Skout - Flagfootball Scouting Analysis Tool

Setting up the packaged windows version with VSCode

• Install VS Code
• Download the latest release of Skout from the Releases Page choosing the correct .zip file for your operating system (for example Skout_Windows-vx.x.x.zip)
• Unpack the .zip file containing the Skout.exe and skout.schema.json into a folder on your computer.
• Open VSCode.
• Inside VSCode click on "File" -> "Open Folder..." and choose the folder you unpacked above.
• On the left side of VSCode you should now see the files contained in this folder. You can open a file by clicking on its name.
• VSCode can automatically list and fill entries, such as formations, strong sides, routes, etc... If you want this functionality (recommended), see the section Code Highlighting and Auto Completion in VSCode below.

Using the packaged windows version with VSCode

In order to generate your scout file:

• Open VSCode and click on "File" -> "Open Folder..." and open the folder containing Skout.exe
• Click on the menu item Terminal and then New Terminal in VSCode.
• A terminal panel was now opened in VSCode.
• In the terminal, type .\Skout.exe example.skout.json to generate a single .pdf file for the example scout.
• If you are unsure about the use of the program, type the following into the terminal: .\Skout.exe --help

Nota Bene: If windows stops the execution with a security warning, you can still execute it by clicking on "More info" and then "Run Anyway".

The Skout.exe offers a few options to specify e.g. the output filename. In order to list available options, type .\Skout.exe --help

Code Highlighting and Auto Completion in VSCode

• Press Ctrl+Shift+P. This will open a line at the top of the VSCode window.
• In this line, type "Open Settings" and, from the dropdown menu, choose "Preferences: Open Settings (JSON)".
• This will open a new file, which starts with a { in the first line.
• After this first {, insert the following text:

    "json.schemas": [
    {
        "fileMatch": [
            "/*.skout.json"
        ],
        "url": "./skout.schema.json"
    }
    ],

• Now press Ctrl+S to save the file
• Now you can close the file and restart VSCode for the changes to become effective.
• When you now open a file ending in .skout.json, VSCode will list the available options for each entry.

Fromat of the .skout.json file

The format of the data is given in the file skout.schema.json. Use any editor supporting json schemas to get auto-completion, default values, etc. We recommend using VS Code, since we use it and optimize towards its use.

Strongside

You have to specify a strongside for each play, if none is given, strong right is chosen automatically.

Route numbers

The numbering of receivers depends on the strongside: The receivers are always listed from left to right looking into the direction of progression. Therefore, the order of the routes changes depending on the strong side and formation:

Formation	Order
strong right	ACBD
strong left	ABCD
trips right	CABD
trips left	ABDC

When specifying the routes, you can use the route name or their corresponding IDs. We recommend using the route names in combination with an editor capable of auto completion, as described above. Currently the following routes are supported:

Route ID	Route Name
0	"Stop",
1	"Quick Out",
2	"Slant",
3	"Comeback Out",
4	"Comeback In",
5	"10 Out",
6	"10 In",
7	"Corner",
8	"Post",
9	"Go",
10	"5 In",
11	"5 Out",
12	"Pivot",
13	"Post-Corner",
14	"Reverse",
15	"Quick In",
16	"Yoyo",
17	"Stop&Go"
18	"Out&Up"
19	"Post Comeback"
20	"Screen"

Using the packaged Windows version without VSCode

The Skout program is contained in Skout.exe and must be started using the windows command line (CMD). To start CMD, press the windows button and enter cmd, then press Enter. A window with the command line should open, displaying something like this in the last line:

PS C:\Users\myUser>

This means you are currently in the folder User\myUser.

Now navigate to the folder where your Skout.exe is located. This is done by using change directory (cd):

cd FolderName

where FolderName is the name of the folder you want to enter.

Once you are in the folder containing Skout.exe, you can run the example file by entering

Skout.exe example.skout.json

This will create a .pdf file containing the final scout in your current folder. Nota Bene: If windows stops the execution with a security warning, you can still execute it by clicking on "More info" and then "Run Anyway".

If you have problems, make sure that skout.schema.json is also in the same folder.

In order to create your own scout, make a new file ending in .skout.json and enter the plays in the format shown in example.skout.json. For all available options, look at skout.schema.json.

Usage of the Python lib

• Create a file ending in ".skout.json" and pass it to the Skout.py script:

./Skout.py mySkout.skout.json

• The script will output a .pdf file with the plays sorted by the number of times they were run.

Dependencies

• Python3
• reportlab (pip3 install reportlab)
• argparse (pip3 install argparse)
• jsonschema (pip3 install jsonschema)

Contributing

Before a pull request can be merged, make sure all files have been formatted using autopep8. The file format_project.sh does this automatically.

Bug reports, pull requests and feature requests should be filed on GitHub.

License

See LICENSE.txt