Member
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 39
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I used to make my characters on my PC and store all the portfolio files in Dropbox, so when I took my laptop to games I could just open them up and use them. I got tired of lugging my laptop to game, and even more tired of waiting for an Android version so I got an iPad from a friend who upgraded and am now using that for games. And it works great,... except Im kind of stumped on how to manage it so any changes I make on the iPad make it back to the PC. Looking at Dropbox on my iPad the last updated time stamp on a modified character doesnt change, but the change persists between multiple open and closings of Hero Lab for iPad so its getting saved somewhere, just not the original source location.
Clicking the Manage Profiles button (as described in the "Help on using Hero Lab" button) gives me options to Delete, Duplicate, or Rename a portfolio but not to email (which IMO is a terrible solution but better than nothing I guess). Overall just using Hero Lab on iPad for a short bit it seems like a decently well thought out application, with the exception of multiple device file management. I'm wondering what other folks do, particularly those who used to use Dropbox between multiple computers, and have thrown an iPad into the mix. |
#1 |
Junior Member
Join Date: Dec 2013
Posts: 22
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I haven't used it on the iPad yet. I'm guessing they didn't incorporate the Dropbox APIs to open/save the .por files directly to and from Dropbox. That would solve your problem, and it is ideal. I've heard it's fairly easy to do, but maybe not. There could be a technical hurdle specific to HL that prevents them from doing it. Hopefully not and it comes in the future.
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#2 |
Junior Member
Join Date: Aug 2014
Posts: 5
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iOS doesn't give devs file system access like you're used to on your PC and Android. On a PC, or Mac for that matter, Dropbox sets up a folder that it can access to automatically upload altered files to the Dropbox server. Since this folder is a part of the file system that all programs have access to you can save directly to the folder and alter the source portfolio file, like you've seen.
What's happening on the iPad is that the file is not being accessed directly from your Dropbox account. Instead, when you open a portfolio from Dropbox on your iPad there are several steps occurring behind the scenes. First the file is downloaded from the Dropbox server to your iPad's Dropbox "sandbox." When you then tell the iPad to open the file with the hero lab app the OS is making a copy of the file in the Hero Lap app's sandbox. From there the Hero Lab app can manipulate the file all it wants. Getting the file back into Dropbox would require copying the portfolio file back to the Dropbox sandbox where it could then be synced across the Dropbox server. As you've seen, this third step isn't implemented right now. In all honesty, I'm not even sure if it could be implemented given the way the OS is set up today. So, with that background information, the next step is to ask how you can get the updated portfolio file that is being managed in the Hero Lab sandbox off of the iPad. The answer there is iTunes. Hook the iPad up to your PC, open iTunes, and go to the Apps tab. Scroll down and you'll see a section for app data. Click on Hero Lab in the list and you'll see all the portfolios that are loaded on the iPad. From here you can drag the files into your Dropbox folder on your PC. It's not elegant, but it works. |
#3 |
Senior Member
Volunteer Data File Contributor
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Chicago, IL (USA)
Posts: 10,729
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Quote:
As I and my players email a copy of the file to ourselves to get a copy back on the desktop. Hero Lab Resources: Pathfinder - d20pfsrd and Pathfinder Pack Setup 3.5 D&D (d20) - Community Server Setup 5E D&D - Community Server Setup Hero Lab Help - Hero Lab FAQ, Editor Tutorials and Videos, Editor & Scripting Resources. Created by the community for the community - Realm Works kickstarter backer (Alpha Wolf) and Beta tester.- d20 HL package volunteer editor. |
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#4 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: Greater London, UK
Posts: 2,623
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The capability just hasn't been implemented in HeroLab for iPad. |
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#5 |
Junior Member
Join Date: Dec 2013
Posts: 22
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#6 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2011
Posts: 865
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Definitely doable. By the way, the same is true for Google Drive, so The HeroLab iPad app could (and in my opinion SHOULD) have both dropbox and google drive interface features. Last edited by mirtos; August 14th, 2014 at 10:52 AM. |
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#7 |
Junior Member
Join Date: Aug 2014
Posts: 5
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It's great to know that this could be implemented in the future. Goes to show how woefully out of date I am on my app dev knowledge.
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#8 |
Member
Join Date: Jul 2010
Posts: 75
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Not sure if it would be easier or harder to implement, but even having an 'Open In' option within HeroLab's portfolio manager (in addition to the Email To and other options) would be a step forward. Currently I am able to get .por files from DropBox to HL by using the 'Open In' from DropBox and selecting HeroLab, but not the other way around to write changes back to DropBox. Have used this method as a workaround for other apps (when you 'Open In' Dropbox it asks if you want to overwrite the file on your DropBox share with the copy from the other app's sandbox).
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#9 |
Member
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 39
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