Import from DND Beyond?

raynbow
raynbow

Do any of the existing DND5e character sheets have the ability to import from DND Beyond like the 4e character sheet imports from the old character builder?

Comments

  • thaen
    thaen
    Posts: 1,064

    I don't think any of the DND5e character sheets have that ability.  BUT you can "Export to PDF" the DNDBeyond character, and that will give you a pdf link like this:

    www.dndbeyond.com/sheet-pdfs/thaen_thromhold_35743119.pdf

    And then you can "host" that in a Character Description, with html like this:

    <div class='oembed'><a href='https://www.dndbeyond.com/sheet-pdfs/thaen_thromhold_35743119.pdf'></a></div>;

    In a quick test I just did, it didn't seem that the PDF updates to show any changes made to the DNDBeyond Character after the Export.  So you would need to "re-export" the Character and update the link to update it on OP.

     

    Obsidian Portal Developer

  • Keryth987
    Keryth987
    Posts: 1,047

    D&D Beyond, Hero Lab, and just plain editable PDF sheets are what my group has been using since almost day 1 here. DSTs, honestly, are too clunky. The media Embed makes it pretty easy to use pdfs, as long as they are online eithe ron the site itself or hosted somewhere else (as with D&D Beyond)

  • raynbow
    raynbow
    Posts: 5

    Ok, thanks I'll take a look at the PDFs, although I do like the DSTs, I guess DND Beyond doesn't really have  way to export to anything a DST could use.

  • thaen
    thaen
    Posts: 1,064

    @raynbow, it appears that there is a JSON listing of a character that you can pull from dndbeyond, which could be pulled into a DST via the JavaScript and then displayed.  Here's an example character that I found referenced in an importer on GitHub:

    https://character-service.dndbeyond.com/character/v3/character/19278454

    Here's the GitHub project (I don't know anything about it):

    https://github.com/kjbro/Roll20APIScripts/tree/master/BeyondImporter_5eOGL

    So if someone wanted to do the work of creating a DST that could display that data, that's totally feasible.

    Obsidian Portal Developer

  • Keryth987
    Keryth987
    Posts: 1,047

    But isn't JSON disabled in OP?

  • Keryth987
    Keryth987
    Posts: 1,047

    In addition, here's an official quote from D&D BEyond Staff

    "As always, please be aware that the JSON data at that URL is not intended as a public API.

    The data structure and route may, and probably will, be changed as and when is needed as part of developing additional features for D&D Beyond"

    So, @Thaen thats probably not a recommendation you really wanna make

     

  • thaen
    thaen
    Posts: 1,064

    JSON will work in the DSTs.  DST developers can use JavaScript in the DSTs (and thus JSON), and then that JavaScript is checked to make sure it's safe before the DST is approved for everyone to use.

    Yeah, that's a good point about the route and data structure changing. It's not a perfect solution.

    But it might be a good enough solution if someone wanted to put the time in.  Even with the possibility of changes, it's probably still possible for someone to create a DST that grabs the high level stuff that mostly won't change.  For example, ability scores.  And even if the data structure does change, since it would just be reading the data from DNDBeyond, the only thing that would happen is the DST would break and stop showing the data correctly, or depending on how the developer created the DST maybe the DST wouldn't be able to update with the latest changes anymore.  If the developer is maintaining the DST, they could then update the DST with any fixes, and that would then get approved and go out to everyone using the DST.

    Obsidian Portal Developer

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