here's some of the requests that I could easily add to the recruiting tool:
Do as many Campus Visits as you want at once
Queue up recruit actions as many hours as you want before the 1st cycle

Keep in mind though, that just because I can already do these things, doesn't mean that an official API isn't needed.  Like I said before, my tools make a lot of unnecessary page requests, and they're a pain to develop.  An API would make things easier and would encourage others to build tools as well.  When people start making tools to make GD better, WIS wins because they don't have to pay us and they get more interest in their game.

I would love to have access to an API, and I think it makes the most sense to learn from Apple, Microsoft, and the other great tech companies.  Let the users improve your game/device/OS, and you just concentrate on making the engine/device the best it can be. 

Heck, I would just like access to a ZIPPED .CSV file of team rosters :)     

Seems like a great idea.  The GD community is a big reason that the game keeps people's interest for more than a few seasons.  Things like Bob's GUESS ratings, tools like Yatzr's, and other things from the community really add a lot of value to game. 

Posted by bhazlewood on 10/18/2010 3:57:00 PM (view original):
Heck, I would just like access to a ZIPPED .CSV file of team rosters :)     

I asked for a similar sort of thing over a year ago... here was the discussion:

5/14/2009 11:21 AM	cydrych
Hello. My name is Gerry Wallace. I have been playing GD for several years now and continue to enjoy your product. When I first started playing, a guy named Paranoid released his own recruiting rankings. They added so much to the rest of the game that when he decided to quit, I started doing my own rankings myself. First Look Recruiting at gdreports.net-connection.com, if you are interested.  EDIT:  I no longer do my rankings but I would if this were implemented. In addition to GD and WIS' FC Dynasty games, I also play a browser based war game called Tribal Wars. (I have a point, please be patient.) Like the out of game recruiting systems that are derived for the GD experience, there are many tools and extras that avid fans have developed (mapping programs, war stats, etc) for Tribal Wars as well. Most of this was made possible because the developers periodically release portions of their database in flat files that the users are allowed to get and use for their fanpages. What are the possibilities for getting something like this for GD? My current scripts spend hours hitting WIS's GD pages to get the necessary information I need to create my recruit rankings. If it were available, it would reduce bandwidth on your side, save time on my side, allow me to produce my rankings in other worlds that I am not currently playing in, and make it possible for other people to do some pretty amazing things who might not be currently interested in the lengthy data extraction that exists now. I wrote 2 more paragraphs but rereading it I decided to cut them out. The first step I guess is to see if you are willing to provide some data from the database into a flat file to be made available to your fans. In my recruiting case, it could be done just after recruits are assigned to their new teams and the new recruits are created. If this is a no go, then my additional ideas are moot. Let me know what you guys think. I would be happy to talk about this further and I am sure I could get others to support this idea if you are inclined to allow your fans a little more freedom. Thanks for your time. -gerry (cydrych)
5/19/2009 10:11 AM	Customer Support
Gerry, We have considered this in the past for our Dynasty games. The problem is two-fold. One, this would openly be giving an advantage to users familiar with spreadsheets. Two, it would open the door for more cheating in that owners would be more easily able to share data about recruits by exchanging spreadsheet information. I'm not sure how we could do it with those two pieces in the way. What do you think?
5/19/2009 4:52 PM	cydrych
We could deal with the first obstacle by making sure the second obstacle isn't a problem. The idea here is not to give spreadsheeters any advantage, but to just make it a little easier to get the info we already have access to. Timing and the details of how its implemented is critical. Just before you create the new recruits during a world rollover, write a file that has the recruit id, recruit name, position, his stats, hometown, and the school (and/or the id) he signed a scholarship with. At this point, now that recruiting is over, its too late for the spreadsheeters (heh, made that one up!) to use the info to gain perfect knowledge of the recruiting landscape and "cheat". This is all information I already get when I run my script and you'd be making it available at the very instant we (the other recruiting ranking guys) needed it but not before, when there would be a chance the data could be used for cheating. With this data made available in a file, I would be able to do my rankings faster and for more worlds and free up more time to enhance my pages with even more cool things (Top recruits from each state and who did they sign with?) Other files could be made available (daily game results might be used for someone's custom in-season ranking system perhaps, Or a dump of the full roster "ratings page" for roster comparisons and rankings) if this works but I don't think you'd have too many downsides to just starting out with this. It wouldn't take long to implement and since there isn't any way for anyone to gain an unfair advantage, I don't think you'd get a lot of backlash from the community for openly giving something to the spreadsheeters. The only crap you'll get is from the guys who say "what?? you gave us this when you could have fixed XXX?". But then they'll see our new fanpages coming out and they'll quiet down pretty quick! Anyway, thanks for mulling it over. I appreciate the consideration. I do not know how this sort of thing could be extended to other Dynasty games. As you said, you have to avoid giving anyone an unfair advantage (real or percieved). This idea may not work for anything but after-recruiting analysis but the more you can make available, the more you'll entice people like me to immerse ourselves further into your product. -gerry
6/9/2009 11:21 AM	Customer Support
Gerry, We've added the suggestion to our list. Keeping it to post recruiting is key as it would reduce the likelihood of cheating while still providing a great deal of information for easier dissemination. We'll see if we can include it in our next update. Thanks again for the thorough suggestion.