Deal Generator User Guide

File Saver Panel

This is one of several user guides on specific topics. The directory for all user guides is here.

The File Saver panel lets you save your creations to files. The Filename text area will contain an automatically-generated file name any time you press a “Generate” button on any panel, or if you load deals from a file. The generated file name will include the current date and time down to the thousandth of a second to ensure uniqueness (on your computer, anyway) followed by “bridge_out_ahead”.

You can also overtype the filename text area with whatever name you prefer. The next time you press Generate, though, your file name will be overwritten in the text area.

The file name in the text area will not include an extension, because the web page does not know what type of file you might eventually choose to save.

The file type, and thus the format of its contents, and also the extension that is used, are determined based on which “Save” button you press.

Most files saved from this panel can be reloaded using the File Load panel; however, you cannot reload Cookbook files into the deal generator.

Saving files from the current recipe or the current set of deals

As shown in the image at the top of this post, the PBN, LIN and Navigator buttons of the File Saver save deals from the most recently-generated deals, or from the deals most recently loaded in from a single deal file. When saving this way, the Deal Filter is in effect and will determine which deals are written to your output file. For a visual cue as to when the Deal Filter is in effect, move your cursor over the deal save buttons. When you move over a button for which the Deal Filter is in effect, the Deal Filter panel changes color as shown here when I moved my cursor over the PBN button without pressing it:

The Save PBN button will write deals to a file in Portable Bridge Notation format, with an extension of “.pbn”.

The Save LIN Button will write deals to a file in LIN format, which is used on Bridge Base Online. It will have an extension of “.lin”.

The Save Recipe button will write the recipe from the Deal Recipe Make panel to a file in a format known only to the bridge deal generator (that is, this format is not used anywhere else). It will have an extension of “.bcoarecipe”.

The Save Shaper button will write the shaper from the Deal Shaper panel to a file in a format known only to the bridge deal generator (that is, this format is not used anywhere else). It will have an extension of “.bcoashaper”.

The Save Navigator button will write deals into an HTML page suitable for viewing in a web browser. The use of the Navigator HTML page is explained elsewhere.

The Save Cookbook button will write recipes from the recipe collection into an HTML page suitable for viewing a list of the recipes; you can click on any recipe in that list to reload it into the Recipe Maker panel. More here.

Saving files from the recipe and deal collections

When you have put deals or recipes into their collections (temporary hold areas), whether by clicking the “Collect” buttons shown above or by loading them in from all files in a folder, you will see a non-zero counter next to each Collect button showing how many deals or recipes are in each collection.

When there is something in the deal collection, the PBN, LIN and Navigator save buttons change to include the abbreviation “Coll.” for collection, which tells you that if you click those buttons to save deals to a file, then the deals in the collection, not any of your currently-generated deals in storage, will be written to the file.

When writing from the deal collection to a file, Deal Filters are not in effect. Deals are filtered when you put them into the collection, but when you write the collection to a file, every deal in the collection is written.

When there is something in the recipe collection, the Recipe save button changes to include “Coll.” for collection. When you click that button, recipes from the collection, not the current recipe in the Recipe Maker panel, will be written to a file. When you write recipes from the collection to a file, the file extension is “.bcoasmorgasbord” instead of “.bcoarecipe”. These files are treated differently later on, when you load them in via the File Load panel.

When you reload the web page, or click the Clear button next to each collection, the collection will be emptied out and the count will go back to zero. The file save buttons will return to their original text and function.