The jQuizShow requires a Question Database File (QDF) in order to play. It is probably the most important input file for the game.
The QDF used for the game is specified either by using the Load new questions... from the File menu, or by specifying the path to the file with the questionFile property in the config.ini file. The latter will result in the specified QDF being loaded as the default question database.
The QDF is used to specify the following:
In a typical jQuizShow game, the difficulty of the questions increases as the player successfully answer each questions. Each question in the database must be assigned a difficulty level. The level is represented by a number from 0 (easiest) to numDifficultyBreakpoints (as specified in the config.ini file). Thus, there are numDifficultyBreakpoints + 1 difficulty levels.
Levels should be assigned after careful evaluation of the target audience, taking into account age, education, background, and other factors.
The question worded exactly as it is to appear in the game. There is no effective limit on the number of characters (the font will scale so that the text will fit in the question box), but for readibility it should not exceed two lines on the screen. The best way to determine how it would look is to try it. It will be different depending on the size of the display screen.
The first answer listed must be the correct answer. The following answers are each of the incorrect answer choices. The jQuizShow will display the list of possible answers in a random order on the game screen. The answers should be as short as possible for readability.
An optional note can be included as the last entry on a line. This note is preceded by a pound sign (#) to differentiate it from an answer entry. This note will be displayed under the answer boxes when the correct answer is revealed.
The file is an ASCII-based (i.e. text-based) table. Each row of the table contains a question and its associated data. The separator for each column of a row is a Tab character. This type of text file is sometimes referred to as a file containing "tab-separated values".
The columns are ordered as follows:
difficulty_level question answer1 answer2 [...] [#note]
If a pound sign (#) appears as the first character in the first column, the row will be ignored. This can be used to comment out a row.
Column entries containing spaces (e.g. questions) do not need to be quoted. However, double quotes can be used to enclose these entries (as generated by some tools) if desired. Due to this allowance, if a double qoute literal is to appear within the column, the double quote must be doubled (e.g. ""). See the example below.