Check Your DVW Files

In preparation for the season a lot of people are spending far more hours than is healthy sitting in front  of their computers frantically working away on various statistical software packages, Data Volley, Volleymetrics, Volley Station, AOC VBStats.  Personally I am a Data Volley guy and have been using it for well over twenty years now, back to when it was DOS based.  As much as I have used and loved and won countless matches because of it, there is one small flaw in all the various programs that is continually annoying.  The ‘Validate File’ command is woefully inadequate and finds only the very biggest errors in a scouted file.

For those who have similar feelings, Ben Raymond (my ‘Timeouts’ co-conspirator) has developed a simple validation tool that have saved me countless hours of trolling through dvw files trying to find out why my statistics don’t add up.  It is a web based app, online now at the url https://apps.untan.gl/dvalidate/ and it works with all *.dvw files.

Simply upload your file onto the front page and within seconds you will have a report that identifies all (so far) of the common errors that ‘CTRL V’ does not.  For example, it will spot substitution errors, false scores, backrow players spiking in the frontrow, rotation errors and many other.  Below are screenshots of the uploading page and an example of an error report.

Enjoy and hopefully you’ll get more time to spend with your families 🙂