Players: Player UID

Each player has a UID, or Universal ID. You can think of the UID as uniquely identifying a person. If a database contains more than one record for the same player, the UID makes it clear that they all belong to the same person. DMB's migration feature uses these UIDs to match player records in different DMB databases.

NOTE: We added UIDs to our player records beginning in 1997. If you purchased a Season Disk before then, your UID values will not be valid. This causes no problems if you do not use tools (like migration and the DMB Encyclopedia) that require UIDs. All DMB Season Disks now have UIDs for every player. If you wish to upgrade older Season Disks, contact us for upgrade pricing.

Purchasing an upgraded version of a Season Disk simply to obtain valid UIDs is usually not necessary because DMB provides tools to help you do this. When you convert a database to the latest version of DMB, the program checks player UIDs to make sure they are present in the converted database. If they are not present, DMB tries to assign the appropriate UID based on a historical player database that ships with the game. This process usually accounts for most players, but a few may end up without UIDs because small differences in spelling and statistical data prevent the conversion logic from finding an exact match in the historical database.

For players who are not assigned a UID during conversion (a default UID of -1 is usually assigned), DMB includes a UID search command that allows you to quickly assign one. You can access this command directly from the Players tab of the Organizer window. From that tab, click on a player to select him and then click on the Modify button (or right-click and select Modify from the popup menu).  When the Modify popup window appears, choose Player UID. You can also use the UID search command when you modify a player's General Information.

When you choose the search command, a listing of historical players appears. DMB attempts to match the player based on his name and allows you to locate the player if the initial search does not turn up an exact match. Once you've located the player and clicked on him to highlight his record, click Ok to use that UID.