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Bulk Importer from file

R

RampagingHoardes

Well-known member
Any chance of a Bulk File Importer into RW?

It would be so helpful if we could read an entire pdf, word or comma delimited file into realm works as a topic(s) and then be able to tag the text and split it into further topics based on the tag we set. This would be a HUGE leap forward for the product.


A Bulk loader for Herolab would also be nice even if the data has be be massaged first to meet Hero Lab file specs.

Did a lot of this type stuff in the past so i am pretty sure this shouldn't be an issue other than time.

The amount of time saved by not having to do manual entry or to minimize manual entry would seize the gold for next year.

Fingers Crossed.
 
Although I would like this I think it will be trouble how to implement it properly.

For me the best option would be if I buy a product from a publisher in pdf I get a RW copy as well. ;)
 
I had a long talk with a few of the developers at Gen Con during the meet and greet about this very thing. There are a few issues that need to be overcome, but they are looking at it. That being said it may be a while before anything is out for it.
 
my mind is a tad boggled on how you would automate this.

Step 1 you would have to convert PDF to text. Sometimes this works well, other times not so much. Lots of editing may be required.

After you get it into text format, then you need to divide all that content up into topic chunks. That's not something that can be automated, you'd want to specifically design topics and heirarchy and content/topic type. Even if you wanted zero control over structure you'd have to break up the content somehow. Most publishers use different standards, and certainly different games do, so there's not really a sure way to determine how to automatically split content.

Lastly, you'd have to divide all those topics up into logical snippets, which also is not something that would be done remotely well if it was automated. Most you could do there is one big text snippet per topic, which you would then have to go through all the work splitting it up to be readable/useable anyway.

My feeling is you'd be much better off converting your PDF to text and doing logical human-led copy/paste. Or wait for the content to come out on the marketplace.
 
There is a command for splitting a block of text into a new snippit, so getting the data in,
then using that to break it down would be much faster than the copy paste create new copy paste I would think.
 
A big issue for me is the time I need to wait for RW to switch between topics, so any bulk importer, which I really, really, *really* would like, would ideally do the importing behind the scenes.

I've got a great deal of stuff I want to put in, and a lot of it is in Excel files.

With my limited database knowledge, I would think that comma separated value files, which Excel can create easily, would be the best way of doing it.

Would the best way to have a .csv detailing a topic and then it's snippets or a .csv that creates topics, then one that puts in aliases, followed by one that puts the birth dates in, and another for death dates, etc?
 
I would agree a de-limited text type of import / export feature could be useful, BUT As LADY above points out, I can't wrap my mind around how LWD could do such efficiently...

Exporting is not as problematic since LWD can control how the data leaves RW.Once the ability to create PDfs or print comes into play this will help the sharing of data from an exporting perspective.

Importing is another matter all together.

Even Adobe (which is the defacto product) for PDFs cannot manage a perfect clean "copy" from PDF to say word *.doc file or an *.xls sheet of Excel. And all of these products have been around for YEARS.

I see ALOT of user clean up that would remove any "time savings" getting the data into the right snipits, tags, articles, etc... I then forecast numerous complaints from the community on wrecked databases, information in wrong places, etc and the community then wanting LWD to "fix it".:eek:

Currently cut and paste, (to me) seems the simplest most direct approach. I highlight what I want, and only what I want.. and put it where I want...

I just don't see this working... unless some copies of RW came with a leprechaun feature that magically does this?? IF so I need that patch!!! hehe seriously.... lets not put unrealistic expectations in front of ROB and Company for them to.... IMO... spend energy on that would glean little to no fruit.:cool:

Remember RW is a Database, so it is not only just getting the information in, it is also getting that information arranged properly. It isn't as simple as scanning a hardcopy document and creating a digital one.
 
I think that importing from PDF is unnecessary. I have a lot of data in spreadsheets, which can easily be saved in .csv format.

Possibly we would need to know the database ID of the topic to import to precisely the correct topic. This would have to be shown, but obviously non-editable.

I envisage importing, say tags, thus:

If a person has a database Id of 54997977, and you want to import a birthdate of 01/12/2014.

ID[54997977],Cat[Backg],Calen[Birth Date{01/12/2014}]

I think that you would need to ensure that the snippet types exist first, but there could be an error report if there are any errors. (And the importer would skip over those errors, instead of reporting them one-by-one.)
 
Also a way to bulk change dates from one calendar to another would be very handy, as then dates could be imported as real-world dates, and changed to in-game dates. (This would save the hassle of supporting lots of different calendar styles.)
 
Zaphod Beebledoc said:
ID[54997977],Cat[Backg],Calen[Birth Date{01/12/2014}]
Click to expand...

Zaphod Beebledoc said:
Also a way to bulk change dates from one calendar to another would be very handy, as then dates could be imported as real-world dates, and changed to in-game dates. (This would save the hassle of supporting lots of different calendar styles.)
Click to expand...

Actually, you could specify which calendar to change it to in the import, so that would cut the number of steps. I would suggest a way to bulk change dates would still be helpful.

So for a date in a calendar which is not the real world one, but maps to the real world one...

ID[54997977],Cat[Backg],Calen[Birth Date(Calendar#4){01/12/2014}]
 
Zaphod Beebledoc said:
Also a way to bulk change dates from one calendar to another would be very handy, as then dates could be imported as real-world dates, and changed to in-game dates. (This would save the hassle of supporting lots of different calendar styles.)
Click to expand...

Actually First, I would put this under a calendar Requested Item since it is less to do with bulk importing of data and more to do with data manipulation (in this case dates).

and as to "Hassle" it defeats the purpose of multiple calendars and why that feature is important and useful.

For Example:
I may have many differing races that use different calendar names, different holidays, or may have Lycanthropes that are not concerned solely with what day it is but where that fits on a lunar calendar.

Or to further expand, there may be some that wish to utilize RW where differing planets use different means of dating or time passage. The DM (GM for you youngsters) may want to have a "game calendar" that tracks the passing of time regardless of which planet the PC is on.

Example#2
Venus's day lasting 243 earth days (yea 1 day=243 here) or pluto's day only being less than 7 earth days but one "pluto year" (ie orbit) is 248 earth years. So if the PC stays the "day on Venus" Returns to earth for "a day", then spends a "day on pluto" the DM's game calendar can do that.
the PC may have spent 1 day on each planet, but the time spent (not including travel) would be longer (243+1+7= 251)

If you kept calendars as real-world dates, you would import them as such, and simply change the calendar type (as defined in the calendar feature coming soon to a RW near you) and have what you are describing PLUS the ability to change that calendar to a multitude of others. INSTEAD of re-importing it with a different structure.
 
I was thinking of the devs when I said "hassle." :)

I'd read somewhere, I think it was the calendar thread, about how much work it would be to support the pasting of all the different calendars that you could create in RW. My thought was that if they kept pasting/importing to Gregorian formats, then offered a way to bulk change dates to other calendar formats, that would help DM's.

Wish I'd have made my posting more clearer, but I'd just had an afterthought to my original post and hastily posted. :o I'll post in the calendar thread with this idea.
 
Just thinking about this and I've come up with a temporary solution.

Ctrl-Shift-Q opens up an expanded quick create dialog that is a bit more like a table.

Current Quick Create (Ctrl-Q)



Bulk Quick Create... :) (Ctrl-Shift-Q)



Excuse the crude mock-up! I'm working in Paint here! :)
 
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