Alternative data folder location and opening rosters from explorer
 

When a roster file is saved the "game" XML element has the "folder" attribute set to whatever the folder of the game files author set it to, rather than the actual folder that the files are installed in. When opening the roster rst file from Windows explorer by double-clicking the file AB will load the datafiles from the "folder" attribute location rather than the folder that the files actually live in, which could be different if the user elected to install the files into a different folder during import.

For example, I have 5 copies of the AB40k5 files on my PC. AB40k5 has the current CVS test files; AB40k5RTM contains the latest released files; AB40k5_120 contains a copy of the v1.20 files (as this is the one we use for creating Space Marine based rosters while the SM chapter files are being rebuilt).

If I start up AB and choose the AB40k5_120 folder, and create a roster, when the roster is saved on the desktop as "my roster.rst" the "game" element has the "folder" attribute set to "AB40k5" (because that is the folder defined by the AB40k5 files admin). Later on I double click on the "my roster.rst" file on the desktop, and AB is started up by Windows; AB then loads the datafiles from the AB40k5 folder rather than the AB40k5_120 folder, and all hell breaks loose because the roster file contains references that no longer exist in the loaded file set.

For a future update to AB would it be possible to have the roster file store the location of the actual datafile set loaded at roster creation time and prefer that location over the one set in the .ab file imported? Eg. rather than

<game folder="AB40k5" game="Warhammer 40 000 5th Edition" major="1" minor="20"/>

store something like

<game folder="AB40k5" game="Warhammer 40 000 5th Edition" major="1" minor="20" location="AB40k5_120"/>

and then at load time check the "location" attribute first and if found use the files in that location, and if not then use the "folder" location (so that should the user later delete the AB40k5_120 folder as it's no longer required AB will then switch to using the AB40k5 folder for that loading that roster).

While my config is definitely not "standard", there are a lot of users of the AB40k5 files right now who have multiple versions of the files installed while the Space Marine files are being sorted out. Given that AB offers the option to change the location of the files during import, there should be a way for AB to store that new location when the roster is saved.

Alternatively, maybe check the major and minor version numbers and if they don't match the datafiles in the game folder location check the other folders in the data folder to find a match, and if one is found pop up a message asking the user if they would like to load the matching version rather than the one in the default import location; and if there's no match, simply use the one in the default location.

This is a good idea - I've added it to the to-do list.

Thanks!