User Comments

The latest version of bfexplorer offers bot trigger assembly execution. This update should solve bot trigger compilation problems. The only bot trigger I released assembly is BackCorrectScore00LayDrawTrigger.

The latest version of bfexplorer offers "If Then Else" bot.

Yes, the old bfexplorer offered IfThenElse bot, I will add this bot to the new one tomorrow.

Repeat Until bot is better solution, it was actually developed to execute such bot strategy. Read again: Repeat Until, the until parameter is either reached profit or total stake placed, or number of iterations, that is what you need.

I have just realesed the latest version of bfexplorer adding save bots or open bots to My Bots view, so you will be able to share your bot settings.

Rui, I need exact scenario of the bot usage. If entry points are important then name them, as well as conditions you require for repeated execution of your trading bot.

I summarized your scenario in my first reply and asked you to reply on my questions, asking if I understood your requirements correctly or not. You did not reply on my questions.

Bfexplorer offers quite a lot of bots, so your trading solution can be implemented by many ways.
If you set allowed range of prices for your trading bot, then one of the solutions is to use Repeat Until, the other one could use: Chain Execution. More complicated solution is to use custom built bot trigger.

The latest version of bfexplorer offer editors for BotName and BotNames parameters, so if anyone thought before that setting up a bot is difficult, because you need to copy and paste bot names, or just type them correctly, then now you can setup any bot with ease.

Eduardo, I am software developer and I solve problems by analyzing them and if the cause of problem is found, then I fix it by changing the application code.

To analyze problems you must name them first, or to model all possible scenarios of the application usage, because in some cases a problem is not the application code but data entries or misuse of base application features.

Well, of course if an application/program has a good design then it should process any data entries correctly.

In this case, bfexplorer nor crashed or behaved unexpectedly. It correctly processed entered data, in this case bot trigger, and it reported problem: Failed to create the bot trigger...

I tried to analyze problems by naming them, and as always you feel offended. Eduardo, Miro, and others, I am not your enemy. I just try not to waste anyone time, and to solve problems I need more information.

You can see that Miro was able to execute this bot trigger without problems, like I did it myself, and I test any code or bot I release for public use.

Slovak user I asked to test this bot script just reported that it does not work, sending me similar screenshot like you posted here on the forum.

Well, that could only mean that he may replicated wrong data entries, but that is still not enough information for me to fix this issue. I have to see it myself, to analyze and understand the problem. Therefore I asked for teamviewer session, or for video showing what you do when setting up this bot trigger.

Well, hardly to say because his specification is very vague.

I took my explanation because such kind of bot execution reentry can be implemented only by Bot Trigger, so it would be nice example for bot developers.

Please, I would like to ask you a favor. If you write your article text or comment in Word, or Microsoft Office Word, just to check misspellings, then do not copy text directly, but paste it first to Notepad, and then copy text from Notepad to avoid importing style formatting from Word. I will fix this web editor problem when having more spare time.

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Back to your trading bot, it would be fine if you use official names for bfexplorer bots, then I will be more certain what you actually want to implement.

I assume you use, Place bet and close bet position bot, in your trading, right?

You set the bot to open bet position by backing and when required profit is reached the bot close the bet position by hedging. You run your bot, at 1.8 price/odds on a selection, and what you want is to check if the same selection is traded at set price, for instance 1.9, and if that is true, you want again start your trading bot execution, on the same selection.

If my summary for your bot trigger is right, then what bot trigger will take two parameters: StartOdds, and RestartOdds.

Execute Trigger Bot will take BotName as the action bot that will be executed (your trading bot).

Eduardo, I asked one Slovak user to test this bot and he reports similar problems. It is busy trading weekend but whoever sends me Teamviewer access to his computer will help to solve this issue. On my computer all works fine so I need more information.

Edurardo, it does not make sense to run bots separately because the main point of this bot strategy is that bot trigger checks the profit on 0 – 0 and depending on this value calculates the amount it lays on draw.

If you say you will run bots separately then you actually did not understand about what is the bot using, it is about automating operations you would otherwise do manually.

I checked the bot on my release version of bfexplorer and all works on my side. Actually you already sent me before emails showing different screenshots where bot had been executed without any error message, it means that compilation service works fine, and this can be confirmed by fact that you already executed successfully Bfexplorer Console scripts. Bfexplorer Console tool uses the same script processing as the Execute Bot Trigger bot.

Your previous faults of using this bot trigger (BackCorrectScore00LayDrawTrigger.fs) were because you did not create action bots: Back Correct Score 0 – 0, and Lay Draw. Your bot trigger had been successfully executed, what I could see on your email screenshots, but did not do anything, because had no actions bots to execute.

Now, I would say you tried to change something in the bot trigger source code, and you simply introduced some error to the code, this could be investigated as well, because when bot trigger is compiled and some error occurs the error message is displayed in Output view.

I would say you have got very specific talent of yours…

Common sense

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_sense

Common sense is a basic ability to perceive, understand, and judge things, which is shared by ("common to") nearly all people, and can be reasonably expected of nearly all people without any need for debate.

And if you are not able to set the file path name of bot trigger file by typing, then watch video in this article to learn how to browse bot trigger file by clicking on file open dialog button:

http://bfexplorer.net/Community/BlogContent/111#Place Bet/Execute Bot on All Selections

Did you actually watch at least first minutes on my video and read the article? The video shows what you have to do.

I see I forgot to change path to referenced assemblies. It was set to my development environment. I have just fixed it. You can re-download your scripts.

If by any chance your bfexplorer installation is in different folder, then you must change path in your scripts yourself. The default bfexplorer app folder on 64 bit OS is:

C:\Program Files (x86)\BeloSoft\Bfexplorer

On your pictures you can actually read what error was generated when compiling your scripts after you clicked on the Start button.

I am still working on some new internal features of bfexplorer backend and I did not yet released the latest version of bfexplorer with features for Bfexplorer Console which allows filtering and opening markets as you can see in my video.

I will add some description to this video after releasing the latest version.

The bot scripts I made for you extend bfexplorer bot features; this is not a case for common support I offer for my Professional subscribers.

We agreed that I will build a bot for you (from one bot there were 3 bot scripts at the end). I really wanted to help you, but there are some limits.

I hoped that as we agreed I build a bot and you will be doing any necessary changes to the bot by yourself.

Actually any bot developer can confirm that bot code is nothing complicated, because it is actually bot script that orchestrates built-in bfexplorer action bots, for instance Place bet and close bet position bot (the trading bot your bot scripts use) is 12 times more complicated, if we just measure the length of the bot source code.

I have done my job, and delivered your bot scripts, and I made a lot of changes to bfexplorer as well, for instance Use Ladder to start bot execution by clicking on a ladder, such feature was implemented in the old bfexplorer, but to the new bfexplorer I added this feature only after introducing Bot Trigger scripts.

So as agreed you received your bots, and the hell started, when you started to use your bots and wanted to make some changes. I was forced to reply for really simple questions, you have got your bots, you have got your documentation to any bot feature, as you received source code of your bots, so such questions are not in place, mainly as we agreed that you will make changes yourself, so I hoped you will learn something about bot programming.

At the end I appealed on your common sense, and not only in what you were asking but how you behave as well. Miro, we agreed on something and now you say that I must do it, as that is a customer support I am obliged to give you. I am not your slave.

Of course, I am happy to give you customer support you paid for, but this customer support does not include development of custom built bots or trading solutions in the extend you require.

I can build simple bot, if necessary, just to show my customer how to start with bot development, what I actually did for you, but I am not able to spend 3-4 hours daily just to change something in your bots, and in following day to learn that you want to do add some new feature, and what I made a day before is useless.

I asked you to show me how behave other betfair vendors to your questions for building similar bots as I did for you.

I could simply reply, as I believe they will reply to you: Unfortunately, such feature is not yet supported by our product; we will consider adding it in a near future. Thank you for asking.

And that is the end of this story.

Miro, I really think it is you who do not understand what you are talking about.

Any feature or bot you asked here on forum actually did not exist in base bfexplorer features or in the code base of bfexplorer backend. So any of your questions starting with: is it possible, how can I do that or this one, was not from my side about explaining bfexplorer feature, but actually about implementing a new feature to bfexplorer or creating a custom built bot for you.

I think you really cannot say that you did not know about it, because in one of my emails to you I said that this is my last custom bot script I built for you and it will be only up to you, how you manage to update it, if necessary, to suit your needs or requirements later.

Anyone interested, can click on your forum name to list all your forum posts and read your ideas or requirements.

I did not implement all you asked for, but as it is with any request from my customers, I did implement what I thought was interested or useable for others as well. When saying usable then I do not mean exact bot feature, but implementation code behind, the interfaces which allows extending bfexplorer features. I believe you are not able to understand this fact, and all what you can see and think that was done, is bfexplorer application user interface or bot scripts you downloaded.

Man, what you can actually see is just 20% of my work I have done when working on your custom bot scripts, because anything you could see this way, is supported by a lot more code in bfexplorer backend.

Let’s take just last bot script for saving bot status to csv file, to make it work I had to change any bfexplorer bot already implemented in My Bots, to expose necessary data. Anytime I updated your bot scripts I said you need to install the latest version of bfexplorer and re-download your bot script/s. 

I patiently explained new features and how to use them, and I repeated it in some cases many times.

I appealed on your common sense because I really did not know how to further explain the same features again and again, when I tried to say it from different point of view, and you still did not understand what I had been talking about.

You used my kindness and willingness to help you implement your bot scripts, and you knew what I said, that it will be only up to you, to make changes to them later.

Now, when you say that SaveBotData bot script does not save bot data of Repeat Until bot, and I explained why is it so, again appealing on your common sense, because all it was already said before, you complain about my customer support and about not knowing my customer’s needs.

Now you say that you are not a programmer, but you agreed that I program for you all those bot scripts. So you used my kindness, because if I knew that, I had never built all those bot scripts for you, just because I have almost no spare time, so I am not able to manage your bot scripts indefinitely.

Well, bfexplorer can do a lot just by setting some parameters or clicking on some buttons. What you asked for was nothing standard in bfexplorer features, and I believe you know/knew it. What you asked for was extending bfexplorer features by bot script programming.

I really like to see support from bet angel for instance, when you ask them to add your bot to their product, so you can execute your bot by clicking on ladder. You have got a lot of betfair products you can choose from, so please show me at least one better customer support, on the same set of features in their app I implemented for you.

This is a really good idea but a problem is that it is quite difficult to implement, a tool for general usage for any kind of sport betting event you would like to search.

In my own bot solutions I solve this problem by developing custom bots or bot triggers which check my entry conditions and open required associated markets, so then I am able to filter or search for markets by executing such bots with Bot Executor, or by executing custom scripts from Bfexplorer Console.

BDP betfair team scheduled to release (estimated release date is September 2015) in beta version a new feature: Exchange Market Streaming. In description they say:

Stream market information (primarily prices) based on user-filters.

This feature was not yet released, as soon as they do so I will check what can be done.

On Bfexplorer Community you can read forum or blog posts. I use my own blog to post about new features, explaining how to use bfexplorer, or just to write about my own ideas or opinions. In this blog post I just informed about the new feature bot developers could use to visualize market selection data on ladders, I did not mention that I released the bot. I made some videos and wrote blog articles showing other bfexplorer features, but I did not release all those bot solutions publicly neither.

I can release some of those bots in Bot Community edition in near future, if there is some interest. I really do not want to overfill My Bots with the bots nobody will use.

Miro, I believe that using common sense is in place here, as I already said, you have got bot trigger source code, so you have got “documentation” to this SaveBotData bot.

You have got Visual Studio installed. If I publicly released this bot, I did so mainly for those who want to learn betfair bot programming, so including Bfexplorer BOT SDK and all my publicly available bots, they have got a lot of bot code to learn from and to build on this code, its own betfair bots.

Therefore please open Visual Studio, open Bfexplorer BOT SDK solution, and open this bot source code, then you can learn how this bot saves bot’s bet position only for those bots inherited from SelectionBot.

My common sense says to me that you should manage to do so, right? You installed Visual Studio, so you must know how to use it, otherwise, my common sense says, you did not install something you have no idea how to use it, right?

The bot code is very simple, and you can see what method is actually used to detect when SaveBotData bot needs to save a bet position of the bot that has just ended its execution:

(market.RunningBots :> INotifyCollectionChanged).CollectionChanged.AddHandler SaveBotDataHandler

Ok, you will say you have got no idea about bot programming, but even you are not a software developer, I believe you are able to read some English words, right?

market - running bots - collection changed - save bot data

You said you use Repeat Until bot. Unfortunately, for this type of bot your SaveBotData bot will not detect that your action bot ended its execution, so will not save its bet position to CSV file.

It seems this article is not more about bots, but more about quarrelling who is right or wrong, who has and use a common sense or not.

Last days I visited some other forum of my competitors offering betfair automation. Frankly to say, sometimes I had no idea about what people were asking for, and I was surprised that even simple operations like closing bet position or placing bets has to be done by combinations of different rules, or settings and a lot of things could not be done at all. I was surprised by people’s understanding of those rules and features; actually no one has been complaining that something cannot be done, or the way how it is done or implemented. All users have base understanding, some way they grasped a common sense in using app features,  and I must say that those features are a lot of complicated comparing to bfexplorer ones, that is at least my opinion.

Back to the common sense in using bfexplorer features. If you start a bot, in the Output view you can read the message: The bot XY has been started. When a bot ends its execution, in the Output view you can read the message: The bot XY ended.

The above mentioned fact is important, mainly in the context how the SaveBotData bot works. The bot detects when a bot is removed from the market bot collection, and at the moment saves its bet position.

The bot Repeat Until, or Chain Execution bot, execute its action bot/s internally without exposing them to bfexplorer. Bfexplorer, the Market Bots view knows only about the Repeat Until, or Chain Execution bot, but nothing about internally executed bots, and you could learn this common knowledge just by observing what bot writes to the Output view, or what bots are presented in the Market Bots view.

Miro, so it is again just about a common sense in using bfexplorer features, some way you still did not grasp it when using bfexplorer, and in this case it is really quite simple, how the bot SaveBotData can save bet position of market running bots, if those action bots are not presented in Market Bots view?

Please, read this:

market - running bots - collection changed - save bot data