Advanced Export Import Question

[daplunk]

Hi Team,

And this is most likely going to need LWD to reply.

In this example I am going to create multiple exports of content that exists in different products that would really work alot better (same campaign world) if when imported together, they all worked together. I'm not sure if the tool will handle what i'm thinking of doing.

So lets assume I create the following in the same realm.

Article Parent
> Article Child A
>> Article Sub-Child A
> Article Child B
>> Article Sub-Child B
> Article Child C
>> Article Sub-Child C

I then export

>> Article Sub-Child B

When imported to a new realm I would expect it to only import the one article assuming I only put the export tag on the single article.

Article Sub-Child B

But how would it react if I imported into a Realm that already had the following:

Article Parent
> Article Child A
>> Article Sub-Child A
> Article Child B
> Article Child C
>> Article Sub-Child C

And what would happen if I imported the 'Article Sub-Child B' on it's own and then imported the rest of the content into the same realm?

Would I end up with:

Article Parent
> Article Child A
>> Article Sub-Child A
> Article Child B
>> Article Sub-Child B
> Article Child C
>> Article Sub-Child C

Or would I end up with:

Article Parent
> Article Child A
>> Article Sub-Child A
> Article Child B
Article Sub-Child B
> Article Child C
>> Article Sub-Child C

To put some context. I'm working with 3rd party content that has a habit of putting out one class option in one pdf and another class option for the same class in the a different pdf. Now to have them separate would result in a mess of options that the user would have to neaten. Putting them together is ideal but the products need to be able to work on their own as well as together in that scenario.

And for any content creators out there, if you are reading this, this is why you should put all your class options together

And more importantly, is this a really bad idea just in general when creating content that is designed for the CM? I'm going to assume yes. But it's just such a horrid mess when you separate it all out by product.

[daplunk]

So doing the testing. Created the following

Article Parent 1
> Article Child A
Article Parent 2
> Article Child B
Article Parent 3
> Article Child C
>> Article Sub-Child C (applied export tag to this article only)

The result of importing the first export was the following:

Article Parent 3
> Article Child C
>> Article Sub-Child C (applied export tag to this article only)

So it brings the parent articles with it.

I then did the following in a new export:

Article Parent 1
> Article Child A
Article Parent 2
> Article Child B
Article Parent 3
> Article Child C

I imported this on top of the first import. The result was:

Article Parent 1
> Article Child A
Article Parent 2
> Article Child B
Article Parent 3
> Article Child C
>> Article Sub-Child C

Which is excellent!

Then I reversed the test and did the structure import first. The result was as expected.

Article Parent 1
> Article Child A
Article Parent 2
> Article Child B
Article Parent 3
> Article Child C

Then i imported the single article. The result was:

Article Parent 1
> Article Child A
Article Parent 2
> Article Child B
Article Parent 3
> Article Child C
>> Article Sub-Child C

Which is excellent!

Which means I have but one questions left

is this a really bad idea just in general when creating content that is designed for the CM? I'm going to assume yes.

[daplunk]

Oh and I had a failed import during all this.

If you create a realm, add content, export the content, delete the content and try to import the content into the same realm it generates and error (not a crash) and will not allow the content to be imported into the same realm.

[kbs666]

I don't think it's a really bad idea.

I for one hope that Paizo, or whoever is doing data entry for Paizo, has thought about this before doing their RW realm. I would hate for people to buy various Golarion products expecting them to neatly fit together and have them act as if they are separate realms. The same goes for Midgard and Forgotten Realms and all the other published settings that may eventually make their way into RW.

[Mystic Lemur]

I just tested this with the We be Goblins! content, and it didn't overwrite or link in any way to my user created topics. For example, after the import, I now have two Brinestump Marsh topics. One is a child of the Varisia topic I created, the other is the one from the Import.

It seems to me this will only work if the author/original realm is the same for all your imports.

[AEIOU]

This is really, really useful information. I feared the results would be along the lines @Mystic Lemur describes and that different authors would not merge seamlessly. This could be problematic for campaign settings.

[kbs666]

This was already known. Topics do not merge with each other on import just because they have the same name. There is supposed to be an underlying UUID that matches a topic to itself no matter what you may do to it.

However it isn't insurmountable. For instance, if Paizo wanted to make Golarion fit together seamlessly they could create a skeleton of the realm with just the topic names in the realm (in the proper categories obviously). They could then send exports of that realm to the various data entry people working on each piece to flesh out.

Then the various pieces would all be from the same realm and would, at least based on very limited testing and on Rob's statements, merge together when imported. Josh's testing at the start of this thread seems to support that this would work as well.

[Silveras]

Think of it this way... how angry would people be if "Bob the Butcher" from an adventure you just imported, a minor NPC with a lot of information about how kind he is, merged with or over-wrote "Bob the Butcher", a major villain you spent months detailing.

Would that really be what you want?

[Bidmaron]

Silveras, how could that ever happen? Did you not read that topics do not merge based on name?

[Silveras]

Originally Posted by Bidmaron

Silveras, how could that ever happen? Did you not read that topics do not merge based on name?

I provided an example of why it would be a bad idea if it did.