Listing items in order bootstrapped

[Duggan]

So, this may be a gimme thing, but I'm implementing the optional bits in the Planet Mercenary background and Command Packages where a given Command Package might have "+2 to Inspire or Entertain". I copied the code from 4E and how they allow races to apply a bonus to one ability for another, but I couldn't understand their "BuildLast" sort set, so I left it blank initially. Except... that means that the items rearrange as I fill in values to alphabetize by the chosen skill. Is there a good way to have it sort by the order I added the items so that they don't rearrange themselves? This is the relevant code:

<!-- Skill Bonus portal. Used to list skill bonuses from backgrounds, races, and
command packages, and to allow for choices. -->
<portal
id="raFeatures"
style="tblInvis"
width="240">
<table_fixed
component="UserSelect"
showtemplate="MenuSlPick"
showsortset=""
alwaysupdate="yes">
<list><![CDATA[
(!User.NeedChosen | Helper.ChosenOpt)
]]></list>
<headertitle><![CDATA[
@text = "Skill Bonuses"
]]></headertitle>
</table_fixed>
</portal>

<template
id="MenuSlPick"
name="Configurable Pick"
compset="UserSelect"
marginhorz="5"
marginvert="3">

<portal
id="name"
style="lblLeft"
showinvalid="yes">
<label
ismultiline="yes"
field="name">
</label>
</portal>

<portal
id="thinglist"
style="menuSmall">
<menu_things
field="usrChosen1"
component="none"
candidatefield="usrCandid1"
usepicksfield="usrSource1"
maxvisible="10"
sortset="explicit">
</menu_things>
</portal>

<position><![CDATA[
~set up our height; our width is pre-initialized for us
height = portal[thinglist].height

~if this is a "sizing" calculation, we're done
doneif (issizing <> 0)

~position our tallest portal at the top
portal[thinglist].top = 0

~center the other portals on the tallest one
perform portal[name].centeron[vert,thinglist]

portal[name].left = 0
portal[name].width = 100

portal[thinglist].left = portal[name].right + 3
portal[thinglist].width = width - portal[name].width - 3
]]></position>

</template>

<!-- SkillBonus component -->
<component
id="SkillBonus"
name="Starting Skill Bonus"
autocompset="no"
panellink="basics">

<!-- This tag is added to the hero if our feature is selected. -->
<identity group="HasFeature"/>

<!-- All feats get the same tag for sorting purposes -->
<!--tag group="SpecialTab" tag="RaceFeat"/-->

<!-- Activate any selected build option -->
<eval index="1" phase="Setup" priority="100" name="Build option activated"><![CDATA[
if (field[usrChosen1].ischosen <> 0) then
if (field[usrChosen1].chosen.ispick <> 0) then
perform field[usrChosen1].chosen.assign[Helper.ChosenOpt]
endif
endif

~forward our "has feature" tags to the hero so it knows we're present
perform forward[HasFeature.?]
]]></eval>

</component>

<!-- Skill Bonuses -->
<compset
id="SkillBonus">
<compref component="SkillBonus"/>
<compref component="UserSelect"/>
<compref component="SpecialTab"/>
<compref component="Custom"/>
</compset>

<!-- Any background, command package, or race can bootstrap this, adding
SkillBonus.attrid tags as necessary -->
<thing
id="fRPlusSk"
name="+2 to Skill"
compset="SkillBonus"
description="Gives a +2 bonus to the selected skill.">
<fieldval field="usrCandid1" value="component.Skill"/>
<tag group="Hide" tag="Special"/>
<eval index="1" phase="PreTraits" priority="5000">
<before name="Calc trtFinal"/><![CDATA[
~build the candidate expression out of our SkillBonus tags
if (tagis[SkillBonus.?] <> 0) then
field[usrCandid1].text &= " & (" & tagids[SkillBonus.?, " | "] & ")"
endif

~#traitbase[field[usrChosen1].chosen] += 2
perform field[usrChosen1].chosen.field[trtBase].modify[+,2,"Background"]
]]></eval>
</thing>

Yes, I know that I need to modify the logic here so that the items with only one choice don't display a list.

<thing
id="bckEnter"
name="Entertainer"
compset="Bckgrnd"
isunique="yes"
description="Maybe you played in a band. Maybe the band was a circus. Maybe the circus was the writing pit for a comedy show.{br}{br}{b}Bonus Skill Ranks:{/b} +2 Athletics {i}or{/i} Empathy, +2 Deceive {i}or{/i} Thrown Weapons, +2 Inspire">

<tag group="SkillBonus" tag="skDodge"/>

<bootstrap thing="fRPlusSk">
<autotag group="SkillBonus" tag="skAthlete"/>
<autotag group="SkillBonus" tag="skEmpathy"/>
</bootstrap>

<bootstrap thing="fRPlusSk">
<autotag group="SkillBonus" tag="skInspire"/>
</bootstrap>

<bootstrap thing="fRPlusSk">
<autotag group="SkillBonus" tag="skThrown"/>
<autotag group="SkillBonus" tag="skDeceive"/>
</bootstrap>


<!-- Define any script needed to apply changes to traits or other mechanisms-->
<eval index="1" phase="Setup" priority="4000"><![CDATA[
~#traitbase[skDodge] += 2
~#traitbase[skMedic] += 2
~#traitbase[skXeno] += 2
~#traitbase[skPistol] += 2
]]></eval>

</thing>

[Duggan]

Hmm... and I'm running into something I hadn't noticed before. The bootstrapped changes to #traitbase "stick". So if I get a +2 boost to Inspire from my background (bringing me up to 2 without any points spent on it), then switch to a background that doesn't give that bonus, it acts like I spent those two points. Given trtUser is being changed as well, I suspect I made a different error here. I'll look at it in the morning.

[Duggan]

And I've got it fixed, albeit by doing something completely different. ^_^

[Duggan]

The one oddity that I have seen happening is that, if a modification brings an item to the minimum or maximum value, the summary panel does not update for that item. So if I have five ranks and shift-click on the incrementor (changing the value by 5), the tab on the side doesn't update either way because the value is 0 (minimum) or 9 (maximum). The same thing happens for values modified with modify by a script. Maybe the fact that a tag is being assigned for Minimum or Maximum is interrupting it?

[Farling]

Originally Posted by Duggan

The one oddity that I have seen happening is that, if a modification brings an item to the minimum or maximum value, the summary panel does not update for that item. So if I have five ranks and shift-click on the incrementor (changing the value by 5), the tab on the side doesn't update either way because the value is 0 (minimum) or 9 (maximum). The same thing happens for values modified with modify by a script. Maybe the fact that a tag is being assigned for Minimum or Maximum is interrupting it?

Have you tried selecting "trigger full evaluation immediately" (develop menu)? Maybe the update to the screen is being delayed?

[Duggan]

Thanks for the tip, Farling. I just tried that, and it did not solve the problem. I will look into getting the relevant files publicly available so that others can look at it. The last time I tried zipping them up, it was just above the margin for attachments here, but I still have a fair amount of cruft from the skeleton files and my experiments. I do have it available via GitHub here if you'd like to take a look at the files themselves.

[Mathias]

You've got alwaysupdate="yes" on the summary table? I find that I just need to add that to all the summary tables - I'm not sure why the skeleton files don't just do that by default.

For order, add tags from the explicit group - explicit.1, explicit.2, etc., and then add a sort order to the table that looks for those tags.

[Duggan]

Originally Posted by Mathias

You've got alwaysupdate="yes" on the summary table? I find that I just need to add that to all the summary tables - I'm not sure why the skeleton files don't just do that by default.

For order, add tags from the explicit group - explicit.1, explicit.2, etc., and then add a sort order to the table that looks for those tags.

Yes.

<!-- smSkill portal
Table of skills, using the "smTrait" template defined in "summ_basics.dat".
-->
<portal
id="smSkill"
style="tblInvisSm">
<table_fixed
component="Skill"
showtemplate="smTrait"
scrollable="no"
alwaysupdate="yes">
<headertitle><![CDATA[
@text = #summtitle_decoration[] & " Skills " & #summtitle_decoration[]
]]></headertitle>
</table_fixed>
</portal>

And the explicit tags work just fine. Thank you.

[Duggan]

Silly question, is there any way to tell the system to not try to sort a table at all? Right now, I have Specialties that accept a typed-in value (Specifically, the case I'm staring at right now are the Xenobiology specialties where you can specify which world). If I start typing in one, and the value I type causes it to change location, I instead find myself typing in the field which gets sorted into that location. So, for example, if I had the following:

World: [blank]
World: [blank]

and I start typing into the first one, "Earth", but pause a second before typing the last "h" because my wife is asking me a question, I'll get the following

World: h
World: Eart

I've been fiddling with different sortsets, but to little avail. The 4E code seems to handle this for their custom feats with a sort like the following:

<sortset
  id="Feats"
  name="Feats by Tier">
  <sortkey isfield="no" id="Tier"/>
  <sortkey isfield="no" id="_Name_"/>
  </sortset>

FWIW, I've tried are sorting by "thingname" instead (to just get the "World" part of it), but it still seems to sort by the domain as well.

[Mathias]

Check out the allowuserorder="yes" parameter on the table - would that work? They'd be fixed in place until the user moved the items, which would mean they wouldn't re-sort just because they were renamed.