How to set up a PBEM tracker

[Mist]

Latest version ( used by FFH PBEMs 14, 15a and 17 )

Gmail setup bit is the same. Make sure IMAP is enabled and that all filters have no spam rule. Obscure bit to keep in mind is that one can set up no more than 20 forwarding emails for one gmail box. So a lot of very numerous teams is a non starter.

PHP script got separated into two parts for ease of maintenance (any updates get applied to all the trackers at once ), to facilitate future extensions ( some limitations from older versions got removed ) and for end user readability ( don't actually need to know to read PHP anymore to set one up ). Here's the main script

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14578363/tracker_v5.php

You need only one incarnation of it for your website. There's no need to edit it in any way.

Here's the game specific bit

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14578363/example.tracker

You want one of these for each game you need tracker for. The .tracker extension is mandatory.

The link to a tracker in this format would be http://www.someserver.com/tracker_v5.php?game=example

[nabaxo]

Can you say why this wont work?

http://arborealworks.com/tracker_v5.php?game=ffhpbem19

[Mist]

Can you send me the .tracker file?

[Mist]

Only thing needing fixing was #gamename, that still needs to be the save file prefix, so

#gamename :: RBFFH19

apart from that all works, see

http://mistbinder.org/tracker/tracker.php?game=ffh19

All I can think of, is that you're using a text editor that adds hidden formating characters ( like Wordpad ) and it screws up the text file.

[nabaxo]

Nope. Notepad++

[Mist]

What's the PHP version on your site? Maybe you have an older one that handles objects differently?

Use this instead of the base tracker file,

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14578363/test.php

it will output some debug information for the bit that crashes. Maybe I'll find the problem this way. Other than this, I'd have to get temporary ftp access to your site to do some deeper detective work.

[nabaxo]

Updated the PHP to 5.2. Might take a few minutes to get into effect. But for now:
http://arborealworks.com/test.php?game=ffh19
And
http://arborealworks.com/tracker.php?game=ffh19

[Mist]

Yeah, this is definitely a text formatting issue. I've updated test.php file under the previous link with some more debug output. Can you upload that?

[nabaxo]

Done. I re-encoded the tracker-file to ANSI. It was UTF-8 before if that's what you meant?

[Mist]

Done. I re-encoded the tracker-file to ANSI. It was UTF-8 before if that's what you meant?

Look at the new output of test on your server. There are some formatting characters before first #

Code:

#Mailbox

and that's what's screwing everything up. You need to redo the tracker file in a plain ANSI text coding with no formating extras.