Log4OM

vk2io wrote:The new awards file seems to have 4 digit park references throughout. A lot of the references have had a leading zero added to the reference number as most had 3 digits previously eg. VKFF-553 became VKFF-0553.
What brought this about? Was it a request from the WWFF organisation?

The change is not backwards compatible. For example, in the Statistics and awards screen when previous contacts are listed, all existing references in the log (eg. VKFF-553) are shown in red and listed as NOT FOUND in the description.
Exporting a log with zero-prefixed WWFF reference number may also cause processing problems when submitting logs to the WWFF organisation.

Unless this was a request from the WWFF group, I think the numbers should revert to 3 digits.

Cheers,
Gerard - VK2IO

I just checked the download of the file on the Italian WWFF web site and there are a mixture of numbers, check it out

Hi Gerard,
this file was provided by WWFF official links:
http://www.wwff.co/p/wwff-downloads.html

Here you can find a link to "WWFF Directory of References" that redirects there:
http://www.dcia.it/iffa/index.php/downl ... lora-fauna

I've asked the reference file in CSV to the guys that manage this website and they provided it to me.
This is the file i have loaded into Log4OM.

I'll ask them to have a clear indication about reference codes, but this is the only source i have for those data.

Hi Terry and Daniele,
Thank you for your comments.

Upon investigation of the July 2015 WWFF Directory of References it is clear that most have changed to have 4 digits rather than 3, usually by insertion of a leading zero. The exception is FFF-001 to FFF-600. Only 5 countries actually require 4 digits.

The insertion of the leading zero to existing references is not a backwards compatible change. Old 3-digit references no longer match the new 4-digit ones in searches. This is a headache for software authors!

There are three solutions:
1) Retain all the previous 3-digit references
2) Each software author writes a conversion utility to change log references from 3 to 4 digits
3) Each software author implements reference matching that ignores leading zeroes

Obviously (2) and (3) will take considerable time and effort. Perhaps (3) could be done in Log4OM.
In the interim I've created an award reference file retaining the 3-digit entries previously used - as per solution (1).
Those interested can download it from here:
https://www.dropbox.com/l/RRNMjbaCth5qzL79OOtPOp
It can be installed (as described previously) through the Award Manager.

Cheers,
Gerard - VK2IO

It depends how many WWFF contacts you have in your log, I found it a simple task to update the 47 entries in my logbook by using the Award statistics window

Strangely the "Automatic Cluster analysis" is working fine even though the reference in the cluster is sometimes only 3 digits?
.
.

That's solution 4: the "Armstrong method"
I have 174 entries currently, but that's only from the last 3 months. I still have to import many new entries from the last couple of years. Tedious to update by hand, to say the least..

The Automatic Cluster Analysis is working for me too. It will be interesting to see whether spots with 4-digit refs match 3-digit ones in my awards file.

Cheers,
Gerard - VK2IO

Yes, the function that identifies the references in the cluster is able to deal with "malformed" references, including missing or too much abundant leading zeroes. But reference codes are strongly referenced once added into QSO database structure, so those changes could be an issue.
on the other side those changes could happens when official lists are updated, if the award manager needs to expand the number of references by a 10 factor for any reason. And we cannot do anything (or almost anything)

I'm working on a one-time function that rescan your log references and convert "old" references into the new ones automatically.
That should fix

OK on the QSO references being strongly referenced.
The one-time conversion function would be a good solution. Many of us will be grateful if that was implemented, Daniele.
Thank you for looking into it.

As noted, the cluster works fine doing the reference conversions in either direction.

Cheers,
Gerard - VK2IO

I just had a look at the VKFF awards in the program & the extra parks added to the award that I had added manually are now missing. When will these be added in the auto updates? I did send Claus a list of all the new parks from VKFF-739 up but they are still not there.

Hi David,
You can update manually and get all the VK parks amongst others. It takes very little time at all.
Cheers,
Gerard - VK2IO

Hi All,

I just went looking again for a new file for WFF without success. The last park in my list on Log4OM is VKFF-0865. I am aware there have been some more added such as VKFF-0958. Anyone have any clues when we might see a new file?

John VK2YW