Hi,
It’s been pointed out to me that the Group C match 22 – Slovenia vs USA has the incorrect time in the match schedules.
According to http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/matches/index.html kickoff is 16:00 SAST.
Please modify your match data to prevent predictions after kickoff. Apologies for the slip-up.
Thanks to Mike George.
Ian.
I have had quite a few e-mails and comments saying that users points are not being assigned.
To award points to users you must modify the match and enter the score and check the box ‘Match Finished’
Points are not automatically assigned after entering match results, you need to perform the extra step below by going to:
Once the points have been awarded for a finished match a green tick will be displayed against the match result.
In all cases so far, this extra step has fixed the problem.
Hi, we only get one shot at this every 4 years, so:
With the start of the World Cup just a few days away there is likely to be a rush of predictions. To avoid any last minute glitches can I suggest that you make sure the plugin is installed and configured correctly.
Preparation
Please perform some basic checks and tests to ensure everything works smoothly.
Sorry if this sounds a little prescriptive, but your users will thank you for it.
During the World Cup, I will try to make myself available as much as possible to provide support, but please, before reporting a problem:-
Report any problems as comments here, or via the Support link in the plugin Overview screen.
If I’m snowed under with enquiries, or you are not on Central European time, it may take a little while to get back to you. Please be patient, and of course, anyone having made a donation will get priority treatment 
Enjoy the World Cup and may the best team win.
Ian.
World Cup Predictor V1.2 released with new features for local time zone support, configuration of the countdown clock to local language, manual sorting of the group tables and the display of all user predictions in one table.
The plugin now has support to allow users to toggle match kickoff times between South African time and user local time.
For example,
Match times are currently set to South African local time, please click here to convert to your time zone.
By adding the following code to your post, or in the sidebar, users can toggle between timezones. Make sure you use HTML rather than the Visual post editor in WordPress.
<div id="tzContainer">
<p id="tzLocal">Match times are currently set to South African local time, please click here to convert to your time zone.</p>
<p id="tzClient" style="display: none;">Match times are currently set to <strong>your time</strong> zone, please click here to revert to local time.</p>
</div>
Modify the text, add clock images etc. to suit your needs. The paragraph identified by tzLocal is shown for South African times, and toggled with the paragraph (tzClient) when switching to the users’ timezone.
This can be applied to any post/page where a shortcode displays match times or dates.
Warning – Match dates and times MUST be set to South African time in the Admin screens for correct results
For more information see the help.
The plugin will attempt to display match dates and kickoff times according to the users browser locale setting. For example, American vs British date format. Month names in the users local language.
Enable or disable this feature in the Overview settings.
The countdown clock can now be configured via a setting in the Overview screen to alter the message and suffixes for your blog language. For example,
Date limite de prédiction suivante dans %%D%%j %%M%%m %%S%%s
to display ‘j’ for jours rather than ‘d’ for days.
According to Wikipedia in the event of a tie in the group stage FIFA may draw lots to determine the winner. To ensure that the Group Table results are ordered correctly you can change the ‘group_order’ setting in Admin->Teams to sort entries as required.
This option is useful to display the Group Tables in the correct order before the competition starts (i.e. all teams are tied) to modify the order to correspond with http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/standings/index.html
For example – Group A – Set the group order as – RSA -1, MEX – 2, URG – 3, FRA – 4. Similarly for Group B, ARG – 1, NIG – 2 etc.
For new installations this is done as part of the Import process. For upgrades you will to use the Admin->Teams menu to enter the values manually.
You can show display all users predictions for all completed matches by using the shortcode [world-cup-predictor scores=-1] Instead of supplying the match id, use -1 to display all matches.
Just released V1.1 of the World Cup Predictor plugin for WordPress.
Please note – If you are upgrading then the kickoff time for Match 8, Group D, Serbia – Ghana is 16:00, not 13:30. Please correct the time in the admin options. For new installations this has been corrected.
Some minor updates to language files, support for RTL languages and new translations in Swedish and Arabic. Additional languages may be available
WordPress should automatically prompt to update from a previous version, or you can download the latest version.
For a full list of changes see the change log
If you like this plugin, don’t forget to rate it and help promote it by linking.
Share and enjoy,
Ian.
From a comment:
I have some remarks on the scoring system when it comes to penalties. I think it needs to be revised.
For example, match result : Team A 1(4) – Team B 1(2) and user’s prediction : Team A 1(3) – Team B 1(4)
He only gets 2 bonus pts for Correct number of goals. No credit for guessing the draw or correct match score 1-1.
My suggestion would be accord full points for guessing the right score or point for guessing the draw match even though his predictions for penalties are wrong. We may have an extra bonus pts for penalties.
What’s your pt of view?
My Response:
You are right, a user guessing a draw in the knockout stages does not get the credit they deserve for guessing a draw after extra time.
In your example for a result of A 1(4) – B1(2) a user guessing A 3 – B 1 would get the points for a win but one could argue their prediction was less accurate and as such does not deserve a better points score than the player that predicted a draw and got the penalty score wrong.
In addition:
At the moment it is impossible to get points for predicting a Draw in the knockout stage. There has to be a winner.
I am tempted to change this, such that a prediction for a Draw in the knockout stage should gain points based on just the goals scored during the match (i.e. exclude the penalties). Obviously if the predictor guesses a Draw and the number of guessed penalties are correct they would receive the points for an exact match.
If anyone has setup their site with the current rules/scoring system this may have a minor impact on how points are awarded in the knockout stages for draw predictions.
I’d be interested in any feedback
Ian.
Hi,
I’ve released an early version of 1.1 of the plugin for testing. There are a few new features:
For full details see the help and changelog in the ZIP file.
Download from http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/world-cup-predictor/download/ and choose the development version. Note – after copying to your server please deactivate and re-activate.
Baring any bugs, I’ll release in a day or so. Yes, I know V1.0 was meant to be the last, but I was persuaded by helpful feedback, suggestions and ideas for new features.
Ian.
I’m pleased to announce V1.0 of the plugin.
This should be the final release barring any bugs. Thanks to the testers who have reported problems and the translators for language files.
If you wish to contribute additional language translations then I will add them to this page.
Ian.
There is a minor issue with team names not changing in the Group Table display if they are changed in the database via the Admin screens.
The issue is noticeable for sites in a non-English language. For example, in the Teams admin tab, changing England to Angleterre for a French language site, the Group Tables still show England.
This is because the Group Table results are cached to reduce server load when displayed. There is no point in re-calculating the points, goal difference etc. every time.
The cache is only refreshed when a Match Result is updated. The temporary workaround is to make a dummy modification to a match result and this will flush the cache and display the correct team names. I.e. Click on the match Id then click Modify.
Bug fixed in the next release, or download the development version.
A new minor release of the Plugin.
Still to do is to finalise the scoring configuration screens. I’d like to keep it flexible, but it is still a little confusing.
There are some thoughts on how it works here, but on reflection I’m not sure the option to assign points for predicting a loss is necessary. It’s the same as predicting a win but from a different viewpoint.
Any feedback appreciated.
Documentation
Deutsch-Dokumentation