Data files

Hub, rim and wheel information can be saved in external files which can be loaded back into the calculator at any time.

An example

Creating a data file

If you open up the example data file (slp-datafile.txt) in a text editor you can see how it was created.

Every item starts with a tag, spaces before and after the tag are ignored.

You don't need to use all the tags. Just make a data file that meets your own needs.

[d]A data item copied and pasted from the calculator. You cannot edit this line - see "Red lines" later.

[t]Title. Large font bold underlined.
[h]Heading. Medium font bold.
[c]Comment. The text is placed in a paragraph, type everything on one line and the calcultor will wrap the display. If you need a line break, start another comment. Html formatting tags are ignored.
[link]A link to an external web page. It must be a full link (https:// etc), and the best way to get it is to copy it from your web browser location. If clicked will open up in a new tab.
[link-short]Same as above, but only the host name will be displayed, but the full link is there. Useful if the url is very long.
[config]

[config] Config name : spokes cross dia

A lacing configuration, clicking it will load the spoke count, cross and diameter into the calculator. The value of cross and diameter will be used for both the left and right side.

[config] Standard 28 : 28 3 1.8

[config] Radial 24 : 24 0 1.5

[sticky]Adding another data file pushes any existing files down, with the new file inserted at the top.
If you want a file to always remain at the top when new files are added, then use the [sticky] tag in that file.
[border]

An outside border around the entire data file.

[border] color size

Where color is a color code in numeric format (search for a html color picker). The size is the border width in pixels (leave it off and it defaults to 1).

[border] #c0392b

[border] #c0392b 8

[background]

Background color (see above).

[background] color

[date]

[date] on

From this point onwards (until date off or end of file), the calculation date for each data item will be shown.

[date] off

#To prevent an existing line from displaying, put # at the beginning.

To add your own internal comments to the data file just enter text without any starting tag (or start your comment with the # symbol so that you exactly what it is - a comment).

Blank lines are ignored, so don't use blank lines thinking that they will space out the display in the calculator. To space out the displayed information just use another comment (each comment will be placed in a seperate paragraph).

Blank lines in the data file can be used to make the file easier to read.

Red lines

Data lines for hubs, rims and wheels must come from the calculator (coppied from the Info menu). If you manually edit them in the data file, the calculator will know and the displayed line will show in red.

This is a security feature, so that if you obtain a data file from somewhere else it will alert you that it has been manually altered or exported from another database. If you do get a red line, load it into the calculator, check the data and replace the offending line with a fresh one. Red lines can't break the calculator (other than bad data giving wrong spoke lengths). If the calculator cannnot identify what the item is, then the line is shown as 'Bad item'.

Automatic calculation

If you click a hub, rim, wheel or lacing configuration then the values are loaded and a calculation attempted. If succesful you'll get a spoke length table, and a copy of the left-right spoke lengths will also be shown below the data entry form (this is useful when you are clicking hubs and rims without the need to scroll down to see the spoke length table, although the full table will show any calculation warnings).

About the design

Each data line for the hubs, rims and wheels shows the relevant dimensions for it. There's no need for headings because you'll soon know what they are. If the wheel is a triplet wheel a letter T is shown next to the spoke count.

I've used an "open plan" layout with everything visible. Let's see how it goes, and if required I could add an option to group the data items into drop down lists.

To get this kind of personal customization you have to manually create your data files. There's no such thing as a "one click" to save everything in a format that suits everyone, and the secure nature of the Javascript programming language is quite restricted when it comes to manipulating data files stored on your local device. So manual text files it is!

It's not as though you have a massive amount of hubs and rims on the go at any one time, so it's easy to document them in a data file, or use multiple data files, all hubs in one file and all rims in another and load as necessary, and archive off the older parts.

When viewed on a mobile device, only the hub and rim names are shown. There's just not enough room to show everything.

If you refresh the calculator page or reload it, then all the data files will be removed, that's just the way browsers work. So don't use your browsers forward and back buttons because that will cause a page reload and your data files will need adding again. Neither can data files be automatically loaded.

Feedback welcomed

It's all new. What do you think?

Any new features or changes?

or bugs :(

rogermuss@gmail.com