BBOalert

Version : 9.1.2.x

Table Of Content

• Purpose
• Installation
• Menus
• Data import/export
• Recommended way of using BBOalert
• Alert button
• Data file format
  • Examples
    • Opening bid
    • Development
    • Development with opponents overcall
    • Overcall
  • Advanced features
    • Seat-dependent openings
    • Continued context
    • Markdown lists
    • Continuation line
    • Long explanation text
    • Wildcards
    • Regular Expressions - RegEx
  • User definable scripts
  • Optional code
  • Partnership options
  • Trusted code
  • Auction control tags
  • Keyboard Shortcuts
  • Button Shortcuts
  • Alias
  • Full Disclosure BSS file support
  • Web storage support
    • Google Docs
    • Google Drive
    • OneDrive
    • Github
    • Dropbox
    • Blogger
    • BBOalert data
    • Scripts

For recent changes see actual release notes :

https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vQ_8Iv9HbBj4nWDXSY_kHsW1ZP_4c4dbOVO0GLuObJc1vFu_TBg9oV6ZJXMWd_tLITOj7i6WaJBeZJI/pub

We assume that you are familiar with BBO.

BBOalert is a browser extension that minimizes manual operations due to the alerting procedure while playing bridge on BBO (www.bridgebase.com).

It records alerted calls and automatically alerts the recorded calls.

It offers advanced features such as :

• efficiently coding alerts using wild cards, RegEx expressions and user scripts
• declaring conventions in optional blocks of code that can be turned on and off
• declaring which conventions you play with which partner
• seat-dependent openings and development
• vulnerability-dependent openings and development
• keyboard and button shortcuts and abbreviations
• Full Disclosure BSS file support
• adding custom features using Javascript
• sharing your data using Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox or Github storage.

If you decide to use BBOalert, join the users community on Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/groups/706384146770707/

Facebook should be used to report bugs, propose enhancements and ask questions.

Purpose

Tired of repeating the same explanations when alerting your bids on BBO? If so, this browser extension is your friend.

During the bidding, conventional calls must be alerted and explained to the opponents. Playing artificial bidding systems on BBO is not practical because explaining every alerted call is time-consuming and therefore frustrating for all participants.

BBOalert solves this problem. Artificial bidding sequences can be predefined in a table. Opponents get the explanation automatically and immediately. Explanations entered manually during a game are also recorded for future use.

BBOalert has similar functionality as "Full Disclosure" which is no longer supported by BBO. One difference should be emphasized :

• "Full Disclosure" served the purpose of formal and complete description of a bidding system to be maintained on BBO server. The readability of the code is extremely low due to its complexity.
• BBOalert is strictly for personal use and should help to automate the disclosure of specific agreements. The simplicity of the code makes it readable.

The program can read "Full Disclosure" old BSS files. This will enable many users of the old Windows Flash version of BBO, to migrate to the HTML version without loosing the Full Disclosure functionnality.

BBOalert is useful for all types of BBO users :

• <b>casual players without a regular partner</b> : the common bidding system for all BBO users is SAYC. In such a case, only a few bids should be alerted 'pro forma' because all players are supposed to know SAYC basics. BBOalert will record each alerted bid and will automatically recall it if an identical situation occurs. You only alert once ! The program also allows you to define keyboard shortcuts for the frequently used expressions.
• <b>'natural' players with a regular partner</b> : SAYC is simple but inefficient in many situations. Adding some gadgets gives obvious advantages. BBOalert will help to document particular agreements. By using a common database with the partner, the explanation given to the opponents will be coherent. Practicing natural systems other than SAYC imply frequent alerting because of few, but essential differences.
• <b>'artificial' players with a regular partner</b> : playing an artificial system on BBO is an impossible task. Practically every bid should be alerted and explained. Frustrated opponents will quickly abandon your table. BBOalert enables the formal description of the system in all details and provides the opponents with correct information. Advanced features enable you to differentiate seat-dependent openings and to program different defense schemes depending on the conventions used by opponents.

Installation

This extension can be installed using the link :

• Firefox : https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/bboalert<br>The following supplementary action is required to enable clipboard operations :
  • Open the about:config page and accept the security warnings
  • Search for the clipboard keyword
  • set dom.events.asyncClipboard.readText and dom.events.testing.asyncClipboard parameters to true

• Chrome : https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/bboalert/bjgihidachainhhhilkeemegdhehnlcf

If you discover a serious bug in the program :

• report it to the BBOalert community on Facebook

• follow this link to revert to previous version

  • Firefox : https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/bboalert/versions
  • Chrome : see installing Chrome extension from ZIP file

After you start BBO, the screen should look like this (note red/blue panel at the right) :

At the right side of the page, an additional 'BBOalert' tab is created. Clicking at this tab will toggle BBOalert panel display. This tab is only partially integrated with the regular BBO tabs :

• it shares the same display area
• selecting BBOalert tab will not deselect the open BBO tab
• selecting a BBO tab will turn the BBOalert tab off

BBOalert creates four panels :

• "Data" : the default panel containing :
  • "Data" menu for importing and exporting data
  • "Settings" menu for enabling/disabling features
  • text area to display program messages
• "Options" : to enable/disable user definable optional blocks of data
• "Shortcuts : to access user definable text shortcut buttons
• "Documents" : to display release notes and imported documents

The panels can be selected by clicking the corresponding buttons at the top of the panel.

Menus

The "Data" menu contains commands related to the data input/output :

• <b>Paste (New)</b> : to read new data from the clipboard
• <b>Paste (Prepend)</b> : to prepend additional data from the clipboard
• <b>Clear</b> : to erase all data
• <b>Copy All</b> : write all data to the clipboard
• <b>Copy New</b> : write data related to tha manual alerts to the clipboard
• <b>Copy Log</b> : write log data to the clipboard. Log data should be provided with a bug report related to unexpected bid explanation retrieved from the data
• <b>Copy Original</b> : write original data entered with the <b>Paste (New)</b> command.
• <b>Clear Recent URLs</b> : The list of URLs entered with the <b>Paste (New)</b> command is cleared.
• <b>Bidding Scenarios</b> : loads the data for practicing typical bidding scenarios. See https://github.com/ADavidBailey/Practice-Bidding-Scenarios/blob/main/README.md for details.

The "Settings" menu contains commands to enable/disable features :

• <b>Shortcuts</b> : if enabled, the "Shortcuts" panel will appear automatically at the start of text entry (chat or alert text)
• <b>Hover BBOalert Tabs</b> : if enabled, the BBOalert panels are selected by moving the mouse over the corresponding button at the top of the BBOalert panel
• <b>Hover BBO Tabs</b> : if enabled, the BBO tabs at the right side are selected by moving the mouse over the tab
• <b>Collapse Options</b> : if enabled, the mutually exclusive blocks of data are grouped together and only the selected block is shown. This feature is particullary usefull to save space on the panel when many blocks are defined
• <b>Disable recording</b> : if set, the manual alerts are not recorded
• <b>Disable auto-alerts</b> : if set, automatic alerting mechanism is disabled
• <b>Silent startup</b> : if set, BBOalert will remain hidden while starting the BBO session
• <b>BBOalert button</b> : if set, a button will be used instead of athe tab to toggle the BBOalert panel
• <b>Deferred alerts</b> : if set, automatic alert explanation will happen only on demand by opponents

You will find detailed information later in this text but before you continue to read it it is recommended to get familiar with the basic BBOalert functions by following the tutorial.

Through the "Plugin settings..." menu addional self-explanatory utilities can be enabled and configured.

• <b>BBO event logging</b> : produces a CSV log file containing all relevant events with timing information. Can be usefull as evidence of slow play.
• <b>Modifi