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FoundryVTT Importer

I hesitate to post this, as I know it has caused quite a ruckus is the past, but I made a thing, and I would love to share it with the community.

I revived/newly created an importer that utilizes the Hero Lab Online API to import characters into FoundryVTT for PF2e.

It only MOSTLY works as of now and has some issues. I plan on future development, but it is in a usable state, and I think it could benefit some. Am I phishing for free beta testing? Probably. Do I have the time and energy to start fielding mounds of complaints? Probably not.

Whatever. It can be found here: https://github.com/GeneralHuli/HeroLab-Importer and is also searchable in-game with 'Hero Lab Online PF2e Importer'

If you check it out, please let me know what you think.
 
"Excuse me, sir... could you describe the ruckus?" :)

Do you intend for this to be used on level ups as well, or just as a one-time thing?

It would be nice to have some form of checklist or log of the import when it happens to compare against. It's sometimes pretty challenging to play "what changed?" or "what did I forget?" in either application.
 
Do you intend for this to be used on level ups as well, or just as a one-time thing?
It can definitely be used for level ups. I recommend de-selecting equipment for level ups, as the equipment import destroys your current equipment setup. It is kind of impossible to try and maintain equipment on both platforms.

I did put in some debugging notes that will print to console the items it couldn't import, as well as an object that shows what import items matched the exported items. I could see about an option to summarize changes at the end though. That is a good idea. Probably start working on that after this weekend.
 
Tested this out tonight, as I miss the old one and building characters in Foundry leaves something to be desired. Unfortunately, I ran into a lot of errors with my import.

Even with manual checked and the correct attribute modifiers coming over, it didn't apply them correctly to things like languages known (not importing all of them)and hp (only gave class and ancestry values). It 'imported' inventory the character didn't have (i.e. adding in a magic consumable), and some of the inventory, like the armor, didn't apply properly to AC even when switched to 'worn armor'. All feats were planted in the 'bonus feat' section instead of their proper zone, and the feats were not draggable into the zones they belonged in; they seemed locked in place as bonus feats. Even when trying to re-add the proper feats later, it would double up the feat in the bonus zone and not allow for placement in the proper zone.

I ended up having to manually build the character within foundry when all was said and done, but I wanted to come by here with the info because I WANT an HLO importer to work. Hopefully you find this info helpful, and while I don't know anything about coding, if you have any specifics you need or other questions about my import, I'll do what I can to help.
 
Sorry to hear that it didn't work well for you. I'd like to help clarify some limitations to the importer/HLO exporting/FoundryVTT PF2e system. Some of these points may come across as "excuses", but hopefully it helps.

Equipment: The importer works by attempting to locate the best match for each item from the PF2e Compendiums and adding it to the actor in Foundry. This helps to keep the importer simple and avoid breaking things by trying to be fancy and create an entire actor from scratch. In the case of inventory items, it does not handle runes/materials at all. This is because the exported JSON from HLO will simply state that you have a "+2 Greater Striking Flaming Silver Longsword", and then I would have to parse every item, figure out if it may have runes/materials, and then find the underlying item (longsword in this case) add to actor, then add each rune/material separately and hope I didn't break anything in the process. For myself, partly because HLO API does not currently have a system to import characters, I only intended to have the inventory attempt to import once, for a new character, rather than try to maintain equipment on both platforms simultaneously. All that being said, I'm not sure if that was your issue, but it is likely that, or your added custom items, or something weird happened with how HLO and Foundry label their respective items. For Armor, again, the importer does nothing to set values on the actor, it only adds the item and lets the system work its magic. This is probably a case of having runes on the armor.

Languages/Attributes: Attributes are only in respect to your str, dex, etc. and do not affect languages. For languages, that should have worked, though there may be issues if you have selected extra languages that you normally shouldn't have received, though I would be interested to know what your circumstances were and what results you got. (i.e. were you importing over an existing actor in Foundry or a fresh one. Did you have feats/others that granted additional languages.)

HP: This is a strange one as per the PF2e rules, you only get a set amount per level based on class/ancestry with Toughness being the rare exception. Not sure what you had going on that would allow for a different HP value. Feats being added 'should' auto-magically increase HP based on the rules in the PF2e system in Foundry, but any errors there are beyond an issue with the importer. (You can't even manually set max HP value in Foundry)

Feats: These are a hot mess, and here is why. HLO does not provide much, if any, metadata with the feats/spells/et al. So it is up to the importer to 'guess' where they are supposed to be, and at what level you selected them. If it can't figure that out, it goes to "Bonus". Nothing I can really do about that. It does it's best to account for double feats, but some feats are allowed multiple times, and Foundry PF2e system will auto-add some feats when they are granted from another feat. I wish I was able to handle this better, but I won't be able to unless HLO gives some more data, this is all I can do. (I have contacted them regarding this and because the HLO systems does not track levels of feats, that won't happen. But at least knowing the category would help tremendously.) As far as not being able to move the feats withing the actor sheet, I'm not sure. That is something to do with Foundry PF2e.

All in all, I hope you can find use for the tool as it is, while understanding it's limitations. I apologize if these limitations make this tool unusable for you otherwise. I created this as a side project, and I will continue to support it as far as it/I can go with it. If you can provide additional details on the points I mentioned above, I will look into trying to get what should be working, working.
 
Sorry to hear that it didn't work well for you. I'd like to help clarify some limitations to the importer/HLO exporting/FoundryVTT PF2e system. Some of these points may come across as "excuses", but hopefully it helps.

Equipment: The importer works by attempting to locate the best match for each item from the PF2e Compendiums and adding it to the actor in Foundry. This helps to keep the importer simple and avoid breaking things by trying to be fancy and create an entire actor from scratch. In the case of inventory items, it does not handle runes/materials at all. This is because the exported JSON from HLO will simply state that you have a "+2 Greater Striking Flaming Silver Longsword", and then I would have to parse every item, figure out if it may have runes/materials, and then find the underlying item (longsword in this case) add to actor, then add each rune/material separately and hope I didn't break anything in the process. For myself, partly because HLO API does not currently have a system to import characters, I only intended to have the inventory attempt to import once, for a new character, rather than try to maintain equipment on both platforms simultaneously. All that being said, I'm not sure if that was your issue, but it is likely that, or your added custom items, or something weird happened with how HLO and Foundry label their respective items. For Armor, again, the importer does nothing to set values on the actor, it only adds the item and lets the system work its magic. This is probably a case of having runes on the armor.

It was a level 1 character with no special gear or any magic items or runes. It brought over the correct type of armor, but when I tried to 'wear' the armor and get its AC applied, the AC stayed the same, only accounting for proficiency and dex.

Languages/Attributes: Attributes are only in respect to your str, dex, etc. and do not affect languages. For languages, that should have worked, though there may be issues if you have selected extra languages that you normally shouldn't have received, though I would be interested to know what your circumstances were and what results you got. (i.e. were you importing over an existing actor in Foundry or a fresh one. Did you have feats/others that granted additional languages.)

INT does directly affect the amount of languages you have to start with, granting bonus languages equal to the modifier. The INT bonus of 3 was not applied to the language calculation properly and therefore didn't bring all of the languages over in the import.

HP: This is a strange one as per the PF2e rules, you only get a set amount per level based on class/ancestry with Toughness being the rare exception. Not sure what you had going on that would allow for a different HP value. Feats being added 'should' auto-magically increase HP based on the rules in the PF2e system in Foundry, but any errors there are beyond an issue with the importer. (You can't even manually set max HP value in Foundry)

Class hp is supposed to include your CON mod, which the import did not do.

Feats: These are a hot mess, and here is why. HLO does not provide much, if any, metadata with the feats/spells/et al. So it is up to the importer to 'guess' where they are supposed to be, and at what level you selected them. If it can't figure that out, it goes to "Bonus". Nothing I can really do about that. It does it's best to account for double feats, but some feats are allowed multiple times, and Foundry PF2e system will auto-add some feats when they are granted from another feat. I wish I was able to handle this better, but I won't be able to unless HLO gives some more data, this is all I can do. (I have contacted them regarding this and because the HLO systems does not track levels of feats, that won't happen. But at least knowing the category would help tremendously.) As far as not being able to move the feats withing the actor sheet, I'm not sure. That is something to do with Foundry PF2e.

All in all, I hope you can find use for the tool as it is, while understanding it's limitations. I apologize if these limitations make this tool unusable for you otherwise. I created this as a side project, and I will continue to support it as far as it/I can go with it. If you can provide additional details on the points I mentioned above, I will look into trying to get what should be working, working.

When I get some more time to play around with it, I'm going to work on trying to import more characters, see what issues recreate, or if any new ones come to my attention. As a level 1 it wasn't terrible, I was just in a bit of time crunch so was hoping for the ease and quickness of the import. I'll see about porting some higher level ones as well to see what results I get.

Appreciate your work on this.
 
Thanks for reaching back.
I want to reiterate: the importer does not "set" any values, except for your actual ability scores, which you need to set to "manual entry" before you import, or select your boosts yourself. Other than that, all it does is match the items/feats/spells from HLO and adds them to the actor in Foundry, as if you would do from the compendiums. If anything is not calculating correctly, there is something else affecting the actor. That is to say, it may be grabbing the wrong items. If you can prove the JSON export for your HLO character and the exported actor from Foundry, I would be glad to see what may not be importing correctly and make adjustments as needed. I was only able to test a few different character variations, and mostly at low level, so any further test data is welcome.
 
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