• Author: Frederic Demers

• Software testing and new contributed graphics: Mike Suetkamp

• Last Version: 1.5 - 10 December 2003

Bingoware is a simple open-source PHP script which facilitates the creation, viewing and printing of randomly generated Bingo cards and provides a game play mode, which draws random bingo number and lists all the winning cards.

Bingoware is not intended for online gaming, but rather to ease the administration of a real-life Bingo. I once had to organize a Bingo and realized that I could not photocopy Bingo cards (everybody would win at once!), so I created Bingoware. This software will help you create the cards, draw the numbers and verify the winning cards. It allows the user to choose the winning pattern(s).

Using the Fooble Color Picker script (http://www.flooble.com/scripts/colorpicker.php)

Index:

1. Requirements

2. Installation Instructions

3. Key Definitions

4. Version History (Changelog)

5. ToDo

6. Requirements:

• A Javascript and CSS enabled web browser (Opera 7 and MSIE 6 have been tested and are supported by Bingoware; Netscape 4 does not support the interactive web-based customization of winning patterns; Netscape 6 and 7 were not tested)

• A PHP-enabled web server with permissions to write files to the local directory.

• Note: Apache (httpd.apache.org) and Sambar (www.sambar.com) are both free web servers that I have tested and work with PHP (www.php.net) Consults their documentation to install and configure either server with PHP For Windows users, easyphp.manucorp.com has a pre-made package (easyphp) which installs and configures the most recent Apache web server, PHP and MySQL.

• approx 125 kB for the script files. Creating sets of bingo cards will use up approx 1.5 kB per card (1000 cards ~= 1.5 MB)

2. Installation Instructions (tested on Windows 98/ME/2000/Ubuntu12.04):

1. Extract the files into the documents directory of your web server

2. Point your browser to localhost/index.php

3. The script requires write access in the directory it is installed

4. Change the configuration parameters from the 'configure' menu item as you wish

5. Key Definitions:

Free Squares Mode: Bingoware gives you some flexibility when generating your set of cards. You can choose to have a free square in the center of every card (will not help for winning patterns such as the perimeter of the Bingo card), no Free squares at all (slightly longer games), or a randomly placed free square on all cards.

Set ID: The set ID is a unique identifier given to your set of cards. The set ID will always prefix the card numbers when displayed on screen or printed out. You can have several sets of cards saved on the computer, which will remain untouched, simply by changing the set ID to a different letter or word. For example, if you generate a set 'A' of 10 cards, the cards will be numbered A0001-A0010. Once set 'A' is generated, you can change the set ID to 'Freddy-' and generate a new set of 20 cards (numbered Freddy-0001 to Freddy-0020). The original set remains untouched. This feature is very useful if you want to personalize several sets of cards. It also allows you to reload a previously generated set of cards.

Number of cards in play: In game mode, the software will open the current set of cards (as indicated by the setid variable in the config mode). If you do not distribute all the cards you generated, because for instance you did not get the crowd you expected or are charging too much for you cards, then you can tell Bingoware not to consider all the cards. The trick is to issue out your cards in sequential order, and enter the number of the last card given away in the "number of cards in play" box. You can always change the number throughout the game if you gain or lose some people. Bingoware will only announce winning cards for cards that are in play.

Manual vs Automatic Modes: Bingoware can generate Bingo draws for you when in Automatic Mode. The Manual Mode is meant for people using a different physical random number generator (such as a barrel, lottery balls, ...) Bingoware then lets you enter the draw directly instead of generating a random number, and will still be able to announce the winners.

4. Version History (Changelog):

Version 1.5 (10 December 2003)

• great new look -> graphics contributed by Mike Suetkamp --> Thank you!
• fixed header element of Rules.html file
• new "Free" square image
• "generate new set" no longer deletes previous set until the new set is generated
• no longer able to change page title on the fly from URL (security)
• ability to change the Bingo's maximum number, typically 75, to another number (multiple of 5)
• bux fix in manual draw mode, introduced in version 1.4

Version 1.4 (28 October 2003)

• new graphics contributed by Mike Suetkamp in the drawn numbers table --> Thank you!
• revamped entire code so that it is (only) compatible with the newer version of PHP
• ability to select multiple winning patterns simultaneously
• ability to change the font and background colours from the configuration file
• ability to use a text files of names which will be printed on the bottom left of each card
• ability to have a rules page that is printed on the back of each card (requires double-sided printer)
• fixed a minor bug in play.php which prevented the change of the BINGO letters
• fixed other minor bugs related to changes in the way browsers comply to Javascript standards
• created a much needed folder structure

Version 1.3 (1 July 2002)

• entire web-based configuration
• interactive user-defined winning patterns
• ability to change the number of cards in play (up to the total number in the set)
• ability to enter bingo draws if another random mechanism is in place (manual mode)
• new winners indicated separately in red from other winners
• set ID displayed on each page
• improved help file (and added context-sensitive help throughout the program)
• extracted Javascript into a separate file
• strict validation rules for data entry (set ID and Manual Draw Mode)
• removed webmaster's email address in footer
• other minor enhancements and bug fixes

Version 1.2 (18 April 02)

• ability to select 9 winning patterns (normal, full card, square, T, X, N, Z, + and Cross)
• ability to select 3 "Free Square" mode (no free square, center on all cards, random on all cards)
• customized headers and footers for view and print pages
• created file constants.php to remove the constant informaton from the config file
• added a set_time_limit(0) instruction to avoid time-out problems
• modification of the card number display in print mode to each card instead of each set
• other minor enhancements

Version 1.1 (14 April 02)

• ability to choose a setid which enables the user to have multiple sets of Bingo cards that do not overwrite one another
• ability to change the page title on the fly from the URL
• minor bug fixes and other enhancement

Version 1.0 (7 April 02)

• initial release

5. ToDo (most important first):

• Refactoring all the code
• Supports PHP 5.4 and HTML5 / CSS3
• PHP GD library to create column headers as graphics
• A MySQL version which will be much faster than flat file (I hope)
• Look at sessions to be able to save data without using files to improve speed
• Ability to change the names of the winning patterns from config file
• Use of external ini file script instead of current settings.php file