Bygfoot XML tags reference

Last updated: 12/17/2008

Here you can find a (hopefully) complete list of the available XML tags used in Bygfoot definition files. See also the HOWTO and the current country definitions (Gzipped archive).

The 'depth' value in the tables tells us how 'deeply' nested the tag is, ie. how many tags have to be closed until we arrive at the first level between the root tags. The root tag has depth 0.

Tags used across different files

An (LC) at the end of a description means that the tag is only used in league and cup files.

Depth Name Possible values Default value Description
1 name string - Name of a country, league or cup.
1 symbol string, an image file name - Symbol of a country, league or cup. An image file name (e.g. cup.png).
1 sid string containing a-z ASCII characters, numbers and underscores (_) - Unique string id, e.g. england1. Should be also the part of the file name between the usual prefix (e.g. country_ or strategy_) and .xml
1 short_name string - Shorter name of a league or cup (LC).
1 week_gap integer, > 0 1 Number of weeks between matchdays (LC).
1 yellow_red integer, > 0 1000 Number of yellow cards until a player gets banned automatically for a match (LC).
1 property string - A league or cup property. See the list with properties below (LC).
1, 3 round_robins integer, > 0 2 How many round robins are played (by default, each teams plays each other team twice during a league championship or in a cup round robin stage). In other words, the number of matches each team plays against each other team. Used in league defs and cup round stages with round robin. (LC)
1, 3 break string week_gap A comma separated list of integers specifying the number of weeks between round robins. Consequently, the number of breaks should be the number of round robins - 1. If fewer are given, (e.g. only one number), then the last one is used for the missing values. Useful for winter breaks, for instance. Used in league defs and cup round stages with round robin. (LC)

Tags used in country files

Depth Name Possible values Default value Description
0 country - - Root tag.
1 leagues - - Tag enclosing the leagues list.
2 league a league sid - Tag enclosing a league sid.
1 cups - - Tag enclosing the cup list.
2 cup a cup sid - Tag enclosing a cup sid.
1 supernational 0, 1 0 This tag, if set to 1, disables parts of the game, such as finances or transfers. It is used to create definitions like the World Cup.
1 rating integer, between 1 and 10 - This describes how strong the league of a country is. The English definition for instance should be 10, whereas the Greek one is around 5 or 6. Important for the job offer system.

Tags used in league files

Depth Name Possible values Default value Description
0 league - - Root tag.
1 layer integer, > 0 Index + 1 The layer of the league; important for parallel leagues. If you don't have parallel leagues in your country, you can omit this tag. First league has layer 1, parallel leagues have the same layer.
1 first_week integer, > 0 1 The week number the league begins (ie. the first matches are played.
1 average_talent integer, > 0 7000 Average talent of the players in the league in (percentage of the maximum skill) * 100. Maximum skill is currently 99.
1 names_file string general The sid (ie. the part between player_names_ and .xml) of a player names file containing last names and first names.
1 joined_league league sid - If specified, fixtures against teams from the given league will be added to the league fixtures. Useful for fixtures across leagues like in North American conferences.
1 rr integer, > 0 2 NOT A TAG BUT AN ATTRIBUTE to joined_league. Number of round robins for the fixtures with the joined league teams.
1 new_table integer, > 0 - A week number when a new table should be added. The older tables are kept and a cumulative table is kept when there is more than one table, too. Useful for systems like apertura/clausura in South America.
1 name string - NOT A TAG BUT AN ATTRIBUTE to new_table. Name of the new table.
1 prom_rel - - Tag enclosing the promotion/relegation section.
2 prom_games - - Tag enclosing the promotion games section.
3 prom_games_dest_sid one league sid or a space-separated list of league sids - The destination league of the promotion game winner(s).
3 prom_games_loser_sid one league sid or a space-separated list of league sids - The destination league of the promotion game loser(s).
3 prom_games_number_of_advance integer, > 0 1 How many teams advance from the promotion games. All other participating teams count as losers.
3 prom_games_cup_sid a cup sid - sid of the cup specifying the cup format for the promotion games.
2 prom_rel_element - - A tag enclosing a promotion/relegation element.
3 rank_start integer, > 0 0 The first rank in the tables that is part of the element.
3 rank_end integer, > 0 0 The last rank in the tables that is part of the element.
3 dest_sid one league sid or a space-separated list of league sids - The destination league of the element.
3 prom_rel_type promotion or relegation or none none Whether we have a promotion or relegation element (or unspecified). Only important for colours in tables.
3 from_table integer, >= 0 0 To which table the element refers, in case the league contains more than one. Default (0) is the cumulative table. The later a table gets added during a season, the higher its index.
1 teams - - Tag enclosing the team list.
2 team - - Tag enclosing a team section.
3 team_name string - Name of a team.
3 team_symbol string - A file with a symbol for the team.
3 team_names_file string - A file (sid) with player names.
3 team_average_talent integer, > 0 - The average talent of the players in the team.
3 def_file string - Part between team_ and .xml of a file containing a team definition.

League properties

inactive
Whether the league is visible to the user and league matches are scheduled and played. Inactive leagues are useful as mere 'containers' for teams, e.g. in the World Cup definition.
omit_from_history
No entry is written for the league in the season history. Useful for auxiliary leagues that are not terribly important.

Tags used in cup files

Depth Name Possible values Default value Description
0 cup - - Root tag.
1 group integer -1 Integer grouping cups that should not feature the same teams (e.g. Champions' League and Cup Winners' Cup); those get the same group number. A value of -1 means there are no restrictions.
1 last_week integer, >0 - The week the last match(es) of the cup are played. Just for convenience so that you can specify the week of the cup final.
1 add_week integer, >= -1 0 Integer telling the program when the cup 'becomes active', ie. when the fixtures should be written (see HOWTO).
1 talent_diff integer, > 0 0 Difference of the average talents in the cup (if it's an international one) compared to the first league of the country in percentage * 100 (e.g. 250 = +2,5%).
1 cup_rounds - - Tag enclosing the cup rounds section.
2 cup_round - - Tag enclosing a cup round section.
3 home_away 0 or 1 1 Whether there are home/away games.
3 replay 0 or 1 0 Whether there are replay matches. Don't combine with home_away.
3 neutral 0 or 1 0 Whether the cup round matches are on neutral ground.
3 byes integer >= -1 -1 The number of teams to get a bye in the cup round. The default value -1 means that the program computes the number of byes needed so that in the next round the number of teams is a power of 2.
3 randomise_teams 0 or 1 1 Whether the order of teams gets randomised before writing the fixtures. Setting this to 0 makes sense in the first round of cups that you want to keep unchanged, e.g. the World Cup def.
3 number_of_groups integer, >= 0 0 How many groups there are if we have a round robin stage. 0 means this is not a round robin stage.
3 number_of_advance integer, >= 0 1 How many teams advance from each group (only relevant if number_of_groups is > 0).
3 number_of_best_advance integer, >= 0 0 How many of the best teams (apart from those already advancing via number_of_advance) across all groups advance ((only relevant if number_of_groups is > 0).
3 round_robins integer, >= 1 2 How often each team plays every other team in the group phase. If home_awayis set to 0, this value is overwritten with 1.
3 new_teams integer, >= 0 0 How many teams come into the cup in a cup round (only specified if some of the teams have to be generated)
3 delay integer 0 This tag can be used to delay a cup round by a certain number of weeks or make it occur earlier (if the value is negative). Take care you don't get an overlap with the previous round if you use a negative delay.
3 choose_teams - - Tag enclosing the choose_team list of a cup round.
4 choose_team - - Tag enclosing a choose_team section.
5 choose_team_sid league or cup sid - The league or cup the team(s) get taken from. Can be a league or cup that's part of the country or a team from one of the league xml files not part of the country.
5 number_of_teams integer -1 How many teams get chosen. -1 means all teams.
5 start_idx integer - The index of the first team to load (only relevant if number_of_teams != -1).
5 end_idx integer - The index of the last team to load (only relevant if number_of_teams != 0). Note that not all teams between the indices get loaded if number_of_teams is smaller than the range.
5 randomly 0 or 1 0 Whether to load the teams randomly (only makes sense if number_of_teams != -1 and the range of the indices is bigger than number_of_teams).
5 generate 0 or 1 0 Whether to look for the team in the leagues and cups of the country or load and generate the team from an 'external' league xml file.
5 skip_group_check 0 or 1 0 Whether to skip the check for teams competing in other cups from the same cup group.
5 from_table integer, >= 0 0 To which table the choose_team refers, in case the league contains more than one. Default (0) is the cumulative table. The later a table gets added during a season, the higher its index.

Cup properties

national
National cups, no teams have to be generated ('cause they're from the leagues of the country).
international
International cup. Possibly, some teams have to get loaded from xml files and generated.
promotion
A promotion games cup.
hide
Whether to hide the cup (the user doesn't see it anymore) after the competition's finished. This is useful for 'auxiliary' cups like some cups that are only needed to determine participating teams for another cup.
weak_at_home
If this property is set, teams from lower leagues play at home against teams from better leagues in cup rounds with only one match.
highlight1
First highlighting colour (commonly used for international cups). If a cup with this property contains choose_teams specifying teams from leagues, the corresponding teams have this colour (currently lightblue) as background colour in the tables.
highlight2
Second highlighting colour. Commonly used for promotion game cups (currently khaki).
highlight3
Third highlighting colour. Currently gold.
league_talents
Whether to create teams based on the talent level of their league definition file rather than using the talent_diff value.
silent_on_fixture_error
Whether to keep silent and disable the cup if the fixture checking (e.g. for fixtures with the same team playing against itself) returns an error. This is useful for cups that don't always take place, e.g. if there's a double winner so that a Supercup isn't necessary.
omit_from_history
No entry is written for the cup in the season history. Useful for auxiliary cups that are not terribly important.

Tags used in player names files

Depth Name Possible values Default value Description
0 names - - Root tag.
1 first_name string - Tag enclosing a first name, e.g. 'John'.
1 last_name string - Tag enclosing a last name, e.g. 'Arbuckle'.

Tags used in team definition files

Depth Name Possible values Default value Description
0 team - - Root tag.
1 team_name string - Name of the team (may be an official one).
1 stadium_name string - Name of the stadium, like Bernabeu.
1 symbol string - Name of an image file (e.g. a team badge or a flag).
1 average_talent integer, between 0 and 10000 - Average talent for additional players that get generated (apart from the ones specified in the definition) to make the team complete.
1 formation integer, digits sum up to 10 - A team formation like 442 or 433.
1 names_file string - sid of a names file to load player names from (for the players that aren't specified in the def file).
1 player - - Tag enclosing a player section.
2 player_name string - Name of the player.
2 birth_year integer, > 0 - Year of birth in YYYY format (e.g. 1982).
2 birth_month integer, between 1 and 12 - Month of birth, e.g. 8 for August.
2 skill integer, between 0 and 10000 - Skill of player in percentage of max skill times 10000, e.g. 8000 to get a player whose skill is 80% of the maximum skill.
2 talent integer, between 0 and 10000, > skill - Talent of player in percentage, e.g. 9000 to have a player whose talent is 90% of the maximum skill. Talent must be greater or equal the skill value.
2 position 0, 1, 2 or 3 - Position of the player. Positions are: 0 (Goalie), 1 (Defender), 2 (Midfielder), 3 (Forward).

Tags used in live game commentary files

Depth Name Possible values Default value Description
0 lg_commentary - - Root tag.
1 event - - Tag enclosing an event with a name and commentary strings.
2 name string - Tag enclosing the name of an event. See the HOWTO for a list of event names.
2 commentary string - A commentary belonging to an event.
2 cond string - NOT A TAG BUT AN ATTRIBUTE. A condition specifying when the commentary may be chosen.
2 pri string - NOT A TAG BUT AN ATTRIBUTE. A priority value. A high value relative to the rest of the commentaries for the given event increases the probability that the commentary gets picked.

Here's an archive of current commentary files.

Tags used in news files

Depth Name Possible values Default value Description
0 news - - Root tag.
1 news_article - - Tag enclosing an article.
2 type string - The article type. Currently, only match is supported, for news articles about matches.
2 condition string - A condition ensuring the article is used when most fitting.
2 priority integer, > 0 1 Priority for the article. The bigger, relative to the other articles, the higher the probability of the article being picked.
2 title string - A newspaper article title. Several titles can (and should) exist in an article.
2 subtitle string - A newspaper article subtitle (usually longer than a title). Several subtitles can (and should) exist in an article.
2 condition string - NOT A TAG BUT AN ATTRIBUTE TO <title> AND <subtitle>. A condition to the title/subtitle.
2 priority integer, > 0 1 NOT A TAG BUT AN ATTRIBUTE TO <title> AND <subtitle>. Priority of title/subtitle.

You can get the current news files here.

Tags used in CPU strategy files

Depth Name Possible values Default value Description
0 strategy - - Root tag.
1 sid string - The unique string id of the strategy/file.
1 desc string - A short description of the strategy.
1 priority integer, > 0 1 Priority of the strategy relative to all other strategies.
1 prematch - - Tag enclosing a prematch section.
1 cond string - Property for the prematch tag.
2 formation integer, checksum = 10 - A team formation, e.g. 442 or 433.
2 lineup best, weakest, fittest, unfittest - A lineup description.
2 min_fitness integer, between 0 and 100 0 Property for the lineup tag.
2 prematch_boost on, off, anti - Boost state.
2 prematch_style all-out-defend, defend, balanced, attack, all-out-attack - Playing style of a team.
1 match_action - - Tag enclosing a match action.
1 cond string - Property for the match_action tag.
2 style all-out-defend, defend, balanced, attack, all-out-attack - Playing style of a team.
2 boost on, off, anti - Boost state.
2 sub - - Tag enclosing a substitution.
3 in goalie, forward, midfielder, defender - A playing position.
3 out goalie, forward, midfielder, defender - A playing position.
3 prop best, weakest, fittest, unfittest - Property for the in and out tags.