Instructions

Read this page carefully and make sure to understand.

The forecast competitions follow a standard format for the participants to communicate their forecasts to the instructor that we now explain:

  1. Install and load the fc2018 package (visit the package page here for installation instruction). Note that you will need R (version >= 3.4.0) to install this package. This package is under development and will be updated during the semester, so make sure to install the latest version. The safest may be to install the package each time you want to use it.

  2. The fc2018 package contains a function named send_forecast(). It permits to send a single forecast for a specific date to the instructor using a gmail address already generated by the instructor. The usage has been as simplified as possible. There are four arguments:

    • group : enter your group number as assigned in class.
    • forecast : insert the single forecast. If you want to send multiple forecasts, use multiple times the send_forecast() function.
    • key : enter the secret key provided by the instructor. Each key is unique for each group.
    • date : by default, the forecast is for “tomorrow” (the date on your system plus one day), you can enter another date respecting the format YYYY-MM-DD. Forecasts for today or anterior dates are not allowed. However, you can forecast for ulterior dates as far as you want for the competition. Type ?send_forecast for more details. Here is an example:

    # install the package of the course
devtools::install_github("SMAC-Group/fc2018")
    
# suppose today is 11th of September 2018
# I am part of the group number 23
# and the instructor provided me with a key
my_group <- 23
my_key <- "37693cfc748049e45d87b8c7d8b9aacd"
my_forecast <- 123 # the forecast you obtained
    
# send a forecast for tomorrow (2018-09-12)
send_forecast(group = my_group, forecast = my_forecast, key = my_key) 
    
# send a forecast for 23rd of September 2018 
my_date <- '2018-09-23'
send_forecast(group = my_group, forecast = my_forecast, key = my_key, date = my_date)

  3. Send your forecast by 11pm at the latest for the next day. Every day of a competition, around 8pm, the instructor checks the forecast received and inform the groups of potential bugs, so groups have until 11pm to fix bugs or modify their forecast.

  4. (Only the first time). When using send_forecast for the first time, you will receive the following message:

    Use a local file ('.httr-oauth'), to cache OAuth access credentials between R sessions?
    
1: Yes
2: No
    
Selection?

    You should enter 1 (for Yes). Then your browser should open to the gmail “Sign in” page. Choose the account of your group: it should be “unil.forecasting.group#@gmail.com” where “#” is your group number. For example, if you are group 1, select

    gmail1

    Then, you should enter the password provided by the instructor and click on “Allow”

    gmail2

    If everything is ok, you receive the following message:

    Authentication complete. Please close this page and return to R.

    Otherwise, contact the instructor asap.

Forecasts for today (or anterior dates) are not accepted! Do not be late! Be proactive!

Please, inform the instructor as soon as a bug is detected!