TableMaster Web

A browser-based tool that generates a crystallographic "Table 1" (crystal data and structure refinement details) from up to five CIF files — for side-by-side comparison of multiple structures in a single table.

TableMaster Web is a client-side JavaScript port of the PureBasic desktop application TableMasterG2. It runs entirely in your browser: no server, no build step, no upload. CIF files never leave your machine.

Live demo (GitHub Pages): https://radi0sus.github.io/tablemaster-web/

Features

• Load up to 5 CIF files at once and generate one combined comparison table.
• Only rows that actually have data in at least one loaded structure are included — no empty rows.
• Optional table content:
  • Temperature
  • Moiety formula
  • SI-style units (e.g. /Å instead of [Å])
• Export formats:
  • RTF (Word-compatible, with A4 Auto / Portrait / Landscape page setup)
  • HTML (standalone file)
  • Markdown
  • Plain text (fixed-width table)
• Copy-to-clipboard shortcuts for formatted text (paste into Word etc.), Markdown, and plain text — no need to save a file first.
• Drag-and-drop or click-to-browse loading for each CIF slot, with a clear ("×") button per slot and a "Clear all" button.
• Multi-block CIF support: if a .cif file contains several structures (e.g. Acta E "sup1" files with one structure per compound), a picker dialog lets you choose which structures to load, capped at the number of free slots. Files with only one structure load directly, no dialog.
• Runs from file:// — no local web server required, no external dependencies, no data sent anywhere.

Getting started

There is no installation and no build process.

Option A — use it online: Just open https://radi0sus.github.io/tablemaster-web/ in your browser. This is the same code served via GitHub Pages, running entirely client-side (nothing is uploaded).

Option B — run it locally:

1. Download or clone this repository.
2. Open index.html in a modern browser (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari).
3. Start loading CIF files.

Either way, everything runs client-side in plain JavaScript — no server required.

Usage

1. Load CIFs – In the Load section, click a slot ("Load CIF 1" … "Load CIF 5") to browse for a .cif file, or drag and drop a file directly onto a slot. Slots activate left to right; you don't need to fill all five.
2. Multi-block CIFs – If the loaded file contains more than one structure (data block), a dialog opens listing each block with its formula. Check the ones you want (in the order you want them, left slot first), up to the number of free slots — checking "Select all" selects as many as fit. Files with only one structure skip this dialog entirely.
3. Remove a CIF – Hover over a loaded slot and click the small × in the top-right corner to clear that slot, or use Clear all to reset everything.
4. Set options – In the Options section, choose which optional rows to include (temperature, moiety formula, SI-style units) and, for RTF export, the page orientation.
5. Preview – The Preview section shows a live rendering of the combined table as soon as at least one CIF is loaded. Any parsing issues or missing data are shown in a warnings box above the preview.
6. Copy or save – Use the Copy section to copy the table directly to your clipboard (formatted for pasting into Word, as Markdown, or as plain text), or use the Save section to download the table as an .rtf, .html, .md, or .txt file.

Table content

The generated table follows the typical "Crystal data and structure refinement" layout used in crystallographic publications and SI documents, including (where available in the CIF):

• Empirical formula, moiety formula, formula weight
• Temperature, crystal system, space group
• Unit cell parameters and volume, Z, density
• Radiation / wavelength, θ range, index (hkl) ranges
• Reflections collected / independent, R(int)
• Data / restraints / parameters
• Goodness-of-fit, final R indices, largest diff. peak/hole

Column headers are automatically labeled with the structure/compound names taken from the loaded CIF files, and the table caption lists all compared structures.

Project structure

index.html                   Main page / UI markup
static/css/app.css            Styling
static/js/parser.js           CIF file parsing
static/js/format-helpers.js   Value cleanup, unit formatting, typographic helpers
static/js/cif-store.js        In-memory store for loaded CIF slots
static/js/table-model.js      Builds the row/column data model from parsed CIFs
static/js/formatters.js       Renders the data model to RTF / HTML / Markdown / plain text
static/js/app.js              UI wiring: slots, drag & drop, multi-block picker, options, preview, copy/save

Browser support

Any recent evergreen browser with support for standard ES5+ JavaScript, the File API, and the Clipboard API (for the copy buttons) will work. No frameworks, bundlers, or npm dependencies are used.

Related projects

• ciflordg-web – shares parsing/formatting infrastructure with this project.
• TableMasterG2 – the original PureBasic desktop application this project is a web port of.

License

See LICENSE.

Disclaimer

TableMaster Web is provided as-is for research and convenience use. Always double-check the generated table against your original CIF data before publication.