View Full Version : DDI Downloader Issue
herrozerro
January 20th, 2011, 05:19 AM
I have not had this issue in the past when trying out HL but it seems like I have hit a brick wall.
The downloader works fine up until the processing power index when it gives me an error:
Could not parse XML document 'C:\users\ Username \ appdata\local\temp\ddicrawler\powers_index_1.xml' . power import cannot continue.
Is this because of a change to the formatting of powers in DDI?
Vrex
January 20th, 2011, 07:16 AM
I just started using the app last night and consistently get the same error as above.
I'm on Windows 7 64-bit. I tried run as administrator, although my normal user is an administrator too.
No dice.
Thanks for any help on this issue.
RavenX
January 20th, 2011, 11:44 AM
I'd have to say I am unsure about your problem, as far as I know they haven't updated the compendium lately. I know some people using windows 7 have to run HL in Administrator mode to get the downloader working which has been mentioned in other threads. You might want to try that. I also know the downloader should be getting an update again this month. I checked the D&DI content calendar and it doesn't show any changes to compendium.
maxinux
January 21st, 2011, 12:32 AM
I am having the same problem running Vista 32 bit. I tried running both regular and admin mode and no luck.
RavenX
January 21st, 2011, 08:43 AM
You might want to send an email to the support email for lone wolf development, I am out of ideas on this.
I checked the Compendium site and they haven't updated it yet, they may have changed the coding on it, again, without saying anything but I am unsure about it.
maxinux
January 21st, 2011, 03:23 PM
Do people from support monitor the forum?
Colen
January 21st, 2011, 05:08 PM
The compendium site says that it hasn't been updated since the 7th. However, it looks like the compendium site is now returning errors when we try to retrieve something like the list of powers. :(
I'm investigating this now to see if there's another way the downloader can do it that won't cause these errors. Sorry for the inconvenience, all.
Spence
January 21st, 2011, 06:38 PM
Ah...
I just tried to download the ddi files (Windows XP, No Insider Account) and get the same error when it hits the powers index.
So here is more data for you :D
************************************************** ********
Welcome to the 4e data downloader. Please choose an option
by pressing 1, 2 or d, or press any other key to exit.
For more details on this program, please see the 4e user
manual (Hero Lab -> Help menu -> 4th edition manual).
************************************************** ********
1. Download data (no D&D insider account)
2. Download data (with D&D insider account)
d. Delete existing data
x. Exit
Connecting to server...
Retrieving deity index... done.
Retrieving skill index... done.
Retrieving ritual index... done.
Retrieving item index... done.
Retrieving class index... done.
Retrieving race index... done.
Retrieving paragonpath index... done.
Retrieving epicdestiny index... done.
Retrieving feat index... done.
Retrieving power index... (page 1/5) done.
Retrieving power index... (page 2/5) done.
Retrieving power index... (page 3/5) done.
Retrieving power index... (page 4/5) done.
Retrieving power index... (page 5/5) done.
Retrieving background index... done.
Processing deity index... done.
Processing skill index... done.
Processing ritual index... done.
Processing item index... done.
Processing class index... done.
Processing race index... done.
Processing paragonpath index... done.
Processing epicdestiny index... done.
Processing feat index... done.
Processing power index... Could not parse XML document 'C:\DOCUME~1\HP_ADM~1\LOC
ALS~1\Temp\ddicrawler\powers_index_1.xml'. power import could not continue.
Press any key to quit.
Colen
January 21st, 2011, 08:10 PM
OK, I've investigated this a bit. There appears to be a problem with the D&D Compendium web site, where if you search for powers with no text specified. The server, instead of returning a file with the list of powers, is returning this instead:
An error occurred while parsing EntityName. Line 1, position 743727.
You can see this problem (although not the specific error message) for yourself by going to the D&D Compendium web site:
http://www.wizards.com/dndinsider/compendium/database.aspx
Choose "Powers" from the drop-down list, and click "Search". No powers are displayed, because the server is reporting an error. :( The same search for Feats or Items work properly.
If you're running into this problem, you should report it to WotC customer service, since it's an actual problem with the D&D Compendium web site. Here's what you can report:
When I use the Compendium web site, the list of powers doesn't display properly. I choose "Powers" from the drop-down list, and press "Search". No powers are displayed.
If I do the same thing for Feats or Items, the list of feats or items is displayed properly.
Hopefully this is a problem that the D&D Insider team will fix, after which the downloader should work properly. Until then, I'll see if I can come up with an alternate way of accessing the powers that doesn't run into the bug, and update the downloader appropriately.
Necros99
January 24th, 2011, 07:20 AM
Until then, I'll see if I can come up with an alternate way of accessing the powers that doesn't run into the bug, and update the downloader appropriately.
Further applying a filter on Powers (such as "Class: Fighter") seems to work fine. Is that something you can pursue?
Necros99
January 24th, 2011, 07:28 AM
The compendium site says that it hasn't been updated since the 7th. However, it looks like the compendium site is now returning errors when we try to retrieve something like the list of powers. :(
I'm investigating this now to see if there's another way the downloader can do it that won't cause these errors. Sorry for the inconvenience, all.
According to the Wizard Community Broadcasts, the Compendium was updated on 1/19.
RavenX
January 24th, 2011, 01:54 PM
If thats true it explains why downloader errors are being reported now.
The page for compendium still says the last update was the 7th of december.
Wizards really needs to get on the ball about this stuff. They've really been slacking on communication since the launch of Essentials products...
RavenX
January 24th, 2011, 02:09 PM
Yeah the D&DI forum does say they updated on the 19th of January, thats probably why the updater is experiencing problems.
Vrex
January 25th, 2011, 09:44 AM
Further applying a filter on Powers (such as "Class: Fighter") seems to work fine. Is that something you can pursue?
Yeah - my testing on their website shows that you have to apply SOME kind of filter to get any results at all. Is that something that can be incorporated into the DDIDownloader?
Cheers.
maxinux
January 25th, 2011, 11:21 AM
It could be that WoTC is trying to make it difficult for products like Hero Lab to get the data, thus forcing everyone to use their online tools. I hope the Hero Labs team can find a work around.
RavenX
January 25th, 2011, 02:58 PM
their online tools are garbage. I hate their new CB. I was on the Now Loading screen on it for over 6 hours and the thing still was not loading... sorry but i need dependable software. WOTC effed up and they know it. GO to their forums and look at the complaint thread for the new CB
herrozerro
January 26th, 2011, 04:07 AM
their online tools are garbage. I hate their new CB. I was on the Now Loading screen on it for over 6 hours and the thing still was not loading... sorry but i need dependable software. WOTC effed up and they know it. GO to their forums and look at the complaint thread for the new CB
Eh, haters gonna hate.
I highly doubt that you were loading for 6 hours, unless you have a crappy internet connection you should have refreshed it long before then.
RavenX
January 26th, 2011, 04:51 AM
Eh, haters gonna hate.
I highly doubt that you were loading for 6 hours, unless you have a crappy internet connection you should have refreshed it long before then.
My internet connection was working just fine. It was taking that long to load. WOTC had a decent character builder that working just fine, but they decided to reinvent the wheel and gave us garbage. Everytime I have tried to get the new CB to load it fails or takes hours to load. Its garbage. They're using a plug in from microsoft that Microsoft doesn't even support anymore. All so that they don't have develop a version for Mac Users.
thomas8977
January 26th, 2011, 09:58 AM
The thing that ticks me off, is that i paid to get the Hero Lab 4E because i have the Pathfinder, and i cancelled the WOTC Character Builder to save a few bucks, but by the way it looks, i threw 20 bucks down the drain because the 4E Hero Lab is broken.
Roman Virtue
January 26th, 2011, 11:04 AM
I just got a month of DDI for the express purpose of downloading that info to Hero Lab. I'm hoping that there will be a workaround before my month is over, I'd hate to have to throw more money at the DDI of I don't have to...
RavenX
January 26th, 2011, 01:50 PM
The Hero Lab team is working on getting the downloader updated. Give it time. I actually got a year of D&DI to keep HL updated. HL is worth it. My group wont touch pathfinder.
Vrex
January 26th, 2011, 04:41 PM
I submitted a tech support request to Wizards.com yesterday, using Colen's suggestion posted above. They replied:
Thank you for reporting this bug. We appreciate your help in improving our product.
We will submit your issue to our developers for review. I can not guarantee any further follow up with you about this bug but we may contact you for further information. .
That was the end of their contact. I just noticed that it is marked "Solved" and "Closed" in the Wizards online bug tracker. However, I am not at home where I can test Hero Lab and the DDIDownloader. Anyone online and want to try it out?
Cheers.
EDIT: Just tried from Home- no luck. Same error.
=[
I guess WotC really wants me to play Mutants & Masterminds...
Roman Virtue
January 26th, 2011, 06:53 PM
I guess WotC really wants me to play Mutants & Masterminds...
So does Green Ronin! :p
But yeah, they're very bad about customer service (WotC I mean), it's one of the reasons I stopped going to their forums. But at least I know that the HL team is working on it! :cool:
RavenX
January 26th, 2011, 09:58 PM
So does Green Ronin! :p
But yeah, they're very bad about customer service (WotC I mean), it's one of the reasons I stopped going to their forums. But at least I know that the HL team is working on it! :cool:
very bad might be the understatement of the century...
The crap they pulled last year was not cool at all. I nearly quit running 4e altogether until I found Hero Lab. WOTC's "Customer Support" is basically a bird finger with "We'll get to it when we get to it." tattooed on it. I had reported bugs to them many times for the old CB and never got any response aside from the automated email. WOTC only cares about selling product, customer service is not high on their priorities.
Colen
January 28th, 2011, 09:57 AM
A quick update on this. The problem took me quite a while to pin down - the issue appears to be that if you search for any combination of powers that include specifically level 1 wizard powers (yes, it's weird - no idea why), the search fails. This means that the downloader's method of finding the list of powers to download no longer works.
I've figured out an alternate way of getting (I think) all the powers, *except for level 1 wizard powers*, and I'm working on implementing that now. Unfortunately, this means that until Wizards fixes the bug in the Compendium, level 1 wizard powers will not be available in the downloader. (I'm trying to add a way of preserving them from previous releases, so if you downloaded stuff last month the old powers are carried across).
Our current ETA on this is the start of next week for a 4e update. That should give us enough time to make sure there aren't any other bugs lurking in the compendium stuff that we rely on, plus work on some of the other bug fixes on our list.
Question for everyone - is the D&D Insider policy now to update in the middle of the month? I thought they normally planned updates on the first Tuesday of each month, but it looks like the last few have been happening mid-month.
Bobcat11
January 28th, 2011, 01:15 PM
They seem to have a pretty much ad-hoc update policy now. But I'm glad to hear we're getting close to an update.
Vrex
January 28th, 2011, 02:57 PM
I'm happy to hear about the update, but feel sorry for Colen and the lot at Lone Wolf. If I were in their shoes, I'm not sure I'd want to deal with the hassle of WotC's erratic coding/updating behavior.
Roman Virtue
January 28th, 2011, 05:28 PM
Thank you so much Colen, your work on this is greatly appreciated! It's really a shame that they're the only source for this info, I haven't had to deal with them in a long time and now I understand the frustration I hear from others. WotC seems to be operating under the philosophy of "Let's see how long we can screw with our ever-shrinking customer base before they riot!" I, for one, am not amused...
RavenX
January 28th, 2011, 11:57 PM
Colen, the WOTC updates happen haphazardly lately. Basically they are giving them when they get around to them... so we never really know when the updates will be posted. will the update for this month get the new Essentials classes?
Colen
February 1st, 2011, 03:33 PM
Unfortunately no essentials classes this month, sorry. :( All the extra time I had budgeted for 4e ended up getting spent on fixing the issue with wizard powers.
RavenX
February 1st, 2011, 03:39 PM
Ok man thanks. Its not a big issue for me I was just curious. Thanks for taking care of the software.
Rixx
February 2nd, 2011, 06:54 PM
Issue Is Still Being Had...
Maidhc O Casain
February 5th, 2011, 02:48 PM
I'm a DDI subscriber, and just spent hours downloading the DDI information. It appeared that everything went well, I got no error messages, and the screens appeared just as the manual indicated that they would.
However, after I reloaded HL, I still have no options available for Class, Race, etc. I tried both closing and re-opening HL, and using Ctrl-R.
Is there a step I'm missing?
kanadiankozak
May 18th, 2011, 01:08 PM
Just wondering if there is a new problem similar to this. I use the ddi installer and get up to 'Processing item index' when
'Could not parse item index 'C:\...\items_index_0.xml'. Item index could not continue'
When I then try and run HL, it doesn't have any races, classes, skills or anything. Is this a WotC thing again?
cryptoknight
May 18th, 2011, 02:23 PM
Very likely, it's about that time this month for them to screw up the structure of their data again.
Colen
May 18th, 2011, 07:53 PM
Yep, looks like they changed the data structure again. I'm working on an update for this now, sorry all. :(
RavenX
May 19th, 2011, 05:08 AM
They seem to be changing it every month for some reason.
SAbel
May 19th, 2011, 12:40 PM
Colen thank you for the amazing work you do for all of us making sure that HL and Lone wolf are a great product and outstanding company.
As for the updater is it just me or does everyone chuckle a bit that they have a problem once a month at a certain time (bowing head and shaking it from side to side) poor grade school humor.
I did not mean to offend anyone just pointing out the facts and possible relations.
RavenX
May 19th, 2011, 08:45 PM
When the downloader stops working, its usually some change WOTC did to the compendium. Such is life.
Fenelthin
June 13th, 2011, 07:52 AM
I updated Hero Lab to 3.7 a few days ago and therefore updated all the game systems as well. I thought I would try to run the ddidownloader to make sure my content is current and hit a snag. I, uh, can't find it anymore.
It used to be in Hero Lab/data/4e but the folder structure seems to have changed with the latest update. Am I just dumb and missing something?
Diceman
June 13th, 2011, 08:48 AM
I updated Hero Lab to 3.7 a few days ago and therefore updated all the game systems as well. I thought I would try to run the ddidownloader to make sure my content is current and hit a snag. I, uh, can't find it anymore.
It used to be in Hero Lab/data/4e but the folder structure seems to have changed with the latest update. Am I just dumb and missing something?
I am not sure this is relevant. My DDi subscription is about to expire and I have note been updating my stuff there since I hate their new tools.
It was confirmed by one of the WOTC staff on their forums that they purposely removed the ability to copy info from the compendium using RTF format. Not sure how the DDI downloader for HL works but if it uses that method then I suspect the removal of RTF functionality from the compendium could be an issue.
SAbel
June 14th, 2011, 07:39 PM
Okay so there has been a change with 3.7HL so here is how I found mine (Windows 7 system)
Open these to find the application
1. Hard drive to Program Data file
2. Hero Lab file
3. Open Data file
4. 4e file
5. scroll down until you find the ddidownloader (this is the application that starts the downloader.
a "dos" like screen will pop up if you have a DDI subscription choose 2.
then you will have to fill in your DDI name and password.
it will confirm then start download and conversion to HL this takes time (5 to 10 hours depending on your connection and useage at the time so read a book or go to bed) the porgram will give dots for completed items and ! for something that did not convert (ie classes from Heros of Shadows).
Make sure you have loaded HL3.7 first then run the ddi.
when its finished open HL and you should ahve the currect info.
I hope this helps you and everyone that will be running the next ddidownloader.
Colen
June 15th, 2011, 11:10 AM
As SAbel mentioned, Hero Lab 3.7 now uses a different location for storing user data files, as required by Windows Vista / Windows 7. Unfortunately this new location changes based on which version of windows you're using, so it's not in the same place for everyone. You can find the new location by doing the following:
1) Load any game system in Hero Lab
2) Select the Tools -> Explore Folders -> Program Data folder menu item. An explorer window should open.
3) Go to the "data" folder in the new window, and from there the "4e" folder. The downloader should be located in that folder.
Hope this helps!
Fenelthin
June 15th, 2011, 03:07 PM
Thank you SAbel and Colen! I appreciate the help ^_^
Kangor
July 1st, 2011, 08:59 AM
Just wondering if there is a new problem similar to this. I use the ddi installer and get up to 'Processing item index' when
'Could not parse item index 'C:\...\items_index_0.xml'. Item index could not continue'
When I then try and run HL, it doesn't have any races, classes, skills or anything. Is this a WotC thing again?
I am getting this same error but mine says "Processing deity index...could not parse XML documents 'C:\DOCUME....BLABLABLA' deity import could not continue.
This is frustrating any help would be greatly appreciated!
Swnynerdgasm
July 5th, 2011, 10:50 PM
I just got my downloader to work but now it keeps telling me that:
The data files could not be loaded due to the following errors:
Syntax errors in 'eval' script for Thing 'ftExpanSpe' (Eval Script '#1') on line 1
-> Non-existent thing in 'clsWizard' used by script
Syntax errors in 'eval' script for Thing 'ftRememWiz' (Eval Script '#1') on line 1
-> Non-existent thing in 'clsWizard' used by script
rob
July 5th, 2011, 11:13 PM
Please take a look at the thread entitled "Problem with DDI-downloader" (near the top of the list) for an equivalent question with a reference to the answers you seek.
Same question: http://forums.wolflair.com/showthread.php?t=13413
Answers: http://forums.wolflair.com/showthread.php?t=13320
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