Is there a quick way to fix duplicate structures?

[Sword_of_Spirit]

When I was originally building my realm, I copied all the categories, hid the originals, and used my copies. No need to worry about accidentally messing stuff up with my category customizations.

Enter "Realm Works has detected structure items with duplicate or reserved names in the realm "<Realm>".

In order to perform import, export, or game system conversion, all Categories and Domains in your realm must have unique names which are not reserved by Realm Works. Additionally, all Section Definitions and Snippet Types must have unique names within their Category."

*Facepalm*

So if I want to keep my realm fully functional for the future, I'm going to have to convert all the zillions of topics I have to the default categories.

Is there a way to do this sort of thing for all topics in a category, or am I going to have to do it individually for each one?

I have a similar issue with some sections, but I'm less hopeful there is any fix for that but doing it one by one.

Also, anything else I should be on the look out for that can give me problems like that? (I have not deleted anything--I've only hid things I'm not using, and created some duplicately named sections (in addition to the categories) where I was having problems getting what I wanted with the original.)

 

[Farling]

From the manage category window, I think you can choose to move all topics/articles from one category to another.

 

[daplunk]

Open Realm > Manage > Categories > Select Category Tool bar Icon (on right) > Move all Topics to Category > Select From List.

 

[Silveras]

If it is just that your topic names are the same as the originals, add a "2" or your initials to the name so they are no longer the same.

Within a topic definition, if you have snippets with the same name, you can do the same.

 

[Parody]

If it is just that your topic names are the same as the originals, add a "2" or your initials to the name so they are no longer the same.

Yeah, the category names should be different. I added "(Paranoia)" to the ones in my Paranoia realm, for example. (I also made the abbreviations different, FWIW.)

Within a topic definition, if you have snippets with the same name, you can do the same.

This is unfortunate since the snippet names are the labels, but if you want the error message to go away you have to rename them somehow.

 

[Sword_of_Spirit]

Thanks!

It sounds like it won't be as hard as I had thought.

Here's another question. I'm considering converting it to a D&D 5e structure. What would this do to my customizations? I'd basically want to keep most of my customizations, but having the elements that differ between the 5e and default structure switched to 5e might be nice. But if it is going to throw all of my customizations out of whack, that might just be more trouble than it is worth.

 

[Parody]

It depends on how much you're using the Global Categories and Tag Domains; anything in those may change and new ones may be created that have the same names as yours. You said you're using your own Categories but haven't said how much you're using (and/or how much you've customized) the Global Tag Domains.

One way to see, though, is to sync up (assuming you have Cloud Service) then do the conversion. If you don't like the results, restore from backup or redownload from the server.

 

[Sword_of_Spirit]

Well the goal is (to avoid issues in the future), to eliminate my duplicate categories, converting my topics based on them into standard global categories. Then I would customize the global categories.*

I've done quite a bit of customization to some of the categories (or rather, to my duplicates, which will presumably have to be reapplied to the global categories once I get rid of my duplicates). I've also added plenty of tags in the tag domains, but some of the 5e ones look rather enticing. Ideally I could snag what they've done without losing what I've done.

*As an aside, one of the biggest issues I have with customizing global categories is that you can't change the ordering of sections, or move snippets from one section to another. Some of my duplication problems come from creating new stuff to try to get around that. I really wish that limitation would change.

 

[Parody]

Well the goal is (to avoid issues in the future), to eliminate my duplicate categories, converting my topics based on them into standard global categories. Then I would customize the global categories.

My recommendation is to stick with your own categories rather than customizing the Globals if you don't want to use their organization.

I've also added plenty of tags in the tag domains, but some of the 5e ones look rather enticing. Ideally I could snag what they've done without losing what I've done.

I have avoided adding new tags to the Global Domains, making new Domains instead if I wanted to customize them. I have had tags disappear when they were in the previous system's Globals but not the new ones, so be on the lookout for that.

As an aside, one of the biggest issues I have with customizing global categories is that you can't change the ordering of sections, or move snippets from one section to another. Some of my duplication problems come from creating new stuff to try to get around that. I really wish that limitation would change.

That's going against the purpose of the Global items, though. They exist to facilitate selling products with uniform organization and system-defined terms so that folks buying content know that it matches with the stated game system, know what various Topics/Articles are going to look like, and can integrate it into their other stuff reasonably well.

So do you plan on buying/importing or selling content? If not then there's not much point in converting back to the Global Categories, though you may want to convert the system to get the predefined Tags.

Given that you said the system is D&D 5e, you may want to wait for the release of the SRD and more fleshed-out content than Pixies to see which direction is right for you. For now you could do a trial conversion (perhaps in a duplicate of your realm) and play with a few Topics/Articles just to see if you think it's going to be worth it given the limitations.

(It's a lot easier when your system isn't going to have content. :)

 

[Sword_of_Spirit]

I have avoided adding new tags to the Global Domains, making new Domains instead if I wanted to customize them. I have had tags disappear when they were in the previous system's Globals but not the new ones, so be on the lookout for that.

Dang. That will be a real pain. I have a few new domains, but I generally used domains and tags as is where I could, and added in tags when needed (and I've added in a lot of tags). I supposed I can compare the tags from the Legacy framework to the 5e framework and then check and see if I'm using any that don't exist anymore.

That's going against the purpose of the Global items, though. They exist to facilitate selling products with uniform organization and system-defined terms so that folks buying content know that it matches with the stated game system, know what various Topics/Articles are going to look like, and can integrate it into their other stuff reasonably well.

So do you plan on buying/importing or selling content? If not then there's not much point in converting back to the Global Categories, though you may want to convert the system to get the predefined Tags.

While I'd like to have content market compatibility in case I do want to get something (who knows what might be available on the market some day), I'm thinking it might not work out for me to convert my categories.

No option exist to hide certain sections and snippets on some topics, but not on others (other than simply removing empty section/snippets) correct? If that is the case, that would mean that if I downloaded anything from the content market, I'd unhide all the things I hid (and have it show up by default on my own topics) in order to see some of the content, which isn't something I want to mess with. I changed the format of my categories for a reason.

If that's the case, then it seems (correct me if I'm wrong) that my best option is probably just to rename and keep my own categories, and accept that I'm going to have to unhide and navigate through some default categories if I want to use content from the market.

So now I come to renaming...

Is there any way to add an invisible character to the category names and have Realm Works register it as a different name? I've tried a few types of spaces--even putting a space in front of the name--and Realm Works manages to see through my ruse, ignore the space, and refuse to accept it as a uniquely named category.

I really don't want to add a 1 or . or something to the ends of the category names (that significantly reduces the aesthetic quality of my Realm, which is part of the reason I bought the software in the first place), and I definitely can't think up better names for dozens of different categories.

Does anyone have any naming solutions?

 

[Farling]

Here's another question. I'm considering converting it to a D&D 5e structure. What would this do to my customizations? I'd basically want to keep most of my customizations, but having the elements that differ between the 5e and default structure switched to 5e might be nice. But if it is going to throw all of my customizations out of whack, that might just be more trouble than it is worth.

I'm fairly sure that converting the realm to 5E will do _nothing_ to your own categories. Since they aren't predefined categories RW wouldn't know how to modify them.

 

[kbs666]

A couple of things to keep in mind.

Imported content does not contain any empty snippets or sections. It is a fairly "lite" process. If you have customized the default categories by hiding stuff, I assume you mean collapsed by default, then I suspect an import would leave that alone unless that topic included content in such a section. I can see no way it would effect your existing categories at all.

The problem with tags isn't with user added tags IME but with "system" tags in use by a realm converted to a realm that doesn't have them. So far I've never lost tags I've added to a tag domain during an import.

 

[Parody]

I have a few new domains, but I generally used domains and tags as is where I could, and added in tags when needed (and I've added in a lot of tags).

Unless the Domain disappears completely I think you'll be OK. Again, duplicating your realm and doing a trial conversion is what I'd recommend.

Does anyone have any naming solutions?

As mentioned earlier I put "(Paranoia)" at the end of my customized versions of the Global Categories in my Paranoia realm. If you're building your own campaign world its name may be a good choice. Otherwise, perhaps the name of your campaign or gaming group?

 

[Sword_of_Spirit]

If you have customized the default categories by hiding stuff, I assume you mean collapsed by default, then I suspect an import would leave that alone unless that topic included content in such a section. I can see no way it would effect your existing categories at all.

Actually I mean I went to the category definition and unclicked the "show" box, so they never show up in topics I create.

The problem with tags isn't with user added tags IME but with "system" tags in use by a realm converted to a realm that doesn't have them. So far I've never lost tags I've added to a tag domain during an import.

So I'm trying out the idea of keeping my own stuff, but converting it to 5e D&D Realm format. However, I'm hitting a snag here. It keeps giving me a "Tag cannot be deleted" error. Unfortunately, Realm Works just crashes (well, goes into "Not Responding" actually) if I click "Save as File" so I can't even figure out the details of the stupid error.

My guess is that this means I am using a default tag that doesn't exist in 5e. So I compared the formats, and 5e doesn't really delete many tags. All I can find that I'm using that doesn't exist in 5e format was the Commoner and Warrior tags in the Class domain. I searched for every topic that included them and changed them. (For some reason, the Warrior tag would let me select the option in the domain management to delete all instances or change them to another tag, but the Commoner wouldn't. What's up with that?) I also had Commoner assigned as default, so I went and undid that setting.

When I try to convert it still gives me the same error. It's possible I have a tag in use somewhere other than those two, but I can't figure out what it is. I can't find any tags outside of the Race and Class Domains that were even removed.

"Why don't you just forget about converting it to 5e format, if that's the only difference anyway?" one asks. Well, besides the fact that I like not having all those Pathfinder tags cluttering up my domain list (yes, I hide them for purposes of selecting tags, but it's the principle of the matter dang it!) I'd also like to have my realm in D&D 5e format so that when they update it further I'm already ready to go, rather than waiting until later and having to go through even more effort to convert things over (there were several dozen Commoner tags I had to manually eplace to get rid of them as it was). My realm is only going to get bigger as time goes on.

It's rather annoying that an error that refuses to explain itself to me is preventing my converting a realm to 5e.

 

[Sword_of_Spirit]

Unless the Domain disappears completely I think you'll be OK. Again, duplicating your realm and doing a trial conversion is what I'd recommend.

Yeah, I agree that's a good idea. That's what I'm trying to do now, but I'm running into a snag converting my duplicate to 5e (see above post).

As mentioned earlier I put "(Paranoia)" at the end of my customized versions of the Global Categories in my Paranoia realm. If you're building your own campaign world its name may be a good choice. Otherwise, perhaps the name of your campaign or gaming group?

I'm really hoping to do something highly unobtrusive--especially if I end up using some default categories. (I can always just avoid that entirely I suppose.) It just seems like a real pain that there is no way to reuse the name. It's not like computer code can't distinguish it in some other way with a non-visible element.

 

[kbs666]

Actually I mean I went to the category definition and unclicked the "show" box, so they never show up in topics I create.



So I'm trying out the idea of keeping my own stuff, but converting it to 5e D&D Realm format. However, I'm hitting a snag here. It keeps giving me a "Tag cannot be deleted" error. Unfortunately, Realm Works just crashes (well, goes into "Not Responding" actually) if I click "Save as File" so I can't even figure out the details of the stupid error.

My guess is that this means I am using a default tag that doesn't exist in 5e. So I compared the formats, and 5e doesn't really delete many tags. All I can find that I'm using that doesn't exist in 5e format was the Commoner and Warrior tags in the Class domain. I searched for every topic that included them and changed them. (For some reason, the Warrior tag would let me select the option in the domain management to delete all instances or change them to another tag, but the Commoner wouldn't. What's up with that?) I also had Commoner assigned as default, so I went and undid that setting.

When I try to convert it still gives me the same error. It's possible I have a tag in use somewhere other than those two, but I can't figure out what it is. I can't find any tags outside of the Race and Class Domains that were even removed.

"Why don't you just forget about converting it to 5e format, if that's the only difference anyway?" one asks. Well, besides the fact that I like not having all those Pathfinder tags cluttering up my domain list (yes, I hide them for purposes of selecting tags, but it's the principle of the matter dang it!) I'd also like to have my realm in D&D 5e format so that when they update it further I'm already ready to go, rather than waiting until later and having to go through even more effort to convert things over (there were several dozen Commoner tags I had to manually eplace to get rid of them as it was). My realm is only going to get bigger as time goes on.

It's rather annoying that an error that refuses to explain itself to me is preventing my converting a realm to 5e.

I just tried converting a copy of my main realm from pathfinder to D&D5E which used to work just fine. It now crashes as you describe. I'm not sure when this was introduced but it is fairly recent. Please submit a bug report. This is reproducible and needs to be addressed before they open the CM.

 

[Sword_of_Spirit]

I just tried converting a copy of my main realm from pathfinder to D&D5E which used to work just fine. It now crashes as you describe. I'm not sure when this was introduced but it is fairly recent. Please submit a bug report. This is reproducible and needs to be addressed before they open the CM.

I submitted the report from the error pop-up. Is there anywhere else I should be submitting it?

 

[Parody]

I'm really hoping to do something highly unobtrusive--especially if I end up using some default categories. (I can always just avoid that entirely I suppose.) It just seems like a real pain that there is no way to reuse the name. It's not like computer code can't distinguish it in some other way with a non-visible element.

While I agree that it can be annoying when you're hiding an existing Global to use your own, I think it's important to be able to tell at a glance which Category is under consideration. Non-visible text doesn't help there.

FWIW, I only use the Simple Groupings in the Navigation pane, so the only time I see a Category name in "day-to-day" use is when I'm creating a new Topic/Article. (Similarly I use very few multi-Domain Tag Snippets, so I tune out the names of the Tag Domains most of the time.)

I submitted the report from the error pop-up. Is there anywhere else I should be submitting it?

You can give more info and another link to you on the Report a Realm Works Bug Page. Keep a copy of the crashing database file around. (Unless you've changed the setting, RW keeps backups from the last 10 times you launched it in your Documents folder.)

 

[Sword_of_Spirit]

While I agree that it can be annoying when you're hiding an existing Global to use your own, I think it's important to be able to tell at a glance which Category is under consideration. Non-visible text doesn't help there.

FWIW, I only use the Simple Groupings in the Navigation pane, so the only time I see a Category name in "day-to-day" use is when I'm creating a new Topic/Article. (Similarly I use very few multi-Domain Tag Snippets, so I tune out the names of the Tag Domains most of the time.)

I prefer the micro categories rather than the simple ones, and I also have tabs open with things sorted hierarchically (very useful when navigating through a multiverse's "geography"). With the global categories hidden, the only time I need to tell them apart is when I'm managing categories, and the user vs. global icon does an adequate job of letting me know which is which there.

What's bugging me is that the functionality of duplicate user categories was working fine, but now if we want to use the new content market, we are stuck having to figure out some sort of workaround or lose the functionality we previously had (and I hate losing previous functionality).