File Release Notes and Changelog
Notes:
This is the September, 2007 release of the Zocalo Prediction Market
code. The latest version is always available at
http://zocalo.sourceforge.net. You can use it to build a complete
source release or either of two binary releases on Windows or any
standard Unix-based platform (Linux, Macintosh). Release files with
"Exp" in the file names support markets for economics experiments,
while those with "PM" in their names support more general Prediction
Markets. The INSTALL file gives instructions for installing and
running. RELEASE-TODO lists a few of the many tasks left to be done.
(doc/Priorities.txt lists more.) The windows releases use standard
installers that walk you through the installation and configuration
process. On Unix you have to manually edit the etc/zocalo.conf file.
It is still early in the life of Zocalo; there is much work left to
do. The file DevelopmentPlans talks about the order in which we might
approach this, and where help would be appreciated.
The source release includes javadoc as well as the source code, and an
ant file (build.xml) that will allow you to build source and binary
releases, run JUnit tests, or regenerate the javadoc. It does not
directly support installation. Installation should be done from one
of the binary releases; you can build those from the source release.
The binary releases include just what you need to run either an
economics experiment setup or a prediction market, including the
INSTALL instructions and suggestions for CONFIGURing an experiment
using Zocalo. All versions include these NOTES and a list of CHANGES.
LICENSE gives the license for the base Zocalo code. Third party code
that we have included is described in THIRD_PARTY_SOFTWARE. The only
third party code that we include source for is mod_pubsub.
Changes:
CHANGES THROUGH September 2007 (2007.4 release)
PREDICTION MARKETS
Support for Google gmail (TLS)
Improved installation documentation for mail and templates
Script to shutdown database cleanly.
Restore logging; unintentionally disabled default server logging.
CHANGES THROUGH August 2007 (2007.3a release)
Fixed two installation bugs in Prediction Markets server.
Cleaned up installation formatting for both releases
CHANGES THROUGH August 2007 (2007.3 release)
EXPERIMENTS
Added a Windows installer for econ experiments server.
Update the log file analyzer, etc/logToColumns.pl
Add messages triggered by a price threshold
PREDICTION MARKETS
Updated Prediction Market INSTALL documentation to better describe
admin powers.
CHANGES THROUGH July, 2007 (2007.2 release)
PREDICTION MARKETS
New users can create an account; confirmation (via mail) is
required. Admin can no longer create accounts unilaterally.
The confirmation mail message text is locally configurable.
root.password has been renamed to admin.password (and "root"
has been replaced with "admin" in all user-visible places.)
EXPERIMENTS
Fixed a session-interaction bug that could cause sessions to
end early. allow times to be specified in minutes and
seconds. When displayAverages is specified in config file,
compute and display the average trade price as part of the
score table.
Allow experimenters to control what logo is shown in
experiments.
Made labels displayed to subjects in experiments more
customizable. Allow experimenters to highlight messages.
(allow use of html) Don't allow html characters in market
names and descripitons.
CHANGES THROUGH April 16, 2007 (2007.1 release)
PREDICTION MARKETS
The software now requires use of Java 1.5.
multi-outcome markets are supported using a market maker.
Add more chart types: show best price frontier for book
orders; display market-maker markets with a continuous price
line; Display multiple prices for multi-outcome markets.
MarketMakers don't transact at a single price, so the charts
should show how the prices move.
Claim creation has a separate page, and is easier to find.
EXPERIMENTS
Support experiments without manipulators or judges. Allow
configuration of multiple kinds of traders with different
initial assets and cash.
Allow the maximum price to be changed for an experiment.
CHANGES THROUGH September 11, 2006 (2006.5 release)
Added an Installer to ease configuration on Windows. For now,
the installer only handles the Prediction Market version. If
you need an installer for the Economics experiments, let me
know. (Tar and zip files for experiments are still
available.)
The installer is built using NSIS, an open-source Installer
builder, available from http://nsis.sourceforge.net. NSIS is
not included with the zocalo distribution.
CHANGES THROUGH August 21, 2006 (2006.4a release)
corrected the default value and documentation for server.port
in zocalo.conf. It's 30000, in order to allow installation
with user-level privileges.
CHANGES THROUGH August 17, 2006 (2006.4 release)
The main change in this release is a change to the way that
database transactions are managed. Transactions are now begun
when starting to process an http request and committed when
they finish.
Added a configuration parameter (in zocalo.conf) to control
the amount of traders' initial stakes.
converted scripts from csh to bourne shell since sh is
available on more platforms.
Added a directory at the base of the tar and zip files.
CHANGES THROUGH July 14, 2006 (2006.3 release)
* Support deploying on Windows platform
* repair the experiment release (it was broken in 2006.1 and 2006.2)
CHANGES THROUGH June, 2006
The server is now complete enough to be useful.
* Secure login works.
* Anyone who knows the superuser password can create accounts and claims.
* Users can view their transaction history.
* Claim owners can close markets and declare a winner.
* The user gets feedback when transactions complete showing what was purchased.
CHANGES THROUGH April, 2006
There are now two separate configurations. One is for
short-lived economics experiments, the other is for long term
markets. The long term markets rely on a persistent database.
The short term markets use mod_pubsub for dynamic update.
(I'm planning to switch to a different AJAX tool for the
long-term markets. mod_pubsub works, but it continues to be
an integration headache.)
The Long Term markets now present a reasonable interface for
trading. There are many features missing, most notably any
notion of account security. There is enough functionality
here to see that the market supports creation of claims,
viewing individula claims, trading on claims with book and
market orders, and that the market maker is integrated into
the trading platform.
Long Term Markets Server
Display charts based on transaction history
(incorporated jfreechart to draw charts.)
Economics Experiment Server
display configuration errors to experimentor
validate config file a little better
add config flag to suppress earnings display in experiments
added a flag for Whole-Share trading only; made it the default for experiments.
CHANGES BETWEEN SEPTEMBER 8 2005 AND DECEMBER 19 2005.
Rearranged top-level classes into their own packages.
Added a carry-forward configuration option that supports experiments
in which holdings are not reinitialized at each round.
When the stripchart date fills the entire width, we start dropping
events from the left rather than overrunning the table.
Display error messages to the experimenter. (Not all reasonable
messages are being produced at this point, but at least there's a path
now to show the reports to the experimenter.)
CHANGES BETWEEN AUGUST 24 2005 AND SEPTEMBER 8 2005.
Add a script (logToColumns.pl) that parses a log file, and produces a
csv file suitable for importing to a database or spreadsheet
describing the events in the market.
Disable immediate orders when no orders exist.
Move the Zocalo logo under the strip chart so the strip chart is more
visible on small screens.
Significant cleanup of the methods that handle transactions. (Only
interesting to people who will look at the code, but the code is much
simpler now.)
Don't allow transactions after the market is closed. This was
previously working correctly.
Add configuration flags to allow Binary Assets and entering book
orders away from the current market spread. The underlying code
always supported these; they were disabled for the GMU experiment.
Now they can be enabled for other experiments.
CHANGES BETWEEN AUGUST 19 2005 AND AUGUST 24 2005.
Fix the problem that was causing occasional popups in Firefox
complaining that "the page contains POST data".
Ensure that all shipped example configuration files have comments
about scoring algorithm.
Suppress the "broken pipe" error message in the pubsub server.
Added a marker file (/etc/svn-version) containing the svn
version number so releases can be more easily identified.
CHANGES BETWEEN JULY 11 2005 AND AUGUST 19 2005.
Allow trades in which participants start with coupons but no
cash. (This was a bug)
Display scoring explanations for participants at the end of
each round, so they can see the values on which their scores
were based.
fixed a major performance problem in the JavaScript. (By
removing a single extraneous line of code.)
Use the average of the Judges' guesses for scoring the
manipulators, rather than specifying a chosen Judge in the
configuration file.
log session configuration and scoring results so the
experimenter can find them later.
rearrange the subjects' display slightly.
Add a countdown timer in the JavaScript so the "Time
Remaining" updates.
Cleanup of the JavaScript based on a code review by Kragen
Sittaker.
A new Login page that requires the users to know what name
they will use rather than choosing one from a list. This
change is intended to prevent subjects from being able to
easily login as other participants.
