Hello stats lovers

This thread is for you if you are looking to gather LFS statistics and process them for displaying on your own website. It is for that purpose that I've created the Pubstat system, which is a webbased system where you can request all kinds of LFS racing statistics and information.

If you would like to know how it works, please read the following block of text, which should explain everything to you clearly :

NOTE 1 - if you are just looking to show the status of your host(s) on your webpages then you can use this URL :
Format : https://www.lfsworld.net/hoststatus/?h=[HOSTNAME]
Example : https://www.lfsworld.net/hoststatus/?h=Blackwood%20XFG%20XRG (https://www.lfsworld.net/hoststatus/?h=Blackwood%20XFG%20XRG)
You can use the output of that URL directly in an iframe, or if you append '&onlycontent' to the URL it will only output the actual content html and exclude the html header stuff.
You can also create your own stylesheets if you want and send them to me so you can use them.

NOTE 2 - as of 6 Nov 2006, identification has become obligatory. You must use the IdentKey or otherwise your Pubstat script will not work! See below for more information.


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An additional funny is the online-highlights-log-per-country that you can get in .txt format (linux, so with \n line breaks, as is always the case on our sites really) :


***<Country_Name> Mind the capitals and underscore for spaces.***
Example: https://www.lfsworld.net/highl ... lights_United_Kingdom.txt

For use on your own site
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Any questions? Something obvious missing? Please post them in this thread. Thanks and good luck (re)writing your scripts

Victor

PS - since version numbers are introduced now, I'll attached every version's "readme" here.

the timestamp is GMT 0?

Quote from Victor :

Something obvious missing?

Quote from Victor :

<car> 3 character representation.
XFG, XRG, XRT, RB4, FXO, LX4, LX6, MRT, UF1, RAC, FZ5, FOX, XFR, UFR, FO8, FXR, XRR, FZR, BF1

?

Vic, in this line:


For me appear blank when the racer is offline.

JS

A question here:

I extract host infos from the host list. I get everything right (cars, rules, qual mins, ...).

But reading the LAPS-Byte, I get 0 (=> practice) if no race is started (i.e. if the server is empty or people are in qualifying).

I thought the LAPS byte would just tell me, what the nr of laps in a (possible) race on this server is.

Take a look here to see the output of my server script.

Thanks for any help.

Quote from CrazyICE :

the timestamp is GMT 0?

it's UTC.

Quote from jscorrea :

Vic, in this line:

online status (0 = offline, 1 = spectating, 2 = pits, 3 = in-race)

For me appear blank when the racer is offline.

JS

Which in turn equals 0 equals offline?
And did you read the (*) note?

Quote from HorsePower :

A question here:

I extract host infos from the host list. I get everything right (cars, rules, qual mins, ...).

But reading the LAPS-Byte, I get 0 (=> practice) if no race is started (i.e. if the server is empty or people are in qualifying).

I thought the LAPS byte would just tell me, what the nr of laps in a (possible) race on this server is.

Take a look here to see the output of my server script.

Thanks for any help.

Laps byte does show what number of laps is set on a host. The value explanations for this byte are noted above in the text. There's nothing more or less about it. That's what it is.
When a server is in qualifying mode, then you should see the QUALMINS byte is not 0 (but LAPS is)

if (qualmins) host is qualifying
else if (laps) race is in progress probably, or about to start
else practise mode

btw to all, the following line in the PST stat is buggy atm :

current / last car

This will be fixed in patch V, so you might not wanna take this value too seriously just yet.

ok guys. all this looks really interesting, however i am not one for writing scripts. if anyone has a template script i could use i would be ever so greatfull. i hope someone can help.

thanks

nevermind, spoke to victor already

Here is a funny question, excuse me for asking but can I put this on a myspace profile?

http://www.myspace.com/giggalowbiggalow

i don't know. what kind of stuff can you add to myspace pages? this is typically done through PHP, although there are some php scripts that generate images with the stats on them...but those still require a host that can process PHP to generate the images.

if you have such a thing, i'm going to be posting an updated version of my script soon that adds in some of the new functionality.

if you just want a simple image that shows if you are online or not, then look to this thread...all you would need to do is copy the url that is in that thread.
example : http://www.lfsworld.net/isonline.NickSpeed.gif ->

if you want more, and have a host that can run PHP, then my script might work for you.

Is there any way the hotlap id could also be given when retrieving all the hotlaps from a certain chart? The nation would also be useful, basically everything which you can get from the hotlap log. I doubt this will get added as i don't know if anyone other than myself would want it, but it would also be cool if the drivers' team could be included in the hotlap log and the other hotlap requests.

Thanks, Josh

Maybe I'm wrong, but I think there's a problem ATM.
I think Premium access restriction coud be really usefull, in case of IdentKey pishing. ATM it's quite easy to change from free acces to Premium acces, needs only adding &ps=1 at the end of the URL.

If I can obtain an IdentKey, I can use all credits on the corresponding account, I just have to use this identKey for my requests, with &ps=1. A simple "Allow Premium access (with fees)" checkbox with each IdentKey could solve this problem.

Cheers

if you're afraid about your identkey being misused, then you should bind an ip address to the identkey and it's safe from tampering basically

U know, in some cases, it's unusable : in France, 80% of ADSL connections use a dynamic IP, like mine. So if I do that, I'll have to update my IP on LFS World twice or more a day (some disconnections) to use mates@tracks or Mysolc (french program). Not really easy.

ok, but

Quote :

If I can obtain an IdentKey, I can use all credits on the corresponding account,

How exactly would you get an IdentKey in the first place?
And how would you add a pubstat premium restriction?

Quote :

A simple "Allow Premium access (with fees)" checkbox with each IdentKey could solve this problem.

No it would not, because then you still have exactly the same situation as now.

The main idea : don't give away your identkey. And phishing for them is overrated imho. How are you going to phish for someone else's idkey, especially if the people you talk about are on their own home networks, to which you have no access to?

Quote from Victor :

How exactly would you get an IdentKey in the first place?

Like creating a free of charge mates@track or Mysolc program, but mine sends IdentKeys by mail. j/k

Quote from Victor :

No it would not, because then you still have exactly the same situation as now.

I can have 3 IdentKeys. I create 2, the first one allowing Premium Acces, the 2nd disallowing it. I use the first one only in my own programs or websites, and I don't really care for the 2nd one.

Quote from Victor :

The main idea : don't give away your identkey. And phishing for them is overrated imho. How are you going to phish for someone else's idkey, especially if the people you talk about are on their own home networks, to which you have no access to?

I understand your point of view, and I agree with that. But I have to trust programs which need my identkey for normal purposes. I trust mates@tracks and Mysolc, but who knows for next ones?

So in the end your question is more like, do i entrust 3rd party applications with my identkey?

Quote from Victor :

So in the end your question is more like, do i entrust 3rd party applications with my identkey?

Not really. It's a only a part of the question.
For example, I trust my bank, I have an internet access to my account, I can pay fees using internet & so on.
But if my bank didn't gave me the required security level, I would not use all these features.
For example, besides account, password and https access, they sent me a card with 72 different codes, and ask for one of these codes (randomly) each time I try to make money orders or anything like that. After 3 mistakes, the internet acces to my account is locked, and they send me a mail.

IMO, as you store money on the LFS account, and give users a possibility to use it by a simple URL, you have to give them sufficient security level, and IMO, it's not the case ATM.

Maybe I'm paranoid

but, you don't use any 3rd party applications for internet banking. The two are hard to compare imo.

I need some time to think about it. In the end, it still comes down to whether you can trust 3rd party applications - no matter how much safety I code for on my side.

You may not use a 3rd party app with Premium Pubstat, so you might be helped with a checkbox that allows you to create Premium IDKeys, but this will not help those that do use a 3rd party app with a Premium IDKey. See the problem?

Now I totally agree with you.

Like I've said above, if I need a Premium Pubstat access, AND use of one or more third party programs, I'll create 2 IndentKeys, one absolutely private for the Premium acces, and the 2nd one, disallowing Premium Acces for all third party programs. And I don't care the 2nd one could be sent by email, used by someone else with an &ps=1, coz the checkbox disallows Premium acces.

IMO default checkbox value is disallow, of course (Yes, I'm really paranoid )

15th internet disconnection in 2 hours, f***ing telephone line and f***ing router using 6db noise margin

That's a no then i guess..?

not for now, no. Could be done with a next version.

Ok, thanks for the reply.

Josh

EDIT: Solved. And really don't know how. Must have overseen a bug.

I think I found a strange thing, which I don't understand:

I'm programming a team tracker for my team, which means that I have to refresh all PB's and HL's of my mates every now and then.

Since I use the free pubstats, I have a certain sleep time between two queries.

Now my strange observations:

1. If I use uncompressed LFSW output, everything works fine with 6 seconds intervals.
   
2. If I use compressed output (tested &c=2 and $c=3), the first query works ok, while from the second query - no matter what interval I use (tested up to 120 seconds) - I get the "can't reload this page that quickly after another" error.

What's wrong here?