d20 Dataset Project....

[Sendric]

I just did it, and it certainly appears to be working.

[Lawful_g]

Downloaded and I like the new organization of the books ShadowChemosh. How do I send updates when next I finish or update some file?

[ShadowChemosh]

That is a very good question. Sort of brought that up a few times myself but never went anywhere.

My personal thought is that you(lawful_g) should control the CORE files. So that if someone wants to add something or fix something those should be sent to you. As you are constantly doing stuff to the data set I think it makes the most sense. I expect that to be very small compared to the number of changes you would make in a say a single month.

Then when you think you have done enough to warrant a new release you simply create an export file (this will be even easier in v3.7 HL). Send that off to Cheifweasel who can simply change the .xml file on his website to show v1.1 to everyone. Then last step would be nice to announce that on the d20 forums so everyone can be aware to download the latest stuff.

Maybe somewhere in their should be a QA step too.

Open for ideas to make this simple and easy. Some more high tech methods I listed in THIS post.

[Lawful_g]

Alright. Sounds Good. I'll take responsibility for adding/changing anything others do, so feel free to send things my way people.

[ShadowChemosh]

How to create an .hl Export File

• From the menu Tools->Launch HLExport...
• Game folder by default should be pointed to C:\HeroLab\data\d20 if not locate your d20 folder by pressing the Browse button.
• Click the blue Select Files button.
• In the "Select Files to Export" window click the Select None blue button.
• Now place a check mark next to each and every .user file you wish to include. Also include the Custom - Sources.1st file as that controls the new Parent sources. Press the blue OK button when done.
• On the "Export File:" section click the blue Browse... button to pick a folder location and name your file. Should be something like Lawful_G_d20(v1.0).hl and DO NOT use spaces as it can cause problems when doing web stuff.
• In the "Comments to Include in File:" section put in any notes about what this new version has or does.
• Finally press the final blue button at the bottom marked Generate.

That is all their is too it for creating an export file. In the next release of HL we hopefully will have a button that will just select all the .user files for us making mistakes less likely.

[Sendric]

I'm working on the Complete Psionics power list at the moment. I'll send the file along once I have something substantial.

[Lawful_g]

Cool Beans.

[chiefweasel]

What sort of information should we be testing in the new file? i got it loaded but am not sure what is old material and what is new.

[Lawful_g]

Shadow added the Healer class from Miniatures Handbook and also the Warlock's Scepter.

[ShadowChemosh]

Originally Posted by chiefweasel

What sort of information should we be testing in the new file? i got it loaded but am not sure what is old material and what is new.

Basically I am looking for the following:
1) Did it load ok?
2) Any missing or orphaned Thing error messages appeared when starting HL?
3) Try activating a single book and see if any errors appear.
4) Maybe check mark a single source(ie book) in example Compete Warrior. Can you then find feats, classes, and equipment from that book?

Basically stuff like that to see if what I did broke anything. As I didn't use the editor when adding these sources as it was WAY too many. So I used a combination of a RegExp tool and TextPad for the Things that the RegExp missed. I did unit test each thing, but was looking for others to double check is all.

That is about it really. Then we will need to see if the community finds anything then as the more eyes will catch more stuff after we release it. The idea is this becomes the Community CORE data set and so we need a good stable base to work from.

Then as we get more stuff from the community we can include their work also. Like the stuff Sendric is working on can be QA tested and then incorporated into the data set making sure it has no duplicate things and is correctly Source marked.

Why Lawful_g controls the CORE and should have final say I can act as the stage one QA tester to help out. Making sure anything new does not have duplicate Thing ids and is at least all Source marked to the right book.

Those are my thoughts anyways.....