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bbradf44 11-03-2014 22:15

HTMLish based scouting
 
So im not even sure if this is possible, but ill give it a shot and see what people think. This year we are running scouting in the stands through either MS Excel or Access so that it can be run through Tableau. Our current setup requires all 6 scouts to have forms to fill out while the 7th inputs them into the database, then an 8th person runs a USB flash drive back and forth to the pits whenever we want to update where we have the Tableau program running. I got the idea while in my web design class today, would it be possible to have an HTML form running on cell phones or other 3g/4g enabled device that when the submit button is pressed, it sends the data to the database that will be either on our team website or in the cloud, which i can then open on my laptop in our pit(usb tethered to my phone)? The html file itself wont be online(but maybe i could put that on our website too) but rather stored on each of the phones. Ideas/criticisms welcome ::rtm::

SteveGPage 11-03-2014 22:32

A couple of years ago we did something very similar to this approach. I set up a "Google Form" that any of the scout could run from any smartphone. They would enter the data for each robot/match. This data was stored in a google spreadsheet. Every 5 matches or so, I would download the data into excel (via a tethered hotspot) and then read it with a similar tool to Tableau (QlikView). Now we use an in-house developed Android app that loads data into a SQL database, but is still read via the dashboard. Hope this helps.

bbradf44 11-03-2014 22:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by SteveGPage (Post 1357794)
A couple of years ago we did something very similar to this approach. I set up a "Google Form" that any of the scout could run from any smartphone. They would enter the data for each robot/match. This data was stored in a google spreadsheet. Every 5 matches or so, I would download the data into excel (via a tethered hotspot) and then read it with a similar tool to Tableau (QlikView). Now we use an in-house developed Android app that loads data into a SQL database, but is still read via the dashboard. Hope this helps.

That actually helps a lot. And here I am trying to over complicate things again with HTML and such. So did you have to re download the excel data every time or would you just be able to refresh if you have the Google drive installed?

SteveGPage 11-03-2014 23:15

I'm glad it helps! I took the programming easy route and just reloaded the entire data set. It didn't take but 3 or 4 seconds, so I didn't worry about trying to just load the new records. At the time, I didn't have Google Drive installed, so I might do it differently now if that was what we are doing now.

saikiranra 11-03-2014 23:17

Re: HTMLish based scouting
 
The simplest way to do this is to have an HTML based input page that sends the form data to an SQL database. To read the data, you can use PHP and do almost any type of analysis you would like. Very simple and straightforward.

If you don't want to deal with an internet connection, you can run a simple WAMP server (or equivalent) on a laptop and connect all the scouting laptops together using an ethernet switch. It will run exactly like a website server, except on a laptop. We ran a system like this at IRI, Fall Classic, Battle at the Border, and CVR.

There is a learning curve involved, but the FRC community is an amazing resource.

terabyte128 13-03-2014 01:53

Re: HTMLish based scouting
 
We are taking a similar approach this year, but opting to store all the information in a MySQL database in the cloud (as well as the entire website). Of course, the downfall of this is that without a cellular connection we're sort of screwed.

Eventually I'd like to integrate Tableau, but we're just working with a simpler graphing plugin right now. I might run it locally off my laptop for the next competition if we can't get a good internet connection. It does make scouting much easier to just eliminate paper entirely. We also have an interactive system for data entry and automatically generated statistics based on teams.

If you're curious you can view the application here (source code)

aryker 13-03-2014 10:46

Re: HTMLish based scouting
 
We're doing something similar for our scouting system this year. We have a Raspberry Pi running a web server that hosts the HTML forms, and when you submit, the data gets stored in a MySQL database on the Pi. We've got web pages for data visualization and match prediction, as well as an Android app that we wrote for our coach's tablet that can grab the latest data from the database and then be used for strategy anywhere after being disconnected. Basically what this means is that any device with a web browser and an ethernet connection can be used to scout. We ordered some Chromebooks for our scouts to use in the stands. We're actually working on a final version to release to teams in the next week, so I'll be posting about that soon.

Andrew Schreiber 13-03-2014 10:58

Re: HTMLish based scouting
 
I tossed together a quick AngularJS app for talking to Parse.com to store my data (debated hitting Google Docs but Parse was just easy). Maybe I'll clean it up and open source it this weekend.

bbradf44 13-03-2014 11:11

Re: HTMLish based scouting
 
Thanks for all the reply's. For now it looks like im going to test out the google form method and see if i get the desired effects in tableau that i can get with access. We will be trying the MySQL method but probably wont have it completed before Peachtree. Im almost positive we will have a good cellular connection in the middle of Atlanta but you never know, so we will keep the access method i had come up with before as a backup

jlmcmchl 13-03-2014 11:12

Re: HTMLish based scouting
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by bbradf44 (Post 1357780)
So im not even sure if this is possible, but ill give it a shot and see what people think. This year we are running scouting in the stands through either MS Excel or Access so that it can be run through Tableau. Our current setup requires all 6 scouts to have forms to fill out while the 7th inputs them into the database, then an 8th person runs a USB flash drive back and forth to the pits whenever we want to update where we have the Tableau program running. I got the idea while in my web design class today, would it be possible to have an HTML form running on cell phones or other 3g/4g enabled device that when the submit button is pressed, it sends the data to the database that will be either on our team website or in the cloud, which i can then open on my laptop in our pit(usb tethered to my phone)? The html file itself wont be online(but maybe i could put that on our website too) but rather stored on each of the phones. Ideas/criticisms welcome ::rtm::

One issue here is I've never been to an event with a solid data connection. Your system is entirely dependent on that, and will cause headaches and frustration at game time.

Simpler, less dependent solutions I've seen were applications that store the data locally and then push the data to a local server by the push of a button. You're on a good path with using HTML and <form> tags, though. This would also eliminate the 8th person; the 7th person's job is handled by computers, making more people available for other important jobs at competition. Additionally, you can setup Tableau on the local server, and print out data for your upcoming matches to run down to the pits, eliminating extra time needed to process the data in the pits, while still making the data available for developing strategy.

xSAWxBLADEx 14-03-2014 16:06

Re: HTMLish based scouting
 
My old team tried everything, Sql servers, excel spreadsheets, etc. and at the end of the year we always resorted back to paper and pens. Yes, we had the OPR data and raw match data ran through a excel database much like Ed's, but real match scouting was paper and pens. Sorry tree huggers, I have to admit I love killing the trees if it meant getting clean scouting forms.

jlmcmchl 14-03-2014 17:16

Re: HTMLish based scouting
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by xSAWxBLADEx (Post 1358977)
My old team tried everything, Sql servers, excel spreadsheets, etc. and at the end of the year we always resorted back to paper and pens. Yes, we had the OPR data and raw match data ran through a excel database much like Ed's, but real match scouting was paper and pens. Sorry tree huggers, I have to admit I love killing the trees if it meant getting clean scouting forms.

Wait... what does this have to do with the thread?

xSAWxBLADEx 14-03-2014 22:26

Re: HTMLish based scouting
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by jlmcmchl (Post 1358998)
Wait... what does this have to do with the thread?

I am just saying we tried using computer to aid with scouting, and it didn't work for us. I am just letting other teams know that if html scouting doesn't work, paper is a wonderful alternative.

Merfoo 15-03-2014 00:46

Re: HTMLish based scouting
 
Our team developed a html/js scouting application that wrote .csv files for each match and could also collect every match.csv file to compile a "master" file which has data about each robot based on the match data. Worked pretty well at our last district.
https://github.com/FRC-Team-955/AerialAssistScouting

wesleyac 15-03-2014 10:39

Re: HTMLish based scouting
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by jlmcmchl (Post 1358557)
You're on a good path with using HTML and <form> tags, though. This would also eliminate the 8th person; the 7th person's job is handled by computers, making more people available for other important jobs at competition.

You can also eliminate the person who runs down to the pits by storing it on a server. Although that depends on data as well. As for data issues,storing to disk can help. That way, if it's a temporary issue, you can upload it later, or if it's a major issue, print it or run a laptop/tablet to the pits.

Our team does something similar to this. We haven't had issues with cell data yet. :)


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