Behind the Scenes with ACBLscore and the Bridgemate II by Bob Gruber

Transcription

1 Behind the Scenes with ACBLscore and the Bridgemate II by Bob Gruber ACBLscore, which runs on Windows PCs only, is currently being revised so information given here in July 2014 is subject to change. To start, ACBLscore loads a whole structure of folders on your computer. At the highest level is ACBLSCOR. This folder will typically be loaded at the highest level of your C drive, which is shown as C:\. A snippet of the whole tree structure is shown below: C:\ACBLscor C:\ACBLscor\DBASE C:\ACBLscor\GAMEFILE C:\ACBLscor\MOV... DBASE Database of Player Information DBASE is a database containing player information such as name, ACBL number, street address, phone, Unit affiliation, attendance at games directed on this computer (actually, it s games DBADDed on this computer, where DBADD stands for Data Base Add), total points reported to ACBL from all sources, and more. GAMEFILE File of Standings and Results for a given Game GAMEFILE is where ACBLscore automatically stores game files with the date encoded in the name. A gamefile for a given game contains the participants names and ACBL player numbers and the board-by-board results. The last character of the 3-character extension indicates in which quarter of the day the game started. (The quarters are Morning, Afternoon, Evening, and Late.) Besides the gamefile, several other distinct file types per game may be in this folder/directory. Usually, they have the same basic name the encoded date but a different extension. The minimum number of files per game is one and that one is the gamefile itself. The gamefile naming scheme uses numbers to represent the month and day and only the last 2 digits of the year. If the month or day is a single digit, a leading zero is used. The (numeric) format is: yymmdd The extension for the gamefile is acx, where x is M/A/E/L, depending upon whether the game is Morning (6 A.M. to noon), Afternoon (noon to 6 P.M.), Evening (6 P.M. to midnight) or Late (midnight to 6 A.M.). A gamefile for the morning of June 5, 2014 would be named by ACBLscore: acm. If it were an afternoon game, ACBLscore would name it: aca. Other possible extensions (for different file types) are: bws, htm/html, pdf and txt. bws the blank write system is the format ACBLscore uses when creating a file in the GAMEFILE directory for use by itself and the Bridgemate Control Software (BCS) htm hypertext markup language is used on websites, and generating an htm file is an ACBLscore option for the director. Sometimes an htm file is called for, other times a txt file is appropriate. pdf the portable document format is often used for an accompanying Hand Record file, if any 1 / 5

2 txt text files may be displayed directly on some websites, and generating one is an ACBLscore option for the director. Sometimes a txt file is called for, other times an htm file is appropriate. Note that none of these extensions incorporate M/A/E/L as the last character. Instead, that character is tacked onto the 6-digit name. A text file for the morning of June 5, 2014 would be named by ACBLscore: M.txt. If it were a hypertext markup language file, ACBLscore would name it: M.htm. If Bridgemates were used the morning of June 5, 2014, the resultant file (in the GAMEFILE directory) would be M.bws. After the 6/5/14 morning game has wrapped up, if the director chooses to create a HTML file for display on a website (which might be the ACBL website), its ACBLscore suggested name would be M.htm. Its suggested location would be the GAMEFILE directory. If it was an afternoon game on 6/5/14 and an accompanying Hand Record file was available for website display, the website might expect it to be named: A.pdf. (The ACBL website expects a dealing file format for the Hand Record file. Acceptable dealing file formats are: PBN, LIN, or DLM.) Finally, after the 6/5/14 evening game has wrapped up, if the director chooses to create a text file, its ACBLscore suggested name would be E.txt. Its suggested location would be the GAMEFILE directory. Implicit in the discussion so far is that the game is the only game at that time. If your club/unit has open and restricted games at the same time, and you display the results on a website (as either an htm or txt file), you need a way to distinguish one game from the other. The Ventura Unit has chosen to add an 8 th character to the name. Ventura uses N for Novice, 49er and 1499er games, so the text file for a Novice game the afternoon of June 3, 2014 would be named: AN.txt MOV Location of Movement files other than the standard Mitchell and Howell The standard Mitchell and Howell movements are built in to ACBLscore and access to them for modification is not available to the club director. They are, of course, available to be used. MOV is the directory where most External movement files are stored, but Board-A-Match (BAM) movements and Individual movements (IND) have their own directories within ACBLSCOR. Most likely, any new movement you wish to place (or create) on your computer would go in the MOV directory and would have an extension of MOV. When trying to use/select this movement in ACBLscore, it would most likely be grouped in with the EXT(ernal) movements. You don t normally view the external movements. When you select a Movement type of 4 External, there is a list of the various external movements. That list has the movement name and a very brief description of the movement. That gives you an idea of what you re getting. If you then select one of the movements, typically a lengthier, more detailed description comes up. To see the movement (in something of a matrix/spreadsheet format) you would select Edit and then Edit Movement (EDM). 2 / 5

3 Bridgemate II The primary parts of the Bridgemate II scoring system are: Bridgemate II scoring devices to be placed on each table in play Bridgemate II USB server + USB cable to connect the server to the host computer Bridgemate Control Software (BCS) to be loaded on the host computer ACBLscore Green lights come on when the USB cable is connected USB cable Bridgemate Control Software (BCS) Bridgemate II Bridgemate II USB Server Host PC [ receives power from [ receives power from the from 2 AA batteries ] Host PC via the USB cable ] The USB server passes information from the host computer to the battery-operated Bridgemate devices and passes information received from the Bridgemate devices to the host computer. Information from the Bridgemates is stored in the bws file (on the Host computer) for this game. The USB cable makes a physical connection between the server and the host PC to enable that communication path. To talk to the Bridgemates, the server is equipped with a transmitter and a receiver for wireless radio communication. Bridgemate Server Activation To start, use the USB cable to connect the Bridgemate II server to the Host PC. This physical connection powers and activates the server, but not the Bridgemate Control Software (BCS). The BCS is started when the director issues a command in ACBLscore to start the Bridgemate system. After the BCS and server establish communication, the server expects a download of all movement data, including board numbers and pair numbers per round. This is the reason you don t have ACBLscore start the BCS (using F11 and then the BMS command) until the movement (in all sections) has been setup. The player names and ACBL numbers (from DBASE) are also passed to the server. The server then broadcasts this data to the Bridgemate II units. Launching the Bridgemate Control Software (BCS) on the Host PC Once the movement has been set up, within ACBLscore use F11 and then the BMS (BridgeMate Start) command. You may either scroll the list F11 brings up or quickly type BMS. However you get there, make sure BMS is highlighted and then click on the on-screen OK button. This sequence will launch the BCS and initiate the download of the movement parameters. The player names and ACBL numbers (from the ACBLscore database, DBASE) are also passed to the Bridgemate server. 3 / 5

4 Bridgemate Login at each Table Once the server has received this start-up data, it broadcasts it to the Bridgemates. At this time, the Bridgemates at each table can/should be activated. North does this by hitting the OK key and entering the data prompted for. As each Bridgemate finishes entering the four player numbers, hitting OK sends them to the server. The server immediately stores them in the bws file. Uploading Player Numbers to ACBLscore After all tables have had a chance to enter the player numbers, the director uses another command to copy the numbers from the bws file to ACBLscore. F11 and BMN (BridgeMate Names) will do the trick. ACBLscore s DBASE database will then translate the numbers into names for display. Periodically Posting Scores to ACBLscore During the course of the game, hitting OK on a Bridgemate after a result is entered sends the board #, contract and result information to the server which stores it in the.bws file on the Host PC. This data is not automatically copied to the ACBLscore program. Within ACBLscore, the director uses the BMP (BridgeMate Post) command to do that. In this case, there is a handy ACBLscore shortcut, namely <Ctrl>P. The Tournament Director s (TD) PIN The director has extra control over each Bridgemate device via the TD PIN that has been established in the BCS. If you haven t been told the existing PIN, you can find it in the BCS program by selecting Tools, Options, Bridgemate and then the Bridgemate II tab. You ll find the PIN in the upper right. Correcting a Score by Erasure and Reentry on the Bridgemate II If the need for a score correction is discovered before the round ends and the Director is called to the table, he/she erases the erroneous entries for that board on the Bridgemate and has North reenter the correct data, which will then be transmitted to the server. To erase the entries for the board the Director will need to use the TDMENU (the leftmost function key on the Bridgemate) and that requires use of the TD PIN. On the new screen on the Bridgemate, the Director selects option 3 (Erase Board) and is then prompted for the Board number. Correcting a Score in the BCS Within the BCS program (on the Host computer), the Director can go to the Result matrix screen, double click on an erroneous score and then change the entries in error, but this needs to be done before the result is posted to ACBLscore (via <Ctrl>P) and if you ve caught it that early, it s best, if still possible, to make the correction on the Bridgemate itself. Correcting a Score in ACBLscore If the erroneous result has already been posted to ACBLscore, the correction must be done in ACBLscore as well. The Director should use whatever technique he or she is comfortable with. 4 / 5

5 BMS BMN BMP PIN TD BridgeMate Start BridgeMate Names Bridgemate Post <Ctrl>P is a shortcut in the ACBLscore program Personal Identification Number Tournament Director 5 / 5