General information

A Python program called CheckProofsPara.py will check the 300/700 proof file format and the associated 301/701 parameter file for format correctness and prepare a zip file for upload if no errors are found in the files. Each record in the proof file has associated information for a single brd-pop-trt combination. One file may contain records for as many or few brd-pop-trt combinations as desired. It may be natural for organizations to include all traits in a trait group in the same file, as they have in the past, but this is not essential. They may also choose to upload evaluations for all breeds, populations and traits in a single file if they find that more convenient. Every proof file must be accompanied by a parameter file!. The records in the parameter file give information about the national evaluations that is common to all records in the proof file for a given brd-pop-trt combination. There must be a record in the parameter file for each brd-pop-trt combination present in the proof file. A proof file may contain only conventional (300) or only GEBV (700) records, not both. CheckProofsPara.py will fail if both record types are found in one file. If no errors are found, a zip file is created with the name IB-ORGCODE-IG-yyymmddThhmmss.zip (for conventional MACE) or IB-ORGCODE-GG-yyymmddThhmmss.zip (for GMACE) containing the input proof and parameter files, renamed to proof.dat and param.dat, respectively.

CheckProofPara.py will perform a series of checks on your performance and parameter data to insure that the data is all right. If no errors are detected then a zip file will be created. The zip file represents your checked data file to upload to the Interbull Centre IDEA database. For technical reason the program rejects files containing more than a million of data.

The checks performed on the parameter file relate to:

• Check correct record type (301) and record length (46)
• Check correct use of breed abbreviation as reported in the IDEA EBV User Manual, Appendix II
• Check correct use of population codes as reported in the IDEA EBV User Manual, Appendix II
• Check correct use of trait codes as evaluated at ITBC and reported in the IDEA EBV User Manual, Appendix II
• Check that the organization has upload authority for the 'brd;pop;trt' combination, fetched from IDEA
• Check that the other information in the file are according to the specification reported in the IDEA EBV User Manual, Appendix II

The checks performed on the proof file relate to:

• Check correct record type (300) and record length (85)
• Check that correct values for type of proofs are used according to what reported in the IDEA EBV User Manual, Appendix I
• Check that correct publication codes are used according to what reported in the IDEA EBV User Manual, Appendix I
• Check that correct values for bull status are used according to what reported in the IDEA EBV User Manual, Appendix I
• Check that the 'brd,pop,trt' combination has also an entry in the parameter file.
• Check that the other information in the file are according to the specification reported in the IDEA EBV User Manual, Appendix I

Before Running the Programs:

1. Install Python (version 2.5 to 2.7) if necessary

2. Create a working directory/folder

3. Download the CheckProofPara.py program from https://idea.interbull.org/software and copy it to your new directory

4. Copy your proof and parameter file to the working directory

Running the Program:

• Ensure there is a working network connection

• Use the command: python CheckProofPara.py -m <ORGCODE> -f <prooffile> -g <paramfile> [-o outpath] where:

• <ORGCODE> is an assigned member organization code (upper case)

• <prooffile> is /path/to/filename of the format 300 national EBV file

• <paramfile> is /path/to/filename of the format 301 evaluation parameter file

• <outpath> is an optional path for creation of the zipfile for uploading

• Use your uppercase ORGCODE as shown on the upper right hand side of the IDEA page.Your organization code is reported within brackets beside the "Logged in as" information.

• The program checks its internal version with the value stored on the Interbull server. You will have to download the most recent version if there is a mismatch.

After Running the Program:

If no errors are detected, the pedigree file will be written into a zip file called IB-ORGCODE-IG-yyyymmddThhmmss.zip. Upload the zip file to IDEA: https://idea.interbull.org/.

In case of errors, no zip file will be created. Please correct your data and re-run the program until the data successfully pass all required checks.The first 10 errors of each kind will be printed on the screen.

Note

Please do not modify the program to circumvent any checks. Doing so would be pointless because the same checking routine is used again inside IDEA to double-check the data file uploaded in the zip file.

If you need assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us at interbull@slu.se .