How to Create a Holiday File for MyPhoneExplorer

Updated

Create a plain-text file with the extension *.dat, write one holiday per line in the form Name|Official|DateValue, save it in MyPhoneExplorer's holidays folder (usually C:\Programs\MyPhoneExplorer\holidays), then select it in the program's options dialog. This works for fixed dates, Easter-relative holidays, and rules like "the third Monday in January." You need a text editor such as Notepad and access to the MyPhoneExplorer installation folder.

The line format

Each line is one holiday, made of three values separated by the | character:

Position Meaning Values
1st Name of the holiday Any text, e.g. New Years Day
2nd Whether markets are closed 1 = official holiday, 0 = other holiday
3rd Date value See the rules below

Example from the official documentation:

New Years Day|1|0101

Date value rules

The date value has up to three parts separated by spaces. Only the first is required.

1. Base date (required)

Input Meaning
0101 1st January (recurring every year)
0507 5th July (recurring every year)
ES Easter Sunday
EES Easter Sunday in the Orthodox church
03052006 3rd May 2006 — parsed only for that year

Use the full DDMMYYYY form only for one-off holidays that can't be calculated any other way.

2. Day counter (optional)

Add or subtract days from the base date. For example, Easter Monday is Easter Sunday plus one day:

Easter Monday|1|ES +1

3. Weekday (optional)

Constrain the date to a specific weekday using MO, TU, WE, TH, FR, SA, SU. Combined with the counter, this expresses rules like "the second Sunday in May" (0105 +2 SU) or "the last Monday in November" (3011 -1 MO).

Worked examples from the documentation

New Years Day|1|0101
Ash Wednesday|0|ES -46
Martin Luther King Day|1|0101 +3 MO
  • Ash Wednesday is 46 days before Easter Sunday.
  • Martin Luther King Day is the third Monday in January: start at 1 January, add 3 days to reach the first Monday, then the weekday rule picks the matching Monday.

Step by step

  1. Open an existing holiday file in Notepad to see the structure in practice — the documentation recommends this as the starting point.
  2. Write your holidays, one per line, following the format above.
  3. Save the file in the holidays folder, usually C:\Programs\MyPhoneExplorer\holidays, naming it after your country with the .dat extension (e.g. Austria.dat).
  4. Select the file in MyPhoneExplorer's options dialog.
  5. Verify it — the author explicitly asks contributors to check that a calendar file works correctly across a few years before sharing it.

Common pitfalls

  • Wrong extension. The file must end in .dat; a .txt file won't be picked up.
  • Wrong folder. If MyPhoneExplorer is installed elsewhere, the holidays folder sits under that installation path, not necessarily C:\Programs\....
  • Full dates used for recurring holidays. A value like 03052006 only applies to 2006. Use DDMM plus counter and weekday rules for anything that repeats.
  • Unsupported holidays. Some holidays can't be expressed with these date values. The documentation invites users to contact the author in that case rather than guessing at a format.

When the format isn't enough

If your country has a holiday the date values can't represent, the documented route is to contact the author, Franz Josef Wechselberger ([email protected]), who will try to find a way to calculate it. The same page notes that contributed holiday files are welcome for inclusion in future versions — after you've confirmed they work over several years.