I've made a dnd4e character importer

danshep
danshep
edited August 2011 in API Discussion
I've made an importer for characters from dnd4e (character builder) files:

http://soxbox.no-ip.org/obsidian/

Interface is very rudimentary, but it works. Sample import was to here:

http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/the-shining-south/characters/jonn-kalash

All the data on that character was read from the dnd4e file.

The dnd4e files exported from the online builder have recently been updated with a whole bunch of extra useful data for rendering a character sheet, so I'll probably be putting together a dynamic sheet template for displaying characters in a style more similar to the sheets you can print from the builder.

Comments

  • ChainsawXIV
    ChainsawXIV
    Posts: 530 edited August 2011
    Great work! What kind of data do you want to include that the existing sheet doesn't support? It may be simpler for me to add it to the existing DSTs than to create a new one.
    Post edited by ChainsawXIV on
  • danshep
    danshep
    Posts: 3
    The dnd4e files contain the descriptions on powers and feats now - basically everything you'd need to create a character sheet in the same format as the builder would, including power cards.

    But if I was was going to make a change to your sheet, I'd be wanting to be able to add compendium links to powers and feats, which I'm guessing from my glances over the DST will involve a fair bit of javascript jiggery-pokery.
  • ChainsawXIV
    ChainsawXIV
    Posts: 530 edited August 2011
    Actually, that should be pretty easy to add to the sheet. I'm out of town at Pax this weekend, but I'll look into adding it this week or next. Most likely it will take the form of a second field associated with each list entry which contains the address for the link, similar to the multiple-data-field list entries on my Exalted sheets. I could also set up tool tip fields like I've got on the Exalted sheets if that sounds appealing...

    Example: "http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/sotfa/characters/kadon":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/sotfa/characters/kadon
    Post edited by ChainsawXIV on
  • norrain13
    norrain13
    Posts: 1
    Man thank goodness you did this, unless I missed something and this function is somewhere else on the site now. Love it.
  • Morrinn
    Morrinn
    Posts: 166
    Oh man, that's so damn handy.
    Thanks so much for this, it saves hours of input.
  • rmcdouga
    rmcdouga
    Posts: 2
    I've found this handy too. Great work!!!
  • ChadderCheeseAK
    ChadderCheeseAK
    Posts: 1
    The interface to import is confusing to me. :) I can't seem to figure out how to do this. Would anyone be willing to provide a simple tutorial?
  • Morrinn
    Morrinn
    Posts: 166
    If you've managed to successfully register your user name to the application, you'll get your campaigns listed. Note that you can only import dnd4e files to your PC's, not NPC's.

    Your campaign will list all the current PC's with a couple of buttons behind them. First one is 'Choose File' where you simply have to browse your directory for the Character Builder to find the desirable dnd4e file. Select it and press ok. Then simply press the Submit button to have the app convert the data from the file into your campaign.
  • ChainsawXIV
    ChainsawXIV
    Posts: 530
    I know it's like three months overdue, but I've just implemented the link support I talked about back in August, and the updated sheets have been submitted for approval. Feats, abilities, and items now each have a corresponding link field (so, if the field name for a given item is "dsf_item_01" for example, then the link field will be "dsf_item_link_01") where the importer can specify a URL to link to. The item in question will automatically become a link to that address when the sheet is viewed.

    Note that the address cannot be edited by hand - this is exclusively for the use of the importer, and this change will be invisible to anyone who's not using it - and that links are deactivated while editing a character, so that players can edit things without issues.
  • ChainsawXIV
    ChainsawXIV
    Posts: 530
    Updated DST is up, approved, and ready for linky goodness whenever the app is.
  • twintone
    twintone
    Posts: 1
    Is this importer still a thing? It worked really well but it appears the website is down now?
  • Boersnoes
    Boersnoes
    Posts: 1
    Anybody else getting an internal server error?
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