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.stock files how do pepole keep track of where to find things

D

drakahn99

Well-known member
i was wondering what people do to keep track of whats where? i seem to have an unwieldy huge list and at times it can be trying to figure out whats where.

thinking about adding a feature request to add in more to the menus so we can see whats in the stock files before clicking on it to add, and if its not in that particular one then having to restart the process over from scratch again, 20 or 30 times just for one npc or stock monster.
 
Yeah, I posted about this - I think there's need for a better search/browse feature there. I'm forever thinking "oh I need a low level sorcerer, I'm sure there's one from one of the NPC books" and then being confronted with a bunch of picky in/out of the add stock menus. A simple Windows Explorer-esque expanding folder view with a search bar at the top would do it.
 
Hi, this is a bit of a PITA for me as well. I threw together quick app that can search through stock/por files and look for a name you supply to it: hlsearch

It uses Python 2.7 so you'd need to install that. Below is a screenshot of it in use. Note if there's a real need to search on fields other than the creature's name, I can toss that in pretty easily.

hlsearch.png
 
Sweet, I was JUST thinking, mmm, maybe I should put a quick script together and...You posted. :)

Sadly, I get no results when searching. Maybe a permissions issue? Does it need Admin rights?

FYI: On Windows 8, file location is C:\ProgramData\Hero Lab\data\pathfinder
 
It's possible you have older stock files which might be in binary format. I've updated the program to output an error message if it can't read a file. Try it now and see if it throws errors on the file searches.

hlsearch2.png
 
Hmm, still just get:

Processing files...


Completed

PS checked and all the ones I checked were in the new "zip" format.
 
That's odd. I tried in Windows 7 at home(copied over some stock files because I normally use HL in Linux) and it's working on those. Any chance you can save a hero lab character into a normal por file and try parsing the directory that's in? I'm wondering if your stock file XML is different than mine.

It could be a Windows 8 thing or permission thing, but the app is just doing reads so that shouldn't set off any alarms(I'd think anyway). Worst case I can create a debug mode on the app which will output every step it's going through to help narrow down things. That way it'd output the opening of the file, show what creature it's comparing the name search against, etc.

windows_hlsearch.jpg
 
I've re-written this to use a new GUI interface with better cross platform support and I'm also experimenting with compiled binaries for it.

To run from source you'll need Python 2.7 and PyQt4.

However I've also added 32/64 bit Linux binaries and a 32bit Windows executable. I'm not sure if the 32bit Windows EXE will work under Windows 64bit and I'm still putting together a Mac build environment to create Mac binaries.

The app should run much faster now and the output is a lot more useful.

hlsearch.png


Download and install docs are here
 
This is impressive, the current HL native stock file search is somewhat cumbersome.

Especially as the list is constantly updated and added to.

Integration / implementation perhaps?
 
Dracones said:
I've re-written this to use a new GUI interface with better cross platform support and I'm also experimenting with compiled binaries for it.

To run from source you'll need Python 2.7 and PyQt4.

However I've also added 32/64 bit Linux binaries and a 32bit Windows executable. I'm not sure if the 32bit Windows EXE will work under Windows 64bit and I'm still putting together a Mac build environment to create Mac binaries.

The app should run much faster now and the output is a lot more useful.

hlsearch.png


Download and install docs are here
Click to expand...

is there any way you could add a browse function to the app? it would be useful to know what i actually have in the stock files to determine if something needs added.
 
Integration / implementation perhaps?
Click to expand...

Probably wouldn't happen as Hero Lab is written in a different language.


drakahn99 said:
is there any way you could add a browse function to the app? it would be useful to know what i actually have in the stock files to determine if something needs added.
Click to expand...

Do you mean you just want to see everything you have in any given stock file? Just don't put anything in the search field, hit search/enter and it'll pull down everything in all your stock files in the search folder. You can then sort by clicking on the table headers and scroll down to the stock you want to inspect.
 
Added in a small update for this. Now if you double click on a table row it'll bring up that creature's statblock. Should make this a little more useful for managing a collection of stock and por files.

hlsearch_statblock.png
 
Dracones said:
Probably wouldn't happen as Hero Lab is written in a different language.




Do you mean you just want to see everything you have in any given stock file? Just don't put anything in the search field, hit search/enter and it'll pull down everything in all your stock files in the search folder. You can then sort by clicking on the table headers and scroll down to the stock you want to inspect.
Click to expand...

nice, your update must have been why the install link was down today. great work.
 
Dracones said:
Probably wouldn't happen as Hero Lab is written in a different language.
Click to expand...

I am aware of this, however I was just thinking textually aloud and suggesting / nudging for an implementation of this kind of "search / viewer" in a similar way that the PDF printer is required by HL to review created portfolios once.

I presumed that a port / compile of a python app would be possible. If I recall correctly TCLkit creates embedded python executables that run independently.:)

Maybe the lone wolf devs could cast a future development eye over this functionality?:cool:;)
 
OK, this is pure awesomesauce now. I'm even using it to quickly find stats to port into MT without even needing to open HL now. It's WAY faster than getting the statblock from within HL, even if HL is open already!

Simple request? Can you allow ctrl+a to select all on the statblock window? And/or put a easy "Copy to Clipboard" button at the top?

PS I love some simplicity of it and how quick it is, and liking the .exe version to :)
 
Hmmm...I think I'm missing something obvious. I can navigate to a folder without any trouble, but when I enter the search name (something obvious which I know is there, such as "goblin") and click "Search", it just hangs. It looks like it's processing - the "search" button is greyed out, etc, but after about 15 minutes, there's still nothing.

Wondering what I'm doing wrong...
 
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