All in one editor

[Dispair2]

The current application is at this location.

EQ Editor
I have given up on the msi files because they are too large and too hard to create with my current software.

[Fynmun]

I might not have the "programmer" tag, but here's my 2 cents:

- On open:
- items_Types.xls error popped stating not there.

- Quest Tab:
- Fairly easy to make. Use the sub folders to separate by zone, then the title of the .pl files as the names of the quests. I believe there is a PERL plug-in for VB, though I'm not 100% on that. If there is, then that could add editing functionality inside the program.

- Visual Stuff:
- Name, AC, Haste, and HP all have a weird upper line that goes across the top of the box. (Obviously where the text box where the title is sitting.)
- Search button could use some breathing room so it is not flush with the box it is in.
- Main window (in my opinion) should not be resizable, instead make it flush with the tab set; upon maximize
- Use the bottom scroll bar of search results only as needed. Remove if not needed. (Makes it look cleaner.)

- Search Code:
- One thing I noticed. Does the code for the search rely on all the boxes? For example, Class == 'Bard', Level == 1, Price == 1, and Name == 'Chant', click search and nothing comes up. (Looking for 'Song: Chant of Battle'.) For flexibility, I'd suggest putting in a selectable search.
- Easiest way I can think of coding (though it'll make the UI kinda messy) is to have check boxes next to the Search options. Click on means it's used in the search, otherwise not used. This would probably make it clunky though, but this was really only off the top of my head.
- Other way is to have it detect a change in the box. But that'd get tricky because a person might look for a level 20 something and then go back to a level 1, thus breaking it.

That's all I got at first glance. I'll post more if you found this information useful.

Fynmun

[narcberry]

Thanks anyone and everyone that makes doing anything easier for others. Seriously, thank you.


As far as a all in one tool goes, I'm not a fan of using VB. It's such a hacked language, requiring all users to jump through silly hoops. Plus, you're running things client-side usually so my devs end up waiting through ridiculous downtime between each action when working on the database (on the order of 5 seconds per line operation). It should be server side, since that is where the database is (probably) and that is where the spells file is and that is where all the quests are and that is where all the config files are and that is where all the logs are and that is where the ...

To me, the obvious solution would be a php based tool. It can be available to all your devs, as well as maintain security. php is very good at interfacing with databases and you only have to set it up once, on the server. It could easily be used to edit quests and spells, even make the latest spells file available for download. It could even interface directly with the server as it is running. All of this in a well designed tool. VB is so icky (no offense georges).

I have no intention of crushing your spirits, but I would hope before you get too far along you consider a redesign using a server-side all-in-one tool. If you do, I'd be willing to help. An all-in-one tool would just be too helpful.

[Fynmun]

Keep in mind though, some servers are clients as well -- such as my case.

Yes, PHP would be useful for devs in remote locations because of its ease to interface and it can be made into a nice (and pretty) HTML page.

My only suggestion is that a check-out system should be implemented. Two or more devs working on the same thing can end up being disasterous.

I would say switching all the way to PHP has weaknesses, but I personally cannot think of one. The ease of making a nice and effecient page for editing is easily done using PHP/HTML. Database interface (like said above) is a breeze. Connection to the server can be restricted easily via passwords and other security measures. Etc. Etc.

As much as I praise this idea, I do not condemn the idea of making a non-PHP AiOE. Though the useage of this type of editor would be limited, it would be stronger for those in that group. This group being anyone who doesn't have a dev team for their project. For the people who just want to install n' run, a non-web based editor would probably be ideal -- instead of having to install PHP, install Apache, set up a server, configure the PHP, etc etc.

In essence:
1) If Dev Team Then PHP.
2) If Loner Then non-PHP.

In either case though, something like this would be unbelievably useful -- especially to the people who are using the EQEmu as a base for their own custom game.

[Dispair2]

Thank you both for your input, unfortunately i do not know php and will have to stick to finishing the standalone vb.net. Also this application does connect to remote machines as i am using one of many machines in my domain to create it and the sql server is stand alone windows 2003 server. this application would also be very easy to implement "check out" as all i would have to do is create a filename.chk file and then when trying to open the file check for that. It is not something i thought about but it is a GREAT idea and will put it on my list. As far as updating the spells files client side, that would have to be done by a client and a simple asp or php or even html page could accomplish this just by having an updates page.

As an update for the actual application, i missed a file in my last publish and have put it on the web server.

The XLS file

[Dispair2]

I just read through all the posts and that is some great feed back, I hope to hear more so that i can make this application more user friendly. I will take into consideration ALL input let here for me.

[AndMetal]

Originally Posted by narcberry

I have no intention of crushing your spirits, but I would hope before you get too far along you consider a redesign using a server-side all-in-one tool. If you do, I'd be willing to help. An all-in-one tool would just be too helpful.

Not trying to hijack the thread, but I have put some work into an all-in-one PHP-based editor. It's still quite pre-alpha, but does have some decent functionality. The most functional part is the character viewer (semi-Magelo, but is based on the default UI of the Titanium client).

Of course, the downside about an all-in-one editor is it takes forever to get everything working right, because there are so many things you want to be able to do. If anything, maybe something based on a plug-in system would be best, where you can add the components you need, which is where I'd ultimately like to take the one I've been working on.

[Fynmun]

It depends on what you want the AiOE to do. Dispair2's is only 4 tabs, the one I'm creating is only 3.

In any case... My view is simplicity rules the day. If you've got so many things you want it to do, then break it down into, like you said, plug-ins and packages. Time is only an issue if you work on a bunch of different ones at once. Get the base down, then work on one package at a time until it works as intended, or close to intended.

[Dispair2]

Those are all brilliant ideas, however i would not know where to begin with plugins and the simplest way i can see moving forward on this is that we complete one section at a time, i was able to find somone else to help me with this application and hope that will drop production time agreat deal.

[Dispair2]

Yes my SQL statement is a little funny because i have also noticed sme non functional parts of it however i was able to see that the warrior part does work.

This is how the SQL statement looks inside the application:

SQL = "Select id, name, ac, haste, hp, reqlevel from items where reqlevel >= 1 and id = 25462 and classes like %5% and price >= 1 and name = 'itemname' and itemtype = 'something'"

of course i edited it to make it easier to read and post but you can see how it works.

This is alot buggy and will be fixed in the future but it is as functional as i need it to be for testing purposes rigt now.

What happens on the back end is that when you click search it goes through and if a value is present then it adds it to the SQL statement. So above is not always how it looks as it is dynamic and when you type in the id field i believe it disables the rest of the box's. I am not at the actual dev machine now so i can not say definatively.

[AndMetal]

Originally Posted by Dispair2

What happens on the back end is that when you click search it goes through and if a value is present then it adds it to the SQL statement. So above is not always how it looks as it is dynamic and when you type in the id field i believe it disables the rest of the box's. I am not at the actual dev machine now so i can not say definatively.

That's how I ended up doing it on mine, otherwise you run into problems.

On a side note, if you already know the item ID (it is a unique value, no 2 items have the same item id), the other fields don't matter. MySQL ignores the rest because they are redundant. However, you don't usually want to make exceptions in your code if at all possible (HUGE PITA to change later down the line), and since it doesn't usually cause problems to leave it in, you should be fine.

I am a little curious about the Select statement:

Select id, name, ac, haste, hp, reqlevel from items where reqlevel >= 1 and id = 25462 and classes like %5% and price >= 1 and name = 'itemname' and itemtype = 'something'

You mentioned that it's buggy but functional. There are a few things to be aware of (unless you already are) about some of the data types:

First of all, classes requires a bitwise operation because of how it is stored in the items table, because multiple classes can use it, and adding a column for each class can be very hard to read. When I went through discovering the information initially, I put my findings in the Wiki:

classes

* The class or classes can use the item. Remember to add up the results.
o 0 = None
o 1 = Warrior
o 2 = Cleric
o 4 = Paladin
o 8 = Ranger
o 16 = Shadow Knight
o 32 = Druid
o 64 = Monk
o 128 = Bard
o 256 = Rogue
o 512 = Shaman
o 1024 = Necromancer
o 2048 = Wizard
o 4096 = Magician
o 8192 = Enchanter
o 16384 = Beastlord
o 32768 = Berserker
o 65535 = Any/All
* IE, Monk (64) + Shaman (512) = 576

So, instead of using LIKE, you should use & (bitwise AND).

Secondly, name should only be = if you know exactly what the name is, and if you're searching for an item, you typically don't. That is why you normally want to use LIKE. I usually put a little spin on it, because running name LIKE '%Cloth%' can be pretty resource intensive (it searches all of the item names in the database to see if they contain the string "Cloth"). However, if you include an option to search using it as either the beginning or end of the name, it speeds up the results substantially (so name LIKE 'Cloth%', name LIKE '%Cap', or name LIKE 'Cloth Cap'). I usually do the same for the ID field, in case I don't know the exact item #.

In conclusion, this is how I would recommend to change the initial query:

SELECT id, name, ac, haste, hp, reqlevel FROM items WHERE reqlevel >= '1' AND id = '25462' AND classes & '5' AND price >= '1' AND name LIKE '%itemname%' AND itemtype = '0'

[GeorgeS]

Not sure if anyone uses bitwise AND SQL, but I find this info extremely useful. It makes what would take lots of code oftherwise into 1 line.

Say you want to find all items for a mage , you would enter
SELECT classes,id, name FROM items WHERE classes & '4096'

In my job, things like this makes life easier.

GeorgeS

[AndMetal]

Me too, George. I didn't even know about that little jerk until I started messing around with EQBrowser (see page 4 for a working download) and checked out some of the queries. In reality though, I'm not sure how much info is really stored as a bitmask anymore It's just not scalable enough...

[Dispair2]

I have been very busy with projects at work and sleep i have not done anything at all on this project but wanted to let everyone know it is not DEAD.

[Kayot]

A ton of data is stored as bit masks in the peq database. Every class/race combo field. I use the bit mask to save me a ton of time and code. What used to be several thousand lines of code turned into JUST the sql statment and a few box fills.

Trust me, learn the bitmask. You'll be glad you did.

Also, Arrays are your friends. Don't forget that they count them selfs when doing math, store strings with those numbers and CAN be two dimensional (Even more if you need it, two is almost always enough though.)