Trivia Bot Question Parser Information Page

Welcome to the help page for the Trivia Bot Question Parser. This is a program used to generated formatted questions for use with the Trivia Bot on #scobowl on irc.slashnet.org. Please send any feature requests to Mike Bentley at bentley.michael.j@gmail.com. You can find out more about the Trivia Bot by clicking here.

Download Question Parser Version 1.5 - Windows only, requires .NET framework

Release Notes:

Version 1.5: Added support for custom category matching.; Better removal of non-ASCII characters.; Less annoying confirmation dialogs.
Version 1.4: Added support for saving custom category lists.; Fixed a bug where the program would crash if "ANSWER:" was preceeded by a space.
Version 1.3: Added support for bonus parsing.; Fixed an error where prompting information would not be included.; First iteration of category prediction - feedback is appreciated.; Added menus.
Version 1.2: First publicly released version.; Support for parsing tossups.
Planned New Features:: Ability to save custom categories and have them load when the program loads.; Automatically adding prompt information to the prompt field.; Improved category prediction, especially on bonuses.; Improved auto-removal of unnecessary answer line text.

Screenshot:

Adding Raw Tossups:

Tossups should be copied from a packet to the "Raw packet questions" text box. Do not put both tossups and bonuses in here at the same time.

Adjust the "Packet answer format (case sensitive)" field if necessary. This field should contain the exact format that the packet uses to mark an answer.

Adjust the "Character after question number" field if necessary. This is the character that is used after a number to start a question. For example, if questions are in the format of "1.", "2.", "3.", then this text box should have a "." in it. If questions are in the format of "1)", "2)", "3)", then this text box should have a ")" in it.

Once you have made sure the settings are correct, hit the "Parse Packet" button to being the question formatting process (see below).

Formatting Tossups:

In formatting tossups mode, you will go through the individual tossups in the packet and format them for use with the Trivia Bot.

The first thing to do is to select the category for the tossup. Choose from the list of "Current question categories". It is suggested that you use the built-in categories, however, you can create a file at C:\categories.txt to contain a custom list of categories. This will be loaded when the program loads or when you hit the Reload Categories button. If you feel categories are missing, please e-mail Mike Bentley at mike000@umd.edu and request new categories.

Next, you will want to format the "Current question answer" text box so that it is compatible with the Trivia Bot. All non-underlined answers should automatically have parentheses added around them. You will need to remove any extra text (such as "also accept"), and may need to add alternative answers. Alternative answers are denoted with a vertical bar ( | ). Do not include any prompt information in the current question answer text box.

If there are instructions to prompt on an answer, you should add that text to the "Current question prompt" text box. Remember to remove extra text from this text box as well, such as "prompt on ...".

Once you have finished formatting this tossup, hit the "Save Question and Go to Next Question" button to save your work and move on. If you do not want to save your work, hit the "Go To Next Question Without Saving" button.

Saving Formatted Tossups:

Once no text shows up in the "Current question content" text box, you have reached the end of the packet. You wil now want to save the formatted text you generated.

To save your formatted tossups, hit the "Copy Formatted Output" button. Then, paste this data stored in your clipboard to a text file. All packets from a set should be in the same text file.

To start working on a new packet, hit the "Clear Formatted Output" and "Clear Raw Packet Text" buttons and start the process over again.

Adding Raw Bonuses

Bonuses should be copied from a packet to the "Raw packet questions" text box. Do not put both tossups and bonsues in here at the same time.

Adjust the "Packet answer format (case sensitive)" field if necessary. This field should contain the exact format that the packet uses to mark an answer.

Adjust the "Character after question number" field if necessary. This is the character that is used after a number to start a question. For example, if questions are in the format of "1.", "2.", "3.", then this text box should have a "." in it. If questions are in the format of "1)", "2)", "3)", then this text box should have a ")" in it.

Once you have made sure the settings are correct, hit the "Parse Packet" button to being the question formatting process (see below).

Formatting Bonuses:

In formatting bonuses mode, you will go through the individual bonuses in the packet and format them for use with the Trivia Bot.
The first thing you can do is to select a category for the bonus. This can be done at any point during the editing of a bonus. Choose from the list of "Current question categories", or select the "Use Custom Category" text box and enter your own category. It is suggested that you use the built-in categories, however.

After that you will want to select the format that this bonus follows. Typically, this should be 10-10-10 for ACF-style packets. Note that some bonus format are not supported, such as 30-20-10. If you are editing a bonus in this format, hit Skip Bonus to go to the next bonus.

Next, you will want to format the "Current question answer" text box so that it is compatible with the Trivia Bot. All non-underlined answers should automatically have parentheses added around them. You will need to remove any extra text (such as "also accept"), and may need to add alternative answers. Alternative answers are denoted with a vertical bar ( | ). Do not include any prompt information in the current question answer text box.

If there are instructions to prompt on an answer, you should add that text to the "Current question prompt" text box. Remember to remove extra text from this text box as well, such as "prompt on ...".

Once you have finished this, hit "Next Bonus" to bring up the next bonus part. Repeat the above process until you finish all bonus parts and hit "Save Bonus and Go To Next Bonus". Once the current question becomes empty, you will have reached the end of the packet.

Submitting Packets to the Trivia Bot:

Currently there is no automated process to submit a question set. The current method for submitting questions is to e-mail the name of the set and the text file with formatted answers to Alejandro, via e-mailing him at rapidflash06@gmail.com.

Question Format:

Questions are formatted in the following manner:

CATEGORY;;Question content.;;Required Answer Part (Non-Required) (Part)|Alternative Answer

If a category has prompts, then there is an optional:

;;Required Prompt Parts (Non-Required) (Parts)|Alternative Prompt Parts

affixed to the end of the question.

Questions are delimited by new lines.